A walk at Paynes Prairie

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Went walking on the prairie with a spark friend the other day,
we had a great time, and really enjoyed the nature and its creatures.wading birds and alligators.
.
Quite large and scary creatures but still beautiful beasts.
Now for some not so scary photos, more birds and some beautiful waterways on the prairie.
and a really old oak ,some wildflowers

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Cruise to Hell and back

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Leaving Tampa
This is what we did a lot of on the ship,the 1st day was a bit chilly
.
These are some of the "kritters" on our bed every night.
We finally got warmer weather,arriving at Cayman Island
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some sight seeing, here is a beautiful little church,
and offcourse we went to
Hell also, you can actually get your passport stamped here too.



There were some interesting coral formations behind the house,not black coral it is actually fungi growing on the coral.How the coral ended up here? there must at some point have been a part of the ocean here that receded over time.This here,is a photo of what it could have looked like.

Off to the turtle farm


Turtles was not the only animal here, lots of iguanas too

and pretty flowers.

And now, we go down under water in a 1/2 submarine

we will see ship wrecks and lots of fish




Back to the ship and..... aaarrrrrggggg there are pirates here.

Safe,,, back on board. we go now to Cozumel .

And some Mayan ruins


These ruins are really RUINS ,The Spanish came , looking for gold and blew most of the buildings apart,now some of the buildings have straw roofs for protection from the elements.

The Mayans also had escape routes underground,just for the purpose of invasions.Here is one entrance, and under ground it tunnels in several directions.

On the way back from the ruins we went to the seashore.

Where there was a monument raised on 12/31/12 copied from Mayan writings , it tells about a robed/regaled visitor to come. The Mayans did not finish the tale of this visitor so we do not know who or when ,the last panels are blank.

And that was the cruise this year,we had a good time, and good food.
the only drawback was that we travelled during Spring-break,
lots of young adults(kids) and they were noisy at night,I need my beauty sleep.
A footnote ,
just as i thought , the mayan calendar ended not because the earth was going to end, but because there was no mayans left to write the continuation.Their life and calendar is based on circles, 7 days ,28 day per month
= 364 days so there is All saints day which they had as the added day,
also 52 year cycle which was repeated over and over until 5200 some years
fascinating.

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Iced coffee

Monday, July 09, 2012

I ran across this recipe the other day,tried it and loved it.
So here it is, and cheaper than running to bucks.

1Lb Ground coffee, (rich roast)
8 quarts cold water.

In large container mix the coffee grounds with water,cover and allow to sit at
room temp. 8 hours or overnight.
Line a fine mesh strainer with cheesecloth,set over a pitcher or other container
Pour coffee mixture over strainer and let seep through.Discard grounds,place coffee in fridge and cool, use as you please.Add ice to glass then coffee and any of the stuff below.

Half & Half fat free or not, makes it a creamy yummy concoction
Sweetend condensed milk 2-3 TBSP per serving.
Skim milk, 1-2-% milk or whole milk will work too.

I think this came from :
http://tastykitchen.com

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Our trip to Italy.

Monday, June 11, 2012

wiev from our first hotel
The countryside is really beautiful,lots of flowers for DD to take photos of, and lots of windows for me
We did tour Rome on bus and hopped on and off

.Collosseum and the Vatican a must and here are all the passed popes
whom are Resting in this place.Then we have to go and find a funktioning GPS contact, we tried 2 hertz's places both were closed down so we drove on to Florence
and there we got help,and a new plug ,woohoo that worked,
one of my fav.statues.LOL on our way we also encounered a car race to just begin (great looking cars)
and a beautiful drive

So on we go wine tastings at the countryside, some more flowers and windows at the estate
Then it is time for a road trip and a new hotel, and Sienna , view from our hotel.
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and here is Sienna , very quaint pg">
Now our trip is almost over, leaving the mountains,traveling through Bolagna as the quake rumbles, our next hotel is outside Venice so we can go by train.
well
what do you know, another window,,,,
Here is a lovely church we visited after lunch some more sightseeing by boat and foot.
Then it was time to pack ag back home.
I got to spend a couple more days in DC and we visited the Kreeger museum and
DC Cathedral.

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Darn,Drat and Oh Nooo

Friday, April 27, 2012

As some of you might know I have had a neck ache for some time,.
I finally went to my Dr. he sent me for x-rays ,he wanted me to have an MRI
(being claustrofobic I declined)
so off i go to have my "pictures" taken.
Tuesday I went to hear the news ,not good c 2,3,4,5,6 and 7 has some damage on them and I have to stop running.
I had just started back running 6 weeks ago, and loving it.
and on top of that I still have to have an MRI to make sure the spinal cord is ok,and that I do not have any nerve damage.Arrrgh
I am NOT a happy duck today.
So Now I have vented enough, it is off to gym for an elliptical workout ,wich the Dr. said was OK.

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