Sunday, February 19, 2012

Missing Georgia?

Zephyrhills, Florida  (hi 72, low 52)

Al worked all morning, but was home by early afternoon. 

We were both starved so we headed out to a local steakhouse for an early dinner.  I had a steak and he had the catfish.  The waitress could have been better, but the food was good.

We skipped the gym yesterday.  Al is still sore from the last work-out. We did a little shopping then headed on home.

The sun finally came out and we ended up with a  pretty nice day with no rain.  Another cold front is working it’s way south and we may get a little more rain today but nothing severe is predicted.  Right now the sun is starting to come out.  Most of these fronts fizzle out before they get to central Florida, but these are the kinds of storms that used to drive us crazy when we were in Georgia.  We were in extreme south Georgia, right above the Florida panhandle. That area, and including the Florida panhandle, Alabama and Mississippi really get hammered in the spring with bad weather from passing cold fronts. 

These cold fronts are what  bring the terrible tornados to Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. They were pretty bad in Alabama the past two winters.

I often read about some rv’ers heading to the Panhandle during the winter or spring…and I  have to question why?  The weather here is so nice, why do you want to go there now? 

Although we love our new full timing life style, I have to admit, I have been missing spring in south Georgia.  I have not been missing the crappy weather, or our house, but I do miss our birds and spring blooms. 

We had such a beautiful piece of property.  It was so private that we could leave our curtains open and even walk around the yard in our pajamas.

We cultivated the birds and had so many birds all year long.  We loved them all the time, but we really enjoyed them in the spring when they would start preparing for nesting season. 

I decided to look over my old blog and reminisce a little.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no regrets about our decision to sell the place and move on, but I can still miss my birds, can’t I?

Warning…..

 

The following pictures contain nudity!

 

 

This guy is a a naked and  just hatched Blue Bird.

Blue bird 2nd day after hatching_thumb

His name was Junior.  The other 3 eggs never did hatch, but Junior grew up and fledged the nest.  We saw him frequently with his parents.

This is another of the many batches of Blue Birds that we had in the special nest boxes that Al installed all over the property. 

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This is an adult Eastern Bluebird that lived on our property.  We had lots of them.

Bluebirds 1-1-2004

This guy was just trying to work up the nerve to jump out of his cozy nest box. 

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We had tons of birds, especially during the winter.  Our birdseed bill was pretty expensive.

Lots of flowers and spring was my favorite time of the year because of the beautiful and fragrant Wisteria.

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Hydrangea

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The cats liked to bird watch also.

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I think I need to go out and see some nature.  I sure don’t want to move back to Georgia, but we sure did have a pretty place with lots of critters.   I am not regretting our decision to sell the place, but I always loved the spring (except for the tornados).

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12 comments:

  1. Nothing wrong with those lovely memories, Karen. I loved the photos of the baby bluebirds. Amazing. It is interesting to me how the good parts of past experience seem to grow over time. Isn't that nice, actually? Seems as though each stage of life shifts and turns and we remember the good parts, at least I do. Maybe it's like labor. Who remembers it well except for the baby part.

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  2. Love the photos as well. We are making our way back to NC and I have awakened to the happy sounds of the birds singing every morning at 6:30. I smile and then roll over to go back to sleep.
    Syl

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  3. GREAT photos ~ especially the little naked one!! LOL LOL Your place was gorgeous and HEY I still walk outside in my jammies...☺
    Have fun & Travel safe
    Donna

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  4. I miss our home sometimes too and like you I have no regrets about going full time. I think its normal to get nostalgic for things in the past, maybe its a way to keep our memories alive. As far as weather goes the more we travel the more we realize that every part of the country has its own severe weather or natural occurrences so its hard to stay completely out of possible bad situations. Where you are in the fall it is hurricanes, other places it may be floods or wild fires, we've even experienced a small earthquake in of all places Kansas. I've decided it doesn't matter where we go something bad could happen so I won't let that stop me from visiting all those places .

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  5. Beautiful hydrangea and wisteria! I can imagine how difficult it was to leave the flowers and the birds behind; but the memories are still right there in your heart, not left behind!!! And they're kept alive with the photo's!

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  6. We had a very long "blue bird trail" with boxes David built that we checked on each week and cleaned out at the end of nesting season and then did whatever repairs are necessary. We love bluebirds too.

    I would think you could just start moving slowly north sometime in March and you'd get to see spring over and over and over again.

    I'd planned to do that this year but as I said plans have changed.

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  7. IF we ever get out of here, I expect to miss these mountains very much. Especially the quiet and privacy.

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  8. Your naked baby looks cold to me. I'll bet he was sure happy when those feathers came in. I guess the gypsy in me keeps me from missing very much from the place we retired from. I love each new place that we're visiting.

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  9. I guess there is naked and then the other kind of naked:)

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  10. nothing better than revisiting memories Karen..those pictures are 'gorgeous'....I still walk outside in my jammies :) doesn't matter where I am...have a super week

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  11. Now I am homesick for Ohio. Our yard sounds like yours. I loved my flowers and wildlife. You photos are awesome!

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  12. Nice walk down memory lane - guess I was also missing the blue bird and wisteria photos too.

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