Arctic Blast Coming to Florida?

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida  (high 81, low 59)

Boy do we love this weather.  We’ve had a good run of 80’s in the daytime and upper 50’s at night.   Unfortunately, our favorite weather guy Denis Phillips from ABC Action News says things may soon change.  You can follow him on Facebook if you’re in Florida and want to know what’s going on.  When ever there is some bad weather, Denis will be on FB day and night keeping us informed.  You know how seriously I take the weather! 

We’ve had a strong high pressure system protecting Florida for about 10 days, but it may start breaking down on the 24th and leave us vulnerable for the next big arctic blast.  It’s  supposed to bring some very, very cold temperatures southeast.  How far south is still undetermined.  I even heard single digits are possible in Atlanta!  We’re sure hoping it doesn’t make it here, but Denis thinks north Florida will surely get some freezing temps.  We’re planning on heading south the 23rd…so I hope we get far enough south to avoid any freezing temps.  I kind of wish we were headed to the Keys instead of the prairie.

 

Our geek friend Rick gave me a tip on how to get my photos sized properly for the blog. Thanks so much Rick!

I always post my blogs through Live Writer and it used to be set up that if someone clicked on a photo it would enlarge. 

Somehow, that had quit working and I couldn’t remember how to get it back. I knew Rick did a post on it, but I couldn't find it on his blog.   Rick came to the rescue and sent me the link.  I think it’s working correctly.

Here is the link to Rick’s blog that tells you how to do this.  I see a LOT of Blogs where you click on the photo to enlarge a picture, you get one the same size or even smaller.  Have you checked yours lately? It seems things can change.

I think I got this fixed and to test, I’m posting some old pictures of our Bluebirds at our Georgia house.  This was Daddy bluebird trying to coax “Junior” out of his nest for the first time.  Junior was the only one of 5 eggs to hatch from that batch.  We had a nest box that would open and so you could peek in at him.  We became quite attached to him.  We watched as each egg was laid.  We watched when there were five eggs crowded inside the box. We watch as one hatched.  We kept waiting for the others to hatch, but they never did.  Junior grew up very lonely, but with no competition for the food that mom and dad brought regularly.

 

These pictures were taken from the motorhome window.  It was parked right by the nest box so we got a really good view.

This next picture is the mother bird, also trying to coax him.  Notice the baffle that Al put up?  It protects the eggs and babies from predators like snakes and raccoons.  We successfully raised many batches of Bluebirds with this method.

He’s peeking his head out trying to get brave enough to take the big leap.

I never did capture the moment he took the big leap, but here he is just after he made the big first flight.  Isn’t he cute with his short little tail?

awww…..

Junior grew up to be a big bird.  We kept track of him for quite awhile because he was the only one from that nest, so when we saw three birds together, we knew one was him.  Other pairs usually had four or five babies with them.

 

Okay…did the picture enlarge when you clicked on them?   That was the point of this post.  You didn’t forget, did you?

 

The Tampa Rv Supershow starts Wednesday.  A lot of fellow bloggers are planning to meet  Wednesday, at 11:30 at the hospitality tent.  Unfortunately, our plans have changed and we won’t be able to make it there Wednesday.  We will be there on Thursday so if anybody is there and wants to meet up, let us know.

If you’re in the area, it really is worth going to this show.  It’s billed as the largest in the country.  Of course the Hershey show also bills themselves as the largest.  All I know, it is a BIG rv show and you can’t possibly see everything in one day.  Even if you’re not in the market for a new Rv, it’s still worth going and you can usually score some free camping nights.

It is very  crowded, so if like me, you will be attending with a while haired old man…..dress him in bright colors because there will be a LOT of white haired old men at the show and you want to be able to pick him out in the crowd!       :)