After leaving the Peace River Wildlife Refuge yesterday, we turned left (if you are looking at this on Google Earth, take the left turn, past the Condo complex, to a little key hole road ending in the condos.) and drove to the end of the road past the condos, and did a turn back.
The condos are very 'Florida', with water (man-made lakes) features and plenty of Gazebo, Rotunda etc.
I love these palms, and with the sun on them, they are stunning!
Looking from a vacant lot through to the ocean
There is water between this vacant lot and the condos, but it is man-made
The pretty fountain near the entry. Brightly colored buildings are something I enjoy, about the South
Even the 'Dog God' is bright red!
I was able to capture the rainbow through the fountain...very pretty! lucky???
The shags on the pond were being aggressive towards this Snowy Egret...but it fought back and seemed to win the argument, whatever it was.
Lots of vacant lots. Apparently Hurricane Charlie swept through this area also, and many of the vacant lots had homes on there, original. We were taken by the size of the yacht, outside this home. The water in this canal is very deep. The harbor is only 5 mins away.
We like lots that have more of an outlook, like this one. A Far view is more important than having canal access, to me. For Waz, it is the deep water! Does that tell you where our respective priorities lie, lol.
I LOVE this! Mermaids at your front door??
These soldiers look a little forboding...but then the house was a little that way. It was very close to the road, and being so large, could have done with some more land in front, to offset the enormity of the façade. Ever the critic, no?
Love it! Lots of Manatee mail box holders, around
Im not so sure about this one...make up your own mind on this!!:)
All those yachts are outside one of the condo complexes.We went in and out of all the little side streets, looking at some lovely properties. We are especially attracted to ones with lots of foliage, of course. being kiwis, we are used to gardens and trees, and we often wonder why more people here don't plant more of both...either is good! Some places there are lovely gardens, others there are none or very little. I guess, with so many second homes in the area, it is just more upkeep.
We found this very attractive.
I have a thing for lights and shadows...this one next to a garage.
This photo is taken from the million dollar lot, I mentioned yesterday. It had 100FT long dock, there on the right where the poles are, which of course SOLD Waz the minute he saw it. I can see a few male heads nodding with that statement:)
These 'mature' fellas were off out for a blat around the harbor. The fellow driving the boat was yelling encouragement to BUY, BUY! It is perfect for you!!!:) This throbbing noise this cigarette boat made echoed through the neighborhood. I love the sound of V8 engines, but not in enclosed spaces! 
And, directly across the canal from that lot were these two elderly gents, just arrive back from a sail in the harbor, and now putting the little yacht up on the boat lift. This man must have been at least 80! His companion was considerably younger, but the look of it. Delightful little yacht!We had had enough house viewing for one day, and came home via Walgreens where we needed to buy me some gel or wax for my hair, which is going straighter with the lack of humidity, and I need to keep it 'up' or volumize it for our big night out, New Years Eve. Got the wax, and will experiment. We also needed some booze. Bought a 1 ltr bottle of Kahlua for $10, which will help me make the Tiramisu for Christmas. We also found some Fruit of the Loom t-shirts on sale at Walgreens. We thought they were reduced from $10.99 to $7.99, but upon viewing the print out, after paying, we found they were reduced to $4.99!! for four shirts. Waz uses them for work shirts, and we don't have a problem cutting them up for rags when they get a bit past it!
Discovered a new way to get home, after leaving Walgreens, so we were very happy campers!
I forgot to take meat out of the freezer, before leaving home, and was not feeling too creative about food. We had taken a picnic or sorts with us for lunch, and eaten it at the Ponce de Leon Beach Park next to the Wildlife Refuge, and that had rather cleaned out another couple of items from the fridge.
We ate lunch here half under the shade and when it got too cool on one side, swapped over to the sunny side.
A fire has been raging for the last couple of days...where, we don't know, but have seen the pall of smoke for a while. There is a concrete wall to keep the sand on the 'beach', with a small area below it that feeds into the water....
...as you can see in these photos.
Like good tourists, we tried out the swing seat, but there was a wall of greenery in front to hide the stunning water view!
The boat ramp in the park is just to the left of this pier, where Pelicans were fishing alongside their human counterparts. Apparently this is a VERY good place to fish!
The rest of the pier we were standing on to take the following...
This canal is one of the outlets for tall boats, from the subdivisions, we found out later.
Our fisherman was most obliging in answering our questions, and got lucky with his catch, but it was undersized and returned to the sea...it got it's first, and hopefully last, flying experience!
He caught this Sheepshead Fish. Not sure why it is called that, because it in no way resembles a sheepshead, but ours not to reason why!
He caught it with this 'half' a crab. He said he had more fun catching the crabs on the rocks than he did catching the fish, lol...
Towboat USA was alongside when we arrived on the pier, but was soon out of there on a call out.
People who stand up in their boats like this without life preservers on, give me the creeps! They do it all the time, everywhere. Flat bottomed fishing boats like this are the norm. Shallow waters, anyone?:)
Lots of Tanin in the water, but it is the natural habitat for these fingerlings. Clear water, nonetheless.
The Beach parking lot. Plenty of people sitting in their cars enjoying both the sun and the lovely views across the harbor.
...and just For Your Information.
I was going to tell you what we ended up eating for dinner...not half bad it was either:)
I knew I had a small package of Linguini (my fav.,) so cooked that up, softened some leaks in a little butter, added a truck load of garlic, added some cream, added a truck load of Louisiana white shrimp, which I thawed in a hurry under cold water, and tossed it all together with some parmesan cheese!
Not large servings, as I had made enough for two meals. I also made a fresh spinach salad with walnuts, blue cheese, chunked pear and drizzled with lemon infused Olive Oil and Pear Chardonnay balsamic vinegar. YUMMMMMY! So easy to prepare.
All the cooking is done on my one single induction cook top. The frying pan stuff gets mostly cooked frst and set aside till the pasta is cooked, then I return the pan to the heat to finish it off, and add the pasta to the mix to reheat that..altogether. A little tomato paste finished it all off and gave it a pink color. I would have added a little chopped parsley to it all, if I had been lucky enough to have some fresh and growing. Next time.
I might add, lastly, that I have taken as much sugar as I can out of my diet and lost 5 lbs in the past week. It is no hardship once you get started, and bread, cookies/candies/chocolate etc etc is easy to live without. We eat plenty of fruit and veg and other good fresh- as -possible food.
It isn't the fat in our diets that is killing us, it is the sugars we consume. If we remember that all white flour made products, pasta, rice, oats/grains etc are carbohydrates and our bodies almost instantly turn them into sugar, we would eat far less of them, Sugar is poison!!! There is plenty of research to back up what I am saying, and now that it is less in my diet, I have more energy, feel better overall, and like how my body works better. I will continue with this through the festive season and beyond, because I feel 100% better for it! Thanks cousin Julian for reminding me of what I already knew about the way we eat!!
On with the day. Waz has gone to the hardware store to try and conjure up some components for our sliding door that hasn't worked well since we bought the boat.'Im off upstairs to do some sewing/mending!
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