Is it the 22nd January already?

Heavens!! Where does time go?
Well, I guess we can be forgiven for thinking it is flying very fast, because we have beeeeennnn buuussssssyyyyy!
You will see why soon.

Im not going to recount everything that has happened since we returned to the dock in Port Charlotte, but a few things of note have taken place.

We have had much fun babysitting the delightful Miss Muffin, next door who is now going on 10 months. She keeps us on our toes, and we love being around her and introducing her to new things:)

She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up onto the furniture, but not walking yet. She does uncurl her toes now, when using adults as a walking aid, so that is progress. We brought her onto the boat on one occasion, and she had great fun going in and out of the door...and again!

 She was most taken with an envelope we handed her... she must have known it used to contain money!

 She and Waz had a good chat!

 She needed to get up close and personal!

 

The weather took a turn for the colder, and we were in jeans and sweaters for a week. Not a problem..in fact rather nice to be in winter!

One Saturday we stopped in at the coffee shop that actually makes a Flat White (passably), and they had locals making music...just for fun! Woohoo! We sat and enjoyed the coffee, but had to leave. We will be back!

 

I think this is a box tortoise...He stopped long enough for us to take a photo. We were tiki-touring in Englewood, for the afternoon, and this creature was on a vacant lot.

We enjoyed looking at the housing in the Englewood area, and this took our fancy. Not sure how many people live here, but...

I bought Blackberries (2 for $5) and made a Granny and Blackberry pie. I had had the pastry in the freezer and needed to get it out of there, so made a pie. Pastry was not that great. I would normally make my own! Pie has no added sugar, and of course we had to serve it warm with lashings of sloppy whipped cream:) What else?

The significance of this pie is that I made it with powdered ginger, allspice and lemon zest, and cut the zested lemon into chunks and cooked that with the apple. It was DELISH! I highly recommend doing that. Remove the lemon chunks before using the mix. Blackberries went in when the apple was cool.
The weather warmed up again (seriously, it was too cold to sew upstairs!) and I moved the sewing machine to the Fly Deck. One of the projects on the list was to replace the leather arm rests on the Pilot house  captains seat. My trusty old Bernina handled it like a pro:) The weather was great, and the water still, as you can see. This makes it easy, as the boat doesn't rock!
I needed the curtains up...it got pretty warm up there!

 The inside of the arm rests.

 Sewing the leather was so easy. We had stolen the leather from a couple of small seats we removed from elsewhere, on the boat. Fortunately we kept it!

 Leather ready to go on.

 All finished and ready to screw back on the seat.

...and while I was up there, on the fly deck...I had sewn some of the Olefin fabric together for another seat cover that wasn't going to work...so used it to make an antimacassar. We tend to put our hands on the back of the seat...and it gets dirty...and now it wont! well, the seat wont...oh, you know what I mean!

That was the beginning...of more sewing.

 One down two seats to go!

Yes, more food.....
I had been wanting to make these Cauliflower pancakes for a while. They are light and fluffy and delicious. Waz even suggested that I make them again. Easy to make too! Oh, you want the recipe?? ok!

Cauli Pancakes:

Steam half a cauliflower head till very tender. Mash it well. Add 1/2 cup of grated sharp cheese, with a couple of tablespoons of grated parmesan, 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley, finely chopped green onion (your choice how much), salt and pepper to taste, 2 large table spoons Best Foods Mayonaise, and 2 well beaten eggs. Whip the whole lot together...and if you like curry...add a teaspoon of curry powder!

Place spoonfuls onto a hot griddle and cook as you would a pancake. Turn when brown on the bottom. They should bounce back when cooked.

Another low carb recipe that was delicious.

and while we are on the subject of food...

We are eating a late breakfast these day, eating only two meals per day. We don't feel we need the extra food that 3 meals gives us.

A spinach and cheese omelet, half an avocado, and a tiny croissant. The croissant is the only carb food on the plate.

We heard our friends Connie and Joe were in Fort Myers, so we made a trip down there to see them. We had spent delightful times with them on the Loop, and enjoyed their company again over a Japanese lunch. Connie walked with us around the Historic District, while Joe went back to their boat to pack. He was flying out to pick up their car to drive back to Florida.
Downtown Fort Myers is pretty. A lot of effort has been expended to make it pleasant for tourists.

 A Little History.

 The old Post Office building is something to behold. The stone is Florida Key Limestone, and is full of fossils...fascinating!

 It is now an Art's Center.

 Brain Coral fossil...sawn, obviously.

 Fan Coral fossil...now stone.

 More fantastic Brain Coral.

We said goodbye to Connie and Joe late afternoon, and went to Mega JoAnn's to buy some white fabric. Yes, more boat sewing jobs. Will explain when I do it.

Another job that was completed was the repainting of the lines and text on the Pilot house dashboard, and in progress is the dashboard on the fly deck. This involved scraping the old oil based paint (which had mostly chipped out) out of the text and lines before cleaning and repainting. The repainting involved a really steady hand. Fortunately the lines were already there to paint. We painted with acrylic paint this time. It shouldn't chip out.

The fly deck dash in progress.

the fly deck dash is much larger than the pilot house dash.

We have not played much music for a long time...well, make that since we have owned the boat...because the CD player would stop in the middle, make weird noises and generally made listening a chore. This was on the TO DO list...change it out for one that works, Yay! Waz changed that out yesterday, and the music is wonderful now:)

He has been busy finishing painting the Genset sound cover, finished the Perspex on the fly deck windshield...which looks fabulous! he does a great job!!!

Today he installed the new tap set on the fly deck, so we don't have to wrestle with the old one that didn't function well....and installed the new TV (19inch) in the master bedroom, complete with DVD player (think what you like!!!!:) ), and tomorrow will install a new shower set in the VIP suite. The old one is junk!

The list is getting less...we think, and it is very gratifying to get them done.

We have 5 weeks to complete the rest of the chores/list, before going on vacation...yayay!

So, now you know what we have been up to...kind of! Each day presents new challenges, including the weather...which is about to get cold again, this weekend. It will drop 15 degree overnight.

We have some more socializing to do in the near future, and babysitting too:) We enjoy both.

Time to go and watch Big Bang Theory..sorry!

Ciao for now. Have a great weekend.