Airport

Whoop whoop!! Boy am I a country hick- mouth hanging open and eyes all a goo goo, at the sight of the interior of an international airport.  But, Charley! It's the Orlando international airport- gateway to all places Disney.

It does rather look like a scene from George Jetson! Huge indoor plaza, glassed in visual elevator and waterfalls all over the place. If I see Rosie the robot I will surely faint. 

Here's my sweetie, he's an old hand at all this. Man of the world and all things Jetson. 

I'm all smitten with the total artificial environment, it's just so sic-fi and removed from reality. 

See what a tourist I can be - yup that's me just a little old Argyle girl, and so glad I am, you have to be wowed by something when you get older- big airports deserve the BIG WOW!!

Got to go and look dumb struck some more. 

Alice

Hooping Workshop

Windy,windy day. Boy, when the wind blows here it could snap a kite. It has been clear and sunny but, the temp has not gone above 61° all day. Add that to the fact that there must be a 30 mile a hour wind and it's hat and scarf weather. 

I'm really excited about my new exercise, hula hooping. For anyone interested I'm going to be doing workshops when I get back. Each person will make a custom sized professional grade hula hoop, fitted for your height and body type and learn starter moves to get you hooping.  

The workshop is very reasonable:

1, A $15.00 donation- this covers the hoop material, personal fitting for your height and body type, and group instruction on assembly. I will also have printed instructions for you to take home along with your finished hoop. And, don't forget we will all hoop together to some jazzy music to get everyone started hooping on there own.

2, You need to bring a printed roll of duct tape any color or print, it should inspire you, we all have different taste so let your spirit shine!

3, Come dressed comfortably and wear a smile. 

After we make the hoops I will get you started on some simple moves, truly anyone can hoop. I may never be a twinkle toes fire dancer. But, I can do moves that help trim my waste and give me a cardio workout, look pretty cool and it's all fun so the time flies.

I'm actually considering getting certified to be a hula hoop instructor, so I'm pondering that now to. Things are really busy for me and I'm loving my new life!

I hope a bunch of you want to come and "Hoop It Up" with me. 

Off I go. 

Alice

Tardy

Wow! Yesterday flew right by. Here I am again though, trying to think, think, think. I used to pester my friend Hilary about her blog at Crazy As A Loom saying, "I missed you today you didn't write your blog." Now I feel guilty. It's not easy to crank out articles for people to read, and her blogs were very meaty, she wrote them every day!  Just goes to prove another law of life, "it's easy to criticize when you know nothing about something!" Well I know a little about this and it's enough to know that writing an article every day is a challenge. HA HA, your probably thinking but what else dose she have to do. Your right I do have the time to focus on this project and I will work harder at writing a post a day. 

Here are some molasses cookies I made last week using sourgum flour. There are recipes all over the internet for them, they are gluten free- I couldn't resist the propaganda. I'm trying the gluten free thing to see if it really effects me. So far I do see a marked reduction in that "bloated feeling" you get at the end of the day, equalling a much trimmer tummy ~ love it! So avoiding gluten is a good thing but if it's a special occasion I can't be held responsible, chomp, chomp, chomp!

So if I do get to chomping, I better do some twirling. Did you know hula hooping is recommended by some Drs for back patients. They said "if the person can walk then hooping would help with mobility." It's low impact aerobic and fun, learning new tricks and just swaying to the beat of good music is a meditation in itself. I'm hooked.

We'll off I go .... Feel free to hound me if I miss a day, it will motivate me.

Alice

Sunday

No post today.  Sunday is a busy day and I only do one big thing a day, maby two if one of them involves eating.  So I'm going to wash my thinking cap now and let it dry so it will be fresh for tomorrow. 

Here is a pic of Charlie I took on our walk in the park this afternoon. 

See you tomorrow. 

Alice 

Farmers Market

Nice and warm today. Earlier it looked like a storm was coming. I'm new at forecasting weather down here, maybe New England farmers lore dose not apply. Give me ten or so years of snow-birding and I might figure it out, who am I kidding when professionals have a difficult time. Mother Nature is a fickle woman. 

This morning we went to the farmers market in downtown Daytona, in the historic section. We looked all around, it was crowded with people. I was surprised at the lack of diversity among vendors and what they were selling they were mostly all large produce sellers not the truck farmers that bring garden produce like up north. Down here lots of veggies are ripe now, Kale, green beans ,arugula, I expected to see these types of things along with family farmers. I was a little disappointed at that, but we did get some good deals at one of the larger produce booths. 

There was one interesting booth that had nearly expired grocery items for sale. We bought some gluten free cookies, cold medicine, gourmet veggie chips and a couple other things, all priced close to a dollar each and not expired. I guess the word market can mean "flea" even if it says Farmers in front of it.

One result of going to the market, it motivated me to make some lemon ice waster. The music/entertainment booth had free water and it had lemon and limes in it, we had some on our way out. So on our way home Charlie and I decided to drop by the produce market and get some lemons and limes. Limes are my new favorite juice since I was introduced to it by a friend up north, it tastes good on all sorts of veggies I would never have thought of it.  

In the market I found the lemons right off but I did not see the limes. I found a clerk and asked for them. He told me there had been a flood where the limes grow and it wiped out the current crop so they did not have them. He also said "if we did get them now they would cost about five dollars each" he felt this was unreasonable to ask and customers would not pay such a price anyway. He's right! So no limes- sad face for Alice, but the lemons did make good juice for the water.

After getting home and making some refreshing lemon water, I was inspired to make a bracelet. I have seeing people lately wearing gobs of bracelets on there wrists, so I tried my hand at it. I will experiment more but was satisfied with this one. Of course to get the real look you have to have at least three of them and this is only one. Well, maybe I better get busy- see ya.

Almost Forgot !

Wow, the day flew buy for me. Sorry no story, here are some

pics. 

Above is a pic of my last big project- figures from "wind in the willows" they are 1/12 scale. 

This is the scene.  The part in the story where badger brings them into his house after they got lost in the wild wood. 

See you tomorrow! 

Getting Things Done

  Today was a good day, I got a lot done. 

I went to visit a friend for a chat she is very creative, and has an imagination way busier than mine, if you can believe that. She is a blessing to me being so far from home, someone I can just drop in and visit with.  She also surprised me and dropped of a jar of her fresh made Florida strawberry jam!  How thoughtful. 

After I got home I got busy, that's what I call it - you know filling my expectation list.  I put the guest room back in order, Charlie had done some repairs or should I say modifications to the bed in there. He is very clever, it now looks like it came from the factory that way. I can't say what we did because we have guests coming and it ould be a spoiler.  

I received the book in the mail I had ordered on hooping, the mailman left it by the side porch door.  Hooping is my new obsession.  They say if you keep coming back to something it is a true enjoyment.  Well, hula hooping keeps coming back to me, this time I have time and energy to fully devote to it so I will.  The book looks interesting and I will get into it more at bedtime, (that's appointed reading time! Otherwise I would read ALL the time.) 

I am shooting for an hour a day of hoop practice, today was my first full hour.  Now that I have built up my stamina I will gradually increase my time, believe me the hour flies by when you are beginning like me.  I have to keep practicing certain moves over and over.  If my biginner status was measured by segments on a caterpillar, he would look like a gumdrop.  I have to trust what everyone says about all things, practice, practice and more practice.  I don't mind really, I put on some cool music and keep at it. 

I must admit Charlie and I snuck of to the beach around 3 o'clock, don't hate us!  It was just so clear and pleasant out we could hear the surf calling.    I swear the breeze brought the message to the house saying, "get your chairs and come to the ocean."  Well, what else could we do, you don't upset the ocean gods, we live to close, it could be dangerous, LOL.

 Charlie has been so busy the past couple of days that he deserved a relaxing afternoon.  He sealed the blacktop on the driveway- TWICE , and painted the patio portion -TWICE, I mean really the poor man is a machine.  He did a wonderful job I might add. 

Well, we had a nice walk on the beach and then sat and read our books, yes, I snuck in reading the hooping book. 

 It's so fun to watch all the people that come to the ocean. You can tell the northerners, they are in the water swimming, can't blame them after this winter, they probably think the water feels like a hot tub. There were people fishing and one guy out on a ski-do water jet thingy.  He had a helemet on and everything.  When he got out there you knew why, he was doing stunts! He was good, I even saw him do a flip in the air off a wave- there were wild waves today.  But, the interesting part was and I would have asked him when he came in, but we were walking and I didn't stay- dose the water get in your helmet, it was a full face type! I would be afraid of drowinging. How embarrassing would that be in the news paper - MAN DIES DUE TO DROWING, IN HIS HELMET! 

So you can see it WAS a busy day.  

3-19-14 Riding To The Library

  

 

I rode my bike to the library, it's about 2 miles, mostly all flat, except for a couple rises in elevation. The little inclines down here were probably created by the wind blowing dirt around, that's about how significant the hills are. You could never gather enough speed going down a hill here on a toboggan to bother getting dressed to go out, even if they HAD any snow.  There are no dangers of kids balls rolling off the front lawns into the road or your car kicking out of gear ANYWHERE and it rolling away.  Yup, Florida is safely flat, a wonderful place to relax a pedal smoothly. 

It's a good workout though getting to the library, due to the wind direction.  The wind blows either north on Nova St (the main rd in front of our park) or south, usually north to south, which means you get a good tail wind pushing you to the library, but on the return Phew! It's a workout for sure, if shifting is a workout, you just adjust the pedaling shift up, shift down.  So I pedal la-de-da with a full basket of returns to the library and get lighter books to bring home, or none if it's crazy windy like today. 

Yes, but today was a better story. On the way to the library I stopped and picked a half lunch bag of loquats.  What are they you ask?  We'll besides being free, they are small oval, slightly sour sweet, little orangish fruit the size of a large cherry.  I'm probably the only person in port orange eating them, I never see any compitition  anyway.  I think somehow these little fruit take your appetite away.  It could be after I eat a half lunch bag more or less I'm full? 

 The interesting thing is each individual fruit has a random number of seeds in them, so as you eat them your counting how many seeds are in your mouth. The seeds are shaped like small peas, of course you spit them out. But you never know how many there will be 1? Or 5? That's the usual range - I will be excited the day I find 6 or....... None. I will report that to Charlie right away, I always share the most fascinating information with him. He's a joy. 

Well I'm going to go have some more loquats, here's a pic of them, wish I could share them with you. 

Alice 

3-18-2014 Beautiful Day

  My Kale 

Back to normal today. No tornado warnings, muggy air or grey grumpy clouds. 

I happened to come across a story telling book, based on Florida lore in the library the other day.  Being I enjoy storytelling, this one peeked my interest because I'm falling in love with the native Floridian culture and natural history.  I am probably glamorizing the area in my mind, but oh what a nice place it is.  The tales in this book are so unique in setting, that I am transported imedinatly to the location.  These fables could be universal but I can imagine them happening here, and several of the stories are based on Florida folk heroes. The stories are short and full of information about Florida. This is the book- Tellable CrackerTables by Annette J. Bruce.  I'm sure I will add a few of these local yarns to my sack of tales.

That's my morrning along with making my daily to do list, or as I think about it in my mind, my list of self expectations. If I didn't write a list I would read All day!  

Off I go for now see you later. 

Alice

 

3-17-2014 Rain!

  We'll rain it did!  Man, did it come down and it's still coming down, although now it is soft mixed with pounding. 

The weather here is so different than northern New York.  Down here it can be sunny and clear one minute, next a torrential down poor!  You have to keep your eye on the sky, as they say.  

I thought this morrning seemed creepy feeling. When I took the trash out at 7:00 am it was muggy, that alone is strange.  Usually mornings here are cool if not a chilly 40° or less.  And the sky never really brightened up as the morrning progresses.  

We went to the store about noon.  We were no sooner inside and the heavens let loose!  You could really hear it on the roof of the store, a defending racket for sure. We were almost home and the sky lit up with a big bolt of lightening and of course it's quick crack of thunder. 

Now we are under a tornado watch actually, all across central Florida. A good day to stay inside and curl up with a good book. 

3-17-2014

  Happy St Patricks Day! 

This is a test run for a blog app. 

The weather is really strang outside. The sky is dark and gray with not much breeze. It's hard to tell but it looks like we are in for some heavy rain. 

Getting the knack of this blog thing is challenging.  I had one post all set to go and after adding the picture, BAM! No more text!!

Let's give this a try - Yes, this one is much shorter. 

Alice 

Hello From Florida!

      This is my very first blog and post ever!  A turning point in the road, it's a sharp one but I'm holding on tight. 

      It's Sunday and that seems like a perfect day to start a new adventure.  I would have never guessed I'd be doing this, a dream realized! Seems simple enough on the one hand but actually doing it is another thing. 

      Here I am in full color!  I will interpret the colors for you, so you can get to know me better. 

       The lime green monopolizing the photo is a barometer of intense brain function, indicating either super creative thoughts or no useful thoughts at all. I often have no useful thoughts after my creative thoughts have been used up, so I like to read a lot of other peoples thoughts and stories. 

        The shades of blue are coming from areas in my brain that are craving sugar, straight sugar not that complex carb nonsense! Sugar and all it's simple cousins are my favorite things to think about, when I'm done thinking about my numerous hobbies.  

        The yellow patches on my nose and forehead are probably predicting some future carcinoma from riding my bike with no hat. I really enjoy getting outside and walking or riding my bike. Actually, I like all kinds if outdoor activities, that's the carrot my husband used to entice me to move to central Florida for the winter, and I LOVE it here. 

       The black lines around my eyes are my glasses, just in case you were wondering. I need to wear my glasses now that I'm in my 50s and wanting to see whom I am talking to and what I'm eating. 

    Well that's it for the intro. I'm here in central Florida till the end of April and I hope to see you again! 

Live simply ~ Have Fun 

Alice