Scenes from a Sarasota Mini Vacation

Spring is my very favorite time of year.  I love to see the bright green buds on the trees and the first signs of tulips and daffodils poking up through the ground!  In a way I didn't want to miss a minute of it... especially being in a new house this year that has already surprised me with things popping up where I didn't expect them.  But one of my dearest friends lives in Sarasota and it has been a couple of years since my last visit, so when the chance to accompany my husband on a business trip meant a  mini-vacation for me, I just couldn't pass it up! 

Our first night there we dined at a very popular restaurant in Sarasota called Owen's Fish Camp.  It reminded me of cottage style restaurants that you find in Northern Ontario.  I loved the huge banyan tree in the front of the building, and I was quite taken by their wine list!



Entrance to Owen's Fish Camp



The wine list!

The Banyan tree and company!

The next morning we took a trip down to Punta Gorda, and one of our favorite places - Fisherman's Village. There is nothing quite like sitting at a restaurant, right on the waterside eating raw oysters and watching dolphins play!  (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures this time.)

We also visited St. Armand's Circle and had a snack at the famous Columbia Restaurant which specializes in Cuban food.  We sat at one of the outside tables and had fun people watching.  The food was delicious and I would definitely like to go back there for a meal when I am hungry for more than a snack.

Self explanatory!

Columbia Restaurant - delicious!

Our last dinner in Sarasota was at a Japanese restaurant called JoTo.  We sat at one of the hibachi style tables that I had only ever seen before on television.  It was fascinating to watch the chef cooking.  He made a little volcano out of an onion half!  And, of course, the food was excellent!

JoTo Restaurant chef

Onion volano!

So, enough about food!!

The weather was spectacular the entire time we were there - blue skies - termperatures in the high eighties with a breeze.   What a difference from what Mother Nature brought to us here yesterday.....



Hail on April 17th - yuchhhhhhh!



We stayed at a Ramada. which (unbenounced to us) had just recently been purchased by them and had more than a few glitches to work out. What started off as not such a great stay was made right by the staff. We ended up with a lovely executive room looking out at the marina and I would definitely go back.   

The hotel is right on an inland waterway with a marina. I was intrigued by what looked like a church at the end of the dock, and upon closer inspection it turned out to be a floating chapel. It was beautiful and wished I could have seen the interior to see if it was as charming as it appeared from the outside....maybe on another visit!

Back of the Ramada.

Floating chapel.

And of course, I got lots of visiting in with my friend and my very favorite dog, Basil.... what a face!!!!

Love you Basil!

Oh - and it's snowing again!  Enough already!!!!!!! :-)

Introducing Cy and Helen

In my post about our birds, I mentioned the geese.  Little did I know that they would actually be a developing story. 

Living right on the creek, in the fall we saw flocks of geese swimming by and as the weather grew colder we would hear their honking as they flew past in their V formation.  Only a couple of times would we actually see any of them venture up into our yard, and then there would only be two of them.

Well, lo and behold, once the creek thawed, I started seeing two geese come up into the yard, stroll around, pick at something on the ground, honk a bit, walk over to our neighbours, stroll back our way and then eventually go back into the creek. 

They like to "rest" under the pine tree.

 It seemed to be on a daily basis (at least until spring delivered this unexpected and unwelcome blast of snow!) and I suggested to my husband Jim that we name them.   And after a few minutes he came up with Cy and Helen.   I thought they were perfect names - Helen is named after Jim's mother, and Cy is named after my father.  He considered it the other way around - after my mother and his father, but then it would have been Edna and Jim...and I am not sure that having another Jim in the family would be the best way to go!

So Cy and Helen they became.  They did disappear for a couple of days (I wonder where to?) when we were delivered that frosty, snowy blast of winter but today they were back again!  Still snow on the ground, but they came for a visit.   I get the feeling that they are looking to nest, and I am sure that if they do, I will have a far more difficult time dealing with nesting geese than I had with the nesting robins in our last home.  Geese ar e big and they are mean when they think you are threatening their young!

So I have become quite thankful for the chain link fence that divides our yard ....they don't seem to be interested in flying over it, so hopefully if they choose to nest, it will be on the creek side of the fence!

 Cy and Helen's visit today. 

See you soon!

Bird Update

Hooray!  I saw the first Robin on our yard on Tuesday!  What a lovely sight! 

And birds have started paying attention to the Purple Martin house.  I can't tell through the binoculars if they really are martins, but I am going to think positive!

With some help from a friend, I solved the mystery of the bird I saw in Cuba.  It is a Green Heron! 

And I saw the tulips starting to push through the ground when I was out enjoying the nice weather yesterday.... all good signs for spring!

Birds in our Backyard and in Cuba

My last post was a tribute to my friend Sharon, and Sharon was a nature lover extraordinaire!  I love nature too, but she loved to be IN it, not just look at it!  I am more of an admirer from the warmth of a cozy room with a fire in the fireplace in the winter months, and enjoying the summer from an airconditioned room or with a cold drink under a shady umbrella.  I do enjoy the renewing aspect of spring and seeing the first green buds on the trees and delicate green shoots of new growth pushing through the earth. And I do enjoy gardening.

But I digress, already.  In our last house, my adventures with birds involved robins repeatedly building nests on the cross beams of our raised deck, and even a family who decided that my hanging plant would be a lovely place to raise their young.  But in our new house, which is on property that stretches right back to Four Mile Creek with lovely mature trees, there has been much more activity of the avian kind.

Shortly after we moved in and I started noticing the variety of birds, I kept thinking of the day when Sharon would come for a visit and be able to identify all the birds without blinking an eye.  And far too soon, we lost Sharon.  I am sure she would have enjoyed our back yard - certainly nothing compared to her beloved Fire Towers, but I think she would have liked it here. 

So, I was left to my own devices to identify these birds.  I can hear Sharon chuckling about that!  I went to Chapters to buy a bird book and I stopped at a Birder's store and bought a poster.   (I think I can hear my Mother chuckling from above too). 

Now some of them were easy - Blue Jays and Cardinals and Mourning Doves. 

Although the male cardinal is stunningly beautiful, I found the muted tones of the female to be equally beautiful. 

And then I was able to identify two kinds of woodpeckers, Juncos, and black-capped chicadees. 

The smaller of two woodpeckers that look very similar - this is the Downy Woodpecker, the larger version is the Hairy Woodpecker. 

But then there are all those small birds that to me look pretty much the same to me. Finches, swallows, sparrows, nuthatches.....which is which?  (Sharon - your chuckling is getting louder!)

These are some of those UFBs (Unidentified Flying Birds) feeding at the kitchen window feeder.

We have placed several bird feeders in the trees close to the house and some out by the creek.  The feeder on the kitchen window  was initially a huge source of entertainment for Picabo, our cat.  He has since gotten bored with the whole deal and rarely pays any attention to the action at the feeder.

I love it when a Bluejay or Cardinal comes up to the feeder and as long as I am still, I can observe their beauty closeup.

Picabo is ready to pounce at the birds at the feeder on the outside of the window.  He reminds me of Arte Johnson on Laugh-In peeking from behind the Palm Plant saying " Verrrry Interesting".

One day a hawk visited and I actually managed to snap a picture of him sitting in our Manitoba Maple.  He didn't stay long, but there were no other birds to be seen for quite some time after his visit.  Squirrels either!

And I shouldn't forget the Canada Geese.  I don't have any pictures but it was so peaceful to watch them gliding by on the creek in the early mornings, and as the weather got colder, they would fly in formation over the creek, honking all the way!  

A peaceful autumn morning picture of the creek.



The creek had been completely frozen over for some time and the mild weather recently has caused it to thaw.  I saw geese back swimming for the first time since very early December.

 

We went to Cuba for a week in February and I found a number of interesting birds there as well.  I have been able to identify most of them, and I have a guess at one of them.....

 

This beautiful brown fellow is another UFB.  I did see a picture of a similar bird that was a Louisiana Heron.  Now if that's the case, he's a little far from home but provides a connection to my beloved New Orleans.  He stood as still as a statue for many minutes at a time.  If anyone knows what kind of bird it really is, please let me know!



I identified these birds as Greater Antillean Grackles.  They were always around the pool and quite entertaining.



You need to look closely in the centre of the picture and you will see an Emerald Hummingbird.  There were probably a dozen of them that were feeding in the tree right beside our balcony, but it was very difficult to snap a picture.  I tried taking a video but they move way too fast!  And I never realized how noisy a hummingbiurd is......chitter chitter chitter!





This was a Blue Heron that spent an afternoon lounging at the pool.



This fellow is my favorite.  He is at the same place on the beach every day.  He was there last year and I checked for him the first morning of our vacation and there he was!  Again, there is my connection to New Orleans, the Brown Pelican being the state bird of Louisiana.



What a handsome fellow!

Well, I am hoping that the next bird I see will bring the word that spring is here....come on Robin!

My thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by the tsunami in Japan today.



Remembering A Friend

I am still in a state of disbelief that I have lost one of my closest friends and the world has lost a caring, giving, lover-of-life lady - Sharon Lynn Stratton.

Not a day has gone by since her passing on December 2nd that I don't think to myself  "I will have to tell Sharon about that", or "I'll have to ask Sharon about that bird I saw", or "I wonder what Sharon's knitting now" or thinking that I can't wait for the day when her and I can just sit knitting together and talk about everything or nothing.   And then, I realize that I won't be able to do any of that.....I miss her.

I met Sharon while working with her at The St. Catharines Standard close to 30 years ago.  There were gaps in contact over the years,  but whenever we did catch up it was like a day hadn't gone by since the time before.  It was that kind of friendship - the best.

The biggest adventure of my life would not have happened without Sharon.   As some of you reading this know, Sharon spent a number of years at her dream job - a Fire Tower Observer in Alberta.  Her friends were lucky to receive weekly e-mails about her life at the tower, and the first few years of those e-mails evolved into her book, Between Forest and Sky.  I so looked forward to those e-mails each week!

Sharon invited me for a visit and my youngest daughter and I planned a trip that took us from the extremes of the solitude of the Fire Tower at Lovett to the world's largest shopping and entertainment centre - the West Edmonton Mall.

After our trip, I wrote an e-mail about our adventures and my perspective of Sharon at her beloved tower.  I sent it out to the same group of friends that Sharon sent her weekly e-mail to.  It didn't orignally have pictures, but I have added them here. It sure brought back great memories reading this and I thought it would share it here as a tribute to my friend.

Originally sent July 31, 2007 11:24 a.m.

Hi Everyone,


Jamie and I have now been back in Ontario for a week and have finally caught up on work and laundry! We thought we would take the time to send a note to you all with some of experiences and impressions of our visit to Lovett Tower – hope you all don’t mind, and please don’t expect the same quality you are used to from Sharon!


Sharon’s directions to the tower were impeccable! We managed to miss one marker that would have been the indicator to stop and look up for our first sighting of the cupola. But, it did not affect the journey, and within minutes we were at the bottom of a very daunting hill that led to the tower. I have to say that I don’t think we would have made it without 4-wheel drive! I can’t say if what we found was what we expected, but just as Sharon had described, there was the clearing (not a lawn – but it looked suspiciously like a lawn), the cabin, the flower beds, the generator shed, the Stevenson screen, the rain barrels, the outhouse, and of course, the tower!



The front of the cabin, greenhouse and tower.





The generator shed and back of the cabin.



Jamie and Ted in front of the cabin.  Sharon's vegetable gardens covered in the background.



Looking up the tower.

It looked much taller than expected looking at it directly from the bottom up. The view in most directions was of the surrounding woods, but there was one direction, I would guess at north east, where the view of the foothills was beautiful and proved to provide the perfect window for a show of weather the next day.


We were lucky enough to find Sharon out of her tower and we were greeted with dishes of homemade ice ream and strawberries! My visions of “roughing it” were somehow diminished with this unexpected treat! The cabin, already small, soon became smaller with our arrival and our accompanying luggage, but we did manage to feel right at home very quickly. The fact that electricity was not available without flipping on the generator was not readily evident, and was not missed. We did use the generator once it did get dark (not until quite late).

The radio area.



The fridge and on the right is the pullout couch Jamie and I shared.

  

The kitchen area.



We were also greeted with quite a large number of the mosquito population and were soon sprayed down with DEET in an attempt to keep them away. Sharon had to return to the cupola but said had a mission for us, (should we have choose to accept it) to release the packrat that she had managed to trap earlier. We set off on our first adventure to release the cute (but very smelly) creature some distance away from the cabin. We worked our way down a path and up another until the mosquitoes got the best of us, not to mention the climb for the older half of this duo. The mosquitoes didn’t seem to mind that Jamie was covered in DEET, and both of us were wearing citronella bands on our arms and legs – they must have been very hungry because poor Jamie received many bites.


Jamie and the packrat near the release point.

Later in the evening, Jamie and I did take a walk down the sunset trail to watch a beautiful sunset while Sharon started a campfire. On our way, we noticed a pile of scat, and were discussing the origins of it – not something I can say I had ever done before. We didn’t even come close to guessing correctly – our expert hostess told us we had found the leavings of a deer. We returned to the cabin clearing to a lovely fire. It was unfortunate that the mosquitoes insisted on joining us, but we did manage to enjoy the fire for a while and get a few marshmallows roasted.

Sunset from the Sunset Trail at Lovett

Sleeping was quite comfortable in the quiet and darkness of the foothills. Light came early, but we remained in bed enjoying the peace. Each morning promptly at 7:30 the radio sprang to life with the announcement that XMA 35 was on the air for the day. We had a lovely breakfast, and then Sharon received permission from her duty officer to leave for a couple of hours to show us around Lovettville.

Exterior of old trapper's cabin near the bottom of Lovett Hill.

Sharon and Jamie exiting the interior of the trapper's cabin.

As Sharon has already written, we had the adventure of the truck getting stuck in a particularly muddy part of the road where we could actually see the water coming up through a small spring, with Edwin later rescuing the truck and Jamie and I. We were extremely happy to see Edwin as the sunny day we had when we started out had turned to thunder and light rain, which quickly became a downpour after Edwin picked us up. We were glad to hear that Sharon’s truck had been “unstuck” and that Sharon had made it back to the tower without missing her scheduled reports. I didn’t mention the cougar tracks to Jamie until we were safely in the truck – she was already worried enough about walking around a ghost town with a thunder storm and rain bearing down on us.

This is a view of The Hill and the tower (the tiny spec on the right) from Lovettville.

Exterior of former Lovettville General Store

Interior of the store.

Sharon surveying another Lovettville building. 

The stormclouds approaching as we waitied for Edwin to come and get us. 

One of the absolutely huge mining trucks that we passed on the mining roads once Edwin had rescued us!

The weather managed to put on a spectacular show for us after we were back safely in the cabin. The wind picked up and large grey clouds started rolling in, accompanied by loud claps and rumbles of thunder. The rain started gently at first, but then started pelting down. I was working my way around the cabin closing the windows when the rain seemed to pick up a new tenor. I looked out and saw that the rain was now in fact hail! It came down quite heavily and soon the ground was almost coated in it with pellets up to the size of large peas. I was concerned about putting dents into the rental SUV and dealing with the deductible! But, it came out unscathed, and for that storm Sharon’s vegetables and flowers also survived, although the storm the next day (that we weren’t there for) apparently was not so kind.

The stormclouds arrived at Lovett Tower.

The hailstones that they left behind.

The clouds now off in the distance.



The rainbow.



The dark grey clouds remained in the distance, but the sun came out at Lovett Tower and a beautiful large rainbow appeared against the background of the clouds – Mother Nature put on quite the show for us that day!

We had a wonderful dinner that night that included Lovett Tower grown Swiss chard with an amazing assortment of coloured stalks – bright pink, yellow and orange, and also a foothill grown lettuce salad. It doesn’t get any better than that!


We went traveling for a few days – Banff, Jasper, Radium Hot springs, Lake Louise – all those touristy areas! It was spectacular, and pictures just cannot convey the beauty and magnificence of the mountains and lakes and streams. One of the highlights for us was stopping at a stream that was glacier fed and drinking the icy cold clear water right from the stream. We stopped again at this spot later to fill up some empty water bottles with the water to bring back with us. It is the clearest, best tasting water I have ever had.


On our return to the tower, we found “The Hill” – (I think it deserves to be capitalized) – to the tower to have changed somewhat. There was more silt at the bottom and it appeared to be rockier further up. Also, part way up the hill, there were fairly deep (I would say about 12 inches deep, but I did not get out to check) chasms that had developed on the left side of the hill. I think that getting into one of those would have resulted in another rescue call. On our first trip up the hill, it only took being engaged in 4-wheel drive to make the ascent, but this time I had to go down to second gear, and then finally first to make it to the top. Sharon explained that each storm that goes through can change the topography of the hill. With over 60mm of rain over two days, it certainly proved true. With all of the rainfall, Sharon’s water supply had been topped up, and Ted looked so handsome after his bath!

The mosquitoes were still in full force, but we found the same in Banff and Jasper, so it was no surprise. We didn’t attempt a fire that night, but chose to stay inside and visit, although it had been 8:00 by the time we arrived back to the tower, and by the time we had dinner it was quite late. Jamie did get to talk to Smokey at one of the other towers on the radio, which eventually led to her giving the weather on Saturday morning before we departed. We also listened to some folk music and finally had that champagne toast we had been looking forward to!

We made the trip the next day to Grave Flats to visit Jan and to see the view from her cupola. We followed Edwin there through the village of Cadomin (we had a lovely breakfast there with homemade bread – even Jamie’s French Toast was made with it) and through some back roads that took us through old mining territory, and new. Edwin explained that there had been numerous small mining communities along the way that ended up abandoned as the mining operations changed locations. We also went through current mining operations that to me were quite intimidating. There was something kind of spooky about not actually seeing people, just big machinery driving by and working away.

Cadomin.

Being situated on a relatively barren mountain top, Jan’s cupola is directly on top of her cabin, entered by a ladder inside her cabin. The view there is 360 degrees and spectacular. It was hard to compare to Sharon’s tower because we weren’t able to see the view from Sharon’s cupola. The landscape of course was much different – small pines with bare branches on one side from the wind, low alpine type flowers and shrubs, and not much else. It was quite windy up there and I couldn’t help but wonder how chilling it would be making the trek to the outhouse when the weather was cold and there was snow on the ground!

Grave Flats Tower.

Jamie, Jan and Edwin (and Jan's dog).

View from Grave Flats.

Our trip to Grave Flats took all day due to an unexpected road closure that forced us to backtrack, so it was once again almost dinner time when we arrived back to Lovett for the last time. One more time up The Hill! Sharon was in the tower when we arrived back, scheduled to be done at 7 p.m. One of the many interesting parts of our visit was that even though we were on the ground, we heard all of the radio chatter from the set in the cabin. I would say that it was sometime shortly after 6:30 that Sharon spotted a smoke and reported it in. Jamie and I were able to listen to the conversation between Sharon and the Control centre, and then when they called the helicopter in to check it out, we could hear the conversation between Sharon and the pilot. As you have read in Sharon’s weekly letter, it turned out to be campers throwing grass on their fire but it was very interesting to listen in on the process of reporting, locating and investigating the smoke. That was also the night that the deer came to visit Jamie as she sat at the picnic table drawing a picture of Lovett Tower – what a great experience!

The deer was quite shy when I wanted to get her picture, but had come right up to Jamie earlier.

Sharon’s most recent letter speaks of the dragon flies. We did encounter quite a number of them while driving our last couple of days there. For those of you who have seen the movie “Men in Black”, picture the opening credits and you will get an idea of what the dragon flies were like!

A small portion of the road between Robb and the tower.

Because we were so busy, I don’t feel that we had a chance to experience the true solitude and peacefulness of the tower existence. But, I did leave with a much better idea of the tower life than I had envisioned. Although in contact by radio, the closest town was still 45 minutes away by car. A quick trip to the store for something forgotten on the grocery list is not feasible. We were lucky enough to travel the roads in good weather during our entire trip, but I imagine that some of the roads (most were dirt and gravel between towers and towns) would become extremely difficult to traverse in wet weather. I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I was that it was wasn’t wet each time we reached The Hill.



The shower which was at the back left corner of the cabin, and the outhouse in the background.



The cabin contained most of the comforts of home, with indoor plumbing and space being the major exceptions but none that caused any hardship. The refrigerator was small, and when we had the pull out couch in sleep mode, we weren’t able to open the fridge door. This only meant that we couldn’t get the coffee tin out of the fridge in the morning until we folded up our bed. I am sure that it seems much more spacious with only one person in it! Water conservation was very important on the day we arrived, but the storms of the next two days certainly helped that situation. Although the cedar shower was lovely, my usual morning shower routine went by the wayside to wait until later in the day when the temperature was higher – brrrrrrr! Even the outhouse had a hanging flower pot outside it and a small battery operated light and reading material. I can honestly say that what I missed most were paved roads!

It was amazing to see Sharon go up and down the ladder with the agility and confidence of a veteran tower person. Just thinking about the number of times she goes up and down makes me tired. She took some great pictures on Jamie’s camera for us so that we can see what the view is like from her cupola, but I am sure the pictures just don’t compare to the real thing. I have sent copies of the many pictures we took at Lovett to Sharon on CD and if she finds any of them worthwhile, maybe you will see some on her webshots page at the end of the season.

Two of the views from the tower.

I had always thought of logging and oil wells when I thought of Alberta, so I was surprised at the amount of coal mining and petroleum company activity so close by. We got to see what a flarestack is, and why when they are smoky they could be mistaken as fires.




Just one of many flarestacks.

All of the people that we met and talked to were great. Edwin, who we called our “Knight in Shining Armour” insisted that he was a Knight in “Rusty” armour, was terrific. Jan was super and made us a great cup of coffee and showed Jamie how the fire finder worked, and helped me back down the ladder. Smokey was great with Jamie on the radio and just sounded like a very nice person. And of course, Sharon was a wonderful hostess; allowing us to make her home our home and put up with all of our comings and goings, and making cookies and homemade zucchini loaf, not to mention bacon and eggs most mornings! The time we had to actually visit was far too short, and the last trip down The Hill was made with tears in my eyes.

Our last trip down The Hill.

The neatest thing is that we now know exactly what Lovett looks like, and we can truly picture it in our minds as we read the weekly updates.


I hope you have enjoyed our “view” of the tower. Jamie and I have written this, trying not to leave out anything of interest.


Best wishes to you all, and Sharon – many, many thanks for the opportunity to see your tower world first hand.


Kasey and Jamie

Sharon in her tower. 

In memory of my friend Sharon.    I love you and miss you. 

May you be resting in peace.