Tag: Florida

Posted in Blog Series, Uncategorized

#15: Adventures in RV Travel – January 27, 2017

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Bob, the Wood Stork

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@Rosemary Carlson 2017

This is Bob. Bob is a wood stork and a part-time resident of Pine Island RV Resort Park in Florida. Wood storks are endangered in the U.S. Their population is more stable in South America. I was able to get such a good shot of Bob because Bob is sort of the Park Pet. He is perhaps the best fed wood stork around, although wood storks live in colonies and make up to people. He likes the park visitors. We feed him fish (they like minnows) and hot dogs. I have known Bob as long as I’ve been going to Pine Island – a long time now. We’re all very fond of him. He even knows his name!

Wood storks are very large. You don’t feed them out of your hand. Look at their beak! They can remove your hand easily. You drop their food on the ground. In the wild, they feed on fish in shallow water. Florida’s dry winters suit them as ponds, creeks, and lakes dry up and make fishing easy for them. Winter in Florida is also their breeding season.

Wood storks nest in large flocks. They used to nest in the trees all around Pine Island. They don’t anymore. They live to be up to 18 years old. We think Bob is starting to get older. You won’t see many wood storks. If you are lucky enough to see one, please be good to he/she and appreciate them. Thank you.

 

Posted in Blog Series, Uncategorized

#14: Adventures in RV Travel – January 27, 2017

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

 

Birds of South Florida

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Good news, dear readers! Wifi in the RV Park in which we are staying is now fixed! Someone (workers) UNPLUGGED IT?????? Above is a very special photo. This is a picture of an osprey nest high above the streets of Ft. Myers, FL. There are many of them at this time of year.

The picture above is that of various birds of South Florida. A stork on the left. An egret on the bottom right in the Everglades. A pelican on the top right.

The picture above are of two unidentified birds in the Everglades.

Posted in Challenges

#SoCS – Jan 20/17

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Wow! What a week for a stream of consciousness post. What has overtaken my mind at this point is the fact that I’m in southwest Florida, on an island off the coast of Ft. Myers and it’s warm, dry, and beautiful! It’s January! I love the ocean and since we arrived, the weather has been tranquil and the ocean like glass. Actually, we’ve been here five times before at this time of year, but not for a couple of years. I’m so thrilled to be here again I can hardly think of anything else. I’m really enjoying it. We’re taking a side trip to the Everglades tomorrow, one of my favorite places. Primarily so I can see the wildlife…..then rant about how we’re killing our environment.

There are other things on my mind. When we got to our favorite place in the world here in Florida, we found that two of our friends had passed away since we were here last. One quite suddenly and at a young age. He and his wife came here from North Dakota every year for six months and were good friends. The other an older gentleman  that also spent the season here. He was an interesting story. He had two German Shepherds, trained only using German commands. They were the most intricately trained, and well trained, dogs I’ve ever known. It haunts me wondering what happened to the dogs as Hans was single, to my knowledge. I don’t know if he had any family or not.

The other thing on my mind is my desire to move to Florida. There are so many reasons to move, but there are a few reasons not to move. I’m having a mental battle between pros and cons. One concern is the fact I will have to spend a lot of the hot times indoors. That is due to a health condition. My particular health condition does not allow me to tolerate very high heat for very long at a time. However, there are positives about moving regarding that same health condition. This specific downside is the only downside to moving here, but it is a significant downside. Before I make a final decision, I have to talk to my doctor although I’ve been told not to worry about this side effect. We will see a realtor here in Florida several times while we are here. We aren’t yet picking out a house as our house where we currently live has to be sold first. We are picking out the community in which we want to live.

Last, I guess I’m a little worried about my dog, Betsy. She is doing well on this trip, but she is sleeping a lot. She had a seizure about three weeks ago, so I am watchful. Signing off for this week!

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Posted in Travel, Writing

#weekendcoffeeshare 12/24/2016

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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Good morning, Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah, to all of you! Please come right in and join me for our Christmas Eve special #weekendcoffeeshare. I have several types of coffee for you. I have just about every type of tea as I am a tea aficionado. Blackberry and other herbals. Russian and other bold teas. Lighter green teas. Even white tea which is a treat to try. My favorite Hot Cinnamon Black Tea. I also have, as a holiday treat, scones and muffins. So load up your plates and let’s talk!

The Holiday Season is here. It isn’t especially my time of year but so many people love it. I’ve been around some friends this year who really get into Christmas and it’s almost been a new experience. I haven’t celebrated Christmas in a big way in a lot of years. Watching my friends prepare for their holiday has been amazing and overwhelming. I don’t see how they do it! Those days are gone for me but I have enjoyed watching them.

Since we’re all writers, I want to report on some writer stuff. I got my Brother laser printer hooked up this week. It is WiFi-enabled and it was terribly easy to hook up. It is handling two different computer with ease – an iPad and a Windows laptop. I’m impressed. I’d forgotten how easy a laser printer is since I have used an inkjet for many years. Here’s the good part. This laser printer was no more expensive than an inkjet. I can remember when they cost $700. Check out Amazon if you need a printer. You will be pleasantly surprised.

I probably would not have thought of a laser printer had it not been for another writer who recommended it. I don’t know how many of you are familiar with Chuck Wendig. He is a well-known horror writer in the U.K. and increasingly in the U.S. I love his website and reading his writings. He is amazingly talented and gives great tips to other writers. He also hosts the occasional challenge which are indeed challenging. I would recommend signing up to receive his blog. One caveat: It is at least R-rated so if bad language offends you, don’t do it. Trust me, the information you will gain as a writer is more than worth it. His site is terribleminds.com. You don’t have to write in his genre to take advantage of the information he passes on.

Speaking of gear for writers, my new keyboard for my iPad arrives today. I will report next time on it. Take a look. You can find it at querky.com.

So that takes care of Christmas presents for writers!

I’ve had a productive writing week and hope all of you have too. I am making good progress on my novel which has morphed from a romance novel into a psychological thriller. If that sounds weird to you, believe me, it was weird to me too. Now that I have let the story flow naturally and become what it was meant to be, the writing is easy. I have some free time over the next couple of weeks and I am shooting for maybe 20,000 more words.

I’m taking a trip! Soon, my husband and I are taking our RV and going to Florida to escape Kentucky’s cold weather. I’m just about over having four seasons and am ready for one season – a warm one! We’re spending several weeks there and I was lucky enough to find a house sitter. We will be in my favorite area of Florida most of the time, the Gulf Coast along the peninsula but will spend a week or more along the panhandle as well. I hope to get lots of good pictures and have many experiences that I will share with all of you.

I will blog the entire time I’m gone and I also have a consulting project I will probablly have to work on. But only for a few hours each day.

That wraps it up for this Christmas Eve edition of #weekendcoffeeshare for me. I would love to hear your plans for the holidays! Leave a note for me and tell us about them in the comments! Next time we talk, it will be New Year’s Eve, the dawn of 2017. #amwriting #amblogging #writing #Christmas #Florida

Thanks to Diana and Parttimemonsterblog.com

Posted in Non-fiction

Discover What You Need

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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No matter how old or young we are, we constantly discover things we need, and don’t need, in our lives. I have been slowly discovering, over a period of time, what I need. But I only just came to a decision regarding what to do about it. Sometimes, discoveries are difficult, even painful. My discovery about what I need to do with my life isn’t painful, but it is going to be rather difficult even though on many levels, it’s exciting.

My decision. I have to move. Change my residence. Have a new place to live. Have some new experiences. When I say that I have discovered I have to move, I don’t just mean to the next town, I mean 1000 miles away. South. Near the ocean and where the weather is always warm. Margaritaville. Paradise. I guess that gives you a clue.

I moved from the city to the country 18 years ago. I grew up in the country, right in the area to which I moved. I moved because of my career. It’s true what they say. You can’t go home again. I haven’t been happy since I moved back to the country. I guess I unknowingly became a city girl in the 25 years I was away. When you move away from your hometown just 2 1/2 years after high school and stay gone for 25 years except to show up there for your job and drive back to the city to go home each day, you lose touch. You lose touch with the people and the culture. You lose touch with your friends that still live in your hometown. You lose touch with the culture they live in. You become different over the years and so do they. My hometown, where I worked but didn’t live, became different right under my nose. I’ve been lonely since I moved back to the country.

I’ve thought about just moving back to the city, but now I’ve changed and it doesn’t suit me anymore. I have good friends there but things like the climate don’t suit me. I need things now that weren’t so important to me in the past. Warm weather. The ocean. A smaller city with close access to a big city. People my own age with interests similar to mine. Because of the type of career I had, I have friends all over the country. College professors are transient by nature. I’d like to live in a college community.

I need to be close to the conveniences of life. I’m not now and I have to drive a 150 mile round trip to the city to take advantage of those conveniences. Sometimes, I drive to the city three times each week. Often, it is two times per week. I’m tired. I’m tired of that drive and living on the interstate. What I consider necessary conveniences for me may not be necessary for you. What I do know for sure is that the time is coming where the drive is going to be very hard for me. I want to be able to walk out my front door and have a good restaurant within a mile or two instead of 75 miles. I want to expend the energy I use for that drive on other fun things. Like sitting on the beach.

Imagine this. For 23 years, I’ve commuted several times a week, one way or the other. I can’t imagine how many years of my life I’ve expended on that interstate!

It was not an easy decision for me to move 1000 miles from home. I like to put down roots. Completely pulling up stakes and leaving everything familiar to me scares me to death. A wise person once said to me that you should do what scares you. That’s where growth lies. I believe that.

I’m lucky. I still work but I can do what I do from anywhere since I am a writer/consultant.

Soon, we will start house-hunting in the area where we want to live.. Then, in the spring, we will put my house up for sale and hope we can somehow simultaneously sell the house and buy another in Paradise.

It’s scary. Wish me luck! Go out and get what YOU need! #amwriting #amblogging #writing

Posted in Travel, Uncategorized

My Daydream Voyage

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

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I take a voyage almost every day. Sometimes several times a day. I’ll drift off from my work or whatever else I’m doing and go somewhere I’ve been before…….or somewhere I’ve never been, but only in my mind. I recall my favorite places and people. Don’t we all do this? Some of my voyages are very private and I won’t recount them here. Others are not as private and I can share them with you. I will tell you a little about one of my favorite places to voyage…….

There is a small island off the coast of Florida. It is not one of those touristy, popular islands like Sanibel Island, for example, although it is near Sanibel. It is not as well-known or as well-traveled. It is a barrier island in the Gulf off the coast of Ft. Myers. At one end of the island is a wonderful Greek community. At the other end, there is a small town made up of island folks and people who live there largely in the winter. There is quite a population that lives there year round in between. Hurricanes seldom plague this part of Florida.

Because this island does not have a large population of tourists, you feel like one of the community when you’re there. I like that feeling when I travel. There is an art gallery, library, grocery, drug store, a couple of cool bars with the best grouper you’ve ever eaten, a great restaurant or two…really all you need. Most people get around on bicycles and there are wide sidewalks just for that purpose. I live on great seafood when I’m there. I’ve even considered moving there, but there is never any real estate for sale. The real estate isn’t as expensive as you might think but it just never goes up for sale. That probably says something about the desirability of living on the island.

I feel safe there. I can walk and bike around and never worry. I can walk my dog. The island has a large population of wood storks, a species a little different from the traditional stork we are all familiar with. They beg for hot dogs, which I do not feed them. Everyone smiles and laughs. It’s a happy place. Sometimes, when I drift off, I think of this island and what a happy place it is and I take a brief,mental voyage there. Suddenly, I’m happy too, just thinking of that jewel of an island sparkling in the Florida sunshine against the blue water of the Gulf of Mexico. How I wish I could be there!  But, I’ve enjoyed the mental voyage I have just taken with you! #blogging #amwriting #writing