Sad Day

    We finally had to say good bye to Olive today. She's been a trooper the past two months but we knew she was going down hill and showing her age which was at least 19 years old. She had a fast growing mass, so there was no prolonging it at her age. But just last week she has her nose to the books.

And she always wanted to be on my lap, even when I was standing! We had a lot of rides together in my wheelchair.

And we have had a lot of fun over the years saying "Where's Olive" and "you won't believe where that cat is now!" Like Waldo, she would hide in a conspicuous place and until she moved we wouldn't even see her. Just yesterday I jumped when I reached for something on my night stand and got cat instead. Here she is snoozing on my sewing desk. Never went there before, but must have thought she belonged there.

We will miss you, Olive.

Doug finally got to go deep sea fishing. A 10 hour trip, 34 miles out yielded this haul. Six amberjack (limit),  12 king mackerel (limit allowed) and some red snapper (good eating). He had a great time with 5 other fishermen but unfortunately the season for grouper (lg fish similar to haddock) ended Jan 31. He's hoping to go at least once more before we leave in April.

In the meantime, while all our northern friends and family were dealing with massive snow falls, we were treating ourselves to a lovely lunch at Myakka River Oyster Bar where there was a car show/cruise in. Not too many cars but it was nice to see some cars besides the ones always at our car club.
 We mentioned several times how we wish you all were able to enjoy the balmy breezes and warm sun with us, sorry.

 We've been busy and were happy to have family visiting for 2 weeks in January. We love showing off what we love about Sun N Fun and all the things to do here. And we loved getting to know our newest grandson and spending time with Karen and Dakota.  Janet and family visited next and they got to go to Disney - finally - for a day. Jennifer and Janet spent time giving me tips for swimming (I'm now practicing a butterfly stroke) while Steve and Corey played games.

So Doug saw someone fishing down the road and asked what he was catching. Turned out there were lots of catfish. He went back the next day and caught several of these catfish. He only kept this one but we couldn't identify it so we didn't want to eat it.

While he was fishing I took a fiber arts class. I had a blast, because this was right up my alley. The instructor let me use her sewing machine and my finished project is a post card that can be mailed. Haven't decided if I can give it up to mail or not. I might make another one and keep this one.

Next I took an oil painting class. Despite a love of crafts, I have never used a paintbrush that wasn't on a wall. So in 3 hours and a Bob Ross technique (you may have seen him on TV years ago) this is what I ended up with. I might try again but certainly not my cup of tea. I'd rather be sewing or scrapping which I have also been doing weekly. You can see me online with the others in my class at http://www.ucanpaint.com/Student-work.php

The day after Christmas we went to view the light show at Marie Selby botanical gardens. It wasn't too crowded at this time so we had a leisurely stroll through the gardens with lights and some music.

 
This tree was fun, it looked like melting icicles all over it.
I was able to catch a couple in the camera.

Even Santa takes a fishing break down here. It says "Attention Elves, take a break", Santa

We found one other place that has lights too but they weren't open after Christmas. Maybe next year we will check it out.

Last weeks post

 Imagine a beautiful warm sunny day and you are so thankful to score a parking place under a huge shady oak tree. You take a walk, maybe fish awhile and








This is what you come back to!

 

No, thankfully it's not my car but I'll bet there was a very unhappy fisherman at the end of the day. There
must have been 15 pelicans perched on the top of the tree. This isn't so bad, we've seen some that are much worse.