Exotica!

The last post on the blog was a fabby one by Sally, complete with fabby pictures too. This has not made me jellous . .  no, no, no . . . not even a leetle bit.

So,  I have a picture today, taken by your truly of the exotic wildlife to be had at LQM's residence . . prepare to be awed . .

His name is Percy . . and I think Puddy may have snacked on his legs a leetle   . . . .

Silver and Rust

     It's been awhile since Baby M appeared on the scene; nine months this month actually, and DH and I felt the need for a little get-away.  We both grew up in Florida. He moved away when he was still in grammar school, and I was there until my late teens. One summer, when I was a kid, which according to DS was back in the day when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, my family went on a long summer trip. One of the places we visited was Silver Springs just outside Ocala, Florida. So DH and I decided to go there.
     It was an absolutely beautiful weekend weather wise; mild temperatures, sunny, light breezes. Just the sort of thing you hope for on a get-away weekend. The park was a bit run-down. You could tell that the management company hadn't invested over the years in the expansion or upkeep on any regular basis. Of course memories of a place you visited in your youth shine a little bit, and I wasn't expecting it to be perfect. It was still a lovely visit. I mean where else can you go and have a boat trip on a river full of different springs where the boat has a glass bottom to look through?
     DH took lots of photos so I have lots to share with with you:

 The top photo is the street entrance to the park, and the bottom photo is me under the boardwalk entrance. The boardwalk goes over part of the river and there are little feeding stations so you can stand at the rails and feed the fish, and turtles. There are a LOT of turtles all around the park.

 After you go through the turnstile into the park there is a souvenir shop just there and a poster stand announcing the rest of the Summer Concert Series for season pass holders including: Joan Jett, Josh Turner, Whitesnake and others:

After you pass the souvenir shop there is a colonnade of a couple of shops and a few restaurants: 

These photos were taken when the park first opened on Sunday, so the shops and restaurants look rather empty. The second photo includes a photo from the film The Creature From the Black Lagoon, which was shot at Silver Springs. According to our glass-bottomed boat captains many films and television shows were filmed at Silver Springs before the invention of CGI (computer generated images).

The main attraction of Silver Springs are the glass-bottomed boats. Both rides that we took had different captains, and each one told different things about the springs. 

According to one of our captains, Silver Springs has been running the glass-bottomed boats since 1878, when the park first opened. The springs themselves come up through the limestone giving the silvery/blue appearance you can see in the water. The water here is 99.8% pure, and we were told the springs produce over 5million gallons of fresh water a day. The waters are crystal clear and cold. 

These next photos are through the bottom of the glass-bottomed boat down into the springs:

 
 The walk through the botanical gardens was nice, although past it's prime blooming season for the most part. There was an unusual palm tree, some really large split-leaved philodendron, a couple of nice wisteria arbors, one with Shrimp plant beside it, and a lot of cypress trees with Spanish moss hanging down, which we found out isn't Spanish or moss. It's actually an air plant. Supposedly it reminded the natives of the beards of the Spanish settlers that first came to Florida from Europe. 

 An interesting thing about the cypress trees is for the first 20 years they grow an inch a year, after that they grow an inch every 47 years. The cypresses we saw here are hundreds of years old.

There were still a couple of the animal venues open. There was a petting zoo for children, an area for bears, and a bird show. We saw the bears and we watched the bird show. All of the remaining animals are going to nature reserves and other parks we were told. 

This is a juvenile Kodiak bear from the bear exhibit. He and the other bears are going to a bear preserve in Colorado.

The bird exhibit had a variety of birds; a Red-Tailed Hawk, a Horned Owl, a Screech Owl who was very tiny, a Central American Owl, a Vulture, and an American Kestrel, part of the Falcon family. We also saw one of LQM's relatives at this venue.☺

 
 Our last trip on the glass-bottomed boat also gave us some photos of an alligator looking for a spot to sun itself near the dock: 

 After the animals have all gone to their new homes the glass-bottomed boats and the walking paths will still remain, and I imagine they will still have the concert series. 

It was a lovely weekend get-away, and I'm already thinking about where we could go next.

Cheers everyone,
Sally 

 
 
 

The Morning After . . .. The Chocolate Weekend . .

My pal Puddy is feeling a leetle delicate at the moment . . . she had a fabulous weekend of chocolate delights and imbibed with great gusto . . sadly she now look like this

 . . . and has a face like like this . .

Being kind and thoughtful I gave her some reading material with a leetle advice . .

*Sniggers*

Chocolate Weekend

Have a long, chocolate weekend everybody . . .. or alternatively a Happy Easter . . .

Hmmm - think I will nibble the buttons off first . . .

Friends . . . with benefits?

 

I have a dear friend who lives across the Pond - we met on the internet (yikes!) in the forums of an author we both followed, must be 15 years ago now if not more. Friends come in all shapes and sizes and some can be like a carbon copy of yourself (scary!) - in fact we are so alike we call ourselves The Pod, as in 2 Peas In A Pod.

Once upon a time there were 2 peas. They were as thick (sic) as thieves and shared everything including a hubby. One was called Jakee Pea and the other Willa Pea. They were life-long BFF’s. Jakee Pea has left me her hubby in her will, so I can be a miserable as she has been these past 35 years.

One day Jakee Pea decided to send Willa Pea a pressie cos she was such a fab BFF to her . . cheering her up when she felt down, getting her a Pea Pod pass to get out of the Pod, keeping her answerphone in working order, spying on her son on Facebook and reporting back and keeping her hubby loved up . . So she went shopping. This took a year to complete. When the year was up she piled all the goodies in a box and taped it shut ready to go. It took another year to make it’s way to the Post Office.

Shortly after departing from Jakee Pea it arrived with Willa pea – and what a veritable gluttony of goodies – beheld Willa pea’s eyes.

THUD – faints dead away . . . and even though she had been rudely awakened at 9am by the Postie and had waited 2 years for this moment Willa Pea forgave Jakee Pea. Cos she is nice like that.

Magazines with articles of Gibbs, slippers, a Pea Pod book, magnets, slippers, sheep PJ's and a pair of PJ's with books on the bottoms and the top says 'Never Judge a Book By It's Movie' - hahahahahaha!

There were also some sweeties . . . Ooooh Willa Pea’s mouth watered at the sight of the sweeties and even though the BB date said

 

she opened them up and dived in . . . .

Suddenly there was some coughing and choking sounds and before you knew it Willa Pea had keeled over – SPLAT!!

 

A bit of sweetie slipping form the edge of her Pea green mouth . .

The Pea Green police were called . . and the crime scene was taped off . . .

 and Willa Pea was removed for an autopsy . . .or to be turned into a mushy Pea . .

The moral of the story??? I have no idea . . . except beware of BFF’s sending you edibles. I did get my own back - I sent Jakee a steak, for her eye. Now she is a Black Eyed Pea!

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent  guilty.