Margaret & Ian's life together, including Ian's MINIs!
Time for our annual visit to the Avian Reconditioning Center and their annual fund raising Fall Festival – of course my focus is on the owls, but there’s lots of other photo opportunities with eagles and other birds of prey! As always, loads of photos, including Great Horned Owl close-ups, and a Bald Eagle posing with the US flag!
Another of my occasional posts of birds and ‘gators sighted on the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive; not many Alligators this time, but quite a few Ospreys, Herons (including one that couldn’t swallow the catfish it had caught!) and other wading birds …
Winter Garden celebrates Halloween in the town center, with loads of stalls offering candy, games for children – and of course loads of costumes worn as much by the adults as by the children! Many downtown stores join in too, and now for us it’s all just an easy walk from our home.
Going to the town event does mean we miss out on anyone visiting our house, but it’s much more fun where we were! Here’s lots of photos …
As hinted in the last photo, City Hall also had a video projection of Halloween images; I recorded some (had to replace the audio, but the video is still good):
This morning we headed to the north side of Lake Apopka and joined Oakland Nature Preserve on a kayak tour of the canal that links Lake Apopka to Lake Dora! Margaret and I shared a kayak (happily without tipping over!) for the 2-1/1 hour trip north to and through the canal lock, and back again. Lots of photos (and beautiful weather):
At the annual Oakland Heritage & Wildlife Festival today we had lots of craft and other tents to visit, as well as the Llama …
We also got tickets for a boat ride on Lake Apopka, with very interesting talks about the ongoing recovery of the once very polluted lake – as well as great views!
A nice day out!
If you prefer, a video presentation!
Last weekend Margaret & I traveled to New York for a short vacation, shared with some of my family, that had headed over from Europe. We were treated with fabulous late September weather in the mid 70s, perfect for walking the city – we stayed at Hotel 50 Bowery, a nice hotel with great views (especially from the rooftop bar) right in Chinatown with easy walk to Little Italy and central in Manhattan to head uptown or downtown …
Our hotel was very close to the Manhattan bridge, so we took a walk across that bridge, then turned round to cross back over the Brooklyn bridge (which was crazy busy with other walkers!). Lots of great views of course, and dark by the time we got back to the hotel.
Next morning we took the subway to Grand Central Station and met up with Angela, Iain and Paul; from there (after breakfast) we toured Central Park and Times Square … we finished the day back at Chinatown for dinner.
Next day Margaret & I walked south along the East river to Battery Park, met the others and with them took the ferry out to Liberty Island and Ellis Island. Tourists, of course!
Back on Manhattan Island, after dinner we walked to the nearby 9-11 memorial at World Trade Center, and see the ongoing recreation of this area. The memorial is beautiful, peaceful – but also tragic.
Next day, our last, we went uptown again to meet at the American Museum of Natural History. To be honest this was rather too much to see – so many corridors, so many displays; we left after seeing only a small part (but quite enough!)
After that we returned to nearby Central Park and finished our vacation with a horse & cart ride …
Here in Florida it’s crazy hot and sunny for much of the year, making it very hard to hand wash any car. In the past I might have washed my MINI early morning while still in shade from our house, but now my X3 is a bit too big to easily wash, and I’m getting lazy – and anyway since it’s garaged it doesn’t get all that dirty so it’s been about six months since I purchased … and I decided to have my X3 washed by someone else!
There’s a few local Winter Garden car wash companies; I’ve used Classic Car Wash once before, but today decided to try Leonard & Son that is frequently recommended, online. I stayed close by for the more than one hour it took (!) and watched them take as much care as I would have – and of course I took pictures …
Overall, my X3 looks as good as when delivered; not quite sure it’s worth the $40 cost, but it was much easier than me doing the work!
