Sunday Interlude

Easter morning dawned bright and beautiful at our house. Forgoing our usual after-breakfast bicycle ride in the neighborhood, we got ourselves out the door very early to attend the first worship service at church. The thought was to avoid traffic if we opted for the earliest of the services offered and that worked well for us. This particular service also followed a more traditional music format, which we prefer. It was just right.

There's been a lot of talk on our neighborhood Facebook page about coyotes roaming through the yards; but I'm happy to report the Easter Bunny came and went without incident, leaving his gifts of chocolate.

After church, we changed into more casual clothes and drove to my niece's home with our offering of potato salad for the big meal.

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Desi the Macaw, who rules the roost from a large cage in the kitchen great room area of the home. He had been enjoying some freedom in the dining area but was tucked back into his cage when we arrived. His yellow chest feathers are so beautiful and looked soft to the touch, but before venturing any closer, I asked if I could pet him. My niece said he's not that people-friendly with strangers, so I just spoke to him with polite respect and kept my distance.

My niece and nephew-in-law are wonderful hosts who take a lot of enjoyment in filling their home with animals and people, and feeding us all with great generosity.

We were thrilled to be invited (yet again) to their family gathering. In years past I've done a lot of entertaining. Now it's so pleasant to be invited as a guest.

It's been a full week for us as we transitioned from the Easter holiday to preparing for out-of-town guests. Gary's son and wife, one of Gary's grandsons and his wife, and their toddler daughter came to town for a few days from way up north. They stayed in a local hotel since our house is not big enough to over-night many people. They rented a vehicle at the airport that was big enough to carry around all 7 of us, which was a big help as we took them sight-seeing. 

Great-grandpa met this 3rd great grandchild for the first time. Since she did not scream and hide her face in her grandma's shoulder, I can accurately report that she found him acceptable. As you can see, he tried the bribe-with-food tactic, and that seemed to work. 

She even agreed to sit on his lap, still with a snack-incentive. She is Gary's third great-grandchild, but the first one for him to meet. The twin boys were born first (to another of Gary's grandchildren) but due to his surgeries last year, we could not travel up north to meet them in person.

I enjoyed seeing Gary with a child this young. In the three+ years we have been together, I have seen him interact with members of my family who are as young as 6 years, but not any who are younger than that until this weekend. He held his own very well. 

I won't give you a detailed description of all we did to entertain our guests, but will hit a few of the high points. North of us, in Gainesville, we took them to a particular location where the gators are known to hang out, the La Chua Trailhead, which is inside the bounds of Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. 

We unexpectedly found this attraction last year when we were riding our bicycles on the trail from Gainesville to Hawthorne. On that day, the park rangers said we were seeing about 150 gators. Not as many as that were out on this day with our family, but there were still many more than I could hope to count.

In mid-to-late afternoon, these guys were pretty lethargic. They prefer to hunt at dusk and dawn and at night. It is amazing to see many birds hanging around them, and not a one was snatched by those powerful jaws while we watched. But all the same, signs told us to keep our distance and absolutely do not feed them. 

As for the close-up snapshots, be assured, I took these pictures using the zoom feature on my iPhone 16 Pro. 

This one was one of two who had adorned himself with foliage for our visit. I guess that even within the animal kingdom, some are more inclined to show off! 

In addition to the gators, we saw a lot of birds, some turtles, and logged a lot of steps. Blessedly, the weather was perfect. As you can readily see, the park is beautiful, and the walking trails are top-notch.

The next day we visited the mermaids at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. Yes, REAL mermaids swimming underwater for a show that lasted about 20 minutes, viewed from an under-ground theater through a huge glass window! Very impressive. We heard that the girls have to train for a full year before they can be in the show.

I don't know how many people can fill the theater, but my guess is a couple hundred. We got there early enough to sit in the very middle on the second row, so we could see the show perfectly. I was impressed with how they expelled a curtain of bubbles whenever it was time for a change of scenes during the show (instead of drawing a curtain back and forth).

The price of admission also included a twenty-minute boat ride, lazy river style, where the guide pointed out interesting flora and fauna along the way.

This yellow-bellied slider turtle was sunning himself on a log as we floated by. There were also a couple of soft-shelled turtles but they were in the shade among leaves and not easily photographed. 

As we waited our turn to board this cruise, a fellow traveler snapped this picture of all of us. There are 4 generations represented here -- pretty special!

After the mermaid adventure, we drove about 20 minutes to Crumps' Landing, a well-known outdoor, "very Florida" restaurant. With lots of seating under grass-thatched roofs or canvas umbrellas right beside the Homosassa River and a lot of boat traffic, the menu is wide with everything from American burgers to calamari, and gator bites, etc. 

There are pirates (statues) stationed throughout, a playground for little people, sand, restrooms, and a gift shop. All is very casual and so pleasant. It was our second time to dine there and we consider it a favorite, in spite of the distance from our house (55 minutes).

It seems that everyone enjoyed the day but by afternoon's end, it was time to bid farewell to our guests. Their next stop is the beach, but that adventure will be minus us.

It was good to spend time with family. Now that I am older, I tend to study people more, learning life lessons from them, and appreciating how individual we all are, even as I remember we are made in God's image. (Genesis 1:27)

My regular readers may remember that a month or so ago we were assembling this wood foot bridge for our back yard. Then with the visit of our great-granddaughter, it provided a fun prop for photography this weekend. 

I have titled this blog post, "Sunday Interlude" because it's our "break in the action," so to speak as we transition from the holiday of Easter and visiting family to another adventure that begins tomorrow: more outdoor landscaping.

We have found that the bark mulch in our front and back yards is great at first, but over time the vibrant color fades. Also, with mulch being an organic material, it brought in weeds and those particularly horrible mushrooms I wrote about a few weeks ago.  The armadillos dig holes in the mulch undercover of night, and squirrels plant oak acorns which then brings itty bitty oak trees trying to take hold. Even if a barrier has been put down before the mulch, it still needs to be replenished every couple of years for maximum beauty. With all that said, the decision was made to have it scraped up, a barrier put down, and river rock will be our ground cover. 

"before"

I took snapshots of our yard as it is now, one of which is this one above. Tomorrow the scraping begins and we hope that by week's end, the entire renovation will be done. You know I'll post pictures of that because that makes for good "blog fodder."

As I close I want to quote my friend, Joyce, from her blog, From This Side of the Pond, who recently said the following:

Blogging is fun for me, it serves as a stress-reliever, and a place to work things out on paper which often helps to bring clarity of mind.

I heartily agree. Blogging also helps me to respond to this verse out of scripture:

Teach us to number our days, 

that we may gain a heart of wisdom. 

Psalm 90:12

Until next time, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt His name together. Psalm 34:3