So Long Key West (Clermont, FL)

Before the end of February, we said good-bye to Key West.  Below are highlights of our winter outings since I never got around to posting them earlier.  

We have been spending the past month in central Florida enjoying the cooler nights and mornings.   As much as I enjoy warm winters in the Keys, I have to say I'm glad we decided to leave early.

Fort Zachary Taylor State Park

Dry camping was more of a struggle this year due to record breaking heat all winter long.  We spent most of our dry camping days sitting with our cats outdoors in the shade.  Nights brought little relief from the heat and humidity which left a lot of the dry campers looking a little exhausted at times.  

After the winter most people in the north experienced, I am grateful for the warm winter and not having to experience the constant blizzards of ice and snow, but I am more than ready for a change of weather and full hook-ups.

We did manage a few outings.  We spent a couple of hours watching the Super Boat races, but even that became almost unbearable with no shade.  

A view of our 'hot spot'

After a couple of hours of sitting in direct sunlight, I started to worry about my Nikon.  The black casing started to flake off, so I tried using my body to keep it in the shade.  I'm happy to say the camera is working well.  At least the inside was not damaged.

Still, it was fun to watch the boats fly by.  I think they spent more time flying over the water than in it.

For my birthday in December, we spent the day downtown.  We walked the boardwalk looking for Tarpons along the way.

We checked out the marina for interesting yachts, sailboats...

and holiday decorations.

We had to stop for some Key Lime Pie and to try some different free key lime flavored samples such as nuts, cookies, and even dipping oils for breads.

Isn't this gorgeous?  This is the sitting area offered by Kermit's.

We walked all the way to Mallory Square to visit the shops and the Sculpture Garden.

Shipwreck Salvaging 

But, my favorite part of the day was visiting Hemingway's home.  Look at those paws!  The place was packed with visitors.  I am truly amazed with how mellow the cats can be with so many people trying to pet them.  I even saw one woman pushing a cat down to keep him from walking away.  He was struggling to get out from under her hands without a hint of wanting to fight back.  She stopped when she saw me looking at her and the cat just sauntered off with a twitch of his tail.

This one told me exactly what he thought of all the tourists:  "Talk to the paw, Lady.  I'm not interested in having my photo taken, so just move along."

Later in the year, we visited the Key West Botanical Garden.  I will never tire of visiting the gardens.  I took a lot of photos, so I decided to make a collage to keep this post from getting too long.

I was disappointed to see the old tree and arch fell during Hurricane Irma.  Photos below are from our visit in 2015.

2015

2015

Our last outing before we left was a drive up Hwy 1 to Bahia Honda State Park.  We walked around a little and checked out the campground.  This would be a nice place to stay for a couple of days with access to the Gulf  and ocean-side beaches within walking distance.  Maybe next time.

All in all, it was a good stay.  I finally got back into my walking routine.  I often started before sunrise when it was a wee bit cooler.  The best part was watching the birds.  I got quite a few shots of this Little Blue Heron catching his meal for the day.

Can't say that I find lizard appealing for lunch, but he seemed quite happy with his find for the day.

Dusty (our older cat) also thought lizards were a great catch.

He not only caught one, but he almost had the lizard in our coach before Dan caught him.  Surprised, Dusty dropped the lizard and yep, sure enough it was still alive and quite fast on disappearing under our car.  That was a close one.  Dusty never forgave us for making him give up his catch-of-the-day.

The Ibis were my favorite birds to watch with their funny walk and grunting sounds.

On my walks, I loved watching the Ibis cross a road.  They always cross the road in a single line.  I rarely saw two walking side-by-side.

We are starting our trip north.  Our plans were to visit family in Alabama and Oklahoma, then start heading towards Oregon by way of New Mexico and Nevada, but that got changed when we realized we needed to go back to South Dakota to renew our licenses.  Sooo, change of plans: after Oklahoma, we will drive directly north through the mid-west to Rapid City, SD then we will head to Oregon.

On The Cutting Board

Since my last post, I have signed up for four Craft sales.  I am finding that I enjoy it more because I can actually talk to people interested in my hobby.  

Sigsbee NAS

I also sold close to half of my inventory of mug rugs and quilts.  

Thousand Trails Orlando

But, no one has bought my Angel Bears.  I'm not sure why they are not selling.  Looks?  Price? or maybe because they are not a toy.  I would think an eight-year old would be all right with the bear.  Anyway, I'm hoping to find them a home in the near future.

Since I am no longer making items for my Etsy shop, I pulled out a lot of my UFOs.  I decided to start with my A to Zzzz Snowman quilt project.

Now that I can concentrate on one project at a time....

...Okay!  more than one project, but not as many as before.............

......This project is going a lot faster.  I'm actually on M for Mittens now.  

from our full hook-up site in January

One last shot of what it is like to sit outdoors with such a peaceful view of the ocean and palm trees while quilting.  What a life!

Happy Quilting!

'Tis The Season (Key West, FL)

....for rotation!  Since my last post, we have moved twice.  Once into dry camping with a great view on the water front and a week later back into full hook-ups.   We are allowed two weeks with full hook-ups and then back to dry camping until our next turn.  I don't mind the rotation into dry camping.  It gives us a change of view and the grass covered sites are large.  The cats love the larger sites with trees/bushes to explore and soft grass to lie in.  Or as one lady put it "we are out in the country".

Could see kite surfers zipping by our rig

While in our dry camping site, we were able to watch kite surfers zip by our motorhome.  I managed to get a few shots before they disappeared around the bend.

The campground is becoming very busy with 5 to 12 newcomers showing up daily.  Every day during our walks, we stop to view the waiting list that seems to be growing steadily.  There are over 300+ dry camping sites to the 84 full hook-ups.  Right now, there are 95 people on the waiting list for full hook-ups.  We talked to one woman about her experience here last year.  There were so many campers here that they had to wait six weeks in dry camping.  Well, if that is the price to pay to enjoy this great weather and location, I am all for it.

windy enough to be airborne

We move again on Saturday.  We are hoping for our next site to be away from the water since the winds have been picking up causing a salt spray to cover both of our vehicles.   Our next stay in dry camping will probably be for over a two weeks.  Fingers are crossed that the weather will stay cool so we can sleep at night.

who are you looking at, lady?

We have been watching the Osprey and his mate rebuild their nest on the tower.  At first, I was not sure what one Osprey was doing when it started to land on a dead branch that did not look like it could hold its weight.  It looked like the bird finally realized its mistake and took off again causing the branch to whiplash.  

A couple of days later the Osprey did it again.  This time, the Osprey grabbed the branch in flight making a sharp upward movement snapping the branch off.  A new branch for the nest was on its way!  We could hear the happy mate calling all the way back to the nest, "Honey! Wait until you see what I brought home!"

It should not be too much longer before the eggs hatch if they have not yet.  Soon, we will be hearing the little ones crying for food.

We visited the Casa Marina Resort again.  This time to see the SandArt.  Here a few photos of them. It was a small competition, but the art work was great.

I just can't imagine spending so much time on such a beautiful project only to have it disappear after a couple of days.  I know I often don't see my work again, but it is comforting to think someone out there is enjoying them.

On The Cutting Board
Okay, this is the main reason why I have not been posting on my blog.  I have been very busy since Shaun left in November.  I have never been so busy with requests!  What a wonderful feeling to be so busy making items for others and loving every minute of it.  Of course, I don't mind it slowing down again since I had to put aside my books.  I did manage to listen to a couple of books with my iPod while sewing at the same time.  Oh!  I found a great deal through Audible.  If you are a member, for just 1 credit, you can have 50+ hours of "The Mists of Avalon".  I have not read the book or watched the movie so this will be quite an adventure for me.  I did not realize just how much I would end up missing my reading time.  I can't wait to get back to my ever growing list of books......Okay!  I'm really off my subject.

And back to my sewing.....as soon as I finished the three Santa garlands, I had another large order for six Happy Campers.  Looking at the photo below, it doesn't look like that big of an order, but it is time consuming to hand embroider and quilt.  Plus, I like to be in a good frame of mind so the stitches look good and not hurried (extra big stitches).

Before I had finished the six Happy Campers, Dan showed me an announcement for an Arts and Crafts/Yard Sale to be held on 19 December.  I took the plunge and signed up for my very first showing.  I had one small problem.  My inventory was very low!  I had sold so many items that my shop was looking like the day after Black Friday.  That was a great feeling to see so many sold in one year, but at the same time, I wasn't going to have much to show for Arts and Crafts.  

I managed to make six more Happy Campers, two Uncle Sam mug rugs, and a few new items that I have not tried selling before in my shop.  I was so busy sewing early in the morning until late at night that I forgot to take photos!  I took a couple with my phone just so I could remember what I had made.  

The morning did not start out well due to winds with gusts up to 22 mph and scattered showers.  Even the chairs were sliding across the sidewalk!  My neighbor at the next table was a big sweet heart by offering to park her jeep behind me to block the wind after I tried to block the wind with our Honda Fit.  Yea, that did not work very well.

Thanks to Kim's jeep, my items no long flew across the parking lot.  I finally had a table filled with colorful mug rugs.  I just wish I would have come up with a better way to display my quilts but the only way to keep them from flying away was to clip them to the chairs.  I had to tie string across the table and used more clips to keep the mug rugs on the table.  Not the best display, but I wasn't losing them either.

Check out the cute 'Believe' Santa and Singing Cats' mini wall hangings. They are so adorable and fun to make! 

Well, this show was fun and I did make quite a few sales despite the overcast windy day and the lack of customers.  I'm just not sure it is something that I want to do very often.  I became quite stressed during the last week trying to build up my inventory.  In the end, I had to decide on which ones were more important for me to focus on finishing and put the others aside to be added to the shop.  I was smart enough to close the shop for a few weeks so I could concentrate on this show and keep what was left of my inventory for the show.  I plan to open up the shop after Christmas.  For now, I need to work on finishing some more items to restock my shop.  So, it is back to the cutting board!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

On Key West Time (Key West, FL)

I am definitely in mañana mode lately or Key West time.  Taking it easy.  Enjoying the views.  Here are some photos of a few things we have seen in the last week.

Sigsbee NAS has placed a few of these over-sized adirondack chairs around the base.  Getting into the chair was easy...getting out was a whole other experience.  Surprisingly, it was quite comfortable to sit in.   And....Yes, I do feel like 'Edith Ann'.  For the young ones that have no idea what I am talking about - Edith Ann was a character played by Lily Tomlin on "Laugh-In" - a comedy show from the late 60s to early 70s.

While spending some time with Dusty at our site before our morning walk, I watched this rainbow develop as the sun came up.  We get a decent view of the water and sunsets even though we are one row back and have to peek between rigs.  The sites are staggered just so that most sites have a sliver of a view of the water.

This Iguana was starting his day early.  Just look at that healthy green glow!  We rarely see them out on our morning walks.

We see quite a few Little Blue Herons and Ibis, but

the Pelicans and the bigger birds such as Herons or Egrets have not migrated south.  Something to look forward to along with a warmer winter.

The flowers are gorgeous right now.  This flowering tree can be found all over Key West.  Just Bloomin' beautiful!

We have been downtown a few times and I already have toooooo many photos, so I promise not to bombard you in one post.  I will try to spread them out.

Doesn't this look inviting?  Shall I sit or swim?  The water feels warmer than the air at times.  Floating around is very relaxing and the best part - my skin doesn't feel salty or dried out afterward.  

Chickens are a big part of Key West's charm.  They are everywhere...on the streets, at the Post Office, in front yards, and under your feet at restaurants.  We even have a few chickens and roosters on base.

Mama Hen and her chicks were following us down the sidewalk in the Truman Annex.  I got the feeling that the chickens can tell that we are a soft touch.  They must have that same sixth sense as do the feral cats - I know you want to feed us.

Business is booming despite the heat and humidity.  Key West has been very busy.  We were expecting a quieter time with less crowds and traffic.  We were surprised to see it was just the opposite with the long lines, packed restaurants, and traffic jams.  Even the base's campground has stayed filled almost to the point that they would have to start rotating people from full hook-ups to dry camping.

SouthernMost Point and Conch-blowing Greeter 

Ahhh, another gorgeous sunset.  I'm sure there will be more to come...

In the meantime, I need to find some energy and get some sewing done.  My little shop is looking rather empty.

Happy Quilting!