Snow Birds don't like snow much.

We've been in Michigan for a few days now, as you may have noticed from the change in my heading photo. That was taken last Friday, I think. The transition to cold and snow was tough on this snow bird, especially anything that involves going outside for any length of time. Saturday evening the Grands and I took a walk around the neighborhood, and while there is daylight until fairly late, I was chilled the whole time we were out. Still, a walk with the Grands is always fun. Today dawned cold and cloudy, with the latest snow storm off to our south and only a few flurries here. It was 35 degrees with a north wind at 14 when I left. The bike/jogging path is mostly clear of snow, so I took advantage of the shelter from the wind offered by the neighborhoods east of here, and shuffled off to visit the marina district along Ottawa Beach Road.

The boat slips are still empty, except for the ice.   As I retraced my steps to the front of the buildings, a man walking his dog offered a comment on my choice of gear for today.  "Looking for a convenience store to rob?"

I guess that's a reasonable question, given that there is a convenience store -- aka Party Store -- in this group of buildings.  He offered to take my photo (I was attempting a self photo at the time), and since it is an old camera, and if it got stolen I'd use it as an excuse for a new one, I accepted.  Except for parking lot snow, and a few places in the shade of trees, the streets and paths are free of snow and ice.    The total distance door to door was 4 miles, plenty good enough to count as exercise for today.  I find it interesting that I will walk/wog/jog in conditions that I don't consider even remotely bikeable.

Winding Down

Sunday walks around Ollie's pond have become a habit of mine this trip.  It is something I will miss, though I think that Sunday dinners with the family will more than make up for it.  I like that some of the trees here have Spanish moss hanging from them.  It's picturesque.

It looked to me as though the killdeer had abandoned their nest.  The eggs were still there, but without the parents, they won't last long.  It seemed that the nest was in a location where it was too exposed to human traffic.  Don't know, but it was a little sad to see the empty nest.

Given that Grandchild #1 is graduating from high school this year, and going on to write  the next chapter of her life, I may be a little sensitive to empty nests.  We Skyped with OSLO and the Grands yesterday, and heard that The Granddaughter has received an offer from Grand Valley State University to attend their fair institution, and they will essentially pay her full tuition for the year, if she lives on campus.  So she can go to school for the cost of room and board.  And books.  We are so proud!  There was a funny moment during yesterday's call -- The Granddaughter was telling me about something, all while getting prompts from her Mom off screen.  (Don't forget to say this, don't forget to tell them that, sort of thing.)  The Granddaughter turns her head and fixes an icy stare on her Mom (off screen) and says, "I know how to eat pizza, and I know how to talk to my Grandmother."  Cracked me up!  There had to be a story there, and there was.  It involved hot pizza and Mom cutting it up and blowing on it so there would be no burned mouths.  Not a good move when the eaters of said pizza are teenagers.  Who know how to eat pizza.  And how to talk to their Grandmothers.  It will be good to see them.

Home Stretch

I took what is probably my last Florida bike ride of this trip today. The morning news said that the Red Tide (which it turns out I am sensitive to) is gone, and it seemed it was safe to return to the beach for one last visit.

This is nice, of course.  I will not try to pretend otherwise.  I am not a fan of cold, ice and snow.  But I am ready to go home.  Even though it means this: ( a 24 hour video, including a long overnight stretch where the screen is black.)

Kaytu's Video Archive — Weather Underground Webcams

This is Wilderness Beach, just south of the Rosy Mound Natural area, which is just south of Grand Haven, along the lake shore.

Killdeer at Ollie's Pond

My Minnesota guests headed home mid-week, and both of them made it to their homes safely. I miss their company, but I think they had a quiet and restful stay, and avoided some nasty weather at home. One of the last things we did while they were here was make a return visit to Ollie's Pond. There was a bird nesting along the path there that none of us recognized, and ground nesting birds seemed rare to me. In a land with snakes and alligators, it doesn't seem like it would be all that successful a strategy.

TT looked it up on the inter tubes, so we now know it is a killdeer.  So named for its call, according to Mr. Google.  Today I went back to the pond and I was a little surprised that the killdeer and its nest were still in the same place along the walking path around the pond days after our original sighting.  The path looks like this:

Today I met a woman going the other way as I neared the end of my walk who asked me if I'd seen anything interesting on my walk.  I told her about the killdeer, and she seemed surprised that it was still there -- she has apparently seem it before as well.  Here's a close up --

It's blurry, but you can see the four speckled eggs fairly distinctly here.  It must be spring.

A Day Late

Somewhere I learned an old saying about "a day late and a dollar short."  I don't want to cause anyone any concern about my financial situation, so I'm just using the first half of that as today's title.  (I knew you'd be relieved at my explanation.)  Anyway -- March 1 theme day was all about cafe chairs.  Today, while out and about with TT (today's activity director) and NCW, I ran across these.  The location will be familiar to a few of you, and I've blogged about this spot a number of times before.  Still, a new situation calls for a new photo.

These cafe chairs are at the South Beach restaurant on Gasparilla Island.  The first time I was there I was with GZ, BDE and Opal.  A good memory.  It was a cold and blustery day then, much like today, and we did many of the same things and visited all the same places.  The last time I was there we were with OSLO and the grands, and it was a pretty nice, sunny day.  Also a good memory.  I'm happy to add today's visit to my memory banks.  Plus NCW was willing to share a piece of key lime pie with me.

Jacket/sweatshirt weather has arrived in southwest Florida and threatens to stay for at least a couple of days.  My Minnesota visitors were not especially intimidated by the temperatures, the overcast or the wind, though we had the beach to ourselves pretty much the whole time we were on it. I notice that in addition to the cafe chairs in the background, I also managed to get a bench in this photo.  TT is a tougher activities director than NCW was yesterday, and tagged on a tour around town after lunch and the beach visits.  One of the art galleries was probably the most interesting part of that walk.  I forgot to put on my pedometer before I left the house, so I can't log the distance, but NCW expressed the opinion that it must have been at least 8 miles.

A Day Spent Jokin' Around

Today was NCW's turn to be the activities director.  (North Country Woman).  TT's plan was to spend the day just joking around, he said.  Her plan involved a nature walk in a woodsy area near here.  We headed over to Kiwanis Park, which was closed for renovations last year when they were here.  As it turned out, we spent our time there doing more joking around than actually exercising.  Given that I've been under the weather most of the week with some undisclosed ague, and today was the first day that I've felt nearly normal, a stroll/saunter through the woods seemed like a fine idea.

Kiwanis Park has 10 exercise stations spread out along it's approximately 1.04 miles of paths, and we tried out a few of them.  Old cheerleaders never die, they just lose their balance?  Actually she did quite well, and the rounded nature of the pipes presented a challenge that I did not even try.

Near the children's playground we found a tiny little bench to add to the series of bench photos.  This was as close as I got to today's theme day photo topic (cafe chairs).

My favorite granddaughter send me this picture from her i-phone this afternoon.  She checked on the house after school, and she knows that I miss my lake.  A photo of a winter beach probably doesn't look as compelling to you as it does to me, but it was good to see it.  I doubt that there will be this much ice on it by the time we get there to see it in person.