Palm Trees and Party Animals

Thought for the day:  Always be kind to your dentist. After all, he has fillings, too.

Looooosy, I'm hooooome!









Okay, if you wanta be technical about it, we've been back in town for more than a week, but lots of things had to be done. No sense posting on my blog if I don't have time to visit your blogs, right? Anyhow, I'm caught up now, and ready to dive back into the good ol' blogosphere again.

Yep, we're home. (sigh) No grandchildren scrambling to sit on our laps. (But the cats are all over us.) No palm trees swaying in the breeze. (But I did go outside and rake a boatload of leaves... twice.)

Those palm trees in the picture are at the resort where we stayed in Florida. To me, there's something exotic and romantic about them, and I love the way they looked against the sky. To our son, who lives in Florida and sees them day in and day out, those same trees are ugly. Go figure.

But I reckon that's true about a lot of things. Stone Mountain is a totally cool-looking carved mountain here in Georgia, but it's probably safe to say that most people who see it every day take it for granite. (Sorry.)

No matter how many times we drive south, I always get excited about a bunch of things that other people probably think of as ugly or ordinary. I look forward to seeing them, and get all excited when they come into view. Like the palm trees. And like this. You could say I cotton to this stuff.

Yep, fields and fields of fluffy cotton. If you've never seen these plants before, they aren't very tall. In fact, they're really short, like maybe knee-high, if that, and looking at them, it's easy to imagine what hard work it must have been to pick by hand... bending over all day in the hot Georgia sunshine. Makes my back hurt just to think about it.

Smarticus insists these critters are nothing more than rats on the half-shell, but I love 'em. Armadillos look like prehistoric creatures to me, and I'm always on the look-out for them when we hit south Georgia and Florida. All I can say is they must have been doing some pretty serious partying recently, because every single one I saw was sleeping it off on the side of the road. (Shut up! They were taking a NAP, I tell you!)

Oh, and how about those trees dripping with Spanish moss? Even if it weren't getting close to Halloween, these big ol' trees provide a certain spooky atmosphere. Especially at night.









I'm a huge fan of egrets, too. (And herons.) For some reason, I didn't see any on the ride down this year. Made me wonder if they'd been partying with the armadillos and were off in the woods somewhere nursing a hangover. But they must have bounced back quickly, because we saw plenty of them while we were in Florida.

And of course, all around the Orlando area, there are scads of orange groves. It's amazing how short most of those trees are, but yet, still bulging with fruit. I guess the farmers must keep them trimmed that way for easy harvesting, but it's still surprising to see trees shorter than I am with all that fruit on them. I've never been there to experience it, but when all those trees are covered with blossoms, the scent must be absolutely heavenly. Better than any perfume.

Of course, the very BEST thing for me to see in Florida is always our family. Here's three of our granddaughters. Ella, in the blue shirt, is five, and she had the audacity to ask her grandfather if he ever had hair on the top of his head. (HA!) Persephone is six, and she's a self-taught gymnast. Does cartwheels, back flips, and hand stands. (Even on one hand!) Just watching her aged us ten years. Olivia is two, and I really must teach her how to spell. She has an aversion to, and a serious melt-down, every time she hears the word NO... or KNOW...

Anyhow, it's good to be home. In the next few posts, I'll tell you about some really neat places to visit in the Sunshine State. (And I'm not talking Mickey Mouse!)

In the meantime, what do you look for when you travel? Armadillos? Spanish moss? What? Do tell.

                                  Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.

By the way, you guys rock. Thank you so much for all your terrific comments on my last post. I read every one of them, and appreciate them all, but I'm not gonna respond to them at this late date. (Does anybody ever go back to look for a response, I wonder...?) (Um, I mean, besides ME...)

Anyhow, THANKS!