Happy November 7th

What a great day!

and what great political news.

Our new toys

our new toys.  It's so flat here everyone rides bikes.

I haven't ridden in more than 30 years - and it's not as easy at my current age as I remembered it being when I was 12.  Fred's not having any problems with his skills.

another early morning in the Old City

what can I say???  I just love the back alleys and side streets of old St. Augustine - 

especially early in the day

Overhanging balconies  dripping with blooming plants

Aviles Street

The Lightner Museum

Palm Court

Sunday morning in the historic neighborhood of Lincolnville

 We love to go into St Augustine early in the morning - before shops open and tourists arrive.  It's a lovely place-out-of- time with little surprises everywhere you look.  The old slave section of the city is undergoing a renaissance , with abandoned and derelict homes changing hands and enjoying much needed refurbing.  The community is aptly named "Lincolnville"  and was a significant player in the early days of the civil rights movement.

 Retirees and younger families are bringing in their unique sense of  tropical style....   I loved this particular house - such a happy riot of color

we found this stone "gator" protecting one garden

the street art is great fun - many of the houses have symbols painted on them; often "suns" around windows or starfish/fish/mermaids/ waves painted on side walls and fences.

Pea shrub is in bloom everywhere;  camellias (the winter rose) is starting to show up, and bougenvilla is a startling bright fuchsia.

sunset on the edge of the hurricane

No storms here - just wind, high surf, and beautiful sunsets.  the ocean broke over the dunes but there was little damage aside from beach erosion.

The wintering wading birds are back now after a couple days hiding inland

BATS! very large bats

For Halloween, the Lubie Bat Conservancy opens for 1 day - allowing the public in to view their HUGE fruit bat residents.  We drove over to Gainesville to see these critters for ourselves, especially since Fred had considered volunteering here but changed his mind when he learned every volunteer was required to have the  rabies vaccine!                                                                

there are about 80 bats living here -  mostly from Malaysia (thank goodness) .


The conservancy studies the animals, and has a breeding program, but doesn't do any rescue work.

The bats were mostly "hanging around" in their various enclosures, but were surprising active walking around the mesh ceiling and visiting the fruit feeding stations.

This guy has a 6 foot wingspan.  they call them flying foxes - and they do have a fox-like face, but those leathery wings and long gripping fingers and toes take away all the cute cuddly fox imagery, 

they do have really big teeth!

I thought is was hilarious that they also had the bloodmobile on site - in case anyone was willing to donate