Happy Friday!

I was getting bored with doing the Friday holiday. (I admit it, I get bored easily!)

Then my niece posted that today is SNEAK SOME ZUCCHINI INTO YOUR NEIGHBOR’S PORCH DAY.

Had to do some fact checking but she was right! How could I skip a holiday like that!

So, if you have any zucchini. You now know what to do with it. Here in Florida, zucchini has already been harvested but I bet my kids in North Dakota could sneak some zucchini to some unsuspecting neighbors porches!

Okay, now it’s time to talk about the Old Homosassa Learning Center. It’s turning into the center of our great community. The fitness classes are crazy popular. The Homosassa Ukers group is fun, fun, fun. The Sew Cool! Workshop is a gathering place for creative people.

I have met so many people through the OHLC that I would have NEVER met! Such a diverse group of people. LOVE IT!

For instance, Amanda came to the OHLC last summer inquiring about how her four children could benefit from our learning center. A year later, Allora has her Gold Award from Girl Scouts and her daughter Natalya is the young lady working on her scallop project for her Gold Award.

This week’s pics…

Scallop shells
Natalya picking up scallop shells at MacRae’s.
Scallop shells
Putting them in crab traps and then into the water
Four days later, rinsing off the shells after the creatures have had their way. And the minnows are happy to help!

Both Natalya and Allora have learned ukulele at the learning center and are part of the Homosassa Ukers. And they volunteer at OHLC. The younger two girls go to all of the after-school enrichment programs and one of them gets extra tutoring from our favorite tutor. Oh yeah, we have piano lessons that one of the young girls takes, too.

Did I mention that all classes for the kids are free????

And. Summer camp. Free. Six weeks with two teachers from our school district. And I wish I was 10 years old and could go!

The Homosassa Civic Club just started a new scholarship for the kids that volunteer. The first recipient was Austin Price, a Key Club member that volunteered for all three years of the Summer Camp. The kids LOVE HIM.

OHLC is changing lifes.

Can you tell that I’m excited to be part of the change?

And on to other stuff. We took a day trip to Cedar Key for lunch. Why all that way? Cause we can! And we have a cool car.

And I’m going to close with some butterfly pics. I believe it wasn’t all that many weeks ago that I was whining that I wasn’t getting any butterflies. Still not as many as I have had in the past but I do have butterflies and moths visiting again.

Oh. I gotta have a damn squirrel pic!

I hope you have a great weekend!

Kathy

August 2nd is…..

International Beer Day, National Coloring Book Day, and most important……National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!!!!!

I believe that I will need to celebrate each and every holiday today. An ice cream sandwich for lunch, washed down with a Guiness, while I am coloring.

Today I have a bunch of photos!

Inverness
Brand new fake water tower at the park in Inverness
Swallowtail Caterpillars
Swallowtail Caterpillars
Monarch butterfly
Monarch Butterfly on Chinese Pagoda Plant
scallop cleaning
Our Girl Scout continues her scalloping project. She needs a LOT of scallop shells and stops by every few days to put more in the crab trap. Even in the rain.
alligator
We have another gator in the canal. The water is brackish here so we really shouldn’t get gators. But we do.
Palm trees
When we moved to this house, all of these palm trees had fronds. Now only two.
Clouds
Clouds
scallop shells
One use for scallop shells!
Friday Meanderings
Just some pretty flowers
Don Juan Rose Bud
Don Juan Rose Bud

Have a great weekend!

Happy National All or Nothing Day!

Celebrated each year on July 26, National All or Nothing Day allows people to throw caution to the wind and go for broke.

And that’s how I feel about peach pie. I’m either going to eat it all. Or nothing. Therefore, there is never peach pie at my house.

We’ve had a LOT of rain this week. The Old Homosassa Learning Center’s Summer Camp theme this week was Nature and they had a lot of field trips planned. They made it to the Salt Marsh Trail on Tuesday but Wednesday’s boat ride was canceled due to thunderstorms. Then on Thursday they all went to the Homosassa Wildlife Park. In the rain. But I heard they had lots of fun! Today is the last day of summer camp since the leaders are teachers and have to get back to school next week to get ready for the new year. I heard rumors that there will be pizza and an ice cream sundae bar for the campers. Best camp ever!

School starts on August 12th. The Old Homosassa Learning Center will be starting the after-school enrichment program shortly after. Just like the camp, all the programs for kids are free!

Our Girl Scout is continuing her scallop shell experiment. Last week she put a gallon of shells in a crab trap off of our dock. We found that the shells were clean by day 3. Two crabs were inside when she checked the trap.

scallop shells
scallop shells
crab

As part of her project, she also put a mesh bag of cleaned scallop shells in a dock on King’s Bay in Crystal River, one off of a dock on the Homosassa River, and a third off of my dock. She plans to leave them in the water for six months to see how the shells fare at the different locations.

scallop shells
scallop shells

Today I have some pics from Tuesday–the only day it didn’t rain.

red-shouldered hawk
It is a bird feeder, right?
Just hanging out on the glider.
The squirrels do not seem too concerned about three hawks hanging out in their yard!

Terry and I went to Blackwater Grill in Yankeetown one afternoon last week for lunch. That’s the restaurant in the Izaak Walton Lodge. This place has changed hands many times. The first time we went (many many years ago) it was a very upscale restaurant and we could only get in with reservations. The next time the food was served on paper plates with plastic eating utensils. So we took it off of our list. We recently heard that it had changed names and the food was better. So we had to check it out. Our lunches were very good. The kitchen was a little slow and our server offered us a free dessert but, unless it’s peach pie, I’m passing.

Blackwater Grill
Blackwater Grill
Grilled Grouper with bourbon carrots and mac and cheese! Makes me hungry just looking at this picture!
Blackwater Grill
Grilled Chicken and Fettuccine!
Blackwater Grill
Izaak Walton Lodge is located on the Withlacoochee River and the restaurant has great views of the river.
Blackwater Grill
I don’t know what this is or why it’s at the lodge, but I needed to take a picture of it.

We took a little drive to the end of the road. There were dolphins in the water but I didn’t get a pic. (Just use your imagination!)

Blackwater Grill
Blackwater Grill

That’s it for this week!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy