I have been a little busy this week or I would have written something earlier. Let's see if I can catch you all up.

We have been back here in Florida for a little more than a month now. The rains that were relentless all summer while we were up in Massachusetts, stayed a little longer than usual, leaving extremely high water levels in all of the ponds and lush greenery everywhere. Although we had a couple of weeks in September when we first got back when there was rain every afternoon, that seems to be over. These past couple of weeks have been really lovely. Very little rain and lots of sun. The humidity is lower and it's a perfectly beautiful time of year here.

Typical sunset from our lanai

Ponds are very high all over our golf courses.

In Naples they don't call the months between November and April "the season" they just call it "Season" like Lent. It's like the Brits saying someone is "in hospital". They don't use "the"  but I don't know why that is, unless it's because we really don't have seasons of the year here, or at least not clearly defined seasons. So, maybe just calling it Season makes sense. Anyway, Season is beginning. Traffic is increasing, people are returning from up north. We have a lot of Canadians who live in our community and they'll be coming soon. They can only stay 6 months so they'll probably be coming down before the end of the month. I can always spot a Canadian. First, they are very polite and they say aboot instead of about.

You can see how close our lanai is to the water.

So activities here are picking up. Golf league started coincidentally with the beginning of my slump. I haven't played this badly in a long time. I am not sure it's my game. But I soldier on and enjoy the folks I golf with, even if I have a bad game. And of course I have been trying to work on writing more frequently, but life keeps getting in the way!

Jammies from Grammy!

I try to keep current with the grandbabies by talking to them on Facetime. It's hard to keep them in one place in front of the camera, but Bill and Kim do try. They are growing so fast. Here is a photo of them in some skeleton glow in the dark jammies I recently sent them. I call myself the Jammie Grammy because I love to buy them jammies.

Minions from the Movie.

 Kim just posted some photos of them as Minions from the movie Despicable Me. That was a very cute movie and the Minions were especially cute. Both Lily and Owen were Minions for the school Halloween Party today.

Arriving at Halloween Party

Minion 1

Minion 2

I talked to Lily this morning and for the third time on Facetime she asked me while looking closely into the i pad screen, "Where is my little daddy? The one who gets in his car and goes to work? I miss him." My poor son is beginning to think another Daddy comes into his home when he is not there. We can't figure out what she is talking about and why she asks me where her 'other little daddy is'? Most kids have imaginary friends. Our Lily has an imaginary 'little Daddy' who she says she misses. I  must have told her a story or shown her something that makes her think of that, but for the life of me I can't remember anything. Although, my friend Karen reminded me little kids are tuned into ghosts. Maybe the little Daddy is a ghost that visits only when she is with me? Hmmm...that's a little creepy.

In a related story...Two nights ago, I got a call from a production company in CA (Painless TV) who produces a show called The Dead Files that airs on the Travel Channel Friday nights. It's a show that follows a psychic and a retired NYPD detective around to haunted historical locations. They do research on the places and present the stories that sometimes fall right into place with what the psychic "feels" at these places.

The psychic on the left and the detective on the right.

This fellow had found one of my blog posts from The Hunt For Henrietta two years ago and the story really interested him. He wanted to know if I had any more details on the story, which I didn't, but it was fun to know that he had enjoyed the story. It was about a smallpox outbreak at Pullin Point in Chelsea, MA in the 1750s, caused by the captain of a ship that had run aground. The Captain hid the fact that a dying smallpox victim lay hidden below decks while locals were hired to unload the vessel. One of my ancestors was one of those locals, Thomas Patten, who helped unload the ship and ended up dying soon after. Fortunately, his son who was two years old at the time   survived the outbreak, to continue our family line. Thomas was my 5th great grandfather.

This producer thought it was a fascinating story, but there were a lot of loose ends that neither he or I could tie up when doing the research. He wanted to know what happened to the Captain after he was indicted and what happened to some of the other people in the story. After the first call I did a little more research and found a couple of tidbits about the ship's captain which I forwarded to him. There probably isn't enough for them to shoot a whole episode about this incident, but, it was still exciting to get this kind of call and I will be watching with renewed interest to see if Chelsea, MA ever comes up on Friday nights on the Travel Channel! 

And the last little tidbit is about a class I took this week. Ed's pie baking class is over so nothing to report there this week. No more practice pies, either, although I think we can expect one later next week because he did buy some ingredients. This week was my turn and I took a painting class. The painting was called "Funky Flamingo" and was done with acrylics on canvas, something I haven't every tried. Two of my buddies and I signed up together. There were 7 of us altogether in the class  and every body's picture came out a little different, just like when Ed and I did watercolors on the Cape last summer. Mostly, we had a lot of laughs and weren't very serious artists. It's sort of the way I play golf. If I don't laugh on every hole, it's not a good day!

The original painting by our teacher.

The original we copied was painted by the instructor. Each of us did something to make our own painting unique. The paints the teacher supplied weren't exactly what she had used so the colors were a little different, but close enough.  Lily calls all long legged birds "Mingos" so that's what I am calling my masterpiece: Grammy's Mingo.

Karen, Me and Sue Frey  with our Funky Flamingos

Karen's Mingo

Sue F's Mingo

 

Grammy's Mingo

Another round of golf tomorrow with our friends the Freys at a place called Ave Maria, about 30 miles from here. It's a town built by the founder of  Domino's pizza and from what I hear in addition to homes and the golf course, there is a beautiful Catholic church in the center of town and a university, all developed by this fellow who is a devout Catholic. Most of the people living there are members of the church and I think it will be interesting to see this place. I have heard a lot about it and it's golf course.  I am glad Ed will be with me. He's Catholic so  maybe we will have an advantage. At least he will know the proper prayers to offer when I am putting.

Panther's Run Golf Course at Ave Maria, FL

No rest for the wicked. I don't know how people can work when they live here. It's just too beautiful to spend any time inside. I hope you all have a great weekend! I will check in again soon.


Love,
Suz