We are home and preparing to travel while undertaking various chores.  Spring has arrived, supposedly, but not much sign of it here yet.  We enjoyed a few warm days and then cold returned.  We are beginning to eye Colorado where we will be camping in three weeks and shudder as each week brings another blizzard.  This year we clearly left Florida too soon, but the birds are beginning to move and so must we.

Partly cloudy, windy, and a cool 69 degrees F at this early afternoon.  I guess we have to suffer with a bit more winter before spring reigns supreme.

A peaceful day at Heritage Cove.  This morning Monique, the aide for Mom and Dad, came into the kitchen to report what she thought was an alligator swimming across the lake.  She was right.  Mom said, “oh my.” 

This morning is lovely sunny, but chilly with a brisk, almost fierce, northerly wind.  Tonight will be cold with a freeze warning posted for the interior of the state.  Tomorrow dawn should be calm and clear, but then the sun will go to work and restore the famous south Florida warmth.  The termperature should break across 70 degrees tomorrow afternoon and reach 80 on Tuesday.

A bit warm and humid this morning, but much better than the forecast for the Northeast today.  We are pausing before lunch after a busy morning.  Anne and i jogged at dawn watching a sliver of the moon above the brightening horizon and hearing a mockingbird give its wonderful song of triplets.  A flock of fish crows passed over in the semi-darkness giving their anemic ca, ca, ca, ca calls.  Then with the sunrise a string of white ibis (Chokoloskee chickens) swept across Heritage Cove before a red-shouldered hawk began its pronounced jeer, jeer, jeer call and soared from

There is a pause in the action as Mom, Dad, and Anne enjoy lunch on the screened porch.  It is 74 degrees and sunny in south Florida.  This morning we rose early and attended the 8:30 mass at St.

As reported earlier, Anne and I have settled into the condo with Mom and Dad.  We are at the end of a first full week that has been a bit more exciting than necessary, but still pleasant and lovely.  January weather is often eventful in January and this week brought a cold front and now unsettled weather.  Still, compared with the weather on South Mountain this week, it has been wonderful. 

I have neither seen nor even heard the Black Rail, a tiny and secretive marsh bird with a limited and scattered range.  Since much of its range is along the Eastern Seaboard, an area I have long inhabited, my failure to detect this bird is a bit of an embarrassment, and one which I endeavor to correct.  Still, that is not easy.

We relax this evening after a second day in the warmth.  With Mom & Dad and Mary Helen we joined the Friday evening potluck supper here at Heritage Cove and were happy to find familiar faces. 

The temperature is plunging this evening.  Anne says if it falls to 20 we won’t run in the morning.  I can hope.  I have never taken much pleasure in dawn runs when it is cold.  Still, I enjoy what the running does for me.  It is a tonic, certainly, and keeps us fit for hiking, birding, and other grand exercises.