This is the great blue heron that has been hunting in our boat slip. The water is quite murky, but it’s caught several fish there now.

You can buy an awful lot of organic produce for what we’ve spent over the last couple of years in pots, soil, water, seeds, plants, fertilizer, fungicide, cages and whatnot, often getting nothing edible in return. We are in no way saving compared to throwing away half of every package of basil and cilantro and parsley that we buy at the store, wasteful as that always seems.

So we’re trying again.

Two tomatoes, a roma and a solar fire, which is supposed to do better in the heat (developed by the University of Florida), two sweet basils, two ‘yummy’ mini bell orange peppers (their name not mine; I don’t have an opinion yet), a curly leaf parsley, and two flats of marigolds.

This picture is for Mike:

They’ve trimmed back the trees that had the Christmas lights in the Florida Botanical Gardens. I’m not sure what spring is supposed to feel like here. There is no unfurling from the great sleep of winter. But it is no longer sweater weather, and trees that know how to awaken from the cold are starting to bud.

A year ago, we were unloading what belongings we had carted across the country with us into one of the ubiquitous storage units in the middle of Tampa. We were acclimated (Mike may disagree) to highs around 40, and it was hot and stuffy dragging around boxes and lamps and bits of collapsible furniture in the 80 degree heat.

At that point, I owned one pair of capris, no shorts. No comfortable bathing suits. Flip flops that made my feet bleed. I’ve slowly remedied those things, although I still don’t understand really short shorts, and I’m still pasty white.

My grandmother said it takes a year, to experience all the seasons, to know how you like a place. With everyone here talking about how it’s been one of the coldest winters in many years, perhaps I’ve not seen the typical year, but it’s a start. The mourning doves are back, and we are starting to see butterflies and lizards.

Gulf fritillary

Limpkin. This is the first time I’ve seen these birds. There was a pair of them at the creek. They resemble juvenile ibis, but are larger and have a more distinct pattern of white spots.

I didn’t notice at the time how algae covered these turtles were.

For our first warm weekend in a long time, we and all of the local bird life were out at Lake Seminole Park.

We think this is a merlin because of the size and color pattern on its breast. It was content to sit and watch us as we walked around its perch and back again.

On the north end of the park there is a short boardwalk into a shallow, lily covered nook of the lake. There are some well done signs explaining the differences between similar birds. This, we learned, is a coot, not a moorhen:

We were there in the late afternoon. The lighting for photography would be far better in the morning.

The (monk?) parakeets that occasionally chatter by, usually moving quickly or hiding high in the trees, finally landed someplace more visible, and against a contrasting background. We think they are eating dates.

War Veterans’ Memorial Park:

The sundial is aligned for St Petersburg’s location, with adjustments by month in the foreground to get to watch time. The sun was already going behind the trees, so we weren’t able to verify any of this.

They have a Korean War era tank enclosed in a fence and behind signs that declare that the tank is for viewing only. Personally, it looks plenty sturdy, the ideal kind of monument to get up close to and touch and bring into your world, like passing your hand over Roosevelt’s dog’s ears.

I was looking for a little christmas tree, something that would fit on our coffee table, but I never found anything that I liked while doing my other shopping. Mike found this adorable fiber optic tree, but when plugging it in, there was no light. The motor that turns the color filter was running, so we hoped that the little bulb had just burned out. We were lucky.

Not satisfied with a still shot (although I put together an animated gif too!), I decided to try out the video capture on my little point and shoot, something that I’ve only accidentally used before when I bumped the mode dial on the camera. After several minutes pondering and googling avidemux, the first linux video editor I came across, I managed to rotate the picture and strip out the audio. I am hereby contributing to the mass of pointless video snippets on the internet by sharing with you these 8 seconds of happy, twinkly christmas tree. At least I didn’t add in my favorite 8 seconds of Carol of the Bells.