Walk in the Wind

We got up to a cloudy, rainy-looking morning, but we decided to go for a walk anyway.  We no longer believe that we will get any rain in Dunedin!  We are tired of walking in our neighborhood, so we drove down to the Causeway for a brisk morning walk in the wind.  The temperatures were down to 73 this morning with a very aggressive wind, so we did not feel like we are going to melt.  

Storm clouds threaten to release their moisture,
but we never received any rain.

Choppy waters lap at both sides of the Causeway as we
return to our car.

The walk was fun; we enjoy seeing something new beyond the same vegetation in the same neighborhood.  The seas were choppy enough that no one was out in boats, on jet skis, or kite surfing (although the wind would have made for one wild ride).  The only people near the shoreline were a few brave fishermen who did not seem to have much luck in catching dinner.

On the way home, we DID notice something new in our neighborhood.  The house across the street from us on the corner had one side that was painted blue.  Until now, the house had been a soft yellow with cornflower blue shutters.  Now one side of the house was a lighter blue in contrast to the shutters.  When they painted that side of the house is a mystery to us.  They must have done it yesterday while we were at church and then at a weaving meeting in the afternoon.  Shows how much we notice!

A lone "brush" starts to bud on our
bottle brush tree.

We made a second discovery in our back yard today.  While the gardenia tree in the corner has valiantly been producing a little white flower here and there, today our struggling bottle brush tree started to grow one of the fuzzy-looking red plumes for which it is named.  We have been dumping gallons of water on the tree just to keep it alive, and that was our reward for all of that costly moisture.  We will have to see if it produces any more blooms.

We are starting to gather all of the things that we want to take home, and I am beginning to wonder if we have a big enough truck.  We'll pack later in the week so we can somewhat keep track of what we are taking with us.

Until then, we are trying to enjoy what little time we have left here in not-so-sunny-today Florida.