Scenes from SW Florida

So I working on Part 4 of our Bahamian adventures but in the interim, here is a bit of what I have been up to.

I have been visiting my sister and her husband over on the Gulf Coast of Florida. They have a lovely rental villa with screened in pool on a canal in Rotonda West, north of Fort Myers, south of Sarasota.

This subdivision is very quiet. It’s not a party place. Rather, it’s a laid back area where folks can chill out and relax . We spend our days reading, swimming and watching the wildlife such as wading birds of all kinds chasing minnows along the canal, smallish gators stalking said wading birds (no luck yet as far as I can tell), turtles sunning themselves, birds singing and so on. Haven’t seen any armadillos yet or feral hogs but they are around.

It’s been generally sunny, hot and super windy most days with the winds starting out from the East but most afternoons, the wind changes direction (180°) and the clouds blow in so that it can actually feel too cool on the beach and the waves build up in the Gulf making it too rough to swim! So bizarre.

There hasn’t been much rain at all. In fact there are many, many brush fires burning across the state of Florida…100+! The strong winds haven’t helped and folks here can’t wait for the rainy season to start around June…I can’t say I blame them.