Alicenoneland

Here's my pet tomato plant before I put it outside.  I cant believe how well it grew.  I almost killed it at first. It was one of those arrangements were all the seeds are in a little peat pod that you just shove in the ground and water. Well, it took so long to germinate that I thought it was a dud.  I stacked up the pots I had placed the pods in, next thing I knew when I went to chuck them out there were tomato plants in them!  Here they are don't they look nice? I'm very proud of them. I had to keep them on the sun porch in the beginning because we had such a cold snap in January, I wasn't about to loose them at that point.  Here's where the helping nature comes in. Tomatoes need to be pollinated one way or another and they certainly won't get pollinated any way at all while inside on a sun porch.  So using a trick I learned while working in a hydroponic greenhouse during my younger years, I grabbed a trusty toothbrush (battery operat...

Here we are tourists, checking out the sights at the Ponce Inlet State Park.  Just strolling along innocently thinking we were safely walking towards the jetty in hopes of maybe seeing a dolphin or people surfboarding.  Unbeknown to us there are sharp rocks here, (picture an alarmed face.) I didn't have any food to give to the wildlife, so I was safe from suspected illegal activity, and in all my life I don't believe I have EVER molested any wildlife, goodness I hope I don't start now! I hope if the owners cant read than the "animals can."  This is a handy sign, hope it gets memorized before swimming. Its been my experience that when I'm in a STRESSFUL situation (this would count) I tend to forget anything I'm supposed to remember.   These must be Very smart dogs, they can read and tell time! Dogs must not fall under the category of animals, they need a special sign just for dogs. LOL!!!! OK, no...

During our last cold spell we had company down from NY and they wanted to see the manatees, we haven't been to see them in a few years ourselves so it would be a fun trip.  We decided to go to Blue Springs State Park, its not far from us about a forty minute drive.  Here we are at the gate paying our six dollars once again.  It was a busy day at the park, lots of school groups. There they are the "big ole logs" that's what they look like to me, submerged floating logs, how any sailor thought they looked like mermaids is beyond me, but then again, I'm not a man out to sea for a year or more. Each of those stick looking things on that branch in the water are cormorants, a big ugly bird, but interesting anyway. If you look close here you will see big fish, there were lots of them, they did not look good to eat, to skinny and white. Here we are a nice little selfie, gotta get'em when I can. Check out this big ol...

Another Wednesday at the flea market, always interesting. I never know what I'll find, see or get. I guess that's what keeps me coming back.  Check out these peppers, google comes in handy looking for last minute recipe ideas for last minute finds. Yup! It ended up as stuffed peppers, much more tasty than your average green pepper. That recipe is a keeper.  The flea market is a cooks dream, inspiring that is. I guess its like an outdoor grocery store, Ha Ha. Just lots bigger. Another fun day in the sun. www.alicenoneland.com

On our way to St Augustine we stopped at our favorite potty spot, yes there are real restrooms. It has a wonderful boardwalk and rocks to explore and usually a few shells to collect. We were totally surprised at what we saw when we looked over the side of the boardwalk down to the beach area. We had not come up this way last year so we are not sure if the damage to the beach occurred after the 2017 or 2016 hurricanes. But, what a landmine of shells were there to be had this trip!! The whole area had been reconfigured by the storms and there were tons of shells all over, which is pretty rare for our part of the coast to begin with, so we were in heaven.  Even the guys got in on the shell hunting it was so good. We could have spent the entire day collecting interesting shells but, our plan was to continue to St Augustine so we did, picture a sad face here. It was a great surprise to find so many shells and it only added to to excitement of th...

This is the bridge crossing the Halifax river between Port Orange and Daytona Beach Shores.  It has been on the Florida bucket list for a year or more, so gladly we crossed it off today. The weather started out chilly and very windy, I wore my headband and a scarf with my Florida "Winter" coat.  We thought it would take about a half hour to walk up over and back up and over, but it only took twenty minutes? We must be better than we think.  Here's Patti charging up the first side. It is quite steep, especially for Florida where the biggest hills are usually skate board ramps. Midway across you can look down and see a barge with a huge crane on it working on replacing dock pilings for the boats, very interesting for a lookie-lou like me. OK, here I am at the top. Check out that view, it is so pretty you can see all down Daytona Shores on A1 A.  It was worth the chug up the ramp. Heading back there was a nice view of these fishing boats...

Here I am out for a walk. This pic was from a couple weeks ago during our cold snap. I'm always amazed by all the different things I see when I'm out and about. Even when the route is the same the surprises are different. You can tell it had been cold out, you would NEVER see one of these speedy little fellows squished on the sidewalk. The cold must have slowed him down enough to be either stepped on or just plain chilled to death! EEK!! This is one of my favorite sights on my walk, its a little retaing pond that I suspect has a spring in it; because, the water always appears clear not the typical cloudy brown color that typical artificial retaining ponds have. The interesting part of this pond is that it has fish tank fish in it. There are little guppies and other common easy to grow types.  I like to look and see If any pretty mutations have evolved. The fantails are my favorite, of course they are not super fancy like Betta's but they are uncommon to see i...