from the porches

i felt like dancing

Mom has reached another milestone in her recovery.

Yesterday, during lunch, she said, "Well, I'll be glad when I can eat again."

Then she paused and looked at her bar-b-que sandwich and blurted, "I CAN eat again.  I can CHEW.  I can SWALLOW.  I CAN EAT!"

I felt like dancing.

Now, on to the next hurdle:  microwaving her own lunch.  Mom is  pretty short right now, but if she will let go of her walker with one hand, I believe she could punch buttons and take out her food with the other. 

All is well.

mallory swamp

This morning Truett and I headed out to explore Mallory Swamp in Dixie and Lafayette Counties here in Florida.  Truett had been there before, but somehow we were on a different road in the swamp.  In fact, we may have been on the fringes of the swamp, and at times we thought we were a little bit lost.  It also concerned me that this weekend was the last weekend of hunting season and here we were driving around on creepy, dangerous roads. 

 
We had forgotten our map so we pulled Gypsy up off the floorboard and used her as our guide.  Read carefully where she says we are, "Driving Northeast on Road."  I guess that was as  exact as the GPS could get, even though it didn't make me feel very comfortable.

Mallory Swamp.  Mallory Swamp.  The name rang a bell with me, but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Then Truett reminded me that Mallory Swamp was on fire about five or six years ago.  Actually, it was in 2001.  The fire began as a lightning strike and the smoke drifted all the way to Orlando, closing several major highways.

 
My main goal was to photograph wildlife and wild flowers. 

We did see a furry, fat raccoon scurrying back into the swamp land when he heard our car.  But I didn't get his picture.  We did see a wood stork flying overhead with what looked like a three pound fish dangling from its talons.  I didn't get a picture of that either. 

I did get a photo of a flock of birds circling overhead with the light reflected off their wings.  They were too far away, so I don't know what they are.

And I did get several photos of this red-shouldered hawk.  I have several shots of him where he's eating, but I'll post that another day.

Truett and I eventually made our way out of Mallory Swamp and headed on to Steinhatchee for lunch. 

All in all, this short trip felt like a spring break vacation. . .a mini-vacation.

splashing war

 
This afternoon Truett and I took Maddie and Oliver to swim lessons. Truett usually sits at the lap pool and watches Maddie and I sit near Oliver in the kiddie pool.

There are three children in Oliver's class and he is, by far, the best swimming learner of the three.

Oliver is doing the bob.  Under and up.  Under and up.

And now he is doing the float. 

And now the float alone, which is right before the . . .

flip and kick, kick, kick.

This little girl decided to splash Oliver.  Can you imagine what he did? 

That's right.  He splashed her back and they then had a splashing war.  I will tell you, though, that she started it and he said, "Don't do that," but she did it anyway, so Oliver had no recourse but to splash her back.

It was a nice, relaxing afternoon. . .my first of Spring Break.