Farewell to Cloudy, Rainy January

Sunday, January 31, 2016
The newscasters early in the month told us this would be a cooler and wetter winter into spring in Florida due to the very "strong" El Nino and so far they truly have been right.  We've definitely been cooler since the month began but what we've all noticed is the tremendous number of grey days due to lots of cloud cover including far more rain clouds than we are use to seeing.  An RVing friend of ours posted a note on her blog yesterday saying that in Ft. Meyers they had 12.86 inches of rain in January breaking the record for January in that area.  In fact, the average in this "dry season" is 1.94 inches.

Here in the Tampa area we've had 6.18 inches of rain in January not quite reaching the 1948 record of 8.02 but certainly far more than the average of 2.4 inches .

Behind our house is a "rain ditch" for collecting water when there is a heavy rain and it has been full more than empty this month.  It lies between us and the cow pasture so draws many of the cattle egrets and ibis that seem to love to feed in the pasture.  They also find what they are looking for near all the water so it has given us quite a show.

Then every once in a while we get a gorgeous sunset promising us a good day

which we all soak up to the hilt.  Everyone finds reasons to be outside -- now that is what being in Florida in the winter is all about.  Lots of fresh air and opportunities to walk, bike, stand and chat or better yet gather at one "home" or another in large groups and chat.  We did that today enjoying several hours chatting at Ron and Kathy Alesins with Frank and Bette, Jan Reed, and Al and Dorothy.  What a delight!!

We did take advantage of the last couple of rainy days and painted the bedroom and hallway a light blue which better fits our spread and pictures than the yellow that it was.  I now have to stitch the matching curtains for the windows.  Frank and Bette gave us the spread, shams and curtains from their RV since they are selling it and have no use for them.  We just love them.  Pictures will be forthcoming once I get them up.

And on another note, our son-in-law Dean celebrated his 52nd birthday today flying back from Memphis with his son Scott who participated in the International Blues Band Challenge.  They enjoyed several days in Memphis seeing all of the special sites including the Gibson factory,

Graceland, the Rock Hall of Fame where they were interviewed, 

and playing at the Blues City Cafe

Meanwhile, his brother was at home preparing for the Berkley High School swim team "hell week" when team members were swimming 10,000 yards (that is 8.1 miles) per day in practice.  

The whole team also died their hear blond in preparation for the final big competition when they will shave off all their hair.  It real changed Jason's look.