Let's All Get on the Same Page, Shall We?

The local deadtree news had an article the other day noting this year's mango harvest was due to be much smaller than usual thanks to a very wet winter out on the barrier islands that produce most of our commercial mangoes. Some farmers have basically closed up shop and not even bothered to harvest this year.

Of course, the article came out just days before the mango festival and now the organizers are busy reassuring everyone that, no, in fact, there will be plenty of mangoes for the festival, please come on down and don't stay home with your money.

All I know is yesterday's breakfast was yogurt loaded up with an equal volume of mangoes. Lunch included a helping of mango bread pudding. Dinner was a chicken breast over rice smothered in mango salsa. A couple slices of mango bread (with cranberries and walnuts) made for a late snack. Breakfast today was corn flakes covered with chunks of mango. Lunch included another slice of mango bread.  Dinner tonight will be lamb vindaloo with a side of mango chutney and a dish of ice cream topped with chopped mangoes for dessert. The kitchen counter is covered in a layer of mangoes waiting to be peeled and chopped. There are another half dozen+ whole fruits in the refrigerator along with seven containers of prepared fruits (although, in all honesty, some of them are smaller "single serving" size cups).

But then, that's just our one tree. And it's pretty much done for the season, now.

Schadenfreude. Warm, Sunny Schadenfreude

I'm sitting here with all the windows and doors open, a warm breeze wafting through from the 80+ degree sunshine outside, watching the Weather Channel folks going all weak in the knees as they swoon over Nemo and wondering if I should feel sympathy for my friends posting snow depths and pictures of the building snowpocalypse on Face Book.

Probably.

Friends and Family

This should be a busy and fun week. Not only did the world not end on this solstice, some of it is coming here to visit.

My brave and beautiful niece (the one who just had her third open heart surgery a couple of months ago) and her mom are in town from Connecticut for a few days. They came down right after Caitlin played her harp in a Christmas concert. They're staying at a house owned by her mom's sister's family. When she told me, back in November, she would be visiting she asked if we could go play miniature golf. We'll do a couple of rounds this weekend despite the cold front that just blew in. She also wanted to go swimming but I'm not so confident that's going to happen.

Following right behind said cold front are a couple of friends, now married, from back in Utah. They're going to be up in the Tampa/St. Pete/Orlando area starting this weekend assuming their flights take the southern route and don't get entangled in the winter storm disrupting the rest of the country. We'll be able to catch up on all the stuff our other friends aren't willing to post on Facebook.

I'm making cookies for everyone. Oatmeal raisin now, chocolate chip later.

And, welcome back, Sol Invictus!

Portent of Sounds To Come

Our warm winter (89F at the end of February) may presage a loud summer.

Last night I was sitting at the computer with the window open (despite the infrequent cloudbursts and occasional distant lightning) when I heard a loud *THUNK* on the window screen. Now, the cat knows which room is mine and will sometimes pound on the screen and complain if she thinks she's being ignored or wants something. So I glanced around behind my CRT prepared to shoo her away.

It wasn't the cat. It was a frog, pale green, almost white on the belly (which was the part presented to me), a little more than 2" long head to butt. It hung on the screen for a few minutes, looking as comfortable as if it was sitting flat on the ground, before launching itself back into the darkness.

Last year we had a bullfrog chorus most of late summer in the treeline. If the frogs are already out in February, I can only imagine how long and loud this year's concert might be.

Not the Hunter Type

I was pleasantly surprised to notice a couple of small lizards skittering across the entry foyer this morning. I'd seen a rather large one hanging on the screen of the lanai room yesterday. So they're out of "hibernation" or wherever they go during "winter."

I was worried they might be gone permanently from the front of the house because of the cat. She has appropriated one of the cushioned lawn chairs as her official bed and snoozes at various spots (depending on the position of the sun) along the front walkway. She's not any kind of hunter at all and I didn't think the lizards were in real danger. But I thought they might still steer clear of her.

Apparently, they're not much more concerned with her than the birds are. In the evening I can usually hear a bird in the bougainvillea, no more than three feet over the cat's head, yelling at her, and during the day when all the doors are open she can see straight through the house to the birdbath in back with its various rotating congregations of bathers and drinkers yet she can't be bothered to do anything about it.

She's too busy plotting ways to trick us into letting her inside.

Signifiers

How to tell you are in south Florida:

When the temperature threatens to drop to near freezing in a couple of counties to the north (not an actual storm, mind you, and the rest of the country is already in the icebox), the local news hacks immediately go into "team coverage."

A local medical supply outlet advertises oxygen masks, breathing tubes and heart monitors as Valentine's Day gifts.

A local seaside bar, in addition to the big screen TVs, pool tables and drink specials advertises competitive "Cornhole Volleyball." I do not want to know.

On the plus side, the mango tree has maybe a hundred or more blossoms. The problem is we still have plenty in the freezer from last season. Free mangoes for anyone who stops by this summer!!

Arriving Unannounced

It looks like Rainy Season may have snuck up on us. None of the official weather people have mentioned it yet, but two days ago the sky suddenly clouded up, thick, bulging, heavy, dark and fast and, right at noon, the downpour began. It settled into a mild drizzle for most of the afternoon and then opened up again for a short period around dinner time.

The poor cat knew what was coming and was frantically begging to come inside just before the storm hit but my brother had set up a shelter for her just off the driveway. (No indoors for kitty until the vet checks her out--which visit has not yet been scheduled.)

Today's Weather Channel local outlook forecasts rain or showers every day but two for the next week, and those two days are to be at best "party cloudy." All the windows remain open until we figure out which direction the rain is coming from since the temperatures are staying in the low to mid 80s all week as well.

Another Step Down

We're going to take Mom's space heater from her room. She hung a pair of purple polyester pants over the thing last night while it was going full blast and melted them like burnt cotton candy. Another twenty minutes and she could have burned the house down.

When I smelled the plastic fumes and entered her room at 3:30 A.M., she finally woke (where's the insomnia when it's needed?). I explained what she had done and she apologized, saying she had "forgot." I don't know if she meant she forgot she wasn't supposed to put things on the heater or if she just forgot to take these pants off the heater. I didn't ask. It doesn't matter.

The sad fact is, she just can't be trusted with something that dangerous in her room unsupervised.

Besides, this has been an exceptionally warm winter so far and she doesn't really need the space heater. We just have to convince her to sleep under her electric blanket and stop sleeping on it.

The Control of Illusion

Mom has been going through a slight OCD episode these last few days wherein she has been playing constantly with the control for her heating pad. She's also written all over the pad itself, but that's a different story. She keeps the pad with her all day on the couch although lately she's only been using it intermittently. (Last summer she kept it on all the time, even when the temperature in the house was over 80F. Now, in mid-"winter" she sometimes doesn't even use it when the temperature drops below 70F. It's really more habit than actual cold that triggers usage.)

This lack of use has not prevented her from leaving the thing on all day so that it heats the arm of the couch very nicely, thank you. We've spoken to her about this several times, explaining that it's OK to turn it on if she intends to use it but that it must be off otherwise. She's retained some garbled version of this which is, I believe, what has triggered her nervous attention to the control device.

A couple of times, now, after she's fiddled with it for several minutes, when I've asked her what she's doing she's said, "I don't know where this goes!" I explain that it doesn't need to go anywhere, it's OK to leave it right where it is unless she wants to use it, otherwise just leave it off, but she doesn't believe me. Last night she was pulling on the cord and I warned her she would unplug it if she wasn't careful. She insisted she didn't want to do that and was just trying to find out where the control was supposed to go.

She seems most content when she's stuffed the control down between the arm of the couch and the cushion whether it's on or not.

January, Florida Style

Our "cold spell" seems to be ending without too much damage. The weather people have been giving us frost warnings and the counties to the north freeze warnings for the past few days but the only damage I could find has been to one tomato. It and another one were pretty ripe so I picked them. (Another three or four will be ready by the weekend.) And another lemon has fallen from its tree.

Mom has a space heater in her room (along with her electric blanket) and has not complained of the cold at all, yet.

Today is sunny, a literally cloudless sky, no humidity, a slight breeze and temps in the mid 60s. A far cry from this time last year.

Sub-tropical December

I finally found out the name of the small pale purple star-shaped flowers that are growing wild across lawns and highway medians all over town. They're a weed, growing in low mats of hundreds and thousands of blooms as only big as a thumbnail and two inches (at most) tall. They look like nothing so much as a light dusting of snow, the kind of early flurries common up north that occur while the grass is still green.

It's a pusley, of which there are three varieties. The one we have here, I believe, is also known as Mexican clover. They stay low enough that the mowers tend to go over them. Anyway, that's as close to snow as we're going to get. All of our windows are open and the fans are on.

On a semi-related note, the tomatoes look to be producing a very healthy second crop. There are several large fruits ripening even now.

The New Year

So, we survived the Holidays reasonably well. The lawn ornaments are down, and the tree is coming down today. We didn't have as many blow-up penguins and snowmen as last year and, it seems to me, they weren't up as long. The weird tree ornaments didn't freak me out quite as much, either.

I made three batches of cookies between Thanksgiving and Christmas: one each of chocolate chip, sugar, and oatmeal raisin. They're all gone, too, though the effects of all those calories will be with us for a while. Made homemade split pea soup from scratch yesterday and Mom, ever the New Englander, pronounced it the best way to start the New Year and had seconds. (Personally, I think the french toast for New Year's Day breakfast was the best way to start, but that's just me.)

Mom is holding up quite well both intellectually and physically. She's got a sore on her gum under her dentures which is limiting her to soft food (french toast qualifies) and we'll see the doctor Thursday for that. We got a new microwave for Christmas and it didn't take her that long to re-learn to re-heat her coffee in there instead of on the stove top. Half the time she makes her own breakfast and snacks and she is diligent about straightening up her room and making her bed (even if it takes her an hour and she doesn't remember to do it until two hours before bed time).

The weather has warmed back up, too. 65 for my morning walk and close to 80 for a high despite the cloud cover. We're leaving the doors open during the day again.

All in all, we're off to a good start.

Rime Time

In the 30s at walk time this morning. I noticed, all along the way, in the north facing, shadowed, low-lying patches of grass a light white dusting, like confectioner's sugar on spinach*. All the birds were sensibly hidden away as well, except for a few mourning doves huddled hopefully high above the empty cracked corn container.

*Yes, it's supposed to be a disgusting, inappropriate image. Just like frost in south Florida.

A Chilling Dose of Reality

The weather has turned cold--for here. About 20 degrees below normal for this time of year: mid 40s at night high 60s during the day. My brother has this thing about not turning on the heat--reasonably enough as it never gets this cold in southern Florida and the house is not properly insulated for these temperatures, and it's (extremely expensive) electric heat, and (since the heat was never intended to be used) the house was designed with the heating/cooling vents high up on the walls. Because cool air descends the air conditioning in the summer works just fine. But since hot air rises everything goes right up to the peak of the cathedral ceiling and then seeps out of the house. Last year he got a bill for one month for $300.

Mom, of course, put on a sweater when the temps dropped below 80 back in October. Now she wears multiple layers, uses an electric blanket at night (when I remind her she has one and point it out to her) and sits in front of a quartz heater during the day. She claims to be comfortable and by afternoon the house has warmed up to the point where she discards most of layers.

This particular "cold" spell should last another week or so.

The trade-off is crystal clear cloudless deep skies, soft dry breezes and sunlight in the trees. Yeah, worth it.

Our Version of Winter

Several of the homes in the neighborhood have these large, Mediterranean-looking pines which I have not yet been able to identify. They are up to fifty feet tall, very thin, with short regular branches that are set absolutely evenly up the trunk.

This morning a (small) flock of ibis flew in and perched together at the very top of the tallest one in the area. I know birds are very light for their size but these at least looked too big for the branches they occupied. The dozen or so birds were spaced evenly around the top half dozen branches and the tree swayed only a little.

They looked like snow capping the pine.