Only One Go Around

It is Friday night, Pizza night- every single Friday night in the Olsen-McDaniel household.  After scouring the region for the best pizza to be had, we decided no other pizza compares to ours, so it has become a weekend ritual. It's a joint effort for the best pizzas in Turkey Creek! Len begins Friday morning (after making me a delicious Cuban coffee) by chopping up a head of broccoli. He then crushes four cloves of garlic and mixes that with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a small dish.  The chopped fresh broccoli goes into a ziploc baggie, with the garlic and olive oil poured over top.  He tosses the bag around a bit until it mixes well, and places it in the fridge to marinate.  The broccoli turns a brilliant green. We then go paint the mast. and chase an alligator off of our property. three times, no less. and grade about twenty research papers. and help the neighbors with an electrical problem. wash dishes. get the mail.   ...

When we tell people we live in southwest Florida, they assume we are on the Gulf side of Florida, near Ft. Myers or Naples, living the 'high life' on the beach.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  I could not begin to afford real estate on any beach!  But, we do own our home, bought and paid for, on a canal, on the Caloosahatchee River and the Okeechobee Waterway.  To the east, we have access to the Atlantic Ocean at Stuart, Fl.  To our west is the Gulf of Mexico at Ft. Myers, Fl.  Kantiya sits in fresh water, which is best for her hull, so I feel like we hit the lottery in discovering this hidden gem at Turkey Creek.  These are some of the finest people you ever care to meet. So no, I am not living in beach country.  I am living in cattle country and in particular, sugar cane country.  We are surrounded by cattle and cane fields, as well as orange groves.  Remember the TV drama called 'Cane'?  It was on about ten years a...

Quite simply, this one is for my momma.  She loved flowers.  All flowers. Especially pink ones. Second to that, my momma loved birds. All birds. She would sit at her dining room window with her binoculars, spying on the birds at the feeders in her backyard.  (Truth be told, she was always on the lookout for deer, too.) My vacation to Curacao would have been one my mother would have absolutely loved.  I felt her with me, each time I admired the many, many flowers.  I would sit quietly with my camera to try and capture a photo of the colorful birds.  Three times the hummingbirds got away from me. This was my momma, taken on her 79th birthday in 2013 She was wearing the pretty floral dress I bought her.  I took her to the Stuffed Pig in Marathon for a late breakfast. The waitress surprised her with a slice of key lime pie- her favorite. But that was then, and this is now. Last week would have been her 84th birthday, and ...