Marilyn Wolfe (Ruben)
On another note, we will soon be ending our 3 week "vacation" in Florida! Unfortunately, we only had one or two days of sunshine in January, and it seems the "muggy" weather on the East Coast just kept traveling South to us. Finally, the sun came out during the past 2 days, and we have been able to attend 2 Art Fairs for the first time since January! Florida has a HUGE Arts Community, and Artists come here for the Winter from as far North as Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and even Quebec! The Paintings, Photography, and Sculpture are incredibly original! I never saw designs like these! I'm in awe of the amount of unusual designs these artists create! I even met one Artist based in San Diego & one from Las Vegas! If you ever want to see some mind-boggling Art, come to Florida during the first weekend in February or the last weeks of January! We are going home with an original sculpture by the Artist from Indiana, and we sent a birthday present to my Grand Niece, which was made by an Artist from New York!
We have been lucky to be able to observe a lot of "action" from our patio, where wild birds from everywhere come to float on the pond behind us or fly in the air! There are at least a dozen different kinds of birds that come here and I have been trying to capture them on film each morning! One species sits on a metal pipe from the grass to the water, holding out his wings, and enjoying the breeze! Another one with a wingspan of about 10 feet flies past our patio into the air!-- such an amazing sight! I never really understood how Bird Watchers could stand still for so long, waiting for birds to appear, but since we have no pressing "duties" here, it has become a daily morning habit!" It is really fascinating to watch all this! There are no distractions, except for the patio screen, which demands a certain angle for my camera! Joel has made 3 trips to the Nature Preserve since we arrived, but am more intrigued by the birds than Alligators & Iguanas! He did, however, photograph some baby birds that had hatched there, who were in the process of being fed by their Mama!!!! I sent a few of these photos to Mike, and some day, maybe they will appear on the Class Photo Page!
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