One Leg Or Two?

Florida is a great place to live.
Some people may , and do, disagree.
We don't have seasons to speak of.
It's shorts and sandals weather most days of the year.

One thing for certain is once you visit or move to Florida,
the bugs will find you--the welcome mat being exposed arms and legs.
It doesn't matter if you're a tourist.
Suddenly, new blood is discovered.
Mmmm...good.

When we first moved to Southwest Florida, I'd feel the after-bite--
an intense itching.
I discovered that I couldn't even see WHAT was biting me!
Like the Far Side cartoons, you'd need an electron microscope to see the sand-sized critters nibbling your ankle .

Floridians call these pepper-colored specks No-See-Umms.
Once bitten, your itch-reflex kicks into hyper-speed.
Whatever the critter left behind, be certain of this: you'll be feeling it for months to come.

Mosquitoes, on the other hand, are dreaded, too.
Their numbers are squelched during the summer when
mosquito abatement takes place.
Planes fly over the preserves spraying for the intolerable insects.
I can deal with the skeeters.
Which is worse, of the two?
Almost head-to-head, No-See-Umms are the clear winners.


I think I've passed the time period of being an inviting newbie to the bugs.
There are tourists arriving here everyday..
nice and yummy, too...

Small Gifts...

I love the beach as a place to walk, swim, read, and scavenge for shells.
After a storm, there are numerous tidal pools, each filled with mounds of shells.
Each shell is as distinctively different in shape and size.

Coquina shells have open, small butterfly-wing shapes, in purple, rose and golden hues.
Olives are beautifully designed, smooth as silk.
'Paul Newman's Eyes', what we call the small, round,
eye-shaped orb with a bluish spot in the center.
Spider conchs have flared, spider-leg extensions along the shell's length.

The first summer of living in Naples, my daughter and I had 'sheller's' back, the term used to describe all the hunched-over shell collectors.
Between us, we may have collected 500 shells, many of them now assorted and containerized.
I like using them as models for watercolor painting.

I never tire of the beach: watching the gentle waves tumble new shells along the water's edge, or catching an evening sunset with billowing clouds.
The deep footprints left from people strolling the beach are soon washed away by lapping waves.
Another day will come and a new day of discovery awaits.