New Year Starts - 2021

 Well, another year has started. I retired in 2014, so it will be seven years since I last worked when we hit May. It seems like two years and yes, I am counting... Of course, 2020 kind of messed things up and the year has passed without much activity. Tom and I did a 10 day cruise last January, and now we are ready to start anew.

Well, my house abuts Elbow Creek, where I do get to see some interesting animals. The other day I took this picture of a turtle who was hurriedly (for a turtle) swimming around behind the house. I shared the photo on Facebook and my friend Dicky Little asked if it was a snapping turtle. I answered, "No, he seemed happy." But I do think it is a snapping turtle...

Today, January 5, there was a large fish swimming in circles near the same spot. I have not identified the fish yet but I think it was looking for a snapping turtle to eat. This fish was about three feet long, bigger than what I normally see...

If you have any idea what it is, send me a note...

During the pandemic, I had to deal with putting my cat down. We were together for 14 years. Her name was Pumpkin and I buried her in my yard. In her honor, I have planted some pumpkins which as of today. are blooming...

That is cool.

I have been keeping busy with my camera. This loggerhead shrike was kind of cute at the Viera Wetlands...

Driving from the Wetlands I saw some clouds that reminded me of the movie Chronicles of Riddick. The clouds kind of looked like the ships flown by the Necromangers. I was crossing Pineda Causeway and they appeared to be attacking PAFB...

If you don't look up very often, my advice is that you should, There are lots of cool things in the sky. We have too much city light here in Melbourne, and I do miss the Milky Way as I would see it in Vermont. But the moon is always a great subject for a shot (taken from my front yard)...

For some reason we have been having a a lot of Monarch butterflies lately. They seem to like to land on my papaya trees. I have four trees and I have grown them from seed I took from a fruit that was given me by a friend. Jim lives in Melbourne Beach and has a few papaya trees. He likes to share the fruit. BTW, Jim is 92 and is from Vermont.

My neighbor Rachel has an extensive garden including this silver cactus. That is Elbow Creek in the background where the turtle and fish were.

I took this photo inside Squid Lips. I just liked the decoration...

I took a walk on the beach yesterday and these are a few of the shells I collected. It is hard to find a full shell locally because the surf is strong. Little shells survive but any exotic ones usually are broken. I think that is about 65 cents of a sand dollar...

One of the Facebook groups I belong to is a history of the local area. Someone shared this great photo of racing on Daytona Beach back in the 1950s.

I have found a cool site where I can do searches on old newspaper that have been scanned in. Although my name is Provoncha, my real French name is Provencher, so I did a search on that name. There were many hits and I have shared a few here. The first article was from the New York Herald in 1867. Looks like my family history has some interesting turns...

The next two are from 1899. The first article is taken from a Barre VT paper and the second is taken from a Bellows Falls VT paper.  This time, it appears the Provencher had married a wife of....

I hope you have enjoyed my new year ramblings. I have too many projects going on but in reality I want to do some traveling. Hopefully, I can get a vaccination soon and be on my way. Until then, I will write about how I am trying to keep busy. If you have not subscribed to my Blog, please do. I promise I will not fill up your email. My current rate is 2-4 stories a month....Happy New Year!