Good Morning Lake Worth , and what amazing weather it is, truly wonderful! It makes me chuckle when I hear the infamous words 'snuggle alert' on the weather forecast and the temperaturs drops to 70 degrees……and everyone gets out their winter clothes, socks and coats….even I resorted to a sweater and long pants on Saturday evening and yesterday! I did notice lots more walkers around during the day, and people biking, a perfect temperature for it!!!
How wonderful to see the market return on Saturday, and what a marvellous array of goods on offer, everything from flowers to plants to clothes to toiletries to jewellery to the most delicious home made cakes an pies….utterly delicious! And of course, the nicest thing about it is to see lots of friends and chat and sit with coffee watching the world go by…….welcome back Green Market!
On Wednesday, we did a dummy run of the cottages of Lake Worth bike tour. It is amazing what you see when you are cycling, there are so many amazing cottages and buildings in the area, all nestled away, jewels in the crown of Lake Worth. And, to hear the commentary at each one is so interesting, once one particular feature is pointed out you begin to spot it again and again on other buildings, huge fun! Some of the cottages are still owned by the original families and others have been passed from family to family over the years, changes being made along the way as each new owner wants a particular look or colour. For the most part, a lot of the Cottages have retained their original character, each quirk being pointed out with an explanation as to why it is there, most interesting. For me, one of the most fascinating aspects is the window formation and the immense variety of shapes and configurations, each there to serve a particular purpose. Of course, without the guide and the explanation you would miss so much and each cottage would look much like another. The history of the cottages has been thoroughly researched lovingly by a local historian, and written in an easy to understand style.
We have been dog sitting this week for friends and I have begun to understand why people have dogs. It has been an adventure for us, long walks three times a day, with stops every so often for the dog to sniff and forage around, taking in every scent and twig along the way. How wonderful to just live in the moment and be excited about everything around you. The dog bounds to greet us with such joy and excitement every time we arrive, knowing no doubt, that she is off on an adventure. Everyone stops to talk as well, they want to pat the dog and then we all get chatting, very social! And of course, there is the fitness angle…… long walks 3 times a day at the pace of a large dog has got to be good for your health, and it has to be done whatever the weather. We tried to take a variety of routes and in doing so we discover more and more about the area in which we live, beautiful houses in a myriad of styles……and yards of all shapes and sizes, beautifully manicured lawns and colours and smells of the foliage and flowers…it has been a pleasure dog walking. If I did not move around so much, I would without doubt get a dog!
Talking about yards reminds me of our adventures this week in our own yard…..tidying up the palm trees is a never ending job as you must all know and we decided that we really needed to do is get rid off a couple of our palms….so, we set to sawing, thinking it would be an easy task. We hugely underestimated the size and weight of the trees and the first one fell out of our hands onto the concert edging around the grass and broke it! Lucky though, it could have broken something more important, like a limb! The next two trees we cut the leaves from the top and cut higher up, so not so heavy, then cut the stump down….probably the wrong way to do it but it worked and our yard is looking very pretty again!
Thursday Night Pedlars are now going strong, the weather is beautiful, no rain…that makes for beautiful biking. As I mentioned last week, our numbers are swelling and it is such a nice atmosphere, we have all become firm friends, anyone interested in our group should know that we now meet at 5:45 at Bryant Park and cycle at 6 because the nights get darker earlier. I notice there is another cycle group in town, maybe we could get together sometimes and ride together…..
I absolutely loved Halloween…it was such fun. I helped at the beer tent and once again, I met a number of lovely people, some I knew and some I had not met before, it was fun, the music was excellent, some of the costumes were amazing, people had gone to so much trouble and looked wonderful. Children had bags so full of candy they could hardly carry them, I offered to help them out but they were not having any of that!!! It was hopping downtown and people were having so much fun, it was an absolute pleasure to be there and I realised just what I loved about living here!
Lastly this week, I must just mention something that I absolutely love about living here and that is the wildlife……the birds are amazing, such colours and sounds and sizes, from very tiny to huge! I love the Egrets, who love to walk across the road and stop the traffica, last week there was a whole family of ducks doing the same. Iguanas lope across the walkways, looking for all the world like something from Jurassic Park, changing colour as they go…amazing! Whilst gardening the other day, a snake flew out of the undergrowth, grabbed a frog in it's mouth and proceeded to drag it away, I had seen neither the snake nor the frog and it all happened in seconds! We have now purchase bird food that is supposed to attract all kinds of weird and wonderfu winged creatures, we await the outcome! I hope it doesn't attract the Hawks!
And so, the beginning of another wonderful week…..I hope it is fabulous for you and brings you fun and excitement every single day….enjoy it immensely!