A Snowbird in Paradise

When it is this dry, there is a fire-weather report on the nightly news along with the weather as we know it in the North.

View from our front door.

As we left the house this afternoon for a shopping trip this is what we saw.

We decided to try and locate the fire and, with the phone GPS, we drove into the Roseland area of Sebastian.

We were soon in a combination jungle/residential neighborhood.

This firetruck was stationed at the end of this dead-end road to protect the homes in case of cinders.

A lot of people were standing around watching as the fire raged on for hours.

A small airplane circled the fire for hours, probably spotting for the ground fire crews.

It just wasn't getting any better.  You can just see the secondary fire that started about a mile upwind of the first...strange.

This gorgeous large ranch was awfully close to the fire.  No way to know if the owners were concerned or not.

This extensive cattle ranch was hidden back in Roseland.  It looks as if the ranch might be open for tourists.

 UPDATE:  I started a new blog...Scape that Table!

I can't spend ALL of my time at the computer (well, I CAN but I don't WANT to).  I recently was looking at a fellow scrapper's blog and was introduced to "Table-scapes".  When we got the new dining set last year I bought some colorful dishes and set the table.  With a nice centerpiece it attracted some attention instead of attracting "stuff".  I used some more of the same dishes to set 2 places at the breakfast bar, too.  We had seen some gorgeous tables at Pier One and I so wanted to make ours look attractive, too.

Then I ran across some Table-scapes in a friend's blog, while looking at her scrapbooking.  WOW!!!  I needed to step up my decorating.  St. Patrick's Day is near so that was m y theme.  These are my very first so don't compare them to the great tables in Table-scape Blogs.

The dining table with leaf removed (will seat 8 with the leaf).

The breakfast bar which CAN seat 4, but we keep set for 2

My Dollar Store colorful dishes and Pier One Margareta glasses

A bamboo salad bowl with a bamboo plant and fresh flowers.

Each place has its own fresh mum.

"Spiny" the Spiny Orb Weaver

Just outside the bedroom window lives this Spiny Orb Weaver.  It is such an unusual looking spider to me that I have become quite fond of her and watch her every morning.  Since early January her web has been ripped apart by winds twice, now, and each time she has a new one woven within 24 hours, but in a different spot so I have to go looking for her.

She is about the size of my littlest finger nail.

These pop out of the lawn about 6 inches.

 Using the term, "Lawn" might be stretching it a bit, but it IS green and kept cut.  However, when the lawn has grown to cutting length there are all kinds of flowers.  Oh, I am familiar with dandelions and chicory, but these are tiny little PRETTY flowers buried among the greenery.

Here is the stem of the above flower.

Some tiny little orchid flower hiding in the grass.

These come from a shamrock-like plant.

This was blooming on the Bottlebrush Tree trunk just above the lawn.