The Things I'm Most Grateful For From Our Time in Florida

Mazzaro's--the best cappucino bar/Italian butcher/deli/wine cellar/bakery and 

grocery store in Florida, if not in the United States!

The little green heron and the roseate spoonbill--just two of our feathered friends who are "frequent flyers" around our home in Feather Sound...

All those afternoons and evenings, crafting for charity...what fun!

"My moorhen"...this duck "adopted" me, and we had coffee on my front porch every morning (actually, I drank the coffee, while my moorhen nibbled on toast...)

Steve just loves a beach--any beach!--that's for sure!

Some critters are cuter than others...but I still have a lot of respect for gators of any size!

A critter convention on our front lawn 

(must have been something tasty going on in the pond!)

Stephen at Carillon Center, one of our favorite locations

 for walking and watching the critters...

This past St. Patrick's Day...Floridian style...

Steve takes it easy after becoming a CPE associate in Orlando

Kayaking with the manatees

Our cruises to the western Caribbean...

St. Augustine, Florida

Picking juice oranges at Carol Mitchell's...

Some friends--and remarkable women--turned out for a fundraising 

dinner at Audrey's for Ethiopian women suffering obstetric fistulas. 

My top ten list of what I'm most grateful for from 

our time in Florida

10. Saturday morning cappucinos at Mazzaro's Italian market

9. Fresh squeezed orange juice and the best marmalade in the world--made from the left over oranges from people's backyards

8. Swimming in the heated pool in the middle of winter 

7. Swimming--and kayaking--with the manatees!

6. The two Caribbean cruises we got to take out of Tampa (although we wouldn't be tripping over ourselves to go on another; guess we're just not "cruise people"...)

5. Cheese grits, blue crabs and boiled peanuts

4. Long weekends in Naples, Miami and St. Augustine

3. All our birds and critters on the pond, at the nature preserves, and beaches, beaches and more beaches!

2. The opportunity for Stephen to train to become a clinical pastoral education supervisor! (That's the person who trains others to be hospital and hospice chaplains) and for me to do respite work and spirituality programming with our medical staff for three years and...

1. All the wonderful people we met and the friends we made! We will miss you!

All good things must come to an end--or at least be given a rest! As Stephen and I make our way back north to our new home and lives, this blog will be "going on vacation" for the month of July. I plan to resume writing again in early August. See you then, and thanks for following our adventures in crafting a better world!