Stairways and Sand Sculptures

We arrived back in Sarasota on Monday 7^th November.  Great to be back in the warmth and sunshine, and to see our Sarasota friends again.  Central Park looked much the same, except for the stairwells.  They all have to be replaced (at considerable cost for the owners!) and the contractors are now in the middle of the work.  Thanks to reports from our neighbour Rich, we knew that they were currently working on Building 3, where we live.  We’d missed the noise of the pneumatic drills, and our new concrete stairway had been created, but the railings had not been set up.  This final stage has taken longer than we expected, so at present we are still using the temporary wooden stairs.

Back to Central Park

Preparing to pour concrete

Our temporary stairs

Another new thing we spotted at CP2 was a sign by the water warning of alligators and snakes. Such signs are common near Florida ponds and lakes, and we’ve never seen any indication of the presence of an alligator here.  We did however spot a snake (fair sized, but harmless) wriggling its way across the footpath.

Keeping busy

We’ve been pretty busy since we arrived.  We unpacked all the many and varied things we’d brought from the UK; restocked our fridge and freezer; got the car up and running – no problems, it started first time, but it was due a service anyway, so we got that done.

Refurbished Lemon Ave fountain

Tile detail

We resumed our regular Florida activities.  Sandie is back on duty at the Cat Depot and the library, and taking part in her tap dancing classes and international folk dancing group.  Ian has started painting again, and has attended his writers’ group.  We’ve resumed our Saturday morning visits to the market, and our search of charity shops, still looking for the missing Lost 4.

Evening sky on the way back from the Library

In addition, there have been plenty of other things to occupy our time.  We finished our work for the Sutton Trust before leaving England, but have since had to write a proposal for work to be done next year (and beyond).  Sandie agreed to help again with marking business plans for the High Wycombe Young Enterprise group, and Ian offered to help with analysing the results, so that kept us busy over last weekend.   We’ve had style proofs to check for our book, which is due to be published next March.  And we’ve been in regular touch with our agent about problems with our Slough flat – empty now, but needing a lot of work to make it fit to rent again.

Days out

Even with all of the above, we have managed to have a few outings – we can’t miss all the sunshine, and we need some fresh air and exercise!  Last Monday we went to see the annual sand sculpture competition at Siesta Key.  This is always well worth seeing, and the professional sculptures were, as always, amazing.  We combined our visit with a walk along the beach and back through the village, where we stopped for lunch.

The queue for the sand sculpture exhibition

Sand sculpture (1)

Sand sculpture (2)

Sand sculpture (3)

Sand sculpture (4)

Sand sculpture (5) – that’s why we’re in Florida!

Sand sculpture (6)

Sand sculpture (7)

Sand sculpture (8)

Sand sculpture (9) – Valkyrie

Sand sculpture (10) – left brain

Sand sculpture (11) – right brain

Looking over the sand sculpture venue

On Wednesday we went for a walk along the Legacy Trail, a tarmac ‘multi-use’ path following the old railway track.  One of our reasons for doing this was that Sandie wished to calibrate her pedometer, and the Legacy Trail (marked with distances every 0.05 miles) is the perfect place to do so.  It can also be good for wildlife; we spotted an unusual red-headed lizard, and saw a hawk sitting up in a tree, but the turtle was camera shy and dived into the water as we approached.

Red-headed lizard

Hawk

Yesterday we went to our favourite Anna Maria Island.  We’ve walked along the beach there many times, usually the top half or the lower half of the island, but decided it would be fun to walk the whole length (about 10-11 miles) in one go. We parked at Manatee Beach (about the midpoint of the island) and took the free trolley up to City Pier.  It was then we had a shock, because the pier was closed!  We’ve been there many times over the years, and it usually forms the starting point for our ‘top end’ walks.  We found an alternative café for our morning coffee, and asked the lady there why the pier was closed.  It was apparently damaged by Hurricane Irma – the first example we’ve seen of this – and repairs will take 18 months!

Bad news

Under repair

The beach near the pier is much narrower than it used to be, so we had to walk ‘inland’ for a bit until we could walk along the beach.  But soon things were back to normal – wide stretches of pure white sand, cloudless blue sky and sparkling sea. As usual there were lots of birds: not just pelicans, and of course seagulls, but herons, egrets, terns, sanderlings etc etc.  And for the first time, we saw lots of jellyfish (of varying sizes) stranded on the beach.

Beach gang

Jellyfish (1)

Jellyfish (2)

Jellyfish (3)

Jellyfish (4)

Cormorant

Manatee Beach

We stopped at the Sandbar for drinks, and reached Manatee Beach at lunchtime – carefully planned, so we could get our picnic out of the car.  Then it was on to the Coquina Beach Café for afternoon drinks.  Just a little further to the southern tip of the island, then a trolley back to Manatee, where we had dinner while listening to the live music. A very pleasant day out!

Greater egret

In a rush

Royal terns bathing

Anything I can scrounge?

Aha!

Florida sunset

Evening on the beach