STILL HERE IN CLEARWATER FLORIDA

Well they call it the " SUNSHINE " State ...and yes there has been good blue sky's the last few weeks ........But the temperatures have left a little to be desired. I've fought the cold and kept wearing my shorts and t-shirts......Every day locals would look at me ...at my shorts and say " your not from here are you ? " Well I gave in and have been wearing jeans lately ........
Every time Sharon or I complain about the cold we look at the weather report for Rochester N.Y. and then feel good about being here .

We still have been keeping busy .......swimming and sun bathing the day before New Years..........

We've been able to spend a lot of time with my uncle Art and his wife Mary .....we went to a beautiful park that was all decorated for Christmas with lights and they had live entertainment very cool too.....

Then later we took a trip with them to Tarpon Springs ...its a neat town on the gulf and it has a large Greek population ......where at one time they had a lot of divers and a sponge industry ........anyways as most of the Greeks are Catholics they celebrate Theophany ( Epiphany ) and have a tradition of the area where the Bishop throws a golden cross in the water and boys 15 to 18 years old dive in to find it .....I'm told that the boy that finds it receives good luck and blessings for the next year....... it was only about 45 degrees and the water around 60 ....
It was fun and joyful to watch !!!!!!!

We have also spent time with our friends Dan and Sue Tantalo.......They have spent winters here for the last several years and summers at their Adirondack home in New York . They both keep very busy biking and Sue kayaks often with her friends.....If the weather gets better she's taking Sharon on a paddle .......This area has a extensive parks system and the Tantalo's know and have been to most of them......they have taken us biking , 12 miles this week at a wonderful natural park with numerous animals ...we saw deer and a couple armadillo ....very very cool .......also Sue has made some nice meals and shared some fine wines with me .......

Sharons' also taken a bunch of bird shots .... so here's a few of them ......

So ........even with the less than perfect weather we still have been busy ......we'll be leaving here on 15 Jan. and heading MORE south to a campground on the south side of Lake Okeechobee , for at least two weeks but maybe a month....there we'll catch up with friends Jim and Shirley Perry ..........Then on to the Keys for a week or so........We will find the warm weather !!!!!!!!1

Hope you all have a healthy and prosperous new year ....and to my Green Harbor friends YES ...she's still here !!!!!!!!!!!!