This photo was taken by a neighbor, from her deck. She is just down the same street from our place. The wonderful white trees are the bradford pears that we so enjoy.

We are happy to be back home in Tennessee. The bradford pear trees were still in full bloom when we arrived, so our timing was perfect. The redbud trees will be taking over soon, then the dogwoods. We have enjoyed seeing snow on the distant mountains while enjoying sunshine and mild weather here.

This is Gramma Neilans on the beach at Naples, "people watching" while waiting for John and me to return from our long walk. She is such a good sport! Of course, this was a few weeks ago. I have just now persuaded the blog to accept a photo.

Well, this time I have a cute photo of Gramma N. sitting on the beach. However, I still can't get past the "web site not responding" message from Blogspot. We will be driving home on Thursday, and back to a much faster connection through cable. Maybe soon I will be a able to get a photo or two uploaded!

Well, I still can't get any photos to upload. We will be back in Tennessee on Friday. I will be very happy to have high-speed cable internet access again!

I went to a tennis tournament yesterday ... as a spectator, not a participant. It featured big names, but they are all "seniors" ... as far as I can tell, that means they are all over 25 or 30 years old!

We had seen Michael Chang play in Australia when he was very young ... he has been one of my favorites since then. It was awesome to see those guys play when the venue is a small country-club tennis court with bleacher seats right up close and personal. Michael was beating the socks off his opponent when he pulled an achilled tendon and had to be taken off the court on a stretcher. Darn! The tournament continues today and tomorrow, but I have had my "fix" and am content.

Birds, birds, birds ... Well, I got John to go with me to Eagle Lakes Park, and we saw all the birds I had promised him: egrets, the roseate spoonbill, glossy ibises (ibi?), lots of anhingas and cormorants and the bald eagle. The eagle even flew down off the tall tree snag and plucked a wriggling fish from the lake, then flew to a nearby sandbar (mudbar?) to begin munching on it. John also spotted the obligatory alligator sunning himself. I knew there had to be one (there is almost always at least one in every body of water in this part of the state) and sure enough, there he was. He was a good sized beasty, too. The website won't let me upload any photos today, but I will try again tomorrow.

Here is the roseate spoonbill we saw in a park nearby. I was thrilled to see it, and to have it close to home was a bonus. I will take John over there tomorrow so he can - hopefully - see it, too.

This seems to be the season for the world's smallest" buildings. This one is the post office in Ochopee, Florida. It has been in continuous use since 1933. We didn't stop to buy stamps or mail any letters, but we could have!

Sandy and I did a lot of "birding" while she was here. We found a walking path around a small, swampy lake in a park quite near our home here. We saw ospreys and bald eagles fishing, and a roseate spoonbill, among many other species. Such a delightful jewel of a park to discover so close to home!

While Sandy was visiting us in Naples, we looked up a cousin on our father's side whom we hadn't seen in at least 30 years. Turns out he has a winter place in nearby Ft. Myers, so we drove up to visit him and his wife there one day. Sandy Smith Underwood, Jack and Marilyn Elgin, and Marilyn Smith Neilans. Jack is our father's sister's son.