~Home Sweet Home~

Home Sweet Home

The Explorer enjoying her snow covered deck. Photo taken looking east toward Loveland.
The Explorer enjoying her snow covered deck. Photo taken looking east toward Loveland.

On Saturday…

After six months of traveling in parts of the southern United States during the fall and winter months, we are back home! It is wonderful to leave on an adventure and it is also wonderful to return home. Howard and I look forward to returning to our at-home-routine, enjoying our beautiful community, and doing things we don’t get to do while on the road. It has been a tiring first week back, coach unloaded and winterized, house cleaned and things put away, clothes washed, bird feeders hung, but also a fun one! I also forgot to mention, being back in the BEST Time Zone is wonderful and leaving the high humidity behind for awhile is so satisfying.

During our time on the road we enjoyed visiting with family and friends, staying at and exploring new places, and returning to favorite ones. If you have been following my blog you know we love staying at State Parks and during this trip we stayed at several new ones. See list below.

This morning…

Our home sits on a hill at 5000 feet and the area has been known to receive late fall and early spring snow storms. We woke this morning to a snow covered landscape; it wasn’t much, but enough to blanket the area with beauty. It has been many months since we have seen snow and I have to say it was delightful being outside this morning!

Some of my blogger friends have experienced a severe, snowy, winter and they will probably think I am crazy for enjoying this early spring snow. {grins}

Snow pockets.
Snow pockets.
Snow covered buds.
Buds
Sumac
Sumac
Snow covered new leaves.
Spring Leaves
Artsy look toward our drive way.
Artsy look toward our drive way.

Following is a list of the Florida State Parks we visited for the first time:

~Highlands Hammock

~Fort De Soto (Florida County Park)

~Lake Manatee

~Myakka River

~Ross Prairie

~Manatee Springs

~Little Manatee River

~Alafia River

The last six months has been an exciting time for me, enjoying my two favorite hobbies: Birding and Photography. On this trip, I added eleven new birds to my Birding Life List:

~Sandwich Tern

~American Oystercatcher

~Reddish Egret

~Semipalmated Plover

~Least Sandpiper

~Dunlin

~Short-billed Dowitcher

~Common Tern

~Limpkin

~Black-bellied Whistling Duck

~Blue-headed Vireo

The Rambling Rose…

Our old 1998 Beaver Marquis motor coach,  performed faultlessly and we are thankful for that. She got us safely where we wanted to go. Here she is sitting at one of our favorite Florida State Parks.

Site 19, Lake Louisa State Park
Site 19, Lake Louisa State Park

Until next time….

Enjoy your day, where ever you might be!

9 thoughts on “~Home Sweet Home~”

    1. Hi Judy, I can understand your thinking! The snow is all gone, clear blue skies here and we know what that means – low tonight 23!! 😳😜

  1. It’s wonderful to hear you had a fantastic travel season. It’s always nice returning home especially when one lives in such a beautiful place 🙂

    1. Hi Ingrid! Let me know when you are back in CO, if you like you can meet me at my house and I will drive us to Rocky for lunch and some birding! Or anything else you would like to do! Colorado is a beautiful state and we are lucky to be here to enjoy its beauty!

  2. What a beautiful snow…reminds me of a few times we had snow in Central Georgia. Snow pictures are always so pretty!
    That is quite an impressive list of new birds Sheila.

    1. Good Morning Gay! Hope you are enjoying your jeep rides! I sure did enjoy seeing all the new birds during this trip! Thanks for stopping by: Wishing you and Joe a Happy Easter!

    1. I am so glad you enjoyed following alone with us; I certainly enjoyed all your comments! It will be fun to be home for a while. Maybe not as many photos, but hopefully some. Happy Travels!

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