In the Market for Fleas?

 

Florida Flea Markets abound with great people watching, fresh veggie and fruit finds, classic food stands, and vendors selling everything from perfume, Porgy‘n Bess, posies, paperbacks, pizza, postcards, pots, Pandora, paintings and even puppies!   The air is filled with the scent of ripe strawberries, roasting pecans and coconut sunscreen.

  

                                   Chris and I cannot believe that this is a common sight at flea markets!

   

     Woman buys ice cream for “her baby”, actually an antique doll she was carrying like her own child.

 Mom is buying us more fleas!

A “Parrot Protection Project” displayed three colourful birds; the one pictured below removed dollars

from donor’s pockets and dropped them into the support-the-birds fund box.

  

Chris and I have been putting many miles on our bikes every week.  I had my bike overhauled at the shop where we purchased it two years ago and it looks and feels like brand new.  Dixie has been very low key since her illness and has been doing a lot of lying down half way through her walks.  She discovered a small snake last week and was quite taken aback when what I assume she thought was a stick, swiftly slipped away under some leaves.  Small tree frogs appear now and then, hiding in small places out of the sun.  I found one cutie the size and colour of a four leaf clover.  The green insect looked like its wings had been dusted with gold dust.

In the last few days Dixie has shown more energy and did well on a woodsy hike yesterday.  The trail is flagged by Saw Palmettos that make one feel like royalty being fanned along the palace paths.  The river is high this year and it was a challenge explaining to Dixie that the appealing swim she craved had to be denied.  Most Florida waters have alligators lurking out of sight so we must be safe rather than sorry.  The larger amounts of rain have produced more mushrooms, fungus and moss in the woods.  I am somewhat obsessed by the gorgeous pink, coral and green lichen that contrasts beautifully with the dark gray tree trunks that it grows on.

 

   

With the exception of one sticky day, the weather has been great, warm but not too hot to be active.  For people who vacation or live in warm weather climates but have grown up with snowy winters, it is difficult to embrace the Christmas spirit.  Many people have put up Christmas lights, candy canes, bows and inflatable snowmen and santas beside their blooming flower gardens and beneath the palm trees.  It is our fifth holiday season away from the expectations for a white Christmas and I still cannot get my head around it.  Of course, being apart from family and friends as well as the beloved books and ornaments stored away play a huge role.  I hung a decoration outside and will put up a few lights in the motorhome.  I will also bake gingerbread and Christmas cake cookies as a tradition I can’t pass up every year.  We will catch a few Christmas specials on TV and listen to some traditional carols closer to the 25^th.  The music is one of my personal favourites. 

Wherever you are, if you celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoy the next few weeks and enjoy the memories of Christmases gone by.