8 posts from 2007
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A couple more great pics from Peace River.
The water was 86 degrees last night!
We did a great 2 hour tram ride at Shark Valley yesterday....oddly neither a valley, nor were there sharks. There were Alligators like the lovely female below who was just letting us know that she would love for us to get the hell away from her children! Also many Anhinga's, Ibis', Great Blue Heron's and even Wood Storks. The Anhinga's have a cute mating ritual. The male's bring a stick to the female of his liking and if she accepts it, that stick will be the beginning of their nest together. If she rejects it, she throws it to the ground and he will have to go get a bigger stick and return with it.
I have this writing experiment I'm curious to try. Michael and I spent
Thanksgiving at our friend's Danny, Deena and baby Ruby's place in Brattleboro, VT.
While relaxing after our Tofurkey, Danny showed us a picture of his
Grandmother when she was 10. She was on a small stage with a handful
of other kids. The photo was taken after a talent show so the kids
were dressed in various costumes and you could see so much personality
in each child. I though it would be really fun to give each child to
someone to write their story the day of the talent show leading up to
that photo....
I think I'll confer with my friend Frankie who is a wonderful writer and see what he thinks about this idea...
Yesterday, we went to another amazing place called, Peace River Refuge and Ranch. (http://peaceriverrefuge.org/newspaper.html)
We got a wonderful tour from the owner and saw the animals so up close
that we could actually make eye contact with them, which was really
special to me. One interesting thing about the tour was that when we
went to the big cats we noticed that they both were stalking the three
year old child in the tour group....He was by far the smallest, weakest
person there so of course, the cat's were licking their lips ready for
a snack of human. The Woman said that even if he wasn't there, the
cat's would naturally pick out the smallest or weakest of the bunch and
begin the hunt....If the child wasn't there, it would have been my
mother!
This
sanctuary was mostly run by a husband and wife team and took interns on
a month to month basis as well as volunteers. She was so passionate
about her animals. It was really inspiring to meet her see how much
she has accomplished and how selfless she is in giving these animals a
safe and fulfilling life. I will most definitely come back every
Christmas. Michael and I also decided that we will be look on the
website and choose an animal to sponsor.
I arrived in Ft. Myers, FL on friday morning and went directly to ECHO Farm to meet up with the rest of my family including my parents, my brother and his girlfriend Libby and Michael. (http://www.echonet.org/) They had a wonderful tour showing different plants like the moringa tree (http://treesforlife.org/project/moringa/default.en.asp) which can be easily and quickly grown in places where people are in need of food. The leaves are very nutritious and have alone brought villages from weak and hunger to stronger and healthier in just 2 weeks. The seeds of the Moringa can also be used to clean water. Also on the tour they showed different techniques for planting depending on what climate you are in. Michael has already decided to use the trench technique when we have our house in Topanga Canyon. But until then, they showed us some amazing ways to have a garden on top of our roof in Brooklyn with old tires and coke cans! I really enjoyed the tour and was very excited that for Christmas, my parents donated a tree to a village in need through Echo for Scott, Libby, Michael and I.
We celebrated Christmas a few days early and drove up to Tampa to pick up my Grammy, who after 2 mini strokes and a couple back brakes, was surprisingly mobile and in very good spirits. She turns 96 in Jan and still only uses a walker. We then drove up to Newport Richey to my other Grandmother's winter home and had Christmas dinner. While my mom and grandmother prepared dinner 'the kids' sat with Grammy and she told us stories. It was really nice because I always hear stories of my other Grandma but not so much with my Mom's Mom. She told us of her travels to Indonesia and Brazil as well as some of her Norwegian food memories.
Thursday morning 12/22 from 1am to 6am I did my second to last day on "Failing Better now." It was a fun night and I finally got to meet my Mother, Joyce Dewitt. She was absolutely cute and lovely. We did a lot of laughing and adlibing and I only started to crash about 4:30 when the camera turned around on Tim and I. I was okay the first few takes and then I started talking mumbling and studdering and then of course laughing. Joyce then pulled something out of her set purse and said..."do you want some liquid Amino acids?" I put about 10 drops under my tounge and let them soak into my tissues and I immediately sprung back from my lull. I'd say it's a much healthier alternative than Red Bull. It's a good little 'trick of the trade.'
