Greetings for all, especially Christina!

FIRST OF ALL ..... PLEASE e-mail me at rjsandefer@comcast.net if you would like me to continue this blog......it does take quite a bit of time to crop the pictures, upload them, write the blog, etc. and if no one is looking at it, there's no sense in doing it (although I must admit that I do get a kick out of composing it!)

Christina, I hope you get to see this post -- I don't know how long you're visiting at Michaels... (Christina is my good friend from England that has been my penpal for 48 years! She visited us in 2007 for three weeks, so I know many of you have met her -- she is visiting her brother Michael in Kent, and he has a computer where she can view my blog....)

Well, Christmas season officially started in The Villages last Monday night with the lighting of the Christmas trees on the Squares. This was part of the crowd at Spanish Springs, where we went with our friends Dave and Andreen...Everyone had candles, it was very pretty! I had a video of the tree lighting, but it says it's in the wrong format to upload. :-(

We've done a little outdoor decorating on the house...

Does this look familiar?? In another blog they were our Halloween ghosts -- we added halos of lights and red bows to recycle them into angels...they look better at night...

Today we hung swag lights on the carport.....next year it will be icicles -- these were a pain to straighten out and hang!

Even the statuary down the street is getting in the Christmas spirit...

Well, we do have a little fall color here in The Villages, in addition to the Golden Raintree which I had on the blog a while back...

I finally got a picture of a cardinal at the feeder....my goal now is to get the male when he's feeding....

Last night Glen Beck was at the Savannah Center with his show, THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER. Since I ushered, I got to see the show, which was great! He basically played himself (the book is a fictional story of his life) and "narrated" the story. He had a great message, and has come through a lot in his life. There was no political tone to any of it, just a very touching Christmas redemption message. If you get a chance to read his book, you might enjoy it. Here's his bus that was parked out in front of Savannah Center...

Well, that's enough for today.....want to get this posted before Christina leaves to
go back home!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well, it's hard to believe that November is almost over! We've had a busy month, and still aren't all unpacked....,.making progress though! Have enough shelves and cabinets now to put things in, so just need to organize and "git it done!"

Here's a chuckle for you. We call these birds "Florida Chickens" but they really aren't chickens! They are pretty funny when they wander through the neighborhoods!!



Can you believe these tangelos? I put the corn can in there just to show the size.....two large ones gave almost a cup of juice, and when I added three regular size ones, it came over 2 cups! Because of the cold weather we've been having (frost last night!!) the juice is getting sweeter. I have a question for someone to answer......,if the fruit has seeds, is it different from the fruit that doesn't have seeds? Are there male and female fruit on the same tree?? As you can see in the picture, one has seeds and one doesn't, then the other three didn't have seeds either.

Here's a picture and two videeos from Troy's on Thanksgiving Day...we had a WONDERFUL turkey dinner -- Troy cooked it in the oven with Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme. That made wonderful gravy.....and when I carved it, I took care to leave a good amount of meat on the bones....because I planned to take the carcas home to make soup! I did, and it was good too!! Three of his friends joined us for dinner, and the corn casserole was a big hit -- even Troy, who said he probably wouldn't eat any corn, was raving about it. It was a nice afternoon, and Troy made me a shelf to go behind the computer table to hold all the cords, modem, router, etc. That will make everything much more organized! Thanks Troy!!

After dinner at Troy's we went to Disney Wide World of Sports Complex to see the MSU basketball team play Maryland in the Old Spice Classic......they didn't do well. Here's the tip-off....MSU stole the ball but missed the shot, and that was part of the story. Most of the story was that they missed almost every second free-throw. It was almost like being at a home game because there were so many MSU fans there! We did the Go Green - Go White cheer across the arena a number of times.....

Well, here is my last Christmas's pointsettia....it has a ways to go to catch up with our neighbor's plant, and one down the road a bit! The pointsettias are beautiful here and grow like a bush!




Well, that's enough news for this week! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!!
Rosemary

A Weekend Away

Well, they called from BlueGreen Grande Villas at World Golf Village (where our timeshare is deeded) and invited us to an "owner's update" this weekend -- two nights and a party Friday night -- and an hour long "update" (really trying to get you to buy more points) this morning before we left. (We have enough points -- don't need any more!!)

At the party on Friday night we sat with a couple from Atlanta, Tom and Sue. We seemed to click, we talked quite a while. Then on Saturday night, when we walked into one of the restaurants to check out their menu, they were in there doing the same thing! We both decided we didn't want to eat there, and went to Bill Murray's Caddy Shack Restaurant together. What a co-incidence! They have been married about the same number of years we have, and are active in their church. Sue has five children, and Tom has two children, and they have 12 grandchildren! Does that sound familiar???? They have a ministry in the prisons around Atlanta -- they go there with the pastors who are doing church services, and sing. She has "published" a CD of gospel songs and gave us a copy. She has a very nice voice! We really enjoyed meeting them, and they invited us to stop at their home in Georgia the next time we drive home.



It was a very relaxing time, we enjoyed getting away. Here are some pics.....we had a GREAT room, on the corner on the fifth floor -- balcony looked out on the pool, and porch on the other corner looked over the Golf Hall of Fame complex, which includes the PGA Production Building, the Hall of Fame, Circle of Champions, and stores and restaurants.

Here's the view from our balcony (through the screen!) and a small part of the Slammer/Squire Golf Course -- one of two at the Hall of Fame -- but unfortunately not in our budget -- start

around $109 per round (and that's after 11 am!)

Below is the view from our porch and bedroom window... there is a man-made circular pond where the fountains are, with a brick walkway all around it. The bricks are inscribed with the names of golf champions all the way around. The building to the right is one side of the building where the Golf Hall of Fame is located. On the other side of the pond is a very large golf shop, restaurants, and the headquarters for the First Tee program. There is also a large hotel that you can't see in this picture..

The tee in the picture below is on the circle in front of the Golf Hall of Fame -- you pay $10 to get 5 balls, and if you get two of them on the green you get a prize.....we figured it was a good cause, all profits go to the First Tee program. (I think that's what they want to start at the course next to Glenn and Chris's house...) Jim got 3 on the green, one close to the green and one in the water! Good shots because the wind was blowing pretty strong! The brown building directly behind Jim is the Tour Stop Golf Shop, and the two signs sticking up are for Bill Murray's Caddy Shack Restaurant where we ate last night (and once when we were here before.....). The white sort-of triangular sign is the First Tee headquarters.

There were a couple of cats roaming around the grounds -- I thought this one was especially pretty...He also knew how to snarl.....

We took a walk over to the Slammer/Squire Clubhouse, where they have a nice pro-shop and a restaurant, as well as beautiful locker rooms! The bronze plaques on each locker have the name of an LPGA player.....I think it's an honor, not that these are actually their lockers, but I'm not sure. It was pretty nice!



Our room was the top one on the right, fifth floor. Between the building and the tree you can see the tower on the Golf Hall of Fame....



On the way home we stopped at Blue Springs State Park, because we heard that the Manatees are starting to come in from the ocean (when it gets cold, they come inland, as they can't live in water that is cold). We only saw two, a mom and her calf....




Here is a pictures from a few years ago, when we went over to Crystal Springs to see the Manatee Preserve, another State Park that keeps the Manatees who have been hurt by boats out in the ocean.....they are quite a sight...these Manatees are "tame" and they come to this spot automatically now at the times scheduled for their feedings! The caretaker actually feeds them their vitamins -- they roll over on their backs and beg for them!! In the background you can see a rectangular tube float -- they throw their food in there, and the get it from underneath. That day it was full of Bok Choy!! The single one is Rosie, the oldest manatee in that preserve. See the
scars on her back? She is HUGE!

Above pictures were taken when we visited there in 2005 with Clem and Lyla Rose.


This is the spot where the spring waters come up from the ground at Blue Springs State Park ...where you see the blue water it is about 100 feet deep, and 110 million gallons of water PER DAY flow out of the spring into the St. John's River!! We also saw an alligator swimming in the river...it was about 10 feet long....








Along the path there was a spider web, just above our heads....when we looked closer there was this huge spider on it!! It was about 3 inches in total length! Yikes!!! Can anyone identify what kind of spider it is???


And that's enough for this post! Have a great week!!

Especially for Glenn B

Hey Glenn, do you think the State would let you dress up your truck like this?? Haha. We passed this semi on I95 on our way home from St. Augustine today.....had Jim slow down, gave the driver a thumbs up and took some pictures! It was COOL!!!

For Aaron, Jon & Jared, grandpa's projects, plus more!

Well, Aaron, Jon and Jared, do you remember this day in The Villages? In the picture of Aaron with the golf club, look across the water -- see a golf cart on the path, to the left of the fountain of water? Well, that's about where I stood when I took the picture you'll see below. The spot where we fed the buffalo is where they are building a huge apartment building, and the birds are sitting on what used to be one of the platforms you aimed for with your golf balls!! The buffalo are no longer in The Villages....the developer is using the land to continue the building program.

Here's a picture I took a couple of weeks ago, about in the same spot as the cart in the picture of Aaron...the buffalo used to graze where the building is going up, and you shot your golf balls from where you can see the wall on the far side of the pond.

Well, Jim is really getting organized!! He is so proud of his file drawer I just had to take a picture and show you!! He is using the antique desk that was mine when I was a kid, it has a special place of honor in the living room!

He also has put a nice border of stones around the new heat pump (this is the unit that works both the heat and air conditioning for the house -- we had to buy a new one when we got down here in August -- what a bummer for the budget!). This will protect it from the lawn mowers and keep the weeds down....he did a great job!

Time for the nature report :-)

They have used a lot of this pretty grass to landscape the areas around the golf cart tunnels. Some of it is REALLY purple and gorgeous!

That's enough for today!!

For Kris and Troy, and gas prices!

Well, here we go again... this is the third posting within two days....can't seem to get it together!

We've had quite a few birds to our feeder outside the kitchen window now that I've taken the thistle feeder over to the tree and put regular seed in a feeder by the window. We've seen lots of tufted titmice (never saw them in Michigan), cardinals, bluejays, chick-a-dees, and chipping sparrows -- and an occasional squirrel. But, this food only has a small percentage of sunflower seeds, so the squirrels didn't come back. Here's a picture of a tufted titmouse, and one of the cardinal that got away before I snapped the picture!!

Here's a pretty picture -- took it while we were out delivering our papers last Friday....aren't they pretty???

Took this outside the Eagles clubhouse in Zephrhills last Friday, where we went for a fish fry last Friday -- took this for your viewing, Kristopher!!

Here's where we filled up our tank in Lady Lake this weekend...we're liking the prices!

Troy, this is for you!! This is how I'd like my wall in the den to look, only for my sewing, not computing.....what would it take to get you to build this for me??

Well, that's probably enough for now.....be sure you view all three of these new blogs!