For the last couple of months, I have been experiencing heart symptoms again. Last week, I ended up in the hospital for an emergency angioplasty for a blocked stent in my heart. I was in the hospital for a couple of days and am recovering at home. After all of our recent surgeries, both Robert and I are OK, but quite tired.
Here, on the SW Florida Gulf Coast, the temperatures are rising, and grass is parched and brown. Yesterday, we got several brief thunder showers, our first hints of welcome summer rains. Today, the sky is overcast, promising more rain. We need it!
Happy summer! A little early for our friends in other locales, but heartfelt!
(Cheryl Batavia’s daughters, Ellen and Katey, meet Skipper, the bottle-nosed dolphin, and his trainer.)
getting to know all about you.Getting to like you,
(belly rub)
getting to hope you like me!You are precisely my cup of tea!
(It’s not polite to stick out your tongue.)
Getting to know you. Suddenly, I’m bright and breezybecause of all the beautiful new thingsI’m learning about you!Getting to know you,knowing we know how to play!Getting to know you.
(Ellen playing the piano, Skipper singing!)
Things I’m learning about you, Day by Day!
(Katey playing the piano, Skipper singing!)
Cuddle Up a Little Closer
Cuddle up a little closer, Lovey mine!Cuddle up and be my little clinging vine!I like to feel your cheeks so rosy.I like to make you comfy, cozy,I love you, I love you so muchfrom your head down to your toesies, Lovey mine!
Photos taken by a Theater of the Sea photographer. Please give credit if you use them.
This is a highlight of the vacation my daughters and I planned together. Due to a last minute emergency, I was unable to go on the trip. These photos make me feel like I was there.
Theater of the Sea in Islamorada, FL has various animals, many of them rescue animals, on display. There are sea turtles, rays, seals, and other animals to observe or encounter.
I hope you enjoy the vintage music. I also considered “Splish Splash!” by Bobby Darren. It didn’t quite fit, but it was fun!
My two daughters, Ellen and Katey, live in Dallas. We have missed our traditional yearly road trip for the last two years due to my illness. This year, we are taking the long-awaited trip to the southern part of Everglades National Park. I am hoping to see the wild flamingos that mysteriously settled there twenty years ago. Some people say they came from South America.
Flamingos had not lived in the wild in Florida for the previous one hundred and fifty years. I have dreamed of seeing these wild flamingos since I first heard about them . Maybe it will happen!
Before we leave, at the request of my younger daughter Katey, we will have an Easter egg hunt. I am filling plastic eggs with small chocolate bunnies, jelly beans, and some goofy little surprises. I will hide hide the eggs in the yard for Katey and Ellen to find. This is the first Easter I have spent with my daughters for many years, and I am looking forward to it!
Katey has also asked me to get a favorite ice cream that is not available in Texas. It is cherry ice cream with chococolate-covered cherry hearts mixed in. We will try to eat small portions!
My daughters are going kayaking. We are taking two boat tours, one in the Gulf of Mexico, and one in the back country.
Then, we are going to the Florida Keys to swim with the dolphins at Theater of the Sea. There are many other marine animals there, including sea turtles, seals, sharks, and rays.
We plan to eat some authentic Cuban food, locally grown tropical fruit, and some famous Key Lime pie. I will post photos and tell you all about our adventures when we return.
I will be on break from April 15-30, 2025.
Katey, Ellen, and Cheryl on our road trip several years ago.
Vulture. Photo by Mark Boss from UnsplashMonarch butterfly on milkweed, a host plant on which monarchs lay their eggs. Photo by Winifred Helton Harmon from UnsplashOsprey carrying a fish. Photo by Stephen Crane from Unsplash.
A week later, our power returned, and we became aware of the devastation in nearby cities and communities. Milton was a major hurricane. Due to storm surge, high winds, and numerous tornadoes spawned by the category 3 storm, people in several states lost their homes, businesses, vehicles, and boats. Roads and other infrastructure are damaged or destroyed. More than a dozen people lost their lives.
Electrical, roofing, and general construction companies, military personnel, and relief workers from many states have come to help those who suffered losses in Hurricane Milton. There are many heroes in our region in 2024!
This poem was written shortly after Hurricane Milton, which hit Florida on October 9th. I was on break, and didn’t post it.
Robert’s sister and daughter visited for three days last week. We wanted to take them to a nearby beach, but beach restoration is still not finished. A tsunami-sized wave had washed sand up on the beach higher than the two-story restaurant where we had lunch. The bulldozers are still leveling sand, and the beach is still closed!
Bird feeders are outlawed in California. Signs in many places say, “Danger! Do Not Feed the Bears!” or “Unlawful to Feed Wildlife Here” or “Don’t Feed the Alligators!” There are good reasons for such warnings. Feeding some wild animals can cause them to lose their fear of people and become aggressive and dangerous. Feeding some wild animals can make them dependent on humans and less able to survive on their own.
In our neighborhood, lots are being cleared for new construction, and animal habitats are disappearing at a fairly rapid rate. Endangered gopher tortoises in our neighborhood have been displaced, losing their homes when a new house was built on the site of their ancestral burrows.
Gopher tortoise at burrow. Photo in the public domain, origin unknown
We often see gopher tortoises eating grass in our yard and believe they may have dug new burrows in the wooded lot behind our house. The underground network of gopher tortoise burrows is routinely used by a variety of animals, so the impact of losing these safe passages is not limited to the tortoises who dug the burrows.
A new house was recently built diagonally behind us. I think some of the birds and animals we are seeing at the bird feeders once made their homes on the site of the new house.
I don’t know whether I am doing the right thing putting up bird feeders. I hope it is the right thing. I rationalize that the animals are still fending for themselves from when the feeders are empty in the late afternoon until I fill them again around 7:30 in the morning.
If I am ever able to do so, I will purchase the wooded lots beside us and behind us to preserve a bit of animal habitat.
When considering whether or not to feed wild animals, I believe we must follow the laws, and then let conscience be our guide.
Thank You, Joanna, for your advice on feeding birds! They are a joy to watch!
Visit Joanna’s beautiful and informative website, naturetails.blog
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One More
Raccoons are mostly nocturnal, but nursing females also feed during the day in order to provide their babies adequate milk. My daughter, Katey Batavia, took these photos of Mama Raccoon eating peanuts under our bird feeder in broad daylight.
Although raccoons are delightful to watch, we don’t seek to feed raccoons; they can carry rabies and have an annoying habit of raiding garbage cans and scattering garbage. Our garbage cans are secured with bungee cords.
But how can you begrudge a hungry mama and her babies a few peanuts under the bird feeder?
Gulf Coast Poet 