Things I have learned – Busy Bee Suz

Holy Anole!

A few weeks ago I spied with my little eye something green moving in the oak tree outside my office window.

If I could see it from this distance, through the shutters and screen, I knew it was something out of the ordinary and you bet your sweet bippy I went in for a closer inspection.

Well, isn’t that special? We have lizards galore in Florida. Tons of them outside and some get inside; I swear there might be a Lizard Labor and Delivery in our master bath as I find babies all the time.

But THIS is a different lizard.

I sent pics in our family text thread and Lolo confirmed immediately that this is a Native Anole. (She wasn’t nick-named The Bug Girl as a kid for no reason) I said, I’ve seen anoles before, but never this big. She thought maybe I’d only seen females which can get up to 5″ but the males are 8″. I was thinking this might be a bit bigger than that, but didn’t give it another thought.

Then just two days ago I saw him again through the window and thought to myself that he must have taken up residence in that particular oak tree. No biggie.

On Sunday morning, I noticed something on top of my bird feeder under our cypress tree outside my other office window. Was it a bird? ~~Was it a plane?~~ Nope. It was huge and bright green!

I grabbed my cell phone and asked the Coach to come and see The Lizard. By the time he came to my office, the guy was gone. Man, he was BIG. Much bigger than the one I’d seen twice in the Oak tree and I went outside to locate the Giant.

It took me a minute to find him in the tree; he’s a blender. Can you see his HUGE eyeball? The better to see you with…

Ya’ll, this guy must be a foot long which led me to do a little bit of intel since This Anole reached 8″ and then said: Hold my beer.

INVASIVE IS MY LEAST FAVORITE SPECIES.

(I was today years old that I learned that you always say species and not specie; even in singular form)

In my research this guy is an Knight Anole which is Native to Cuba and invasive. I was curious to see what they eat…and I gasped upon learning: spiders, flies, crickets, small beetles, moths, butterflies, small slugs, worms, ants, and nesting birds. Um, we’re gonna need to enact a diet restriction on my property.

NOT SO FUN FACT: they can grow to 20″.

He didn’t care for my prying eyes…and the sun was bright and for a minute there I could not see where I was supposed to be looking.

Notice how he puffs out his dewlap at me. That either means he wants to fight or mate. Please let it mean fighting.

I also learned today that there is a name for the weird thing is under lizards’ necks. Dewlap.

Well, that’s the nature lesson for today, so excuse me while I try to figure out how to ~~eradicate~~ remove them from my vicinity because guess where butterflies roost at night? In trees. 😩

XOXO

A sweet little farm and Yogi is in my ‘hood.

I’ve been meaning to share this with all of you because if I’ve learned anything from Barney, it’s that Sharing IS Caring. And also it’s ok to be a big purple dinosaur.

I watched this docu-movie a while ago on Hulu and I just loved it; The littlest Big Farm.

A testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives and the land.

The Biggest Little Farm by John Chester, Molly Chester | DVD ...

The story is full of peaks and valleys, and I was a bit nervous that it would not have a happy ending, but in fact, {spoiler alert} it did. I loved it mostly because it shows how nature can evolve, adjust and work in harmony; every obstacle the family encountered while trying to build a sustainable farm appeared to be doom & gloom, but nature always worked out. It was a heartwarming story that will take your mind elsewhere for about 90 minutes. Did I mention they have a dog who was kind of the center of the story? Actually the whole reason they bought the farm was because of their rescue dog, which I totally get.

I give it FOUR paws up!

Fuzzy Wuzzy Was A Bear

Monday morning my dear friend Stacy who lives 8 houses down from us sent me this photo and a text that read: Ten minutes ago, in our backyard!

Da’ bear was digging through Stacy’s trash because my friends have the best trash.

We have wildlife. And I’m not just talking about the Coach and I when we stay up past eleven.

Though we’re only 9 miles to the Gulf of Mexico, our ‘hood goes way east to the Everglades; home to a pleathora of wildlife including Florida black bears, coyotes, Florida panthers & bobcats. I’ve always known they were around, but usually a few streets east of our home, until this week.

Can you picture me, in my yard, head in a hedge looking for caterpillars and a big azz bear comes waltzing by? In this scenario, it’s a dancing bear.

I feel bad for them because with development comes crowding, and they are slowly losing space. Should I offer them one of our guest rooms? Wait, I’ll have to see if it’s a tap dancing or just regular dancing bear first.

And wouldn’t you know that I had a very vivid dream about a bear in my home on Monday night? It kept coming in, and I kept trying to get it outside. I was giving it objects to play with, boxes with tops, cylinders with lids, it was like I was teaching a child dexterity, but it was, in fact, a full-sized bear. As many times as I was able to get it back outside, then we (myself and family) would turn off the house lights and hide, the darn bear would come back and find a way inside and see that we were still home.

Was I having a Goldilocks moment? Who am I hiding from? Wait, a better question is: Why can’t the bear put a top on a box if he can open garbage cans?

Happy Humpday my friends!

XOXO

My favorite sunset from yesterday.

The Coach and I watched the sunset last night.

The Gulf of Mexico never disappoints, but last night, it was like a bathtub; calm and warm. Perhaps it’s exhausted by all the happenings of the world.

Did you forget how cute my feet were? I had a feeling….

There were quite a few people there watching the sunset with us. People love to clap when the sun goes down and the Coach almost always comments on how he doesn’t get that. I’m indifferent. Victories big or small should be celebrated and hey, that Sun made it another full day without falling out of the sky.

Sometimes I clap after I made a decent dinner.

That was me testing the water….it was warm and inviting.

The Coach did that time lapse video up there; I didn’t even know he knew how to do that. See, you can STILL be surprised by your person when you thought you knew everything about them.

I’m not sure about you, but every night I go to bed with a prayer that the next day brings peace to our world and that the Sun continues to wake up and go to sleep like clockwork.

*clap clap*

Happy Wednesday.

XOXO

How middle aged women celebrate, my first home invasion and I might have a succulent addiction

You know what is awesome to collect?
Girlfriends.
I traveled a few hours north last weekend to celebrate one of my friends birthdays at a mutual friends house.

Before I tell you how exciting our day/night was, let’s reflect on what a buffoon I can be on occasion.
I’ve known my friend Michelle for years but had never been to her house. I used the GPS on my phone and just as I entered her neighborhood and saw that I was ALMOST to her house I looked up and saw a home with lots of cars in the driveway. Well, here I am!
I had my arms full and knocked on the front door. No one answered, and dogs were barking.
Suz’s brain: Well, Michelle doesn’t have dogs, but maybe her Mom is here with her pups? Why isn’t someone opening the door for me? Wait, they must be out back in the pool….just open the door and let yourself in Suz.
I open the door and immediately three dogs come at me; a greyhound and two little mutts. I see past them to the furnishings and I know immediately this is NOT Michelle’s house.
*Shiza-Minelli* I just did my first home invasion.
I push the ‘overly happy to see me’ dogs back into the house and shut the door.
As I’m pulling out my phone on the porch looking for Michelle’s house number a man opens the door and asks if I need something.
*I might have shat myself*
I apologized and told him I’m at the wrong house….I said I’m so sorry about opening your door, I’m looking for Michelle’s house.
He said, no worries.
*phew, he’s not a gun-toting, fly off the handle kind of person*
We figured out her house was about 5 down the street. I said to him: “Thanks. Sorry again, it looks like you’re having a party here with all the cars in the driveway.”
He said: “No party, I just have a lot of kids.”
Oh, my lawd Suzanne, how you’ve made it 51 years without being murdered is a miracle.

What did 7 ladies age 41-60 do for a fun time?

We drank wine. Laughed. Sat in the pool. Nibbled. Laughed. Noshed.
And we potted succulents.
Talk about a wild and crazy time-we’re just lucky the popo wasn’t called on us.