Friday

We had a neighborhood food truck get together at Lake Saundra tonight. It wasn't an official event, but it was well attended. It's the first sort of shared meal event since the pandemic. (There have been some drive-by birthday celebrations.) It was so nice to talk to people other than in the street as we pass by.

 We had chicken tacos with mangoes and some sort of hot sauce.

We met two new folks in our neighborhood on the causeway this morning. They recognized us from our walks in the neighborhood and introduced themselves. We mentioned the food truck get together and they showed up. They bought their house about 4 years ago and just retired and moved down permanently, so we had some things in common. 

We thought we would have a hard time meeting people in the neighborhood, but it turns out it has been really easy, even during the pandemic. I think what makes it easy is that so many people move here when they retire. It seems everyone is from somewhere else (somewhere cold!) and starting out fresh, looking to make new friends.

Lake Saundra

We came home from our morning walk and sat in our new chairs, enjoying the beautiful weather and the nicely mowed lawn (thank you, Mas Fina!) The high temperature was 82 degrees. It was the kind of day where you hated to be indoors.

I put Toby’s pink skin in the shade.

After lunch, I headed to the outdoor gym, but I stopped at Hammock Park to check out the progress on the new retention pond. I found that the boardwalk has been restored and is now open.

The water from Cedar Creek and St. Joseph Sound feeds the pond at high tide from the channel to the right of the repaired bridge. There is another inflow at the far end of the pond above.

In this picture, you can see a passing cyclist on the Pinellas Trail just on the other side of the bushes.

I made it to the Weaver Park gym. I had the place to myself for a while.

The causeway was lovely this morning. It was in the low 70s to mid-70s.

I told John I keep taking pictures of the same thing every day. He said that it was okay. Everyday is different and you are showing your readers what it looks like today. 

He’s right. When I was still in North Carolina and he sent me pictures of the causeway, I appreciated each one. The sky seemed unbelievably blue and the water was so beautiful.

 

 

 

Today's bike routes to the causeway, Weaver Park, Lake Saundra

 

Happy birthday Shakespeare! He was baptized on April 26, so he was likely born 3 days prior in 1564. He died on the same date (April  23) in 1616. Here’s a link to one of his greatest and most popular sonnets, sonnet 116:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45106/sonnet-116-let-me-not-to-the-marriage-of-true-minds

Miles walked: 8.5

Miles biked: 12.30