Out and About

So far living in Florida is kind of like living in the 90’s.  Now, of course economically speaking, Jacksonville probably isn’t doing as well as in the 90’s (the latter half at least) which is evidenced by a lot of defunct businesses and the droves of ‘For Sale’ signs that adorn homes all along the beaches.  However, there is one company that is still going strong here in Jacksonville and that is Beall’s.  I’m not just talking one Beall’s, I’m talking one Beall’s in each major shopping center.  I’d even go as far to say that Beall’s is the anchor store for some of these strip malls and today, I saw a Beall’s outlet.  Now, for all I know Beall’s has really great clothing, but in my mind they have all the same clothes as when I stopped shopping there (which coincided with them going out of business in Austin) in the early 90’s.  This theory is evidenced by the fact that a lot of Floridians also dress like they shop at my Beall’s.  Maybe one day I will stop in to see what they have to offer, as my friend Caitlin suggested, maybe it’s a super fancy Beall’s.  I think I just like saying Beall’s.

This past weekend, we saw neighbors that seemed more our style at our neighborhood farmer’s market which is walking distance from our house and held every Saturday.   We bought local strawberries, tomatoes, string beans, beets and fresh stone ground yellow and white corn grits.  Now, I don’t think of myself as much of a southerner, but I LOVE GRITS and they serve them everywhere here.  The farmer’s market is coordinated by the same group that runs the community garden in our neighborhood which is where Clayton and I felt we could meet people with similar interests (even though neither of us are particularly well versed in the art/science of gardening).  Much to our pleasure, we noticed a lot of young families with kids around Ella’s age at the farmer’s market and I was pretty relieved to find that we will be able to make friends with someone not wearing a Dan Marino-era Dolphins T-shirt.  Then I realized I probably looked like a total creeper staring at these families like I wanted to eat them.  Oh well. 

Our house is still a work in progress, but we are getting settled in.  Donovan (the cat) is settling in to his routine of howling in the middle of the night and peeing on our furniture.  So, we have accommodated this behavior by covering every upholstered item with furniture blankets leftover from the move.  Ella has taken to hugging the cats every chance possible and it is probably the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (see below).  She has also started imitating me.  So now, she puts her nose on everything to see if the cat has peed on it.  Not as endearing, as it means that I smell a lot of cat urine. 

Probably my favorite part of our house is the backyard.  We have these huge, beautiful mature trees.  Some are oak trees and the others are beautiful red pine trees.  Clayton and I are fully embracing our new community comprised largely of octogenarians and are jumping on the birding bandwagon.  Not really, but we did buy a couple of bird guides and discussed buying binoculars.   The bird watching really just started in our backyard.    The first day we were in the house I heard a knocking and found that it was a woodpecker.  We have seen him every day since and with the help of our bird guide have narrowed him down to one of two types.  Unless the woodpecker lets me measure him, I’m pretty sure it will remain a mystery.   Everything else in our backyard is pretty standard- cardinals, squirrels, gulls (normal for beachy areas and not particularly fascinating).  That is, until this afternoon.  Ella and I were out in the yard just walking around.  I was daydreaming about what I would do if a rabid squirrel tried attacking us when all of the sudden I heard a huge commotion coming from the roof of the house (which was behind us).  Of course my first thought was that we were being air attacked by a gang of rabid squirrels, so I scooped up Ella and turned around.  Just thirty feet in front of us, swooping down below the roof line of the house was a huge hawk in pursuit of an unidentified black bird.  It probably would have given an age appropriate bird watcher a heart attack.  The black bird got away and the two birds were out of our yard within seconds.  However, the hawk settled on a branch in front of our neighbor’s house and I had to get a closer look to be able to identify the bird in our new guide (did I mention I’m a huge nature nerd?).   By the time we got over there the hawk was gone.  In order to not look like a total weirdo staring into my neighbor’s front yard, I decided to check the mail.  HELLO, JC Penney’s catalog!  What year is it again?

I just love this.