Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Eat, Live and Love...

Using a different word combination from the well known book and movie, I am titling this post "Eat, Live and Love".  This post is focusing on giving the viewer a little taste of life here at Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge.  A few days ago, a buzz ran through the campground of word of a big fish that had been landed and was on board a boat near the lodge.  We all responded and quickly followed the crowd!  Here is what we saw:  a 300 pound  Swordfish, hooked in 1500 feet of water, taking three and a half hours to bring in on board.  It was 10 feet 9 inches in length, and was caught by three fishermen here in the campground.  The next day a 150 pound White Marlin was captured by a husband and wife team, and last night our friend Michael was "given" this beautiful Amberjack by another fisherman in camp.  We ,too, eat fish here when someone kindly shares the catch with us.





In addition to eating lots of fish to improve ourselves, physically and mentally, we are committed to Water Aerobics with Lois, and Low Impact Exercises with Leon.  We also walk the Nature Trail almost every day, and volunteer by picking up litter on the trail.  This keeps us quite busy each day!






The "Love" facet of camp life is clearly demonstrated by the Annual Hungarian Dinner that one couple, Jack and Eva prepare for the entire campground.  They create such a wonderful spirit by the amazing gesture.  There are so many friends enjoying this time and sharing in the love they demonstrate.  I want to share many pictures of  friends who attending this authentic Hungarian dinner complete with Jack's homemade Vermouth!  What out for that!!


Our wonderful hosts
































( a few pictures did not turn out so I may have missed a few friends who attended the dinner, with apologies)

As you can see, we are involved with so many folks who are also trying to Eat, Live and Love ( and some pray, too) to improve their lives as well as those around them.  We are blessed to be part of this community.



                          Snowy Egret in the Mangroves. Birds of a feather... you know the rest.

Monday, January 20, 2014

UPDATE! UPDATE!


Much to share! I will start with the daily event on the Rustic Beach.  Let's call it the Sunrise Gathering.
I 'm adding a shot of our early morning group starting to meet, some of the boats beginning the day hopeful for the catch of the day, and several special bird visits.

Great White Heron (white morph of the Blue Heron)

The early morning folks start to gather!

Rare version of the Great Blue Heron called the Wurduman's(spelling)
showed up every morning for three days straight


Typically only seen in Keys.  Possibly result of a cross of Great Blue and Great White


Yesterday

Today #1

Today #2

Today #3

Today #



















On the Nature Trail we noticed the Seven Year Apple Tree blooming and bearing fruit at the same time.  Seemed quite unusual!  A buck was relaxing along the trail as well.  I didn't even have to zoom in on him.




In the Bird Pond we had another treat this week when three Roseate Spoonbills stopped by for several days.  We caught one picture with a "spooning" Spoonbill (on left) along side a Reddish Egret.




For our final note, I want to tell you that we have been offered a chance to be campground hosts
for two months this summer on the Kenai Penisula in ALASKA!  The name of the campground is Klondike RV near the town of Soldotna on the Kenai River.  Are we excited or what??  We have arranged to work from June 10 to mid-August (three days a week in exchange for camping) and then travel back to Maine across the northern tier of the United States.  So instead of coming back to Maine, we will be coming "home" in September. It was a door that opened so wide we realized it was meant to be for us at this time.  You will hear more about this as time goes by and the blog will share our travels to and from Alaska.  Alaska 2014!  Another dream adventure for the Daicey Duo!