Hello Fellow Shackers:
Boy, what a gap between posts. Sorry about that. The reason is not one of lack of things to write but having too many ideas and not being able to figure what to write about. Yeah, I know, lame excuse. I agree.
Anyway, Christmas went well though it was a little quiet at times for me. I didn't go to one family gathering as I wanted to stay home with my daughter on Christmas eve. Her son was with his dad so she wanted to stay home. It sounded good to me but after one early movie, "Super 8," which was over by 8:00 P. M., she went out with her friends so I was home alone. I made use of the "quiet time" and got lots of writing done on my next book.
On Sunday, we went to my niece's house and enjoyed a Christmas ham dinner. It was excellent and we went out to check out their critters which included Bearded Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Horned Frogs, and one Box Turtle that eats anything offered it. Well, that was all good and the evening went smoothly.
It was on the 26th ,though, the day after Christmas that I got one of my neatest presents. We had honorable grandson back (actually he came home early on Sunday) so he and I took a little trip to one of our fave parks...Eat Park. That's not really it's name but to grandson that is what the park's name is. Just on a whim I brought a little food for the turtles. We got out on the lake at the park and walked out onto the dock and saw a few turtles (The day after x-mas??/ Why not, it was 75 degrees F.). Anyway, there was a young couple and their little boy there and they watched as we offered a few morsels of food to the aquatic chelonians. All of a sudden the lake was alive with the sound of music (oops, wrong story, actually, no sound at all, let's try again)...alive with turtles coming from everywhere. There were nearly thirty turtles in all; Sliders (Pseudemys peninsularis), one Red Ear (Trachemys Scripta elegans), Red-Bellied Terrapins (Pseudemys nelsoni), and Florida Softshell Turtles (Apalone ferox). None of them showed any fear and we all were treated to a neat feeding display by the lake's turtles. There was one particular Red-Belly that had a very interesting pattern of red rays on it's carapace. I'll go back when it warms up and get some pics to post. It was a fun day and before leaving for the playground the couple told me about a lake nearby called Turtle Lake where they actually have feed dispensers to get turtle food from. I'm definitely going to check that place out and get some pics.
I really enjoyed watching the Lake's residents as they presented themselves. So much so that I added it to my list of presents for the year; "A day with the turtles." My grandson enjoyed it to and got to go to the playground as well.
Have a Great Turtley Day!!!
John
