Blue Skies

Another week hunkered down and waiting for "45" to concede the election. Things seem a bit more hopeful and I am trying to remain calm. More doctor visits and lots of ZOOM meetings, lectures and classes. Sirius and I take lots of walks since the weather is cooler. We did get out for dinner on the porch of our friends Karen and Stuart. We picked up Chinese food and ate out of the containers with plastic forks. We are trying to be so careful.

Lots of birds at our backyard feeders.

Downy Woodpecker

Catbird with a black cap and a red spot under his tail

At the Riverbend dock this Great White Egret at low tide

A Great Blue Heron

And a Little Blue Heron

He got his feet and beak very muddy

And I saw him catch and eat three small snakes

Beautiful Brown Thrasher with yellow eyes

A young gator lounging on our lawn

Female Anhinga in the tree across the lagoon

An Osprey fishing in our lagoon

Anhinga drying his wings

Little Blue Heron across the lagoon

Sirius and I took a walk at Lake Somerset and saw this Great Blue Heron hiding in the brush.

Hail to the Chief

Celebrate! Over the moon with happiness and hope with the votes counted and Biden/Harris the winners. I am breathing a huge sigh of relief and looking to the future with extreme optimism.

Since the last post the country has been consumed with the election and I have watched TV from awakening until the wee hours of the morning. I did take time for a few meetings and we had a Glazer family ZOOM call on Saturday afternoon - it was wonderful!

The weather has been beautiful and Sirius and I have enjoyed walking with cool breezes and sunshine. We saw this exotic Wood Stork on the lagoon near the tennis courts.

My Christmas cactus is blooming.

On Wednesday I attended a ZOOM from the bird club on raptors. It was really good and I learned so much about hawks, eagles, harriers, kites, owls, vultures and more beautiful birds.

Thursday was a Hadassah meeting, my African American class and then the kickoff event for our local Jewish Federation. The speaker, Simone Knego, was so inspirational and has recently written a book titled "The Extraordinary Unordinary You." All donors were given a copy of the book which I look forward to reading.

Friday I am still glued to the TV and did a morning ZOOM on post election politics from Jewish Federations of America. I was excited because Bakari Sellers was one of the panelists and I am a fan of his. He was a SC legislator and appears often as a contributor on CNN. Late Friday came the great news and I have been on cloud 9 ever since.

This weekend is the virtual walk from my Hadassah chapter. I am rocking my pink breast cancer tee shirt and Hadassah bandana, a gift from our region.

Saturday I took a walk on the Riverbend dock. This is a beautiful section of Sun City that is down the road and sits on a beautiful marsh. I was there at high tide and saw several people crabbing.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

Little Blue Heron soaring and posing for his closeup.

At night we watched the Biden/Harris speeches and saw the terrific fireworks. The UNITED STATES is back baby!

All in all an exhilarating and wonderful week.

Some birds at our feeders.

Eastern Bluebird

Carolina Wren

Cardinal

Tufted Titmouse

Pine Warbler

Downy Woodpecker

Food Glorious Food

 More time and still in the house most of the time. Luckily Jeff and I have lots to do on the computer, reading and TV. On Thursday I took an excellent OLLI class on Reconstruction and the National Parks. One of the park rangers was at Petersburg Battlefield. Jeff and I visited there in January on our trip to Virginia which made the talk very interesting for me. I walked on the nature trail as the weather has been gorgeous. In the evening I had my African American class which I find fascinating and learning so much. Later we watched the presidential debate.

Friday I met Joan at Lake Somerset to go over Hadassah stuff. It is nice to be outside and a plus for living in the south where we have temperate weather most of the year. When I got home we had some excitement as two of my neighbors spotted this young gator hanging near the water drain. 

Later Jeff and I drove to Beaufort where we picked up lunch and had a picnic. We sat on a hillside under a huge live oak tree overlooking the water. It was so lovely and Sirius and I took a nice walk too.

Saturday I attended a Bar Mitzvah on ZOOM for a friend's grandson all the way from Indianapolis. He did a great job. Mazel Tov Rafael! Another celebration today was the 78th birthday of our dear friend, Bob. An afternoon ZOOM got many friends and family together to fete the birthday guy.

Sunday should have been the annual Shalom Y'all Food Festival. Jeff and I enjoy volunteering there and sad that it is cancelled this year. There will be a virtual celebration. There was a video from two years ago that was on a local Savannah TV station about the event.

We did salvage the day with a driveway visit with Judy & Sam, Jan & Harvey.

Monday was a busy day with Jeff having outpatient surgery on his shoulder. He had a large tear in the rotator cuff and thank goodness did not need a should replacement. He will have to wear this cumbersome sling for six weeks and then do physical therapy. He is a good patient and managing quite well. On Wednesday we drove to the doctor's office in Hilton Head to have the bandages removed and permission to take a shower!

Wednesday morning I guided a nature tour on the Hidden Cypress Front Nine. It was a beautiful day and we saw a few fox squirrels, deer, a kingfisher and assorted songbirds and waders. At night I had two ZOOMS and then we watched TV.

Happy Talk

 Monday is a lazy day and time to rest and study for my afternoon Hebrew class. Tuesday was restful too and I spent some time getting ready to host the Hadassah meeting on Wednesday. It will be my first time using screen share and other issues.

Tuesday morning Sirius and I saw two Fox Squirrels walking near Lake Somerset on the pretty path.

Lots of activity at the bird feeders and a lovely Kingfisher at our lagoon.

Male and female House Finches

Camelias blooming outside our bedroom window.

Great Egret visiting our lagoon.

The Kingfisher

Our backyard

So Wednesday arrived and I hosted the meeting and it went off beautifully. Our chapter hosted a national speaker who is co-chair of Youth Aliyah. Her talk was wonderful and everyone learned so much about this project. Our slate of officers for 2021 was approved and I am the incoming president!  Next I had a political ZOOM and then a region Hadassah ZOOM in the early afternoon. After a short rest period I worked on next year's programs for the bird club. I will be the program VP. I had dinner and joined another political ZOOM.

Here Comes the Bride

Today is the most special of all as Brian and Rori got married this afternoon. Their original plans for May were postponed because of the pandemic so they decided to do an intimate "COVID Elopement." They planned it beautifully and had their closest friends as witnesses while we and Rori's family watched on ZOOM. I dressed up we sat at the kitchen table

 It took place in a beautiful park in DC and they self officiated the ceremony.

No photos until the professional ones are ready, but want to say it was incredible to watch them marry and cannot wait until we can be together to hug and say Mazel Tov in person.