Well…I finally got all the Botswana images posted so let’s see what else has been going on this year…after all it’s into April and I do have a couple of outings that Neil went on to post.

First up…what’s happened lately

Since my last post we’ve had a couple concerts. First up was a Fort Myers Community concert which featured one of the younger brothers of Winton Marsalis and his band…they played a variety of music that was amazingly enough since they are from New Orleans not really too jazzy. We’ve never heard the Stars and Strips Forever by John Phillip Sousa where the solo piccolo part at the end was played by a tuba…but now we have and it was pretty dared good.

Then we had Connie’s performance with the MasterSingers of the Civil War Cantata…the director’s great grandfather was a soldier in the Civil War and left a diary which got turned into choral peace. Yeah…it’s one of those vanity pieces and it might or might not actually get much traction but the MasterSingers had the world premiere. We’ve been to a total of 3 ‘world premiers’ over the past 30 years or so and this was the first one that actually didn’t suck…so maybe it will have some legs. It was mostly an orchestral piece with a tenor narrating some of the words from his diary along with some solo tenor singing and some sections by the chorus. Connie thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread…Neil thought it was better than average and it was a pleasant evening listening to the piece.

As I may have reported last time…Neil ended up needing new hearing aids and after a week and a half (and $7200) he’s gotta admit that the tech available in 2026 is way better than it was in 2017. He’s still getting used to the capabilities in the new ones but admits it’s overall an improvement. The old ones had basically reached end of life.

Connie had her 6 month followup with her breast surgeon and all is well on that front…she’ll do semi-annual mammograms for the next couple of years but there’s no indication of anything abnormal so it looks like her surgery and the radiation cured her. She’s still not happy about the less than perfect shape of her chest and is still having some intermittent soreness but they told her that’s expected after the radiation she had.

A this week has been (and will continue to be through Easter) the choir week from hell. She’s got multiple things to sing for at the choir and also has been working on some end of the fiscal year things for the Ladies of elks so she’s been pretty busy. But…after tomorrow, Saturday, and Easter Sunday things will slack off from the hectic pace she’s had…and she’s really, really glad about that.

So…we’re all caught up on happenings so let’s see some images.

Back in January…Connie had a day of Elks meetings up at Umatilla Elks camp (near Orlando) and he went up with her the day before. After a nice Mexican dinner he dropped her off the next morning at the camp for her meetings and headed off to Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive to see what he might find It was early in the breeding season but he still got some halfway decent shots so here we go with them.

Almost all of these individuals are in breeding plumage, I’ll give some details as we get to them.

Little Blue Heron…the reddish portions on the neck are the breeding feathers…this is (probably) a male.

An osprey having breakfast after some fishing.

Common yellow throat…a small songbird.

Great Blue Heron…the breast feathers are the breeding plumage in this species.

Snowy Egret…the drooping feathers are the key here.

Tricolor Heron…not sure what their breeding plumage looks like.

Gray Headed Swamp Hen.

Male Red Winged Blackbird.

Another Little Blue Heron with the reddish mating attractions…probably a male.

Mature Black Crowned Night Heron.

Overall…a decent outing but not really anything spectacular. He went on another outing to the Venice Rookery a week or so back that I’ll post next time.

Interesting things found on the net.

And finally…I want to recommend something for you. There is this guy named Randy Cassingham who is one of the oldest internet publishers and he has  weekly newsletter (both free and a dollar a week versions) called This is True. He takes news stories and rewrites them in a humorous make you think vein and I highly recommend that you take a look at his site thisistrue.com…he’s excellent. He and his bride used to live in Colorado but are now living full time on a cruise ship traveling the world. Back in 2018 or 2019 Neil and Connie met them near their home and had a nice evening with them. He’s a great guy, writes a terrific weekly commentary on the human condition and I can highly recommend him;

What I didn’t realize until recently is that he is actually a pretty talented artist as well. His web universe includes a bunch of things and one of them is named Randy’s Random where he posts whatever strikes his fancy. One of the recent ones Neil was surprised at because he didn’t realize Randy was an artist as well as a darned good writer…he is amazed by how so few pen strokes evoke the image of a couple dancing happily away. Good onya Randy.

Here is a a recent post…
The Last Dance…he created the artwork for a dancer friend of his and then later on added the Cuban saying “They can’t take away want aI’ve already danced” which basically talks about remembering the good past from a departed friend. Neil was struck by both the really outstanding minimalist drawing and the sentiment…which is why I’m recommending that you subscribe to his newsletter and the Randy’s Random page…he has always been impressed by Randy’s skill at writing and has been a subscriber to the This is True newsletter for decades. Check it out…you’ll be glad you did.

Cyas.