Ocala National Forest

We headed out today for an explore around Florida, going to visit Ocala National Forest, just an hour from where we are staying.

The forest is huge, and we only saw a tiny portion of it. Even in winter, the weather was lovely today, and perfect for taking a stroll. To get to the trailhead, we followed the signs, going down ever smaller roads until we nearly missed our turn into a 2 mile dirt track:




Sarah did a great job following this, and eventually we reached our destination; a trail leading to a sinkhole near a lake. These sinkholes are formed when the limestone underground is dissolved away by water, and when enough is gone, a chunk of land collapse. The one we saw was huge, and it took a hundred odd steps down to get near the base.

It was a really scenic area, and a lovely place for a stroll.

Christmas Time

We got to spend Christmas this year with Sarah's family, including our new niece, Valerie. Here is a nice shot of everyone opening presents the baby handed around:



It was also Sarah's birthday, as Valerie and Sarah pointed out:




Merry Christmas all!

The Week Before Christmas

Its the weekend before Christmas, and Sarah is suffering from some serious winter luergy. Hopefully, both of us will be well in time for our the holidays.

We did get away to DC this weekend, to a market near the Verizon Center. It was good to go for a walk in the city, but it's starting to get real cold out.




We also had a mysterious visitor on Sunday night. To a wail of sirens and flashes of lights, a parade of police, ambulance and fire-trucks drove by. On top of the fire-truck, you could just make out Father Christmas, waving to the children in the streets:

Sarah is back from the UK

Sarah is back, safe and sound from the UK.

This is good, as I was beginning to sing to myself as I did chores at home, and even I think I have a terrible singing voice...

Home Alone

Sarah is out of the country, going to a friend's wedding in the UK. This meant I had a weekend to do some minor home improvement. Luckily, I realised that doing too much unsupervised could go a little wrong, so I limited myself to just putting up some pictures and finally clearing out all the junk in my car. I will leave the shelves until I have someone responsible to help.

I also have eaten far too much junk food over the last few days. Way, way too much......

Another peaceful weekend

Been a quiet week.

Spent the weekend pottering around the house, trying to finally get rid of all the boxes of cardboard in the basement. I am amazed at how much cardboard we have. With the mass buying of fans and air conditioners to keep is cool this summer, combined with all the other stuff we bought to keep the house going, we ended up with more cardboard boxes than basement...

Of course, now this is done, we are not allowed to buy any more stuff. Ever.