It's a PUMPKIN FESTIVAL!

Oh, boy! Sparky likes nothing better than a festival, ANY kind of festival! It's eatin' time! It's sample the local junky fair/festival cuisine time! Except Sparky had some outstanding chicken tacos from a stand that were the best she's ever had. Can't remember the name of it, but boy, were they good. Sparky ate TWO! The guy at the stand said they don't sell much Mexican food at their restaurant in town, but they know how to cook it. Yep, they sure do! Cole slaw, marinated chicken, spicy ranch chipotle sauce, mango...yum!

It's Hunsader's 2013 Pumpkin Festival in Bradenton! Three weekends in October and this was the last weekend for us to go, so we did. Eight dollars a piece to get in, five dollars for parking...It was terrific!

There were monster trucks...

Sparky had never seen what they did...Basically, they ran around and jumped over dirt piles like this one...Kinda cool, but not too thrilling for Sparky...

There were all the usual food stands---pizza, corn dogs, gourmet sandwiches, steak sandwiches, homemade ice cream, elephant ears slopped with some kind of pie filling on top of them.....

There were tons of craft booths, like over 100...Sparky went up and down the aisles checking each and every one of them out...Eldo was VERY patient while Sparky did that. He people watched....

Whittlin' the time away....

There was a farmer's market with all kinds of cool produce....like these squash..Never heard of 'em...

Beautiful peppers.....

There were some weird plants there...This is a tacca chantrieri....Hunh? It was ugly!

There was a butterfly house that cost 2.00 to get in. It was a donation for something, Sparky can't remember. There was an animal rehabilitation booth with cool owls...and a Bengal tiger needing donations for animal welfare and rescue of big cats and other animals...There was a chainsaw sculptor somewhere, but we missed him. How about a corn maze? It wasn't very high, it's tough growing corn in Florida. They should come to Indiana to see a REAL corn maze. We got lost in one a couple of years ago.  How about a rock climbing wall, live entertainment and more live shows? This was SOME festival!

There was a motocross (?) type of show. These guys were cool! and CUH-RAAA-ZY!

The dude is upside down!

And these guys were CUTE! No, not the motorcycle guys, couldn't tell with their helmets on...THESE little guys....They were eating turkey drumsticks as big as their heads! And they had cute little yellow sunglasses which they aren't wearing at the moment. They were watching a funny, entertaining show by the bluegrass band, the Sweeny Family. Corny jokes, but great banjo, fiddle, and guitar playing....

There were lots of photo opps in the pumpkin tents for having family photos taken. This little girl wasn't having any of it!

They had a pumpkin cannon, for heaven's sake....Yep! Shot pumpkins outta this thing that went for several football fields...

They shot it off several times, but Sparky missed every time....Got just the whoosh!

Oh, and there were LOTS and LOTS of scarecrows displays....

It was a picture perfect day....High right around 80.....A wonderful day for a festival.....We really enjoyed ourselves at our first time at Hunsader Farms. If you are interested, check out the website, there is a lot more to Hunsader Farms than just the pumpkin festival!

Bye for now……

Happy Halloween!

Off to see lots of little kids today….a parade in Venice where TONS of kids participated in a short parade walk and then trick or treated on Main Street in Venice…Here's Sparky' favorite costume from the parade, "Little Big Bird"…and her mama was dressed as Mama Chick…

Then we hurried over to St. Armand's Circle in Sarasota….There was supposed to be a "Thriller" dance put on by Sarasota High School…we didn't know when it started so we waited and waited and waited…In the meantime, we checked out the costumes all the way around…kids AND grownups…
This little guy was dressed like a blues brother and his twin, the same way. The twin made a getaway before Sparky could capture the two of them together. Of course, the sunglasses wouldn't stay on no matter what, the little guy kept taking them off, but he was still adorable!

The merchants on the circle got into the act….The kids trick and treated the stores on the circle….

This little gal was walking along with her mom, grabbing her throat and gasping like she was dying…

She was a natural at acting…her mom said she had no idea what she was pretending to be….But she was fine….

The Greek style statues on the circle were all decked out in their Halloween finery….

This one has a somewhat bemused expression, like, "Well, if you insist, I suppose I must wear it."

After waiting about two hours, we learned that the Thriller dance was not for another hour and a half, so we decided to leave, we'll return next year, IN COSTUME…(Oh, geez…I can see it now…she wants me to be Thing 2 with her Thing 1, sighs E.) We're going in COSTUME next year and make our presence known! laughs Sparky…(She gets more gutsy every year, E. sighs again. At least maybe I'll have a mask so nobody will know me.) Heck, nobody knows us now!

Lots of Halloween spirit in this town tonight…It was FUN! No trick or treaters in our neighborhood, it's kind of an old neighborhood, so that's why we headed out. Hope you had fun in YOUR neighborhood! See you later…...

Bird Brained and Duck Dynasty

Sparky is definitely getting more bird brained in her golden years. Forgetting stuff right and left, losing keys and wallet on a regular basis (in the house usually), difficulty remembering occasions in the past year that she SHOULD remember, enough that she consults Alzheimer's checklists on a regular basis, lol. So far, fairly normal aging of the brain, she surmises. Eldy is not alarmed yet, older sis is not alarmed, and friends have not broached the subject yet, so guess Sparky is still on track for navigating her way through life each day. Heck, she can still navigate to Michael's and Hobby Lobby without help (although she DOES have instructions on how to get to Hobby Lobby in her phone in case she forgets), so things are ok....

Speaking of being a bird brain, Sparky has birds on the brain at the moment. She is enjoying Florida birds more and more, and focused on taking photos of them. Today we spotted a FLOCK of about 20 wood storks, behind a shopping plaza in a lagoon area.  WOW! TWENTY woodstorks...they've been scarce lately...and scarce in general, because they are an endangered species. They must be making a comeback because the National Fish and Wildlife agency is thinking about reclassifying them as "threatened", a step down from being endangered...Sparky ran home to get her camera, hopped on her bike and boogied back to the back of the shopping center, where there's a little marsh ecosystem tucked behind the center. It attracts lots of birds, and today, it was the wood stork convention!

Wood storks used to be called a wood ibis...They have similarly curved bills like the little white ibis that are all over the place here in Florida.The wood storks look like turkeys or vultures a little bit. Their heads are blackish and bald like the vulture's. They have a BIG wingspan with big black feathers that you can see when they fly. The wingspan is anywhere from 5-6 feet across!

You can see the relationship between man's flight inventions and the streamlined birds, can't you? What aerodynamics!

Sparky took lots of shots, and had to stay a fair distance away because the birds were wary....

"Come any closer and I'll bite!"

Sparky just thinks these are really cool birds....Here's one in the grass....

And a couple mirroring each other....

A pair in the sun...

"Maybe she won't notice me if I hide behind Agnes."

There were a pair of cool ducks there...These are black bellied whistler ducks, a biologist friend says...Cool! Never heard of those!

Saw these same species of duck in a little pond on the Legacy bike trail a few days later...A mom and dad pair with four little ones who were popping up and down like little bobber corks for a good twenty minutes practicing their diving skills. Sarasota's own duck dynasty!  Each time one little duckling went down, the other three went immediately in succession right after each other--PLOP! PLOP! PLOP! The water churned a little bit, then POP! POP! POP! up they came, one right after the other. It was fun to watch!

Duck diving....

A wonderful part of a morning spent watching and photographing nature right across the street, well right across highway 70 from us.

                                                                           The end.....  :-)

Glow in the Dark Boobs and Nokomis Drum Circle

WHA-A-A-T?  Sparky is going to have a titillating blog today, (hehehehehe)...Yes, we are going to talk about boobs for a brief moment..after all, it IS Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Actually, this blog is going to be more about the Nokomis drum circle, which can be experience every Saturday night at Nokomis Beach in Nokomis. But plenty of bra tops and bikinis could be seen down here this evening. (WHERE? I didn't see very many bikinis at all, complains E.) AHEM! It was great to get back to the drum circle. We haven't been in months...We weren't sure whether it was still well attended in the SL-O-O-W summer months, so we stayed away...But Kristi, Eldy's daughter came down to Bradenton for a weekend of R & R with us, so that was one of the things she wanted to see.

But first, we got her in our pool....

Then, we took her to breakfast at the Anna Maria Island Gulf Gate Tiki Hut Bar and Grill which is undergoing renovations and expansion...It's just a really great atmosphere despite being under improvements. Not very many places can you eat your meal on the beach with the sand between your toes and watch dolphins swim by! The food is so-so, and the service can be very slow, but what the heck?! We've got all day, we retired!

We saw several dolphins swimming in the water aways out, but still a thrill to see them. And wouldn't you know, Sparky heads to the restroom just as we were about to leave and a WHOPPER dolphin comes in close to shore for Eldo and Kristi's benefit, and Sparky missed it! And no, they weren't in cahoots telling a whopper of a story, there really was one! But no one had a camera, so they didn't catch the moment.

And then, for her last night here, we took her to Nokomis Beach where Saturday nights reign as a well attended drum circle....We have the cast of characters down well....

The "Shaman"...at least that's what we call him...He performs ceremonial rituals as the sunset nears, chanting and using feathers and graceful movements in a prayer like manner blessing someone, something, we are not sure which or maybe it's both. This guy is BUFF for his age, don't you think?

And such a cool bowler hat....At sunset, he blows the conch shell....

The scarf ladies were there.....

The belly dancers were there....

The jester came...He's a retired school teacher...Teachers are game for just about anything to get  attention in the classroom, and sometimes we're still workin' it long after we leave the classroom..That enthusiasm for learning and life is still very much with us! (Oh yeah, I can attest to that, says E. Sparky is like a little kid often!)

The jingle skirted ladies were there in abundance....Masks were worn by several of the ladies, that seems to be the newest trend...

And a wee lass who's learning to participate at a very early age...She did a great job shaking her little jingle skirt right along with the grownups!

This little guy was having a pushup contest with another little boy....They sure get competitive early, don't they?

The cast of regulars in the rhythm section was awesome as always! And if you feel like drumming, bring your own set of drums.The tourist/participants along the sidelines had their own sets of drums and percussion, some very simple like a single tambourine, some very elaborate, like a set of bongos. Even little ones had their own.....

If you feel like dancing, get up and dance! All shapes and sizes have no qualms about getting out there and shaking their booties and other things as well....The rhythmic drumming really moves most of us..This little gal had had ballet classes, at first she was trying to pirouette and use her ballet moves to the hippy beat of the drums. Finally, she kicked off her shoes and just did her own thing to the beat.

Some of the little kids can really hoop it out there!

If you don't have a hoop, they are there for sale....

How about this glow in the dark bra top? That caught Eldy's attention! And everyone else's, too....It's hard to tell here, but it's NEON green and it was already starting to have a glow about it as she walked around.

It's a cool venue, that's for sure....People seemed to respect the circle for the most part, so people who had the hoops and the scarves had room to perform...

Although after awhile, Kristi said it seemed a little chaotic...Oh, yeah...That's what happens....Anything goes in the center, people performing, people pushing their children into the circle so they can film them, people taking pictures, people taking pictures of people taking pictures. It's a great photo op for everyone there! Love the two little girls on the right sort of oblivious to what's going on behind them...

We had a great time and were so glad the rainy season has ended this past week so that we had good weather this evening...We went from rain nearly every day in the afternoon and early evening from June, July, August and September, to five straight days of sunshine now...Temps are starting to come down, snowbirds are starting to arrive, and Eldy is complaining already about the traffic increase. You can really tell that October 1st was a starting date for snowbird arrival, at least for some...It feels funny to having gone from being a snowbird last winter to being full time residents and complaining about snowbirds coming this season! Maybe we'll meet some neighbors finally. Our street has been very empty since we moved here in June......We're ready to meet some people our age! Most of them are still up north, the full time residents that are here are in their seventies and eighties...Looking forward to "season" as they call it, experiencing it from the opposite end this winter.

Kristi left today..We'll have a quiet week, then Eldy's son, Brian, comes in for the weekend. He's going to get his dad out on the golf course a BUNCH!

Bye for now....Safe travels to our blogging friends who are on the move, wishes for great weather to our blogging friends who are staying put at the moment, and to everyone still reading, thanks for staying in touch. We miss the traveling, but we are loving our location and how our home is shaping up.....See ya later!