Rain Comes To Buttonwood - Read All About It.

Here in normally hot and sunny Buttonwood Bay, it's neither hot nor sunny. Shock news, I know.

The heavy thunderstorm that was forecast days ago, has arrived on cue and it's raining like a wet weekend in Manchester. The Cafe By The Lake didn't open at noon and we've not seen a single person, car or golf cart go by since the weather took this downward turn earlier this morning.  We've had a bit of thunder and lightning and there have been tornado warnings in the area. We're keeping a close eye on Pixie, our own little Toto.

Florida doesn't do weather by halves.

Buttonwood Bay has buttoned (or battened) down the hatches and everyone is inside crocheting mailbags or sewing booties for the grandkids. Or gettin' it on maybe.  Hell I donno what oldies do when it's wet outside !  Doesn't happen often.

This has been our first experience of rain in the park for over a month. We did drive through a heavy rain shower last week on the way back from a Flea Market trip to Ft. Myers but as that wasn't IN the park, then it doesn't count !

As a result of the current storm, the temps have dropped from the high of 85F (29.4C) yesterday, to a relatively miserable 62F (16.6C) outside right now.  Given the rain, no one is really bothered as who wants to go outside anyway ?

So to cheer us all up, I thought I'd post a photo of a lovely, graceful bird on my blog today - but as I couldn't get a decent photo of Katherine Heigl, here is a photo I took of a vulture !


Hey I never said this would be a classy post.  Or truthful.

We were on our way to the Billie Swamp Safari in Everglades country (sort of) when we paused at a rest area for....well a rest.  And a pee.  Opps sorry, another bit of class gone.

There was a stretch of water nearby and a bunch (or colony or committee) of vultures was enjoying the remains of a dead fish. God I hope it was dead. Given that most of it's head was gone and it's body parts were being picked away by the vultures, I suspect it had become an ex fish some time ago.

They really are ugly birds.  Yes they do a vital job but why do they have to be so ugly ??  They are very common here in Florida as there is just so much road kill to go around.  I mean have you ever seen the oldies driving here ??  No roadside animal is safe.  Never mind roadside....even a deer sitting happily a few hundred yards away in a forest clearing isn't safe.

Oldies nod off at an alarming rate here and even wide awake ones still regularly drift off the road during senior driving moments.  Most of them probably took their tests (if indeed they took a test) back when cars were fueled by coal and you didn't so much start the engine as light it.

Bless.

Anyway, that's it for today.  It's wet.  It's cool.  It's freakin' miserable.  The mood is sombre.

Enjoy the vulture.