2017 Cruise - Tampa & Key West

I'm finally getting around to posting some of our photos from the last cruise. I've noticed that I often use my blog like a photo album. Since we don't print our photos out anymore, it's really nice for us to have a record. So I'm doing this as much for us as for you.
This cruise left from Tampa, which is one of our favorite ports to leave from. The path to the Gulf of Mexico is a long one and there is much to see on the way.

 I love this little light house.

The next morning after breakfast,

We spent some time on deck. Daniel was painting,

and I may have been staring out at the ocean without doing anything. It's one of my favorite past times on the ship...

When we got close to Key West, the pilot came on board

and a short while later, we were at the dock.

We didn't know what to expect in Key West after they were almost hit directly by Hurricane Irma, but to our delight, it had recovered well and the island looked as beautiful as the last time we were there.

On our last visit we didn't go into the Hemingway house and we decided that this time it was a must!

Of course, being the cat lady that I am, I loved seeing all the six-toed cats everywhere! I think there are 54 of them on the property.

Aren't the colors great?

Cats everywhere - even on the curtains...

and in the gift shop on all the shelves.

Back out on the street, we just wandered around and took some fun photos.

Daniel did a painting of this street. You can see it here on his blog. 

We even put our feet into the water, which was quite refreshing.

I remembered this old theater that is now a Walgreens. Isn't it a beautiful building?

Then it was time to get back on board to leave for our next destination: Puerto Rico, another island hit hard by a hurricane and still not fully recovered.

I'll have pictures of that in my next blog post.

❧ Silke

Winter in Savannah

Last Wednesday, something happened that was a first for us in Savannah. It snowed and the snow didn't melt right away!

Winlsow was in his element. He loved the snow! 

 I got to wear some of my knitted winter accessories! That also doesn't happen very often here... Can you see our cat Tucker in the background? He loves to go on walks with us, but he wasn't so sure about the snow...

Before it snowed, we had freezing rain which left beautiful icicle designs everywhere.  It also left most of the roads with a dangerous layer of ice, which closed down most bridges and some major roads in our area for a couple of days. 

And because everything (flowers in our yard and oranges on our neighbor's tree) was frozen, the Baltimore oriole came to our feeder instead. It stayed for a long time and showed off all it's beautiful color.

It took five days for the snow and ice to melt (this is unheard of for us) and temperatures to return to normal for our area. Now that it's milder again, we put all our more delicate plants outside again. The Christmas cacti in particular are happy and in full bloom!

I hope this was the last of really cold temperatures for us. Much of our yard froze back, but we are hoping everything will come back in the spring.

❧ Silke

Our Ramses

After 22 healthy and happy years, our Ramses died this last Friday. He was one of a kind and we are so lucky he stayed with us for so long! 

Born in New Mexico, he fully embraced our move to hot and humid Savannah. In fact, he loved the weather here more than anyone, always outside basking in the sun. The warmer the better.

Ramses loved our two previous dogs (Moe and Puna), but Winslow was his special buddy. After all, he raised Winslow from a puppy! Almost every night he would clean Winslow's eyes and make sure his eyebrows were in good shape. We never quite understood what the eyebrow thing was about, but Winslow loved it.

And often Winslow would return the favor and lick Ramses' head until his ears were inside out and he looked like he had plunged his head into water.  Tucker, Louie and Peabody (our other cats) have rallied around Winslow and keep him company. Winslow loves all "his" cats and luckily they love him.

Of course Ramses was also quite sophisticated and an avid art critic. I never knew if sitting on one of my paintings meant approval or disapproval.

As I looked through all our photos, I realized how few of them show Ramses from the front.

Most of the photos are like these. Wherever we sat, he tried to get onto one of our laps. He helped with computer work (this was the last photo I took of him),

keeping us warm,

helping us relax,

and he always supervised my knitting.

You were a special cat, Ramses. My lap feels quite cold without you here to warm it. And our house is strangely quiet without your constant chatter.

Until we meet again...

❧ Silke