The pictures are of some of the big trees around the resort area.  Lots of Spanish moss.


2011 Thurs. Jan 13

Lazy morning, lunch here, then to Celebration. Walked around a little, went to a bakery that turned out to be a dog bakery - no lie! I almost ate some of the cookies they had on display! I read that the median income for people in Celebration is around $85,000, so I guess there are lots of rich people willing to buy their doggies special treats. Of course, we went to Starbucks, and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the library. Home for supper.


FL WEATHER: High 56 again, low tonight of 39, but that‘s the end of the cold snap, Thankfully! The normal temperature for now is 71. Tomorrow 66, Sat. 71, and up from there to 79 by Tuesday with scattered rain. They need it here - normal for the month is 2.4 inches, and they have had .5 so far.


FL NEWS: Manatees warm to FPL's makeshift heaters on Indian River:
Heaters set up temporarily by the state's biggest electric utility for manatees in the Indian River Lagoon ran last month for nearly all of what turned out to be a record-cold December, preventing a likely catastrophe for the vulnerable sea cows. Florida Power Light Co. constructed the $5 million system that heats the waters. Hundreds of manatees, an endangered species, congregated last month in Brevard County near the site of a recently demolished power plant that had long used river water as a dumping place for excess heat. FPL tore down the 1960s-era power plant which was on the west shore of the Indian River. For decades, the original plant had pumped as much as 700 million gallons of lagoon water through its internal boiler plumbing, heating it 12 degrees before discharging it back into the Indian River. An unintended result — and by today's thinking an unfortunate result — was that manatees adopted the plant as a winter refuge. Officials hope this month doesn't turn out to be a repeat of last January, which set many cold-temperature records and was deemed by the National Weather Service as "having one of the longest stretches of colder weather" on record. While the plant was still operating last winter, extremely cold weather drove 957 manatees to the site on Jan. 14, a gathering that set a record for the most sea cows seen in one place during a single day in Florida waters. An FPL spokesman said the peak observed this past December was about 500 manatees at one time.