Perfect Weather

This is the setting from the deck. The sun is shining, surfers are in the water, people are on the beach. The temperatures are in the 70s. What more could one ask of January? We know it has been so cold at home, and hope these pictures will transport you to a few minutes of warmth.

Louise is knitting. Here she is on the deck with Meghan's second sock in hand.

Gary is painting. He has a new King Landing's scene that he is working on, and this potato harvest painting.

We have been out and around a little this week, enjoying the lovely weather. We spotted a pink tree on Merritt Island that caught our fancy.

This certainly catches the spirit of spring! The Spanish moss hanging from the live oak trees is also a sight to behold.

See how green everything is. Lastly we leave you with hibiscus blossoms that Gary captured a few days ago.

Florida is lovely this winter, and we wish we could share it with everyone in person.

In the Groove

It has taken us a while to get our act together, but we are finally into our routine. Gary had a birthday this week. Hedy, our landlady, baked a cake and built a painting desk for him to use.

Here we have Hedy with two chocolate cherry torte cupcakes.

Here is Gary, painting at his new table.

The weather has been incredible. Louise spent part of yesterday at the beach reading. Here is a picture of her foot in the sand.

And we leave you with the beach on a hot January day. No sweat shirts this year!

We have settled in and are enjoying the wonderful weather!

Florida

After what seemed like many days we reached Florida on December 31. Here we have the hotel in St. Augustine where we spent New Years Eve quietly, asleep before the ball dropped.

Since we have arrived Gary has become ill with the usual January bronchial cough and cold. Today we went to a walk-in clinic so he could get some medication for it. Hopefully it will do the trick. Here he is in his new Florida shirt:

Because of his illness and the tiredness from the trip, we have not ventured out much yet. However, it is lovely here. It's about 75 today with a nice breeze and lots of sun.

Here we have the waves,

The beach,'

And the palm trees. What more does one need?

More Christmas and Snow

The Coles moved on to Massachusetts and a day with Bob, Gina, and Bridget. Lots of gifts and good food were passed around, a special time for all. Here we have a couple of pictures of Bridget with new toys.

Here we see Gina in her new kitchen working on a delicious dinner.

There were two new sweaters on display, numbers 12 and 13 of the twelve sweaters of 2012.

This morning we headed out again on the journey. It was by far the hardest and worst day of driving we have ever had. We picked up the latest snow storm in New York, and proceeded down Pennsylvania's mountains in the snow and slush at 45 mph. Not a good day. We have rested for the night in Harrisburg and had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden. The temperature at Cocoa Beach on Wednesday is predicted to be 79. Is it possible?? We will keep you posted.

 Two scenes from traveling today.

A Trip to Portland

As the dust began to settle from Christmas day, Gary and Louise's attention was focused on the pending trip to Florida and the huge winter storm that was in the way. They packed all day Wednesday, and decided to drive to Jon's Wednesday night, ahead of the storm. Arriving in the wee hours of the morning, the snow was falling, and they hunkered down to enjoy family time with Jon, Erin and Emily. Gifts were exchanged and a lovely day was spent.

Emily enjoys a rest in the lap of her Grandfather.

Jon and Erin help Emily into a new sweater knit by the grandmother.

Emily is enjoying a new toy given to her by her cousins Meghan and Ryan.
With all the snow that settled into Portland over the past few hours, Jon did the task of cleaning up the yard, and then went to relax in the hot tub.

We have enjoyed our visit here, and will venture on tomorrow to Massachusetts to visit with Bob and his family.

A Cole Christmas

Christmas was celebrated at home this year with the exchange of gifts and good food to eat. We all gathered on Christmas day, and these photos are a record of it.

The size of the Christmas tree was small, but gifts for all surrounded it.

Ryan helped by Grampy prepare food by chopping potatoes.

Ryan enjoys a glass of eggnog after his kitchen chores.

Jo waits for new socks and the opening of presents.

Meghan practices her mean face as she waits for food and gifts, really not wanting to have her picture taken.

Gary received a new hat that pleased him.

Jessica gets a new chair.

Matthew finds a large box of candy.

Meghan looks happier as the gifts are opened.

 

Andrew finds something that he likes in the box.

Louise also finds candy under the tree.
A nice time was had by all, wonderful gifts were received, and all ended the day with full stomachs.

Winter Has Found Us

The snowless December has come to an end. We had about 14 inches of heavy snow hit us on Wednesday. Today we are having another storm. The heavy snow clings to the trees and gives an appearance of a winter wonderland. It looks like a Christmas card outside. On this shortest day of the year we share pictures of our pre-Christmas snow.

This is looking across the street at the height of the storm. The lilac bush is pretty heavy with snow.

Matthew brought his tractor to visit, making short work of a ton of snow.

Looking out the kitchen window at the cedar trees covered in snow.

Christmas is just a few days away, and then we begin the journey that will take us out of the snow!