Framedlight

 By late morning the two illest people felt like stirring themselves. It was mid October and all the Hallowe'en and pumpkin decorations were out in front of people's houses, so we drove a little way to see a house which was overburdened with hallowe'en gear. It might have been better to see it at night, but even in the noonday sun it looked pretty creepy.

 Overnight, Alan had started coughing and felt unwell. It had only been a matter of time I suppose before he also became ill. Jenny and baby Ray had had Covid very recently and Ben and Emma in the not too distant past. So it was only Alan, Anne and brother in law Ron who contracted it. It didn't really stop us doing anything, but did make it harder work and also tricky to try and keep safe around people. We had stayed overnight in Ben and Jenny's house and in the morning went for a walk around the neighbourhood and down to Lake Apopka. The banks were under water but there was a pier that we could still get to and observe an enormous alligator swimming past with its his tail held oddly in the air. There was also an osprey and an umbrella that must have suffered in the hurricane.

 Florida is not just Disney. There are some fabulous state parks, full of water, Cyprus trees, manatees, birds, snakes and other animals. But hurricane Ian had passed through a couple of weeks previously and now there was just too much water. With the banks awash most of the parks were closed. We did manage a couple of walks to local suburban parks in our first two days in Florida, one of which was Liberty Park where egrets and ibis were hanging out. We could not go that far before the paths became waterlogged. On the Sunday afternoon we drove down to see our nephew and niece, Ben and Jenny and baby Ray at their lovely house in Oakland, a very pleasant location close to lake Apopka, a real wildlife destination. Their back yard is very pretty and sits under the shadow of a huge oak tree festooned with Spanish moss. It had suffered a lightning strike during the hurricane but seemed to have had no ill effects.