Relaxing in fresh water

My last posting was on Leisure Diving and so I had a longing to get in some water myself. So a friend and I took a short trip to Morrison Springs in Walton County, Florida. It's a natural fresh water spring that is beautiful. It's cool water is too cool for alligator or snakes, so it makes for some nice time in the water in a natural setting without fear of any unwanted reptiles hanging around.

Here are some photos I snapped while there. Of course scuba divers were diving down into the caves of the springs. I think that would be fun, too,  but I can't scuba dive. Regardless, it was enjoyable getting wet and cooled down in the cool, fresh, clear, spring water. The opening to the spring was located a few feet to the left of the floating deck. If you can see the water is slightly darker a few feet to the left of the deck in the second picture below. I heard it went down 80 feet. Surrounded by cypress trees, there was lots of sun, splashing, kayaks, canoes, swimming and paddle boarding, but no leisure diving going on, doggone it!

Hope you're having a nice time relaxin somewhere.

I like this diving!

I don't know how I found this site but I love it. LeisureDive.com.   
What I find so cool is the 'leisurely look' while you're jumping into a pool or something soft. I was thinking, could I look cool jumping into a pool? And also important is the photographer has to snap the picture at just the right moment and it can't be blurred.

 I was thinking what I could do for my leisure dive shot.... I came up with a few ideas.

1. Have arms outstretched as if yawning with my eyes closed.
2. Dive off backwards with my arms behind my head and my legs crossed.
3. Have my dog jump first then me dive in afterwards like I'm trying to catch his leash.
4. Casting a fishing line while diving and looking leisurely.

I wish I could come up with more ideas.  How about you?  Have any ideas for a leisure dive ?


This is my old way to dive. I think leisure diving is much more classy and creative, don't you?

Diving in the old fashion way

Photo credit: d3designs from morguefile.com

The gentle, country plumber

Have you ever had to call upon the services of a plumber? Have you ever had to call twice in one week? I recently had and the experience turned out to be a very pleasant one in the end.

I needed a bathroom toilet repaired as soon as possible as it had been leaking apparently for some time without my knowledge and caused floor damage hidden under the carpeting.  I called a recommended plumber who lived not too far from me in the country. But I was so sleepy and tired that I couldn't stay awake while the plumber was in the bathroom doing his repairs.

Bathrooms can have slow leaks and mess up your flooring

Photo credit: jade from morguefile.com

When I woke up, the plumber was gone. He left without getting paid and I couldn't find where he'd left an invoice.  I called his phone number and his wife answered and said he knew that I was asleep, so he didn't wake me.  Wow!  Now that would have never happened if I lived in the city. I called him again that week because I thought the toilet was leaking again. He came out again and checked, but it was dry and he offered to do the work to replace some of my flooring as well. What good skills to have. I lucked up on a nice, country plumber.

In the country I find there's extended and exercised a little more trust between people than in the city.  I like that. I did drive over and paid him the next week plus a tip for being so thoughtful, along with a jar of homemade jelly to his wife. 

I saw mermaids in Florida

 I finally got to visit a place in Florida I've been wanting to visit for some time.  It's away from the crowds of Disney World, where you can enjoy Florida the way it used to be in a simpler, older, slower, more natural setting.  I visited Weeki Wachee, the home of the world famous mermaids in Spring Hill, Florida about an hour North of Tampa.  The mermaids were so amazing and  graceful swimming underwater.  It was all I thought it to be.  Just thinking about the year of mermaid training in order to be beautiful Weeki Wachee mermaids to breathe and swim like a graceful mermaid in a cool natural spring setting surrounded by turtles or fish or manatee in the spring.  During the show, held the mermaid theatre, the mermaids open their mouths to sing, and even eat and drink a coke underwater.  I don't know about you, when I'm underwater, I gotta keep my mouth shut or I'm gonna get waterlogged and sink. But not mermaids.  I'm still wondering how can anyone eat and drink while underwater?  To me, see that was an absolutely amazing feat on top of the unique water show. 

 If you want to see something different in a natural spring water setting, visit the mermaids yourself. Here are a few photos I took. Here is the website to Florida State Parks. - click on the Weeki Wachee Springs Park.  Personally, it was well worth the trip and quite unique to see.  Enjoy.

 

Let me tell you while watching this underwater show in person the colors underwater were very bright and vivid. My camera photos didn't do justice to the underwater colors of the mermaid's costumes nor their flowing hair. They were lovely tail-finned underwater ballerinas and the water was absolutely crystal clear.  

  View this video, Part 1 of 6 one of the mermaid shows at Weeki Wachee.




My next adventure is to lazily float down the Suwannee River in Florida along the Suwannee Wilderness River Trail in a houseboat.

Virginity

Today's the day of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in England.  Did you know Kate is supposed to be a virgin in order to marry William?  My guess is in order to not have any surprises about the bloodline and parents of any children born of Kate, it's necessary she be a virgin.  I don't know of any medical tests to prove virginity, but maybe there is an examination to prove a woman's hymen hasn't been broken. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.  And by the way, sex involves more than intercourse. So, I was just thinking and wondering about virginity.

A royal prince for a lovely princess

Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

The aroma of love is in the air

Photo credit: darnok from morguefile.com

Protecting and guarding your virginity status until marriage in today's culture is not important as it was a few short decades ago.  Virginity used to be something a young woman held onto proudly until her wedding day, reserving her wedding bed as sacred and shared only with her husband. I would think this would make any man proud to know he was his wife's one and only. But now days, from both sides, being virgins is not expected, spoken of, nor barely considered.  What's changed over the past couple decades?  I will tell you what I think has changed.  Marriage isn't taken as seriously as it once was, and sex has become a recreation rather than being a sacred act of sharing your body with your spouse.  I also think fast times, easy travel, the internet, cellphones, movies, living together, has all precipitated us in moving away from "until death do us part" and these are just a few things which have influenced changes in importance and focus away from being a virgin. Today, it's sex without long term commitment. When you get the urge, you do it without any second thought.  If the sexual act produces a pregnancy, then that unwanted pregnancy can easily be terminated without any emotional attachment. End that life. Virginity is dying, it doesn't matter any more about chastity or saving something meant to be spectacularly special between two people for a lifetime. Just a few decades ago, that was the norm, but today it's practically history, and to know someone with their virginity in tact until marriage is a rare occurrence and rare find. For the class of a few who choose to wait in keeping their virginity until marriage, I have to say is a very .  Still, royal families regard virginity as an important mandatory for marriage, or for this one, and the bloodline of the future king or queen of England.  I hope the young royal newlyweds have a beautiful, sweet life together as husband and wife and have the satisfying pleasure knowing they waited each for the other.

Here's a link to 11 benefits to wait to have sex until after you're married. I especially like the numbers 7 through 11 the most.  

The dance of life- two people coming together as one

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Lady Banks and blooms

Lady Banks

It's Spring time around here, and if I overlook the pollen that's giving me fits, it's so colorful viewing the array of flowering bushes and trees. Here are some photos I've taken.

 Wisteria

Flowering Crab Tree

Knockout roses

There are many more blooms coloring the landscape like azaleas, tulip trees, and much more, but I just wanted to share these colorful photos I took while out and about.  Spring has surely sprung. So beautiful! I thank God for His seasons of robust and delightful blooms and aromas.

Fat Girl

To everyone else on earth, it was another day.  But yesterday was the day Fat Girl was put to rest. I had to make the decision to end her misery. It was not an easy decision. I remember the day Fat Girl came on the scene. She came into the world rounder and fatter than any newly born pot belly pig I'd seen, so it was a no-brainer her name had to be Fat Girl.  She was round and quite the good, close daughter to her mother, Elgie.  She learned very well the motherly traits and had a litter of her own. She was strong, and could stand her ground. She could fight the male pigs if they got in her way. They learned not to mess with her.  She was docile and quiet and loved to eat like any healthy pig.  We had an understanding all along. She could take care of herself and I saw to it she had what she needed, and she lived a very peaceful life and was very much a part of the country landscape since 1995.

I remember a few years ago I borrowed a little baby goat for a day to see if I'd like to add a goat to my little farm menagerie, and how other animals would get along with it. After a while I couldn't find Fat Girl.  I looked and looked and later found her in the woods busily building a nest of leaves and twigs. There was no way she was pregnant at the time, so I could only think her motherly instinct clicked in and she was making a nice nest for the little baby goat.  She kept with it and didn't abandon that nest for days even thought I decided to return the goat that same day.

Fat Girl

This photo does not do Fat Girl any justice at all. She was having a bad hair day. Fat Girl was getting old and it was impossible to cut her toenails.  But she loved to have her belly rubbed and to be rubbed all over with oil making her pretty. She never gave me one second of trouble.  Only those who loved their pets can truly understand. I know God does, and I did what I did because I loved her, one of God's creations that I'd had the fortunate opportunity to care for and love for sixteen years. The tears haven't stopped yet.  She was Fat Girl.

I don't think I'm gonna stop missing her.