Pelican

I've been laying low these last few days giving my wrist sprain a chance to heal. First time I've ever experienced a joint sprain without a fall, very strange. It feels better after a few days rest but is still a little tender in places. I've been able to swim and bike though with no discomfort, so it shouldn't be long.

I spent a little time in Photoshop CS4 this morning. Quite a learning curve, but I'm getting there....slowly. Watching lots of video tutorials and reading some as well. Now if I could only remember the steps...... This a cropped shot of a brown pelican from Key West last month. Had to remove some other birds and also played around with curves and levels a bit.

A few of the Peace River pickleball gang are on their way to Tanglewood later this afternoon. May have to swing a paddle...lightly. Best of all, Chris arrives again on Monday for another brief stay. Won't be long before we are heading back north, likely early May.

Sandhill Crane and Chicks

There is a small pond right next to the road, not far from the back entrance to Tanglewood actually, that has been home to a pair of sandhill cranes for the last two years. They were seen nesting last month. I rode past on my bike today to discover that there are now two chicks in the pond as well. Seems to be a fair bit of bird activity around this pond with quite a few ibises, egrets, herons and grackles in the area. I also noticed a gator in the pond too, so hopefully these cranes are on their toes. Hoping to go back again with my big lens in the coming days to get a better picture.

I was out on my bike this morning doing a couple of loops around Lake Jackson and popped by the pond on the way home. Had my 5D2 in the rear carrier but only with my 24-105 lens on. Not as close as I would have liked.

All comments appreciated.

Heartland Senior Games (Pickleball)

Pickleball ruled at Tanglewood for the last two days. Friday was mens and ladies doubles matches. Saturday was mixed doubles matches. We witnessed some great matches and, as a photographer, referee and player (all at different times of course), I managed to get a ringside seat for most of the games. We met many new friends and got reacquainted with some old ones too. I think this event was a definite homerun for Tanglewood and my thanks to Wayne Roswell and the many, many volunteers for helping to bring it all together.

I only played on Friday as my mixed doubles partner was back in Ottawa bringing in the bacon unfortunately. Travis Weaver, a great player and friend, who we met in Peace River last year, carried me as his mens double partner for much of the day. He even had to come down into my age 50-59 age group. What a guy! Anyway, I think we played 10 games on a very long and hot day. We even managed to take the silver medal. Not too shabby.

As the guy who is normally taking the photographs, I don't usually get to be the subject of many of them. My thanks to Roy Boisvert for sending me the one you see here. Nice job Roy! For those of you looking for my tournament photos, they are now available for viewing on my Smugmug page. Just click the title of this blog entry and you should be sent there.

Lastly, tournament results are now online and can be viewed at:

http://usapa.org/tourney/bracket_list.php?tname=heartland09

Pickleball Lessons

Rich and Donna Donald arranged to have Dick "Mo" Movessian from The Villages come to Tanglewood to give some intermedate and advanced pickleball lessons on Friday and Saturday afternoon. Both classes were filled with eager students looking for tips and strategies on how to improve their game. I attended the first session on Friday afternoon just to take some photos and learned a lot just from watching. Saturday's class was a lot of fun and we all have things to practise now before any tournaments. One thing I learned and have been already incorporating into my game, is that there is more to banging away at the ball to make a point. I am trying more of a finesse game now and my game seems to have come up a few notches as a result.

Thanks Mo for a great lesson and thank you Rich and Donna for organizing things. Now if I could only find your website!

Cancer Fundraiser

Yesterday was a fabulous day, as it started to warm up again with temps in the low 70sF. Lots of people playing pickleball again in the morning. I opted out today and instead took a few more pictures. Many of those pictures have been posted to my Tanglewood gallery on Smugmug already, so please check them out. I also took a little sample HD video with my Canon 5D2 which you should see below. Certainly not academy award material but it gives a good idea of my camera's video capability. I'm happy with it.

Many of us joined in a bike ride around lake Jackson as part of a cancer fundraiser for Tanglewood. We left around 11 am. Most of the group followed the sidewalk around the lake counter clockwise, a distance of about 12 miles. I decided to try and hang with Leonard Wright as we toured the lake on the roadway going clockwise. Now Leonard is 63 years old. He rides a nice Trek 5200 road bike and had already done 32 miles with the Highland Peddlers before we even left Tanglewood. He sprinted off the front of the group and I stayed with him. We chatted all the way around the lake passing the rest of the group twice. We did 2.25 loops of the lake to the main group's one loop. We turned around and joined the group once we had passed them 3 times. I had a blast. We averaged 20 mph for the ride. Leonard claims I pushed him the while way but I think he was just being polite. I was happy with my performance given my lack of distance riding since last summer. There was a fabulous lunch waiting for us on the pool deck upon our return. Most importantly, we raised $1400!

Pickleball Tournament

We had a great tournament at Tanglewood today. The weather was a little cool to start with this morning but it warmed up into the high 60sF by the afternoon. All four courts were busy with the men's matches conducted on two courts and the ladies matches on the other two courts.
Competition was good on both sides with many hard fought matches. All entrants received a goodie bag containing a free ticket for lunch, a raffle ticket and other nice things from the tournament sponsors.
Travis and I played reasonably well but lost our first draw on the "A" side of the tournament to Marcel and Al unfortunately. That put us on the "B" side against Bob Hughes and his partner Pat. We were fortunate to beat them after losing the first game. Our next oponents were Bill and Marvin. We won that match in two straight games which then pitted us against Jimmy and Jim in the gold medal match on the "B" side. They are both great Tanglewood players and outplayed Travis and I in the "B" final. It was a long day and neither of us had much left for that last match. Travis and I both walked away with the silver medal which we thought was pretty good for not having played too much together yet this year.

Rich Donald (pictured above) and Al Goldberg won the mens "A" event in a hard fought final match. Congratulations to them. Sorry, but I don't have all the results. I was too busy playing, taking photos and having a good time. We even had our own clowns who managed to keep everyone in stitches with their antics. Good job girls!

Highland Hammocks State Park

We played pickleball again this morning. The Peace River gang came over to play, so Travis and I got to play a few games together before we partner up for the Tanglewood tournament. Some great games even in the wind and cold. Stan and Sally also came over for the first time. It was really great to see all the old gang again.


After lunch, I headed out to Hammond Hammocks State Park which is not far from Tanglewood. I walked a number of the trails over a 3 hour period. This is a very nice park and includes a campground. Some of the highlights of the park include a 1000 yr old live oak tree and several boardwalks over swamp area. Didn't see much in the way of wildlife, likely because of the time of day, early afternoon. Next time, I'll try early morning or just before dusk. The base of the oak tree is pictured above. It measures 36 ft around at the base. Note the brick reinforcement on the left side of the tree. Similar reinforcement is also present on the opposite side of the tree.


This evening we had a fire ring in the Outback area of Tanglewood. The park provided refreshments, hot dogs and music. Residents brought their own condiments and snacks. Apparently, this fire wasn't as well attended as usual, likely because of the cool weather. We all had a great time though.

Boating at Tanglewood

I stopped by the lake in Tanglewood after pickleball the other day and saw about a dozen people on shore prepping their one metre long radio controlled boats for the morning races. I watched for about 15 minutes and was amazed at how responsive and fast these boats really are. Beginning sailors were given a head start in the race with the more experienced sailors bringing up the rear. Boy, these boats are fast too! Everyone was very friendly and had no objections to me taking a few photographs.

I managed to get in a great swim yesterday morning and then played a little pickleball with the "big dogs". We even won a few games against some of the best players in the park. I was pooped after a very active morning. Buddy and I enjoyed a nice afternoon snooze before joining friends at a local Mexican restaurant for supper.

Thankfully, temperatures and humidity have dipped overnight in this part of Florida at least. Forecast is for cooler temps for the next week or so. Still very pleasant though.

Tanglewood Outback RV Resort

We arrived at Tanglewood this morning around 11 am. It is located about 65 miles south of Orlando on Hwy 27. This community is huge! There are lots of prefab mobile homes in the park and then a separate RV community known as the Outback. The lots are huge with a cement patio along the side of the RV and a picnic table on every site. We were a little disappointed that the grass wasn't mowed before we got there but the park has lawn mower available for residents to use at no charge. I cut the grass and we had the motorhome setup and ready in less than an hour.

Rich and Donna Donald popped by to say hi, as did Bob and Cathy Hughes. We met them all at Peace River last year and enjoyed seeing them again. Our sites are only about 100 yds apart. This afternoon Chris and I walked over to the pickleball courts and played for about an hour. The courts are very nice. We also checked out the pool and weight room facilities. Everything looks fabulous.

There is a super Walmart just down the street from us and lots of other great shopping as well.

I've linked the Tanglewood website to the title of this blog entry. To be redirected, simply click on the title of this entry.

I'll try to get some pictures up in the coming days.