A watched flower bud does sometimes bloom Well, as of yesterday (4/29) we arrived  back to the real world and found only a couple of snow piles remaining in the front yard. The Daphne bushes are in full bloom along the driveway, which made the long drive home worth it.

We drove through heavy fog on I-77 in Virginia on Sunday right in the area where there was a big car accident four weeks ago.

Yesterday we traveled through the fog again on I-81 over the mountain in Pennsylvania.

Some people were still driving 70 miles per hour through the fog with no lights on.

There are still some idiot drivers on the road. I couldn’t see if they were on their cell phones or not but I’m sure some were.

We got our last out-of-state license plate for our contest on I-81 just before we got on Route 12 North. It was New Brunswick.

We got Labrador-Newfound-land the night before in the restaurant parking lot. We were five states short of 50, which we will put down as red states next year.

We did end up getting the tough one, North Dakota, but not Hawaii.

Three years ago on Sanibel Island I found a Night Blooming Cereus plant growing up a Palm tree in front of the Sanibel Book Store right on Periwinkle Way.

It had buds for a few flowers last year but I didn’t think they were ready to bloom for a couple days.

I went back the next day and found they had bloomed during the night but wilted before I got there that morning.

This year I checked the plant on our first week when Karen stopped to get a couple new books, but there were no signs of any flower buds.

I didn’t go in and check the plant again until our last Tuesday. We were biking uptown and saw that one flower had bloomed the night before and three others were in full bud.

There were a few other flower buds that were much smaller so they don’t all bloom the same night.

I went over at nine that night and the blooms were bigger, but not out yet. I slept in a chair until midnight and went back over with camera in hand.

As I pulled into the parking area I could see that three flowers had opened up. One was up about ten feet but two were at about five feet.

I shot several pictures and looked at the blooms carefully. I had to get up early the next morning to bird off the island so it was a short night.

I went to the bookstore first at about 6:30 a.m. The flowers were still out, but I don’t think they lasted much longer after the sun came out.

Last year I found a small piece of that plant on the ground under the tree and brought it home in a bread bag.

I planted it in a pot and it grew like crazy. Now it has all kinds of arms and legs, some over four feet long, but no buds yet.

If it is anything like my Orchid Cactus—which I think is related—it took about three years before I got my first bloom. Now it blooms twice a year. I’ll have to wait and see.

Maybe we’ll have a Night Blooming Cereus party. My Orchid Cactus has a bloom today which is just about to open.

There was no fall-out of birds on Sanibel like there was last year so the birds just trickled in a few at a time.

One bird that you could see every day on one of the lighthouse trails was a pair of Screech Owls.

You could usually see a red phase female sitting in the nest hole and her mate, a gray phase, sitting in a bush nearby.

Anyone new to the area could be shown these birds. They are usually heard but not seen, so this was always a treat.

I believe this is the same pair that had their chick taken by a corn snake a couple years ago.

I never did see the chick this year, but I did see the female come out and catch an anole and take it back in the hole one morning.

She was always calling, even when she was in the hole, but the male was a silent partner.

One morning I caught her out hunting in a sunlit spot which gave me a photo opportunity.

We went into Ding Darling WMA several nights while we were there and never missed seeing the Roseate Spoonbills.

The largest number we saw was 48 one night, sitting on the sandbar by the observation platform along with two White Pelicans and about one hundred Willets.

The last night through we saw about 20 spoonbills, mostly on the downside of the road in perfect sunlight.

Just up the road was a lone Wood Stork feeding right beside the road.

The fact is, if you didn’t pull over to the left side of the road you would never have seen it.

The noseums made it a little unbearable to stand out very long and take pictures, but I got a few.

Turkey season is open, but that’s another story. See ya.