And we wanted to just highlight with pictures the wonderful time in the desert with all of it's abundant wildlife right in our own backyard. It was a warm winter and we appreciated more than ever our home with all of it's natural beauty.
First and foremost, our gorgeous cardinals that grace us with their appearance all day long as we feed them:
We have many males and females which we have named "Jamie and Claire"(you must read the Highlander Series to understand). And as I, Willow swing in my hammock every morning with my wake-up coffee, Jamie sits on the top of the lemon tree and sings to me:
And then there is the hawk who sits on the fence and scares all of the other birds away...
The Bobcat that we happened to catch on a wildlife camera below our pool area:
And then a younger bobcat walking away down our sidewalk after playing on our back patio:
Then the fox right outside our kitchen on the front patio at early dawn:
The ducks who just happened to land in the swimming pool with a big splash and then strutted around...
And the always stinky, curious javelina who like to eat our cactus...
This one came right up to Richard on the outside of the fence and got a good sniff of him--we wonder if they think we smell as bad as we think they do:
Then they sauntered away down our sidewalk till next time:
Spring was magnificent as all of our fruit trees (lemon, orange, peach, lime and grapefruit) blossomed and overwhelmed us with their fragrance. And like I said, we enjoyed and appreciated our desert home more than ever, but now....
We are back on Ecstasea adapting to life in harmony with wind and waves once again. Esea took her long winter nap in Aqua Dulce in southern Spain. She wintered well and we had solar panels installed on the bimini.
We had intended to get over our jet-lag, get our sea legs and head straight to Portugal. But strong wind and waves just were not going to allow us to head southwest for many weeks, so we surrendered and headed northeast. We spent our first full moon sailing to the island of Formentera (one of the Balearic islands). Mother Moon hid in and out of the clouds all night but still gave us so much light to sail by and as always, She was magical!!!
Then we went up to our favorite island of Ibiza for a few days to visit some of our favorite places and go to the Hippy Market.
Then on up to our other favorite island of Mallorca. The weather here (as everywhere) has been odd this spring with much cooler temperatures and much rain. So we have spent more time in port in Palma than usual. And since we love Palma and have many friends there, we have enjoyed our time here a lot.
In front of the (barely seen) Cathedral in the background...
We have finally been anchored out in Cala Egos for a few days and for the first time this summer (it's mid June) we were brave and jumped in the sea. And we were even braver as we actually stayed in and swam---but it is Soooooooo COLD!!!!!
And now we have thought of a new adventure---we are going to sail to Valencia, leave the boat, rent a car and take a road trip to northern Spain and tour the wine country!
And so...we will continue from there and let you know our favorite wines along the way....
One of our favorite restaurants in Palma called "Wineing".
