Jan 15 2008
Tuesday’s Ten
Ten Great Things About Winter in Florida
1. Being able to go out to the backyard in the morning to pick an orange or grapefruit for breakfast.
2. If you don’t like the cold, just wait a day or two and it will be warm again. Cold weather comes in waves, and rarely lasts more than a few days.
3. Fresh strawberries — they’re a winter fruit here.
4. Snowbirds. Not tourists, real ones. We see such a variety of beautiful birds that have come here to winter.
5. Open windows. We have to run the air conditioning from May to October, and sometimes even in November. Being able to open the windows and let in fresh air is one of the things I most look forward to in winter.
6. Open curtains. I love bright, sunlit rooms. I can’t have them in summer since it gets too hot when you let the sun in. In winter one of the first things I do every morning is open blinds and curtains.
7. Gardening. It’s too hot and humid to spend time gardening in the summer. It’s not a good time for planting anyway, as not many can tolerate our summers. Late fall, winter, and early spring are the best times to garden, and our best growing seasons.
8. Soup. No matter what I’ve planned for dinners, if I hear of a cold front coming, I rearrange my menu to add soup.
9. Uncrowded theme parks. We’re not big on the theme parks, even though we live less than an hour from three biggies (Disney World, Sea World, Universal Orlando). However, when we do go, we like winter. Besides the fact that the weather is much nicer, the lines are also much shorter.
10. Manatees. They’re oddly beautiful and graceful. In colder weather they try to head for warmer waters. We never get tired of watching these gentle creatures.
