Looking at the Neighborhood...

 The past week or so has brought several occasions for me to take admiring glances at our neighborhood.

As you can see, it is very park like and lovely.  We enjoyed these same landscapes for 23 plus years when we lived here previously.  Those who follow me know that I enjoy what nature has to offer, whether here or elsewhere.  Some of my posts over that past several years have to do with northern scenery.  Which I also enjoy.  But every visit we made back to Florida over the past three years reminded me of how very lovely Central Florida is, both naturally and as planned by developers down the decades.

Both of our neighborhoods are what you would call planned suburban.  The one we lived in previously  was designed in the late 1970s, with a golf course at its center.  No, I do not golf.  But there is nothing as pretty as a well maintained course.  Our current neighborhood does not have that same feature in it, but it may have learned some things from earlier neighborhoods in the area.  Certainly by the early 1990s, the number of people golfing on a regular basis slacked way off.  And those who live here in Central Florida can rattle off the names of a number of courses that were here then and are here no longer, including Sabal Point Country Club, our son John leaded to golf, and Sweetwater Country Club.  Bothe of th one are now in fact newer streets with newly built homes and other amenities.

But as I said in an earlier post, I don't know of anywhere else where the general scenery as one drives along is so parklike and soothing.  Retention ponds are both necessary and mandated by local governments for the soughing off of excess water when we get our Florida rains.  Most of those are situated so that they not only reflect the blue skies and palm trees, but are also home to many water birds, and usually have a fountain feature somewhere in the middle of them.  And this is available to enjoy all yer long, since the pipes don't freeze and the ponds don't ice over.

This week, several neighbors reported seeing mama bears with their cubs, in they yards, not far from ours.  Annie and Steven see them on nearly a weekly basis on their ring camera.  And they live within walking distance of the high school in a neighborhood, not out in the country.  Red shouldered hawks, osprey, and bald eagles are all around (we like looking at the bald eagle nest when we go to Arby's for a fast meal).  Yes, natural beauty is available to people in many other places, but it seems more generally accessible here.  And it is one of the many reasons I enjoy living in Central Florida.