New blog, new site, new home on the internet. Hope to see you there!

For some time now I've used Blogger, and it's been there for me when I've needed to laugh, cry, when I wanted to share something funny or sad or... well, just whatever.  There are a lot of memories embedded here.  But it's time to move this scattered book of memories to somewhere linear, clean, with a fresh, new start.  No worries, all here will remain.

www.summershaddow.com

What will it contain?  Well, just about everything.  I'll be posting the way I always have just within one place, one site, and one blog.  No more splitting content by topic or theme.  I'm simplifying things by just having a place to speak my mind without having people navigate from one blog to another.

Given time there will be pages added, because it's essentially a blog and site both, but my main focus will be on blogging and, at times, photography (when the body is willing).

At the moment the blog is fairly bare, but... you guys know me.  That will change pretty quickly as my health slowly improves.  The fireflies will still dream, this free spirit will still strive for that freedom, and Boo's Juicy Bits will find a page of its own for diet and overall health blogging.  And of course, me being me... there will always be the crap I spew from time to time. ;)  And the best part of all of that is that they may end up on their own page... but within ONE place on the web I now call home.

I do hope to see you all there!

SWFL Eagles ~ Fly Away 5.3.17

Oh my.... this was the last time E9 was seen before migrating.  Made me cry like a baby.  I watched this beautiful eagle since he hatched.... and wow, what an experience.  Beautiful to watch an eagle soar, and E9.... was no exception... absolutely beautiful.  Stay safe, E9....

A young eagle sets out on his life's journey....

When I first heard there was an eaglet hatching on a live cam.... I was more than a little intrigued.  In fact, I wondered how this could be.  NOW I wonder how I didn't know that wildlife 'live cams' where an actual thing.  I also didn't know how hooked I was going to get.  From the moment E9 hatched... I couldn't stop watching.  I was never far from my phone, iPad, or laptop.... and, if nothing else, would hear if something were going on.  The sound of the wind across the cam mic became eased me to sleep most nights.

The below is what I posted at our SWFEC forums today.

As I write this, it is 10:50am nest time. Do you hear that wind blowing across the cam mic?  It's a melancholy sound today.  I can't tell you how many times I've fallen asleep at night hearing that, seeing E9 as a tiny dust bunny that we saw only brief glimpses of at first, to seeing him sleep on a branch with or without mom and dad in the nest tree.  I'm so used to this sound that it's kind of become a normal sound in my own home and something that has made me fall asleep easily at night... a blessing for someone with insomnia the majority of the time.

But that sound makes me feel a little sad today.  Maybe E9 is just a short distance away exploring and trying to hunt, visiting other areas. Maybe he's set out on his life's journey and on his way to being exactly what he was meant to be. I suppose there's always a chance that we'll hear him fly in, squeeing loudly. But there's a chance we may not. I do imagine him, in those last moments before instinct urges him to go, spying something that calls him in the far distance and heading out, squeeing.....

That sound, the wind, it preceded his hatch... and it will be one of the last things we hear before the cams are shut down until next season.  Even with the sound of the wind the nest tree and area are infinitely more quiet in E9's wake.... and that quiet.... I can hear that too.