to be ready to move things if it became necessary. Those things included a large portrait that had just recently been hung on a wall in the kitchen/family room. After an hour spent smashing the house the wind died down and Herman was able to go outside and cut the screen away from the dangling pole. Five minutes later the wind picked up again and tore down the screen on the other side of the house. When Wilma moved on we found that the price to replace the screened enclosure was exorbi- tant. We decided to see if we could do without it. That decision opened up a whole new world for me. THE BIRD LADY OF CORAL SPRINGS Our house is a large lot. The back of it faces onto a canal and a golf course. Sitting in the kitch- en and looking out the large window onto that scene is really beautiful. And it is a great place for Now we house for my favorite pastime – bird watching. One day a pelican showed up, then another and another. Pretty soon there were four of them. We have blue herons standing proud and still in the canal, waiting for an unsuspecting fish. The herons are huge and regal, when they take off their wings must be five feet wide. Once the sky was filled with turkey vultures; they are scavengers that keep the waterway clean but so many of them were a little scary – like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. I wouldn’t want to be a mother walking a baby carriage with all of them around. One day recently four very large hawks were circling above the house. All of a sudden one of them dived toward our swimming pool then swooped right up to the glass door to our living room. He hit a high window over the door, bounced off and then flew at the kitchen window where I was sitting.
A VISIT FROM WILMA In 2005 we had an unwelcome visit from one of the most destructive hurricanes in Florida history. The storm wandered across the Yucatan Peninsu- la in Mexico and then headed straight for Florida across the Gulf of Mexico. At various times it was a Category 5 hurricane, slowed to a Category 1, and by the time it hit us it was a Category 3 storm with wind speeds of 120 miles per hour. At the time the patio and the swimming pool behind our house were enclosed by a large screen. I do not get along well with insects. When Wilma arrived she decided to do some redecorating. The wind blew the screen apart and wrapped it around one of its damaged supporting poles. Then for an hour the storm used that pole to pound furiously on the glass doors on the back of the house. That pole was a good thirty feet from the house. Fortunately the windows and doors are fitted with storm-re- sistant glass and the glass held. I didn’t know the glass was so impervious at the time. Like an idiot I stood behind those windows and watched Wilma try to knock down the house. I had the idea I was protecting the nice things in my house. I wanted
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