February - Chocolate Lovers' Month!

From Gilbert & Sullivan's 'Pirates of Penzance': For some ridiculous reason, to which, however, I’ve no desire to be disloyal,
Some person in authority, I don’t know who, very likely the Astronomer Royal,
Has decided that, although for such a beastly month as February,
	twenty-eight days as a rule are plenty,
One year in every four his days shall be reckoned as nine and twenty."

While some people dislike February as not only the dead of winter but the hardest month in the calendar to spell, I've always liked it for one significant reason.  I was born in February.  I turned 62 this year, which age is especially marked by my new ability to receive Social Security  payments.  I anticipate receiving the first check in April.

On my birthday (the 9th) I was treated to a lovely visit by Heather and a very pleasant lunch with her and Bobby.  They brought me a special gift - "Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book."

 If you haven't seen this fun and whimsical book I heartily suggest you treat yourself to it - or at least look it up.  Just like some people keep flowers pressed into a book, Lady Cottington collected fairies - creatures not entirely willing to be pressed into her book! 

Since Al had to work all day we postponed any further celebration for dinnertime, when he surprised me with a huge bouquet of flowers and an amazing Chocolate Ganache cake!  Well worth the waiting for.

It took over a week to eat this thing!

Much of the rest of the month proceeded with no more than the usual pandemonium and slow but steady unpacking.

Lovely Flowers!

Al succeeded in unraveling enough of the chaos in our office to be able to put together his desk and start working from in there full time.  Though we still have boxes in the living room and our shelves aren't up yet I anticipate actually being able to put together my own computer any day now, and the living room shelves can't be far behind that.

The undoubted highlight of the month began last week when niece Toby came to Florida with her family for a vacation.  Since her in-laws have a time-share in Orlando they've been visiting also.  Their first few days were spent in Orlando seeing Disney World and that sort of thing, then they came up here, where Andrea and Max (the in-laws, who are also dear friends) stayed with us while Toby, Cliff and 2-year-old Ozzie stayed with Heather.    We had enjoyed a dinner with Heather, Bobby, Andrea, and Max earlier in the month but they had returned to Orlando then (it's only about an hour south of here) but this time they stayed for a few days.

Since Toby and family wanted to see the sights of Central Florida during this visit, yesterday we went to Silver Springs, a beautiful park which is famous for tours of the marshland in glass-bottomed boats.  The park is full of animals as well and a beautiful scene was available in every direction no matter where one wandered.  In fact I took so many photos I don't have room here to post them all so I'll put them in a new album on Facebook.  Do take a look at them over there!

It was a long but lovely day, after which we stopped for dinner.  Al and I enjoyed spending the evening with Andrea and Max, and though they're leaving this afternoon we'll see them all once more this afternoon for an early dinner at Heather's house.

More than that one can't ask of poor, maligned February.  I hope yours was pleasant and filled with mild weather.  Spring isn't far behind!