October out on the Gulf of Mexico is always beautiful. That is one of the reasons I live here in Crystal Beach Florida. The temperatures have cooled down a little, the high today will be 85 degrees. Tomorrow it will be a little warmer. It is beautiful weather to take the boat out for the day and enjoy living here in subtropical Crystal Beach! If you are considering relocating to our beautiful area, give me a call. I would love to discuss your plans and assist you in your home search in the Crystal Beach Florida area! 10/13/2012

Trout is indeed on the menu tonight! Speckled trout that is, since we were fishing off Crystal Beach Florida yesterday and Ronnie caught a couple of red fish and a beautiful speckled trout. Beer-battered fried up and cole slaw on the side! Now that is what I call good Southern cooking! And Ron is the guy that not only catches them but also cooks them! How good is that? We also went for a swim in St Joseph's Sound yesterday, off Honeymoon Island State Park, and the water was wonderful!  If you are considering relocating to our area, give me a call so we can set up your home search and discuss your options. Find out for yourself why we call this Living in Paradise! 10/11/2012

100 years of Crystal Beach Florida! The community is having a celebration in Live Oak Park here in Crystal Beach on October 28th to celebrate. The Guitar Pickers are going to be on hand for the celebration and there will also be a potluck picnic for all to attend! This is the last Sunday in October 2012 and a great time to meet your fellow Crystal Beachers, so come on out for an afternoon stroll and head over to Live Oak Park, right next to the Crystal Beach pier. There is always something going on here in our little community. If you are interested in relocating to Crystal Beach Florida or the surrounding communities of Palm Harbor, Ozona or Dunedin, give me a call today so we can discuss your plans and begin your home search. 10/11/2012

Sitting on the dock of the bay in Crystal Beach Florida is a great way to watch the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. Fall is here and the sun is setting a little earlier. Here in Crystal Beach, it seems that a good part of the community comes out to watch the sunset. It is really beautiful to watch.  Grandparents, parents, kids and their dogs walk along our little seashore, sit on benches along the shore or go out on the pier to watch the sunset. It is a daily event that everyone appreciates. Time kind of stands still as we watch the sun setting into the Gulf..............one more reason why I love living in Crystal Beach Florida. To find out more about Crystal Beach Florida or to begin your home search, give me a call. 10/08/2012

Indeed, I hope your weekend is as beautiful as this photo, taken this morning near our Crystal Beach Florida fishing pier. Our local temperatures will be in the high 80's this weekend and that is perfect weather for planting the Fall veggies in the garden. Down here in Central and South Florida, you have several growing seasons. Right now we are planting to harvest when the freezes come (if they come this year) around the end of January. The end of March it is time to plant again for the crops that we harvest before summer gets too hot. During the summer months we grow melons and peppers but it is too hot for much of anything else. Hope your weekend is also spent out enjoying the sun and Mother Nature. 10/05/2012

Indeed, the sun always shines over little Crystal Beach Florida and that is just one of many reasons why I love living here! Our community is in a cozy corner of northern Pinellas County, surrounded by big sister Palm Harbor Florida. We are convenient to everything you could possibly need but we are also off to the side. Tucked into a little corner, with the Gulf of Mexico and St Joseph's Sound surrounding Crystal Beach to the south and to the west and even partially to the north and east, we are in our own laid back world! I love that about Crystal Beach. If you are ready to enjoy the true Florida lifestyle, give me a call so we can begin your home search here in Crystal Beach Florida or Palm Harbor Florida today! 10/03/2012

Yes, this red fish is too big to legally keep. Ron let it go once the photos were taken today. It was raining but a little rain never kept a fisherman from going out....at least until the lightening started. Then the guys headed for shore! There is nothing like fresh fish but this guy won't be on our table. They did catch and keep a couple of 'legal' size red fish though! Fishing in the Crystal Beach region of Florida is great and there is always something to catch!  If you are considering making our area your home and need assistance with your home search, give me a call. 10/03/2012

Grouper, red fish, snook, trout - Where does it end? - Crystal Beach Florida Crystal Beach and the surrounding area here on Central Florida's Gulf Coast is one of those places where you can fish all year long! Unfortunately, you cannot always keep everything that you catch. Snook caught on the Gulf Coast this year must be released due to the Freeze of 2010 that killed off thousands of fish. They are great to catch, put up a fantastic fight and with this moratorium, their population is once again increasing. Perhaps next year we will be allowed to saute this mild tasting fish once again. Grouper can be caught through the end of October of this year. After that only commercial fishermen can catch them. For that reason, we have been freezing massive amounts of grouper. The fillets in this ... 09/26/2012

Autumn in Crystal Beach Florida means flowers are everywhere. While the northern states are seeing leaves turn various colors and flowers going dormant, down here things are 'business as usual'. While out on my usual morning walk today I took several photos to share with everyone so you can see for yourself how the end of September typically looks here in the Crystal Beach Florida area! Since I was out just as the sun was coming up in the east, there was still some sea fog hanging around here. By 9 in the morning, the skies were blue and the sun was bright. Just another typical Fall day in Florida! Remember, if you are considering purchasing or selling here in the Palm Harbor or Crystal Beach area of our beautiful state, give me a call. I would love to assist you with your home search a... 09/26/2012

Autumn is indeed here in Crystal Beach Florida! I could feel the difference this morning when I was out for my morning walk. The humidity is below 50% and the temperature was around 70 degrees at a little after 7 am. It feels good and I know my new plantings my veggie garden are enjoying the reduced temperatures. Hopefully, I will be able to start watering a little less. The photo above was taken from our fishing pier here in beautiful Crystal Beach Florida! Thinking of relocating to our beautiful area? Let me assist you with your home search! 09/24/2012

Here in Florida, we are known for soil that has plenty of sand and clay. So if you don't help your garden, it doesn't grow very well. Needless to say, my garden is doing wonderfully! Ronnie has made me two large above ground beds for veggies and in addition to that, I have plenty of pots both in the yard and on the balcony. To make the earth healthier I have purchased (two pick-up truck loads) of good topsoil mixed with mulch and compost and then I added over 400 lbs of composted black cow manure and about 100 lbs of earthworm castings. My plants love me for the additional nutrients. Naturally, I also compost all of the kitchen waste that isn't meat related. So what am I growing? Well, in addition to the red, green and orange peppers I was growing all summer with cantaloupe, baby avocad... 09/24/2012

It is true, we are suffering through another sun-filled day here on the Gulf Coast in Crystal Beach Florida. Life can be hard when you have to deal with the sparkling waters off our coast and add to that the sunshine and blue skies.  My favorite past-time pleasure is long quiet strolls along the shore at dawn or dusk, watching the tropical birds hunting for a meal and the dragonflies darting around. Yes, life is good! 09/22/2012

Yes, it is orchid time again here in Crystal Beach Florida. If there is one thing that orchid plants thrive in, it is humidity and that is certainly something that we have plenty of here along Central Florida's Gulf Coast! I am always amazed when every few months my beautiful orchid plants provide these magnificent photos. Living in a subtropical region certainly has it's benefits. This is just one more reason why I love life here in Crystal Beach Florida. 09/18/2012

Ronnie was out fishing yesterday with a buddy and they caught a couple of beautiful Red Fish that were keepers. So this afternoon we are having fresh, blackened Red Fish for lunch and I decided to make some orzo pasta to go with it. To make it right, I slice an entire large onion and several fresh garlic cloves and sautee them in a black skillet with olive oil. Then I add fresh parsely and basil from my garden, fresh ground black pepper, a couple of freshly picked and diced tomatoes and a good quarter pound of chopped feta cheese to the skillet. Next I mix in the cooked orzo pasta, mix and it is ready to be a great side dish to the Red Fish! Bob caught a nice snook but we cannot keep snook on the Gulf Coast of Florida right now, so once this photo was taken, it was released back into th... 09/15/2012

Crystal Beach Florida Market Report - August 2012 During August 2012 there were two homes that made it to the closing table here in our gulf front community. One was a 3 bedroom 2 bath that was listed at $274,900 and sold for $245,000. The other closing was a 3 bedroom 2 bath bank owned home that was listed for $108,900 and sold for $127,000. These were two great deals for homes within a couple of blocks from the Gulf of Mexico! There are 6 homes that are waiting to close. Four of these are short sales, so it could be a while before these actually transfer to the new owner. One of the remaining two homes is a bank owned and the other is a regular sale. The inventory is extremely low and since everyone is anticipating prices continuing to inch up, homeowners are waiting to put their prop... 09/14/2012

Spanish Moss makes a great mulch and if you live in the southern section of our nation, the trees are full of it! You can wonder through your local parks and collect this free mulch for your garden and for potted plants as well. There are recommendations that you microwave the moss to kill the chiggers that may be residing in it. My personal feeling is that if it is a mulch for my garden, it doesn't need to make a trip to my kitchen first! When collecting Spanish Moss from trees or the ground, be careful that the moss does not have bats, birds or snakes in it. Birds and bats use it for nests and snakes think it is a great place to take a nap. I brought home a trash bag full of it this morning. It was all collected during my morning walk and is being used as mulch for my garden. This mor... 09/14/2012

Allamanda flowers do indeed love Crystal Beach Florida and right now they are in full bloom! The allamanda grows throughout the Caribbean and is a native in both Central and South America. This beautiful plant is known for it's medicinal properties but if you have one in your garden, be careful not to get any of the sap on your body as it can cause blisters, rashes and it can cause you to itch. Wearing gardening gloves naturally reduces this risk but care is needed when trimming your allamanda. These lovely plants grow easily from cuttings and can grow 10 feet tall in a single year! They love full sun and we certainly can provide that here in Crystal Beach Florida! 09/10/2012

Seaside Oaks of Crystal Beach Florida is a small subdivision within beautiful Crystal Beach Florida. All of the ten homes in this subdivision are located on Charleston Avenue. These homes were all constructed after the year 2000 and range in size from approximately 2500 to 3000 sq ft of living space. Most of these 3, 4 and 5 bedroom single family homes have private pools and all have well-manicured lawns.   Seaside Oaks, like all of Crystal Beach Florida, is zoned for some of the best public schools in northern Pinellas County. This eclectic town has a wonderful fishing pier adjacent to Live Oak Park, the scene of many community gatherings and musical festivities. Crystal Beach also offers miles of paths and roads for morning walks and if you prefer, The Pinellas Trail goes through town... 09/09/2012

Crystal Beach Florida does NOT have a public doggie beach and the local authorities are cooperating with our community in getting the word out. Unfortunately, some Realtors have actually posted in their multiple listing comments that Crystal Beach has a public doggie beach and people from neighboring communities can come here and let their dogs run freely along the beach and in Live Oak Park. That is NOT the case and both the Sheriff's Department and Animal Control have been patrolling our beaches (at the request of Crystal Beach residents) to enforce this. The beach at Crystal Beach is for our residents and their guests. There is also a dog leash law and signage reminding people that they must keep their dogs on a leash AND pick up after their pets. There are signs and containers with ... 09/08/2012

Here comes the rain over Crystal Beach Florida indeed!  When I first got up this morning and opened the balcony sliders, I noticed beautiful pink clouds over the Gulf of Mexico. That was enough for me to get out right away for my morning walk and I am so glad I did since it started sprinkling before I got home again. It is now pouring and looks like it is going to all morning. So I wish everyone a sunny and dry Saturday! 09/07/2012