We drove to the house mid morning, but no one was there. We walked around a bit anyway and then stopped by the grocery store for some fruit before heading back to the motorhome for lunch. Since there was no one to watch working, we decided to explore Venetian Gardens. We have passed it a number of times and often said we would have to check it out one day.
Venetian Gardens is a city park in a cove off Lake Harris. It turned out to be quite nice. Just inside the entrance is a large playground with a water-park for small children. I didn’t get a good look, but I think it was mostly sprinklers and no water depth. Good idea for the little ones.
We drove through the park and out the other side looking at the large older homes among gigantic live oaks on the lake front. Then we turned around and parked in a parking area inside the park. It is called Venetian Gardens because there are canals and bridges, a la Venice.
We followed the walkway along the big water.
The place is alive with water birds.
I was surprised to see an Anhinga. I think of them as Everglades birds. That is not eggs under the wing; it is a pile of snail shells.
There were several bridges and islands among the canals.
The gap in the trees in the distance is the opening to the main body of Lake Harris.
We found a nice bench overlooking the lake and that ended our walk, except to get back to the car.
There are a good number of cypress trees in the park.
The bird we saw most often today was the Common Gallinule. This bird is very dark, appearing black to me. I thought it was a Common Gallinule until I got it on the computer. It is a Purple Gallinule. I should have known by the white forehead.
We’ll go back to Venetian Gardens again for future walks.
Dinata Misovec 
NICE! Thanks for taking me on a walk through such a wonderful place 🙂
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You are welcome. We haven’t seen half of it yet so there will be more in the future.
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That was an odd comment. I hope you liked the Venetian Gardens.
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Oh, now I get it! You shared my post. Thank you.
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Lovely photos.
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Thank you. Those are more like my usual, when I’m not documenting our house construction.
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I’m enjoying the new home series. I have some catching up to do.
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Thank you. I am enjoying the experience of watching and documenting everything I can see.
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This was so beautiful! Lovely
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It is a lovely park and I’m sure we’ll go there often. Leesburg, Florida is a nice small town less than an hour from Orlando. I do worry that the Orlando suburban sprawl will get here is just a few more years. There are several other developments near ours. I wanted to live in the country with some acreage, but Andy insisted on a neighborhood like this. He said he wants me to be near people and have friends and activities after he dies. Not that he is expecting to go anytime soon! He has a good point.
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Building a house? Wow I am so behind!
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Yes, we had to accept the fact that Andy is getting older and dealing with the motorhome in harder for him. Just getting in and out of the door is a struggle with his knees. I still want to travel a bit before we settle into the rocking chairs. We were looking at existing houses when we found this retirement development that builds the houses as you buy them. Then we got to pick most everything: floors, cabinets, electrical and plumbing fixtures; roof, exterior, and interior colors, you name it. It was no more expensive than some of the older home we looked at. I’ve been taking pictures and posting every day since the house was a slab in July. They are going amazingly fast!
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