It hardly seems appropriate or predictable that I should require or relish a recovery from a three-day holiday jaunt to the Southern Florida Keys, yet it is so. There was not a drop of alcohol contaminating or fuelling the furlough – an admonition which historically prevailed. Yet the boon of home is not to be diminished. Among the favours are a clean car, standard fare for the larder, strong black coffee, laundered clothing, the convenience of a laptop computer and re-connecting with friends and associates regarding both personal and business matters.

The humidity would have been intolerable had we not been lounging by the pool, sipping iced water, casually regarding the iguanas scrambling onto the pergola or ferrying across the pool, lying beneath the oven hot sun absorbing the refreshing and decidedly welcome breeze, floating in the buoyant salt water of the Gulf of Mexico or wallowing like manatees in the oblong pool.

We’re off to Key Largo to celebrate my upcoming 71st birthday and to check out the place we’ve contracted to rent next season. We like Key Largo. We’re staying at a hotel we’ve frequented before, Playa Largo, which with some legitimacy is heralded as the Pearl of the Florida Keys. As usual we intend to spend our entire time on the resort. The dining is superb. Typically in the Keys the beaches are nothing special but the pool is very attractive. The views over the turquoise water are always guaranteed to fascinate.

At Bayfront Park today I met a chap who has published a book entitled “Grandpa Bernie’s Bedtime Stories“. He is about 96 years of age and married to the same woman for 67 years. She was sitting on the bench next to him. When I asked the woman some pointed questions about their marriage, she told me she is more negative than her husband who is always positive. She added that he is a good man. They both laughed when I related to them two quips: “If she knows why she loves him she doesn’t” and “Criticism is the best autobiography“.

Breakfast at Longbeach Café this morning in Whitney Beach Plaza near the corner of Gulf of Mexico Drive and Broadway Street (which we take when dining at Mar Vista). Interestingly this old fashioned diner at the northern end of Longboat Key overlooks the innermost inlet of Bishops Bayou. It is decidedly a hangout for regulars some of whom arrived with their dogs and new puppies. I saw a server chat and laugh with a group of guests and pat one of them on the back as an expression of familiarity.

I don’t need to go to Venice for Murano glass or buy Perthshire paperweights to appreciate quality when I see it. The putative instinct is impossible to explain but I have no doubt it exits. So assured am I of this talent that it vitalizes me the same way that innate intelligence promotes confidence in those who have it. I hasten to distinguish my latent faculty from brainpower; the one is artistic, the other is penetration. While I consider both are laudable, I acknowledge their difference.

When I awoke this morning at 8:30 am – after having removed my sleep mask – the sunshine was already pouring into the bedroom. There was no time to waste! It was imperative to initiate the matutinal productions to ensure that the bicycle ride began in tempo.

Chatting this afternoon with a fellow by the pool he asked, “When you’re in Canada, what do you do during the day?” I responded, “Nothing. Just the same as we do here.” Which is to say, nothing. I’m reluctant to account my daily adventures either here or in Canada because quite frankly there’s little to report. Following my retirement in 2014 there may have been projects of significance related to the administration of my father’s estate and subsequently related to the administration of my mother’s estate. But apart from those undertakings things are predominantly colourless.

We have turned on the heat in the apartment. This uncommon though seasonally predictable act signifies we’ve entered that short period of time during which the daily ambient temperatures consistently drop below a high of 80 degrees. For the next several weeks – conveniently the Christmas holidays – we’ll continue to endure cooler weather though usually beneath azure blue skies. Today was illustrative of that complexion. Once again this morning as I cycled along the island my first and instinctive gasp reflected the remarkable beauty and astoundingly clear atmosphere which surrounded me. The only difference today was that I wore a light sweater atop my customary golf shirt.

It was an odd day to go to the beach. The air was uncommonly cool. But the sky was clear and the sun was at least trying to be warm. What captivated me in particular were the lively waves and the sound of the surf energized by the strong northerly wind. The beach access was vacant. Walking across the white sand in my brown leather topsiders was a delight for some inexplicable reason.