A Beginning

This is the start of a new adventure.

Up to now I have been an inveterate reader of blogs (mainly conservative) and often a commenter. While I spent most of my working career in the newspaper business, almost all was outside of the editorial side. After retiring in 2001 and moving to Sanibel FL, I joined the local Power Squadron. Along with my wife Julie, we agreed to edit and publish the squadron’s magazine format newsletter, Soundings. We signed on for two years and finally after nearly five years, including a conversion to internet publishing, we are turning over our responsibilities to our successors.

This leaves me time to get into trouble. Hence Island Turtle. I am an admirer of Ann Althouse’s blog, so this will look somewhat similar. Before someone retorts, “You sir are no Ann Althouse,” I know that and my limitations. 

We chose Sanibel Island because it offered a unique combination of a nature friendly environment, nearby beaches and the advantages of resort community. And of course the wonderful weather. There are about 50 restaurants in this incorporated city of 6,100 residents. There are no stoplights or streetlights. Strict height limits keep all buildings under 42 feet. There are no high rises on this gulf front island. A third of the island is the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, another third is owned by a conservation foundation or other entities which will hopefully keep them out of development, and the remaining third is nearly built out.

You feel you are in a time warp going back to the late 1960s when you first visit the island. We do have our problems. We are in the hurricane belt and the island took a direct hit from Charley in 2004. But now the island looks better than ever. I hope to bring you pictures of what makes living here a joy. I hope to conduct a political discourse on the issues of the day. 

Corky Boyd