A Week of Sunshine

Or so it seems. Usually by this time of the year, we Floridians are complaining bitterly about the heat and humidity, cocooned in our air conditioned bubbles, be it our car, or our home. No one knows why this is happening, but the weather this week has just been glorious, with all of our windows open to catch the beautiful breeze. This morning, during my bike ride, I came across a stand of sunflowers climbing high up in the blue, blue sky. Well, make that about 10 feet into said sky.

There is nothing quite like a huge sunflower to make me happy. Well, that's not entirely true. Running a close second is the fantastic fragrance in the air from blooming magnolias everywhere,

as well as the confederate jasmine surrounding both our mailbox, and covering one large part of our backyard fence.

That week of rain I was complaining about? Turned everything super green. So, it's just beautiful right now, and although the temperature is rising as each day passes, I'm still hoping that this weekend's weather in Lakeland will be tolerable. You may recall that one year we nearly died it was so hot while setting up that show on Friday afternoon. That, my friends, is hardly an exaggeration!

Tuesday, because the weather was so beautiful, Bruce and I drove over to Port Canaveral to see the El Galeon. Built about four years ago, the replica of a Spanish Galleon ship sailed for 17 days to make it to Florida, part of the 500th anniversary of Florida, beginning with the landing of Ponce de Leon. The wooden ship is quite remarkable, as are the sails.

Using my zoom lens, I was able to get the close up shot showing off all the zig-zag stitching. I was so impressed with all the rigging,

that I could not quit taking photographs of it.

Whomever dreamed up this intricate system was brilliant. Now, if only we could see it with the wind in the sails!

Following a lovely lunch at Rusty's we made the obligatory pilgrammage to Ron Jon's Surf shop to re-stock Bruce's t-shirt inventory. Someone told us there is a second boat ready to come into the port once El Galeon leaves and lo and behold, when I stepped onto the beach I saw it in the distance.

When I haven't been gallivanting, I've been either working around the house, ordering prints and signing them. Oh my! The stack on my desk was monumental! As you know there are five steps to preparing each print (is it any wonder my children tell me I should charge more?), so facing 100 prints is quite daunting. There are now complete with only one small order of some favorites coming in tomorrow. Now my task is finding a way to store them all! I'm going through my baskets in the garage, removing some prints that have been slow to sell, adding new ones, or old favorites. Let us hope it is all for naught. The last few years, the people of Lakeland have been good to me, so I'm hoping they still like me. :)

I'm so excited because my friend Brandy Renee is the poster artist  for Mayfaire, which is quite the honor. Tomorrow night, during the kick off party, she will be introduced to the patrons, and in general made a fuss over. As well, all the promotional material has her painting featured, including the programs, posters and t-shirts. How great is that? Undoubtedly, she'll have a killer show. Geez, I nearly forgot to mention that the Polk Museum, the show's sponsors, bought a billboard on I-4, halfway between Orlando and Lakeland, promoting the show with Brandy's painting featured!!!

Yesterday morning I stopped by Sue's house to catch up a bit; she has been busy with her daughter's college graduation and we've not talked for a week or so. I came home with this fantastic basil filling my bike basket.

Some days there is not a whole lot going on during my ride, but I can always count on the neighborhood cats for entertainment. This one, across the street from my sister Maureen's house could not decide what was more interesting, me and my camera, or the bird in the tree.

The bird won in this instance.

Checking back on my blog, here's the post from the show in 2012, 2011, and then there is this from my first time there in 2010.

Off to the garage for sorting those prints, a great excuse to get out and enjoy our week of sunshine.