A Very Pleasant Surprise

I know what Bruce would tell me right about now if he were home. "Just don't listen." To which I would counter, "that is impossible for me!" The condo next door was sold and the renovations began this morning. For the nearly two years we've lived here, it has been quiet, hearing our upstairs rarely, and certainly not next door. It began this morning at 9, two bathrooms being demolished. Yikes! I'm am constantly amazed that Bruce can tune noise out. Perhaps some of it will rub off on me?

On the last day of April, in the time of the Corona pandemic, it is raining, something to be very grateful for as we've been in such a drought. The first few days of the week, the weather was beautiful, warm, but not too warm, prompting me to go on a little mission to Leu Gardens. In the early days of learning photography I went there countless times to photograph whatever I could find that caught my fancy so I know that place like the back of my hand. Early this week I learned that they were not only open, but that Mayor Dyer declared it to be free. Or, at least that is what the head of the place told me. Not that I knew he was such, but seeing a super interesting and unknown plant, I asked the closest person I could find, who was wearing a mask when he came closer.

Amazing, right? This is a Mexican milkweed, planted adjacent to the butterfly garden. But of course.

It almost felt illicit to be strolling the grounds with hardly anyone there when I arrived a little after opening. Of those there, everyone was super respectful about keeping their distance. One of the most exciting things to happen was this:  as I was standing beside a plant, camera in hand, I noticed a woman coming toward me that I was sure was my friend, Bev. She read my expression as horror that a woman was coming close! Only in the time of Corona my friends. We had a long chat, catching up and hearing each other's stories in this crazy time. Most of the folks I see regularly I'm good without hugging, but I sure wish I could have hugged Bev.

As you can see, it is easy to keep a safe distance. Taking my time, I explored not nearly enough before it was time to leave. Rarely have I seen the gardens looking so good.

All of it was wonderful,  however, the orchids, tucked into the crook of some of the trees, really stole the show.

Oh my, the color of the one below!! Captivating.

The one place where it was harder to stay apart was the butterfly garden area which was sad because there were so many butterflies to watch. There was a man with a lens about a foot long that hogged the space, much to my chagrin!

 Lucky for me, when I went into the nearby vegetable garden, not only was it empty but a Monarch was quite cooperative, enjoying the nectar of a lovely Gerbera daisy for a long while.

Count me surprised when I walked through the visitor center to leave, lo and behold, there was a new Dorothy Gillespie installation. If you missed my last post, that won't mean a thing. If you are one the wonderful people who I am humbled to have read my blog regularly, you will remember Bruce standing beside one of her sculptures at the Orange County building last week.

Speaking of Orange County, the governor is allowing some businesses to reopen, beginning Monday, however, how much of that order will translate to our county, I'm not so sure. Still no hair salons, which is a shame. Even when they finally do open, having my hair colored and cut probably still won't happen for a while because it takes hours and even though my level of worry is low, it seems prudent for me to wait a while longer. Seriously, everyone is going through the same thing, so in that overused phrase, "it is what it is!"

We are doing our part to keep the economy moving, what with my new phone, allegedly arriving today, and Bruce is having a trailer hitch put on the Subaru for a new bike rack that will better suit our needs. In an excellent move on my part, I went to Publix today, finding most of what I wanted. Plus, that kept me away from the construction noise, so there's that.

Bruce is getting many folks vote for "neighbor of the month" on our street. Not only did he wash the Packard that was completely covered in yellow oak pollen,

He washed a neighbor's car that has been an eyesore for what some folks have told us, nearly three years! First the Packard because we use the parking space of the folks who own it while they are away for most of the year in North Carolina. Hesitant, in order not to offend the man, Bruce knocked on his door, asking if he could wash his car. When the man asked, "how much?", Bruce told him there is no cost.  How dirty was the car? Dirtier than any I've ever seen.

The entire car looked similar with some places even worse!

He washed parts of it, not once, not twice not....five times!!! trying to get the grime off. Car washing is actually not allowed in the parking lot, but folks turned a blind eye to that because they were so delighted. I can't tell you the number of people who have stopped him, thanking him for doing so. The owner is 90+ years old and in no shape to do it himself. That man of mine is something else!

We are having some birdies!! Life imitating art, or should I say, the other way around?

There's more I'll wait to share in an upcoming post. Tomorrow is our dear Jonathan's birthday and he is inching closer to 40 all of the time. He, like Bill and David, will remember this particular birthday for a long time to come. The number of cases of Covid-19 in some parts of the country are very puzzling to me. You would have thought, what with our huge number of international tourists, and domestic, for that matter, that we would have been overwhelmed, but it seemingly is not the case. As I type, there are 1,268 deaths in Florida with 33,690 reported cases. Texas, where Jonathan and Alissa live, has only 759 deaths, and about 600 less reported cases. I wonder why that is when Texas is way more populous? And why does Massachusetts have so many? There seems to be no rhyme or reason, but I suspect in the future there will be studies galore on every aspect of this pandemic. For now there are more questions than answers or that's how it appears to me.

A couple of things worth noting....

* The newspaper reported that in some parts of the country, stores are out of sympathy cards. :(

* Some staffing companies were offering nurses up to $10,000 a week if they would come to New     York and work. I wonder how that made the regular staff feel?

* There is a lot of generosity happening for those less fortunate. Hurray for that!

* I must admit, I felt a bit guilty when buying the last bag of flour on the shelf.

Finally, I managed to get some decent photographs of the new Wood Duck family while they were on coming on shore. Not all of them mind you,

this little one was the renegade, preferring the water.

It won't be long now that there will be no more new duckling births. Sure hope it won't be too long now before we are not talking about death on a daily basis.

your friend,

Gail

Let Me Get Some Glasses

If I said that once, I said it a thousand times...let me get some glasses. Wait....they are on my face!! One of the best decisions I've made in quite some time.

Speaking of decisions, remember when I wrote here about being filmed for that "reality" show? I heard from a friend on facebook that it ran the other night. Saving you the trouble of watching the whole thing, I'm providing this link which I hope works for you. Yup, all thirty seconds of us!! Make that twenty. :)

I am a serious potato lover; like them cooked any way you can think of, so when I saw them on sale at Publix, I purchased two bags. One to keep, and one to use now. Except, following Maureen's fall, my cooking nearly stopped for more than a month. And so it was that I brought bag #2 into the house and discovered that the potatoes not only had eyes but they had roots as well!!! Never having had this happen before, naturally I took a photo of it. Not quite like this million dollar plus photo of a potato but somewhat interesting to me.

Yikes!!! Five pounds of them!

What this means is that things are returning to normal around here. Taking over for Lisa as Maureen's caregiver, her daughter Lib arrived yesterday from Atlanta. So, I am cooking, taking my medicines, and doing a bit of sewing, finally finishing my little runner. Those blocks were so difficult, I stopped at three.

There is just something about sunflowers that are in their waning moments that I love. The late afternoon sunlight makes them even more appealing to me.

And we have been having plenty, and I do mean plenty, of sunshine. Just superb weather. As to
that glass door allowing the lovely light to flood our home, it has had a makeover if you will. I treated myself yesterday....window cleaners!!!!

Working as a team, one inside, and one outside, our windows are crazy sparkly now!

Seriously amazing that they only use water, with one of those handled mop type things, and as the young man pictured above described them, "old school squeegees." Some of the best money I've spent in a while. Should you too, want yours done, the company is called, A Perfect Services, Inc. and they do more, including cleaning gutters! The phone number is 407-327-2350. Tell them Gail sent you for a discount, or so they say. Worth every penny.

What is not worth any pennies, or at least in my view, is this restaurant in Thorton Park that took over the space once occupied by Tijuana Flats.

You might be tempted to think with a name such as this, there would be many dishes served with green sauce. Think again. As you should if you like refried beans, because, although the menu states they are refried beans, ours came as whole pinto beans.

The Goldfinch are back!!

As my late Mother, and before her, the Bible told me, there is nothing new under the sun, including an American presidential candidate the likes of Donald Trump. There are some amongst you that might find this article from The Guardain fascinating, especially the quiz at the bottom.

Do you suppose this house I ride by occasionally will now finally take the sign out of their yard?

Not only did the above article pique my interest, but this one from The New York Times did as well. Imagine, an article about female shoeshiners in Italy!! The stories are legion in our family regarding shoe shining, something that was required of us when we returned home from school each day. Where was a reporter during all those years when we were polishing Bass Weejuns?

With great excitement, I'm here to report that my Tabebuia tree is beginning to show it's' true colors!

Oh how I love this time of the year! Of course, on the flip side of that there is pollen, leaves, and seeds flying everywhere. I have no clue what these seeds, floating all over the surface of our pool are.

That is, however, a small price to pay when everything is blooming, and the weather is so wonderful. Last years orchids are brightening up our pool area.

And there you have it, another edition of Camera Crazy. Potato to orchids....

Seeing ever more clearly now that my windows are clean,

Gail

Food, Flowers, and More

I've had the strangest thing happen in the last week--an orchid I've had in full bloom for nearly three months had some new buds open. Mind you these buds just appeared, much to my surprise. The orchid, given to me by our neighbor Terri, seems to like the spot on the trunk in the sunroom. For most of the year I have blinds pulled full time because the sun is so intense, in spite of the heavy duty new windows. Because it has been consistently chilly, I've had one of them open to warm up the room--perhaps that has something to do with it?

Incidentally, she re-gifted the orchid, claiming that she would kill it, however, in my experience if you just leave an orchid be, aside from perhaps a weekly watering, they are impossible to kill. Of course, being a vendor next to an orchid vendor for seven years probably taught me a thing or two, like, ignore them! One I bought from Jim and Kathy is in bloom outside.

It's a pretty little thing that is not nearly as long lasting as the one above. For Christmas I gave Bruce a little box of maple syrup samples in darling little bottles. There really is not nearly enough syrup in one of the bottles to use for pancakes, but they sure are cute. Too cute to throw away. I cut a few flowers from a garden plant to make something cheery.

Guess what? I discovered a very good use for the Night Vision setting I talked about in my last post. It turns out very contrasty black and whites in decent light!

Now that's exciting news. So, you see there is another orchid, gracing the kitchen on top of the microwave, given to me for Thanksgiving, from Pat and Ruth. It pretty much looks the same as the day they gave it to me. And now you know why people buy orchids--the blooms last forever!

In more super good news, David, the upholstery guy, delivered the chair already!!

Baxter is even happier than I am because this is his nighttime bed. He is not permitted in our bed, however, we will be watching Max tomorrow night, and he's impossible to keep off our bed. Anyway, the first night the chair was gone, Baxter did not know what to do with himself, so he whined, waking Bruce up several times. You would think we had a child again.....

As to the food promised in my title, here's the muffin made with the grated apple. The lovely Tiffany cup is from Dave and Michelle.

Pecans, brown sugar, and cinnamon on the top--oh my!

Speaking of gifts from Dave and Michelle, more than a year ago they gave us a very generous gift card to The Ravenous Pig, a highly rated restaurant in Winter Park. Well, we did not use all of the allotted funds, and because we've not tried the owners other restaurant, we decided to use it there one day. Well, Tuesday morning, being optimistic about his work load, Bruce suggested we go to Cask and Larder for dinner. Sure honey. Except, he is just busy as a beaver, and time got away from him. I asked if he wanted me to cook, because I'm always up for cooking, however, he said no, let's go somewhere nearby. Rejecting all of his suggestions, I finally agreed when he asked about Le Coq au Vin, just up the street. As in, we could walk there. One of the very best restaurants in town, within walking distance of our home, and you know how many times we've been there? TWICE, including Tuesday night. The food was scrumptious! This is a stack of fried green tomatoes with crab layered in between.

The little chopped bits are mango. My French onion soup was to die for!

We may not be able to make a habit of it because it is not inexpensive, but surely we can do better than once every nine years or so! My fault entirely. :)

In an effort to clear off my work table, I finished the dress with the retro fabric,

and I began playing with stamps. Stamp collecting is obviously not the hobby it once was, and partly that may because they are no longer engraved. This article from the Washington Post explains why that is so. Because Bruce's collection stopped around the time that stamps were changing, he has quite a few engraved ones that are really remarkable in their artistry, and what you can learn about history. I spent some time this morning learning who, Gallatin, whose face graced a stamp worth 1 1/4 cent, was. To say that he made important contributions to our nation's history is an understatement. Then too, I love to mix the past and present.

Sitting in the sunroom to take advantage of the warm afternoon sunlight, I began covering a little thrift store vase with stamps, choosing ones that were not only pretty, but held some meaning to our lives. Texas--yes! Apprenticeship program--yes! Winston Churchill--affirmative, and the list goes on. My plan is to cover the bottom of a tray with them, but I wanted to see how it would work out in a small scale. I like it.

Gosh, this post looks like a home tour...

Have you noticed the days getting longer, or should I say the evenings? Wonderful for us, and even more wonderful for our loved ones in the UK who've had to withstand daylight ending by 4:30 in the afternoon. Hooray for the coming of spring, at least in Florida.

Third Time is the Charm

Coughing woke me up this morning around 6--perfect, I'll write my post and get on with the day. Without a working keyboard, that is hard to do. I now have a brand spanking new keyboard which feels very good indeed.

After errands and lunch, I began again. In the midst of that attempt, the little ring of FaceTime came through, signaling a call from Matthew. Perfect! While I lay sick in bed those days I couldn't help but think of the time I lay there for six weeks; a perfectly horrible time in my life. It was while I lay there that Matthew had the opportunity to move to London, and being the good son that he is, he vacillated--should he, or shouldn't he? My vote was to take an amazing job in one of the most exciting cities in the world, and eventually he decided the same. Am I ever glad he did--what a life he has led these six years! Plus, he would have never met Tom Terrific had he not gone, so there's that. Later this week he flies to Jakarta, Indonesia for business, followed by some days in Singapore. Imagine that.

Following our conversation, I decided it was high time to visit Herb and Corrine, bringing them some of the peanut butter cookies I made yesterday. Poor Herb--he is in the early stages of dementia and it is painful to observe. Their house is still a wreck outside, but the good news is the insurance adjuster finally came; if all goes well, the $8,000 repair will be covered. Following that visit, Baxter and I checked in with Angela. Adding to last weekend's mishaps, there was a little miscommunication, and instead of taking Baxie home on Friday, she did not come and get him until Saturday around noon. Poor little doggie--home alone for nearly 24 hours!! All is well that ends well--apparently he was lively and fun during our absence.

So, here we are on the third attempt, and what shall I write about? How about the garden in springtime? We've a new visitor around these parts, in fact, I think there are two of these guys, although I can't be sure.

Why wouldn't we have a woodpecker anyway?

Over the years I've purchased orchids from Jim and Kathy; once they finish blooming, usually they are tucked under some other bushes until such time as they decide to bloom again. For nearly two weeks I've waited to see what color this one would be:

Then too, the orchid given to me by my sister-in-law Ruth's parents blooms yearly now, and not just one bloom--loads of them.

I'm very happy with how, what I'm calling my red, white and blue garden is coming along, although it won't be long before it is too hot for the petunias!

The blue in the middle is one of my bargain finds--last year it was a straggly mess, but this spring--o-la-la!

The ivy geranium is filled with beautiful blooms,

and the petunias out front--gorgeous!

T

There are loads of hibiscus flowers--red and peach, and every now and again, the yellow one blooms.

The nandina is in prime form right now with both large bunches of red berries and white flowers:

My little supertenias have survived yet another move--they began life in a small pot. After outgrowing that container, I moved them to another, and finally they have found a larger home:

Speaking of supertenias, last year I bought two pots in the discount area of Lowes--original price $20, my price, $6. One of them did not last the winter, while this one, although it looked like it was a goner for a while, came back, and is flourishing!

That's my gazing ball behind it, nestled amongst the ferns. Sounds so cozy doesn't it? Well, for about a month, it lay on it's side because I could not get it to nestle, however, there is someone in this household who could make it happen, making me very happy indeed.

Here's some little cuties visiting the Nuttery:

I have no idea how we've all of a sudden attracted goldfinch, but I'm not complaining. Recently, while looking for something in my photo library I discovered last years baby cardinals born at the end of March. For the first time in several years I have been unable to locate a cardinal's nest in the bushes.  What is going on around here? Woodpeckers and goldfinch, with nary a baby cardinal in sight!

While we're on the subject of nature, I must report on the beautiful wildflowers we saw along the highway on our drive to Gainesville. Driving on the trip up there, I have no photographic evidence, and on the way back it was too dark to get any shots. Trust me on this one.

Because I am a fool for flowers, there will be more to share this week....

Beginner's Luck

While on holiday I used my iPhone every now and again to check my email. I used it for lots more than that for maps and fact checking like who sung what--that sort of thing--so glad I finally succumbed to a smart phone. But that's another story....

I think it might have been on Wednesday that an email came through from Etsy saying someone included one of my photos in a "treasury" which to my mind kind of predates Pinterest. Same idea really except instead of choosing from the whole web people choose things they like from Etsy. So that was kind of cool. It was the heart cloud.

I'm pretty sure it was the next day that an email came through with even more exciting news--a sale. The heart cloud. Coincidence? I don't know. What I do know is I was completely shocked and didn't know what came next. What came next was a call to David, giving him the opportunity to say "I told you so", something he is wont to do on any number of topics. Actually, his first words were "Congratulations Mom."

After struggling with the mailing process, off it went. And now nothing. No views, no orders. Totally beginner's luck. Now I need to learn the ropes on how to get people to my shop. Saturday the Winter Garden market was fairly slow for me but I did meet some folks who stayed and chatted for a good long while. After looking at some of my images the man asked me if I sold online. "Well, sort of," I replied. He went on quite a while about how he'd been selling jewelry on Etsy for three years and it is possible to get seen, it's just that there are tricks involved which he was only too willing to share. In fact, he claims he'll be back next week with a book to guide me through the process. We shall see now won't we?

In another new development, a week ago Sunday, just about the time we were closing up the booth, a couple came along and shortly after meeting, the woman started talking to me about their business. What kind of business you ask? Art publishing, or something like that. SDGraphics is the name. I spoke with her last week and sent her an album of requested subjects. She called just as I was sitting down to blog and had some complimentary things to say including the fact that she'd shown the album to someone else who said the same. Would I send specific images again? I answered yes. Here again, I have no idea if anything will come of it, but I won't know unless I try. Think the art you see in retail stores which in their case are HomeGoods and Kirklands. Apparently the way I would make any money out of this scheme is volume. Once again, time will tell.

I got a new car on Thursday--a Honda Pilot.

In a nutshell, the Element lease was due, we needed more space, and so we got this. Pretty plush when compared to the Element that's for sure. A bonus is that when the kids come to town we will actually have seats in our vehicle! Bonus round two--the shed has a lot more room in it now that the back seats for the Element have been restored to their rightful place. Did I really type kids??? They are far too old to use that term!

More importantly the cardinals have hatched and in fact have LEFT the nest as far as I can tell. So here is how I first saw them:

All snuggled up they were. You'll have to click on it probably to see the little eye in the front. I can't wait to see that nest up close what with the paper in it and all. The day we went to look at the car I went out front, watching the nest from a distance, when lo and behold, I saw this little one on the edge of the nest:

The original Mohawk! Actually he isn't on the edge in this one but before long he was.

Those wispy little feathers in the front are really something aren't they? I just knew he was fixing to take off and sure enough he did--a little jump onto an adjacent palm frond which is what you are seeing in front.

From what I can tell about timing, perhaps the eggs hatched while we were on holiday, one of the reasons I was so distressed that all the feeders were empty when we returned. The thing is, now I can't find them anywhere. I mowed the lawn today, which looks excellent if you really want to know, and there were no baby cardinal sightings. I'm slightly worried because, although the pictured chick looked good and ready, the remaining chick appeared to have no interest whatsoever in leaving the nest. Where have my little cardinals gone????

The yard is kicking into high gear what with the warm weather we are having. I'm beyond thrilled that the caladiums are popping up like mad. I took this picture on Friday and today there are even more!

Another very exciting happening around the Peck Casa are my blooming orchids. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself but my sister-in-law Ruth's parents gave me an orchid two years ago Christmas. After all the blooms finally gave up the ghost I placed it under what some might consider a tree. A month or so ago I began to notice blooms forming. If you can imagine, there are 29 buds!!!!!!

It's crazy hard to photograph it well because the stems go every which way and on each one there are gobs of buds and blooms. Fantastic!!!

And then there is this one I got from my market neighbors, Jim and Kathy:

The potential blooms on this baby are not nearly as impressive but still nice. There are birds and butterflies everywhere in our yard. So nice to commune with nature...

How cute is this little one:

I took this through the big window in the living room between the open blinds. I'm considering taking down the blinds so they are not in the way?

I began this blog post hours and hours ago. Happily I spoke with Matt and Tom on all matter of digital media--first FaceTime, then iChat, and finally the regular phone. Crazy I know but good. They both gave me input on the Etsy shop tags--a way for people to find my stuff. Agreeing that worn towels was not good, Matt changed it to just towels. Oftentimes you'll find me going on a bit about how technology isn't such a good thing; of course this is said when I'm not in need of the amazing things that can now be done with same.

Speaking of which, while we were gone, and I was eating out all the time, I couldn't help but notice that all sorts of folks would be sitting together at a table looking at the screens on their phone. This bothered me a lot. When we got to the market last week we learned that one of the vendor's husbands (our age I might add) died while driving a car at 80mph. A heart attack obviously. In the blink of an eye,  he was gone. Love the ones you're with my friends. Will you?