Stepping Back in Time

WARNING--photo heavy post! Can't help myself....

Last week was one of rain, rain, and more rain. Weird times too, as in 10:30 in the morning just as Bruce was ready to mow the lawn after major trimming in the yard. Very unpredictable, which is generally not the case around these parts. Mid to late afternoon for sure, mid-morning, not so much.
At any rate, because Bill had a Saturday night appearance downtown, instead of working over there, we took a little step back in time, leaving early to beat the rain.

Located in the small town of Barberville, about 15 miles North of DeLand, the Pioneer Art Settlement is put together very nicely; a reminder of Florida's agricultural past. Leaving the barn, after perusing a vast assortment of farm tools, including a still, a gentleman asked me if I'd ever wondered what a Brown Recluse Spider looked like. Normally I would shy away from a spider, especially a deadly one, but of course he wouldn't have been holding it had it been alive! An exoskeleton is what the young man who worked there termed it.

Now you know...

Adjacent to the barn was the sugar cane working area with various tools in the yard, including this sugar cane press.

A small assortment of farm animals roamed around--baby goats!

Alongside is the garden...

Following a short path we went into the only log cabin on the property. My, how simply folks lived back then, as well as how much shorter they must have been. Bruce, standing in the front doorway takes up most of the allowed space.

A table set for three...

The neat thing about the cabin is how they used available surface for storage; every little nook and cranny held something to sustain pioneer life. It is called a settlement because there are all the buildings one might have found back then. Many of the buildings were moved there from other nearby small towns. The school, on the other hand, was not. Built in 1911, which although doesn't sound so long ago, was just that, if you think of how short a time period inland Florida has been populated. Florida, flying under five different flags, mostly was populated along the coastline. It took brave settlers to make their way inland, fighting not only the heat and mosquitos, but Indians too. I guess I'd forgotten the part of Florida history that told me the British are the ones who called the native Indians, Seminoles. The central part of Florida, from Ormond Beach over, was mostly tamed through the efforts of Swedish people, or so the plaque in the park says.

Don't ask me why I photographed this display,

inside the "shotgun shack", instead of the newspapered walls, but I did. The shotgun shack was tiny as you might expect from the name-- this one was used to house turpentine workers.

After doing a little research this morning, I discovered that turpentine was used for all sorts of things, including medicinal purposes. Vicks Vapo-Rub still contains some turpentine, which seems reasonable, but apparently in years past it was also in cheap gin, and various "miracle elixers" for all sorts of ailments. History is so darn fascinating to me--how about you?

A lovely United Methodist church is part of the settlement with both a piano, and old organ.

A fire department building with two antique fire trucks...

Looks like those tires could use some air!! Bruce enjoyed chatting with the volunteer in the wood shop which was quite extensive. Many fine examples of old wooden wheels.

There is a train depot with a little red caboose you can board. Standing on the exit platform I took this shot of the back of the Barberville Central High School, built in 1911.

As you can see, the sky was a threatening deep blue, however, we managed to tour everything before the rain came pouring down. The school was just beautiful with large windows to let in the natural light. A kitchen display was particularly fascinating. Love, love, love this colorful stove!

Reminds one that there is not much that hasn't been tried before. Several old refrigerators were on display,

and although I've seen a few before, never one quite like this old GE, which still works, btw. Of course today we take ice for granted, but it wasn't always quite so easy as having an ice maker.

This got me to thinking about how Europeans don't have the same interest in ice as Americans. Do you suppose it has something to do with availability, and familiarity? I mean, where in Europe does it get as cold as the Great Lakes region? Just a thought.

A woman was demonstrating candle making which was also very interesting. Never did I fully understand how they were made long ago. Successive dippings is how.

This cash register from 1911 is mighty impressive.

Apparently folks back then thought so too as it cost $500!! People today marvel when I use my Square reader on my phone, and rightly so, but there sure is none of the glamour of the above model. Or is there?

As a Girl Scout back in the late '50's I learned to make pine needle baskets, however, as you can imagine, my efforts paled in comparison to these fine examples.

Back when the children were in elementary school, I served a year as PTA president. Our meetings were nothing like this!

Who knew there were PTA songs? Gosh I wish I knew what they meant by "Stunts by Women, Faculty, or Men!" This is quite the school bus don't you think? Or make that school wagon.

Underneath the beautiful Live Oak trees we heard some popping noises coming from these folks.

Closer inspection revealed all manner of steam driven engines which apparently collecting them is a pastime of some men. Maybe women like to as well, however I did not see any there. Good grief the steam engines are loud and kind of scary with all that popping going on! I thought you might enjoy seeing an old washing machine. The engine made it rock back and forth.

Barberville, located at the intersection of SR 40 and US 17 is unincorporated, so quite small. Turning off of US 17, I was so shocked by a business on that corner, we just had to go there after our time at the Settlement. Good grief, I've never seen anything like it! I'll save you the trip..

This is just one tiny part adjacent to the parking lot. Get this...

I did not check the price on either the gigantic giraffe or rooster, however, I did check it on the horse and wagon with boy and girl "riding"--$3,500!!! You enter through the legs of the giraffe!! Covering TWO ACRES, there are rows upon rows of outdoor stuff.

It is just astonishing really. If you are looking for an outdoor Santa, I know where you can find one in June.

If you can't get enough of this place, feel free to click on this link for a virtual visit by video! Talking to a worker, who was stroking a gigantic lizard (live) in a cage, we learned it began as a roadside vegetable stand, morphing into this. Oh my, oh my!

That sure was one way to move back into the 21st century!

Friends and Family

You would think with all this manual labor we've been engaging in that we would have no time to visit with friends and family, however, thankfully that is not true. Are we visiting a lot? Not as much as we would like would be one way to put it. But on those occasions when we do you can be sure that I take a few photographs of the proceedings, some good, some not so much.

The last time that we saw Annabelle, our great niece who lives in St. Paul, MN, she looked like this:

Well my how she has grown up! Our last meeting was a sad occasion, the death of my mother-in-law. This time, she, her Mamma, and her Nana, as Michele calls herself, came down to Florida to enjoy some heat and sunshine. They stayed at Judy and Cris's house on the St. John's River and we made the trip to DeBary to see them all. I could not wait to see those adorable eyes again. Except when we went outside she claimed the sun was TOO bright!

And of course it was pretty bright to someone who has endured a mostly gray, freezing cold Minnesota winter. After a time she adjusted, having so much fun on the boat, including getting to drive!

That's Aunt Judy helping her steer with Captain Cris keeping his eye on the river. Michele is Bruce's only sister and Cris is his only brother. Mallory, Annabelle's mom, is the best; it was such a pleasure to see the love between them. And not only does Annabelle love her Mommy, she is wild for Michele.

That is definitely not the best of Mallory, she's much cuter than this, however, getting all three ladies looking their best was not in the cards that day. We spent all day on the river, going as far as Silver Glen Springs where the water is crystal clear but COLD. Yours truly did not test those waters--way too much of a chicken.

It must have been Thursday night that we went to Cheryl and David's home for a going away party. Who was going away you ask? Catherine, that's who. Do you remember when I told you about airbnb and how C & D offer their home on that site. Well, Catherine, who lives on the Isle of Man has a brother who lives here whom she has been helping for the last several months, making all sorts of friends while she has been here. The Beatty's home is stunning, both inside and out. We ate poolside, making some new acquaintances during the evening.

We know both Pam, and Patty on the left of the picture, but Bill and Roxanne on the right were strangers when the night began. But, not for long. I was so surprised, after saying my full name, when the man asked me if I was Billy Peck's mom. It's been a long, long time since someone called him Billy, or so I thought. Apparently, and old Orlando folks will get this, they are all members of the Citrus Club, as is Katie, Cris and Judy's eldest daughter. Katy, in a throw back to their childhood, still calls her cousin Billy. So, what I meant by Orlandoans getting it, is that in spite of the millions who have moved into our area in the last thirty or so years, at it's heart, Orlando is still a small town. People know one another, or at least they do around our part of Orlando. Anyway, it was all good fun and I wish this photo had been better...

You recognize Bruce at the end of the table; he's talking to David who is the blurry lady in the white blouse sitting next to the blonde who is Catherine! Clear as mud, right?

While on one of my increasingly infrequent bike rides last week I stopped to see Pam and Glen's garden. Pam is the head of the garden volunteers at the Polasek where I both met her and volunteered for four years. Her gardening talents are abundantly evident surrounding her beautiful home.

Everywhere you look there are flowering plants, some I'm familiar with, most of them I am not. For a time, Pam's mom lived in the same condo complex as David, that is until she moved to assisted living. I told you it was a small town! The front gardens are stunning, caladiums, flax lilies, begonias, asiatic jasmine, all nestled under gigantic oak trees with hanging orchids. Surrounding the pool are flowers, flowers, and more flowers.

Glen was cleaning out some of the spent vegetables, and sweating, of course. It was already hot, hot, hot!

Now that i'm putting this together I realized that the dish Pam made for the party included some of Glen's home grown eggplant. Talk about eating local--we all live less than a mile from one another.

One of the reasons I quit volunteering was because it was just too darn slow for my liking. Sitting inside for three hours, with no one to talk to, was becoming mental torture. So, instead of being a tough girl like Pam is, I quit. She kept on going, expanding the outside volunteer program through the sheer force of her delightful personality. I can't remember everywhere she and Glen have lived, even though she's told me numerous times, but I do recall New Zealand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. That right there is enough to toughen anyone! Organizing field trips to nurseries around the state for the volunteers, she picked up this little beauty in, I think, Vero Beach? Don't quote me on that...

Isn't it adorable? With her connections in the plant world, she's going to see if someone might begin carrying it in Orlando.

So, you see, we mingle, every now and again.

Finally, in a family related manner, I was unprepared for yet another chapter in the pool saga. I had a notion yesterday to take my automatic pool cleaner over to Bill's for a few days to see how well it would work in his pool. Nice Mom that I am, it seemed like the thing to do. Except, when I opened the lid to the skimmer, where I would be placing the hose, look what was in there!!

A toad with a hitch hiking water bug hanging on to a ring that is supposed to go around the drain!! See that dark spot in the middle. That would be the drain, which pictured toad went zooming down when I turned on the pump!!!!! Then, if you can believe it, it came up in the basket by the pump! It was all very, very unsettling. Will this ever end? Of course it will, as everything eventually does. Like calling your son Billy for half of his life....

Texting Bill, I requested he remove the toad before I returned for yet another round in the pool war! "Will do Mom."

Bruce is still working at Angela's house. It is so weird, he's worked for two days now, and it's just not the same around here without him. Baxie is barking, so let me go see if he is indeed home--it is dinner time after all.

A Whole Lotta Painting Going On

If for one moment you thought Bruce could transform himself into a lounge-about, you thought wrong. Good grief, I never can find time to blog, what with all the projects going on, between here, and Bill's house. Just yesterday I had to bow out on finishing the fence painting to tend to my business. Plus, painting that fence is hard work, something I'm not afraid of, but better left to those with bigger muscles than I.

That said, I did do a pretty big part of the fence painting, that is until we ran out of paint! As you all are well aware, I've been selling street art for years now, and Bruce has always said he wanted to try his hand at doing some. Well, he didn't have the chance, but I gave it a silly shot before the fence was complete.

Cursive is so much more difficult, it is no wonder folks don't do it often! Speaking of street art, the first person to buy something on Sunday said he had a whole wall of street art in his home and wanted to add one of my little canvases to his collection. Except the piece he was buying was not street art at all. A little later it occurred to me that what he meant was art he bought on the street--that's a novel idea isn't it?

Between helping Bruce, I've been helping Bill get the pool back in shape yet again. Monday the new filter was installed, and not a moment too soon. If you thought the pool was a mess before, you ain't seen nothing yet. Except now you are fixing too...

That was the tiny filter cartridge,  which as you can plainly see, was no match for this pool. As well, you can see the painting just begun on the back of the house. After adding copious amounts of chlorine, we waited for the results. Bill would clean the filter at night, and I'd come over in the morning. Look how it was doing its' job!

Obviously that is the new one on the left--super gross with all that algae. I cleaned it for a bit, then took the photograph to show just how awful it was. That day I saw the beginnings of improvement around the edges of the pool. Meanwhile, Bill was a painting fool after work each day. Here's what the balcony deck looked like before painting...

And now it looks like this...

Nice isn't it? Some people say that you get more bang for your buck with paint, and I tend to agree with those that do. Every single day a neighbor calls out to Bill, complimenting him on the new paint. That's one way to get to know your neighbors!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I got a hankering to paint my garden bench. While getting more paint for the fence, I picked out a bright blue that is as close as I could come to the color of the stripes in our awning above the side door. Which, everyone thinks is the front door, but that's a story for another day. I started slowly....

But, of course you can tell nothing if it is not complete. I learned that lesson years and years ago with sewing--until the garment is pretty much done, you can't really tell if you like it or not. Well, it is bright blue now, and I'm thinking it looks pretty good.

Unless someone stops me, I may just use it on the exterior doors! Stay tuned....

Thinking about my business, my artist friend Brandy came by the booth recently, took one look at my business card, and exclaimed it was a terrible picture of me on the card. "You think?"

She did think. Are you wondering why?  She claimed I looked like a realtor, or a minister's wife, not the "zany" person she knows me to be. Well I thought about it, wondering if she was right, so I had Bruce take a sillier photo of me while we were on the boat the other day. My hair is wild and crazy!

Perhaps I'll have to think of something else?

Saturday we headed over to spend the day working with Bill who was hard at work painting the back of the house when we arrived. I did some cutting in, Bill did the walls, while Bruce finished the pressure washing on the big side of the house. Bruce looked like a filthy drowned rat when that big job was done! So take a look at what the pool looked like by Saturday.

The house color looks way darker under the awning than it really is. Bruce is fixing a slight boo-boo I made while cutting in around the window, while I have my stool ready to paint the final PINK parts on the back. Meanwhile, the house dried from the washing; after the primer dried, Bill went to work with his new extension pole. Between his height, the work stool, and the extension pole, he was able to reach the eaves, which Herbert will soon be spraying, using his scaffold.

Let me tell you, this is where youth comes into the picture. What he is doing is insanely hard, not only because you have to reach so high above your head, but because that stucco sucks up paint like nobodies business! I told him the next time he buys a house we will be entirely TOO old for this kind of work.

Because it was blazing hot, and because the pool was nice and cool, little Missy here, jumped in twice in her clothes! Can't remember the last time I did that, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. Before we left, the back looked so much better, although I need to give the door a second coat. I'm including this one because if you look at the sliding glass doors in the photo you will see your favorite blogger in her swim clothes.

We left Bill painting away in spite of the late hour and the heat.

By golly, he called later, saying he'd gotten the side done. Count me impressed. Pretty cramped over on that side as well.

It won't be too much longer and the major projects will be done, leaving Bill's wallet a little heavier, and our workload a little lighter. Which means, eventually I'll be back to taking photos and blogging! It has been a while since I went down to the lake for a sunset, and last night I was in for a surprise when I did so. Not only was the sunset beautiful, but one of the neighbors (community lot), cleaned up the shoreline. In 18 years I've never seen it look so good.

The water along the shore is crystal clear now--woo hoo! Do you suppose Bruce can put down his tools and take the kayak out soon? Well, maybe after he's done working at Angela's house, re-doing her gazebo. I suspect he'll enjoy being paid for this job, don't you?

Taking Chances

This little gem arrived in my inbox Tuesday:

       Good Afternoon,

Thank you for your interest and submission of your artwork for this year’s Winter Park Art Festival poster. After careful consideration, we regret we are unable to utilize your painting for our event. While we recognize the exquisiteness of your paintings, we appreciate the time you have invested in the application process. We hope that you submit another drawing next year and continue to support our Art Festival.

It was signed by an intern who apparently needs more supervision. Filled with not only errors about my submission, the event is even mis-named! Every year emails are sent out asking for submissions, and every year I send in something. In this case, the event is actually the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival, not to be confused with the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival, held in the spring. Because it is free to do so, I usually enter something, never expecting to be selected, however, there is always that slim off chance, so really why not? A fall, or Winter Park theme is what they asked for, so this year I sent in a photo of fall leaves which sounds pretty mundane, but is in all actually one of my best photographs. 

I decided to go with something very simple, unlike in the past when I was taking chances with my photographs. Looking through my library for an Angela request,  I realized just how many things I've tried turning into photographic art. My word--take a look at a few of them, taken over the years:

What do you think of the above? I remember getting clay, mashing it all together in what I thought was a pleasing color combination, then mashing the top with either waxed paper, or aluminum foil. 

And who could forget my milk, food coloring, and dishwashing soap experiments?

Here's a funny old one made with letters I bought at Big Lots, using finger painting as the background.

Anything around our home was fair game in those days, including a line up of little glass balls.

Who wouldn't want a photograph of Jelly Bellies?

The light is nice on them though.

I would buy small inexpensive props to use, such as these colorful vases from IKEA. Setting them up on my kitchen floor, using foam core below them, I positioned them under the skylight.

Here's a little gem found in a pack of stickers.

Care to guess what this is?

I can hardly remember how I made this, but as I recall, I cut up construction paper, layering the broken glass from our front door atop the paper, and heaven only knows how I used soap on there. I can make out the bubbles, but for the life of me, I don't remember the process. 

Here's colorful stirring sticks resting on aluminum foil.

I remember sitting on the bathroom floor, underneath the skylight, with tissue paper and a daisy, photographing it on the various colors, as quickly as possible with my little camera, eventually turning it into a collage.

More of our broken glass which I kept in a jar under the kitchen sink for years, thinking of experiments...

One day, while shopping at Ross, I came across a little jar of fish candies on sale--I could not wait to get them home to make some art! 

Actually that experiment has paid off, most of the others have never been seen by anyone but me until now. The above I called, "One of a Kind."

I tried selling this one of a mirror underneath Angela's tree, and I did have loads of folks remark on it, however, eventually I pulled it to make room in my baskets for other silly things!

Most people can hardly believe I take photographs every single day, but I view it as practice. I'm still such a beginner in this trade! 

Connect Four anyone?

I could go on and on, oh wait--I've already done just that!  Anyway, puzzling about why it is that I am accepted into art shows only occasionally, I think my conclusion is thus: I'm a square peg in the round hole of photography. I don't photograph the same thing all the time, I don't use Photoshop, nor do I have "big boy" equipment for the simple reason that I'd have no idea how to operate it! 

Really, I'm just a 60 year old woman having fun with a camera, and if the buying public like what I do, and fortunately it seems as if they do, all the better. Putting this blog post together has been a fun reminder of my journey. Now, to find something weird to photograph today!!! Wish me luck!

A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

A new month--where is the year going??

The great thing about my life is that although each day shares similarities, which is good in my book, as I think all humans need routine, each day has surprises. One of those surprises was my finding the cardinal nest high amongst the Lady palm fronds the other day, just as I'd blogged that it was nowhere to be found. If ever anyone suggests you plant Lady Palms, resist, resist, resist!!They are bamboo in disguise which I discovered after removing the outer husk.

I was cutting some of them out, as they have, and continue to do so, overrun the front corner of our house. Seems like every other day a new one is popping up in places they were never intended to habituate. What a nuisance. Three years ago, when we re-did the back yard and pool, it took three strong young men to remove all of them from behind our house. If Bruce would agree, I'd do the same in the front, but there's about a slim and none chance of that. He loves the jungly look.

This time of the year the cardinal plumage is so bright red it pops out in any landscape you see one.

More palms--we have them everywhere!!

Most of the time when a gift-giving occasion arises for Bruce, I am stymied as to what he might want. For his birthday this year, I gave him bags of Jelly-Bellies. I know, lame, right? Since we began working on Bill's house, Bruce has had the occasion to use lots of his tools, however, he no longer owned a compressor and nail gun, causing, what might be called, "compressor envy" every time Herbert breezed through a project using his. WELL, last week, we banished compressor envy because while at Home Depot, I saw a fantastic small set, including three nail guns. Now we're talking a birthday gift!

Unfortunately it did not come with the gun required to do this big project:

Yup--he's putting up a new fence on the side of our home. Our neighbor Pete kept hinting that it needed replacing, well hinting might be just a little soft, he kind of insisted we do something about it as it was leaning onto his property. Since I took this photo,

all of what you see has been replaced. While I'm in here typing, he is out cutting and painting the next 100 boards.

So, the other morning I made some waffles which turned out anything but pretty.

It took me like the whole bowl of batter before I got two decent looking waffles. Apparently, the more batter the better--let the overrun be cleaned up later.

We got really lucky that the flat tire on Bruce's car happened in our driveway. A few years ago we switched auto insurance carriers, and this is the first time we've had occasion to call them--thank God.

It was a very pleasant surprise to call them, engage with a friendly and helpful employee, and have the tow truck arrive within an hour. Happily, it was only a nail in the back tire.

Speaking of pleasant surprises, for my birthday, December 31, Ray and Jane, Tom's folks, sent me a beautiful basket of live plants. It is a gift that keeps on giving--look at this lovely show the African violets are putting on.

By all accounts, this should not be happening as they sit in full sun, but who am I to argue with success?

Recently I moved the Nuttery back out front, and generally the squirrels are staying away. Mr. Woodpecker is happy, or maybe it's a Mrs?

Sunday, following our rain out at the market, Dana, Bruce and I went for a drink at this cute place adjacent to our spot. Sporting some Hawaiian name, which I promptly forgot, it sure was decorated to the max. I kept wondering where they got the furniture...

The truth is, we had a little rain, but all the folks with their damn phones kept looking at radar claiming we were going to get hit bad. NOT! Packing up by 1 in the afternoon is not good for my business. :(

A good wife would be out helping her husband, and since I consider myself one, it is time for me to do just that.

Until we meet again....
Gail