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| If you like realism... |
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...or if you like
the more abstract...you can pick your style for two very exciting and
different workshops. Also there are only two spots left for February's Armand Cabrera Workshop. Check the website for the rest of the schedule or to sign up for one of these. http://www.ameliaislandartistsworkshop.com |
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_________________________and
now for the story________________________
Many of you have expressed an interest in how Miss Shelly is doing these days. |
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I would describe
her as fat and sassy. She has become quite the young lady,
very
filled out and beautiful. I'm hoping the extra weight doesn't have anything to do with the time she went missing for two weeks back during mating season. Oh well, what can you do with these young girls? They do have a mind of their own. Although I am anxious in one sense for her to have her own family to hang out with I would prefer it would happen this summer when she is closer to a year old. |
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She is becoming
less tame as on this visit she would jump on my arm to retrieve
her nuts but she would jump back to the tree to eat and any noise would startle her and send her scurrying up the tree and away. |
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Sometimes it is
days before I see her again and I always wonder if she is going
to come back at all, but so far she has. |
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Today I went out
and called a number of times during the day but when it
is coldish and overcast the squirrels are not very active. I think they just curl up and sleep in using that nut storage to not have to go out for dinner. She may have her mind on other things now. |
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| Saturday before last I went to take photos at the Farmers Market. From Fresh eggs... |
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| to fresh flowers... |
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...to all kinds
of veggies it is always a colorful experience even with the overcast
day. It was chilly so everyone was bundled up and not really anxious to have their photo snapped. |
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It is always good
to have the treat of fresh citrus fruits which ripen in the winter
months. My favorite is a short lived one called "Honey Belles" and I am wanting some before they are all gone. They are only available in January and are the absolutely juiciest of them all weighting in at about double the weight of the others. I did find them in Chattanooga at the fresh market near Lake Winnepesaukah in North Georgia once so if that market is still there my friends in that neck of the woods can check it out. |
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The beautiful
service dogs which frequent the various functions advertising what they
do were a
happy couple of cuties. The one on the left is really just for show as she was not suited to do the "job" of working with Autistic people so she happily enjoys her job in the PR department. |
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On Monday Bruce
had called me to tell me I should check out the cloud bank over the
ocean. It
was a very interesting sight even though I waited until it was later to go and it had lost some of the dramatic lighting from earlier. There were rough seas with waves breaking further out than usual to the delight of a lone surfer who looks like he is "walking on water" in this photo. |
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The cloud
formation reached from one horizon to the other as I looked North and
South and looked
like a Tsunami headed our way. |
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As I left the
beach I could not figure out exactly what I was seeing because it
seemed a bit cool for
the Gopher Tortoises to be out and about. I thought this might be a dead one so I tiptoed around the dune to check on him but he disappeared down his burrow before I could get there. Guess he was just soaking up some rays with the wind protection of his front door. |
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Leaving the "Y" I
walked around the pond trying to get a picture of some pond turtles
hanging out near
a culvert which runs underneath the road. The Great White wading in the edge of the pond flew up and I could see the signs of spring in his mating plumage which is starting to show up trailing behind his tail feather as he left. This year we are encouraged by any signs of spring be it a Gopher Tortoise sticking his head out on a sunny day or a bird's tail feathers. |
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Thoughts of
turtles take another jog into consciousness as I attend the annual
FMTPHM in
Tallahassee. Bruce commented to me that it looks like alphabet soup. I surprised myself by remembering it stood for "Florida Marine Turtle Permit Holders Meeting". |
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Tallahassee was a
nice town but I was tied up in meetings most of the time although we
did take
some time to visit one of the many State Parks in the area before leaving on Sunday. In case you are wondering if I am getting into girlie art this is a Manatee's belly button. You can see how with enough Rum the ancient mariners might have gotten confused and thought they were seeing girls with tails swimming about. |
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And with a little
imagination these two frolicking Manatees might look like the rump of a
woman as
she dives into the deep waters enticing them to follow her. Remember they were at sea a long time without seeing a woman and so "Mermaids" became a plausible explanation. |
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Cypress trees
were in abundance with their knees edging the wet areas and the bases
of the
tree trunks. |
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I missed my one
chance to get a full face view of one of our manatees by not being able
to focus the
lens until she had already started to duck her head back underneath the water. |
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I would like to
make you aware that at this particular time the air was only in the mid
40's.
These Southern Polar Bears had decided to go swimming. Of course the water here comes directly from the bowels of the earth as part of the aquifer at a constant temperature of around 72-74 degrees and felt surprisingly warm when I swished my fingers in it. The manatees come up in here for that reason, to keep warm in the colder times of winter. Although the current diving tower is only about 8 feet high the old one here was 3 stories high...these days it would be "litigation city" to have a tower like that open to the public. |
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The Edward Ball
Wakulla Springs State Park is very largest and deepest fresh water
springs
in the world, a treat for divers with mammoth bones still in the bottom of it, and tons of hiking trails and more springs through out. It was our one adventure on the trip besides visiting the old historic State Capital Building and a nice place to have lunch and just relax away from working. The Lodge in the park was built in 1937 by financier Edward Ball, a very rich man. He lived a non extravagant life style although he did have a pretty impressive castle in Ireland. He was giving away something like $17,000 a day to charity toward the end of his life, but bought his clothes off the rack, his shoes wherever he was when they wore out, and his glasses at the drug store. If you are a fan of old movies several were made here. Three of the old Tarzan movies were filmed here and who can forget "The Creature from the Black Lagoon". Return to Story Book Return to ASJG Main |