Key Largo

We're back from our trip to Key Largo and we had a wonderful time, even though it wasn't as warm as we had hoped, with temperatures in the high 60's and low 70's which is about what's it's been here.    This is the place we stayed at Tarpon Flats Inn and Marina.  It's a small 4 room B & B which was just perfect.Our suite was on the top floor on the right and the view from there was spectacular.

This was the view from our deck, they had a small pool, but I'm strictly a hot weather swimmer and it wasn't nearly hot enough to swim.

At the back of the property there was a sandy beach with

 chairs, a hammock and room to chill out.  Mac would sit and play his guitar and I did a water color painting, the palm tree turned out fine, but I really have problems doing pine trees, and what in the world was a pine tree doing there anyway. a dolphin popped up, not ten feet from us, to see what we were doing

The first day we were there we went deep sea fishing on the boat to the left.  It was a five hour trip.  The fishing wasn't vevery good but we had a good time anyway.  We each caught one small fish not nearly as big as what we can catch in our backyard.  The wa

ter was beautiful though, you could see 30 or 40 feet down. 

Pelicans huddle up in the harbor waiting for leftovers to be thrown to them, we even had one ride the railing the last mile or two back to the dock.

The second day we took a glass bottom boat out to the coral reef and even though we had a slow rain most of the day the guide said it was the best viewing they'd had in 3 weeks because there was no wind and that makes for better viewing and it was cle

ar.  Saw angel fish, parrot fish, barracuda, stingray, and dozens I can't remember the name of.

Mac's Fish

This is like the Glass bottom boat we went on and just behind it the African Queen, somebody bought it from the movie studio (Humphey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn) and had it brought in.

                       The drive across the water to the Keys.

Forida Keys

We're off to the Florida Keys tomorrow, can't wait.  I've had four places on my "Bucket List" for a while now and the Florida Keys is  one of them, the others being the Orkney Islands in Scotland, Petra in  Jordan and Ankor Wat in  Cambodia.
 You'd think living so close to Florida we'd have gone down there by now, after all we've been in  Georgia almost 7 years.  The one time we went to Florida we were going to Spring Training  for the Braves in Orlando and then from there we were driving on down to  to the Keys.  Unfortunately  I got sick in Orlando and we cancelled out reservations for the Keys and came home instead.

For our trip this time we're flying down to Ft.Lauderdale and then driving down to the Keys from there, a much shorter drive than driving all the way down Florida, that's about 400 miles.  We're  staying at a place called Tarpon Flats Marina on Key Largo.  We picked   Key Largo for a number of reasons, it's not as overgrown as Key West, it was a great Humphey Bogart movie and an ok Beach Boy song, and  we  just like the sound of it.

Tarpon Flats is  a small B & B at a marina, it only has 4 rooms and to me that sounds ideal. Hopefully, which means weather permitting, we're going deep sea fishing, then  out on a glass bottom boat for sightseeing and the last day a  drive down through the Keys.  This is sort of a reconnaissance visit, if we like it we'll go back for a longer stay next time. 

Garden Surprise

Mac made a surprise for my garden.  He made me two bee skeps to sit in the corner of the new bed he is putting in for me. Skeps are what were used for bee hives before  hives you could open were developed.  To get honey out of a skep you had to break it.  Originally skeps were made of braided straw or wheat, Mac made mine with rope.  I've always liked skeps, I love their shape and texture.  Of course I don't want any bees other than the tiny ones he made and attached to the skeps to move in.  It's not that I dislike bees,  I don't, in fact I love Bumble Bees who I consider the hardest working bees in the world,  but unfortunately last year I was stung by a wasp and had quite an allergic reaction, something I'd never had before, ended up going to an emergency clinic and now have to carry an Epi Pen everywhere I go.  I really appreciate the work our bees do and try to attract them to my garden.  So I share my garden with the bees, who are in fact loving my Camellia tree right now, but I'm rather cautious around them .

Lighthouse

Much too wet and muddy to garden today, we had more than 2 inches of rain yesterday and more is forecast for tonight.  So I thought I'd show the watercolor I did of the lighthouse at Harbor Cove.  There were palm trees around it, but mostly there were cars and buildings, so I decided on a little artistic license.  Next I hope to paint the lighthouse on Sapelo Island, that's one of Georgias' barrier islands, but you can only go there on a tour and I don't know if they would give me time to paint.

The Dark Side of Gardening

I love gardening, I blog about it all the time, but there is a dark side to gardening for me.  I suffer from seasonal allergies, particularly in November and March.  Today the pollen count, even with rain, will be 648 p/m(3), that's parts per cubic meter, high, but not as high as it's going to get here.  Last year we had days where the pollen count was over 4,000 parts per cubic meter.  

After a day in the garden I'm coughing and sneezing because of allergic rhinitus  and my eyes are itching because even better, I have allergic conjuctivitus.  I do use prescription eye drops for the conjuctivitus, but I try to avoid taking anything for the allergic rhinitus because the 2 things my Doctor will let me take (I have high blood pressure) are Benedryl and Allegra.  Benedryl makes me spacey and mean-tempered and Allegra dries me out so badly that I usually end up with laryngitus   because of dried out vocal chords and I run around writing notes on napkins to communicate.

There are ways to help your allergies, take shots----not going to happen---, stay indoors, particularly in the morning when the pollen is the worse, close your windows, take a vacation when the pollen is the worst (we are, but we're going to Florida and I suspect the pollen won't be any better there) and stay out of you garden.  All of these things are unlikely to happen.

Right now it's pine tree pollen that's the worst and we have all kinds of pine trees in our yard.  I can't avoid them, not going to stay inside and I'm not taking medication, so I'll sniffle my way through March and hope that the pollen in April won't be one I react to.

Definitely a Gardening Day

Beautiful spring day, clouds building up though,  for rain is coming tonight and tomorrow, but for today temperatures in the 70's and just right for gardening.  I've been cleaning out the shady garden bed outside the garden proper.  The first couple of years we were here all I tried to  did was keep the weeds down, but about 4 years ago I decided that although it was in the shade all the time that I would find some plants that would grow there, and it has become one of my favorite beds.

I began by putting in Asperagus Ferns thinking I'd probably have to replant them each year, but they have been a wonder.  They're not truly a fern and originally from South Africa,  in some locations it's  been declared a weed, but I love them.  Delicate and lacy they've come through each winter, though this year they definitely got burned by the frost and I had to do some judicious pruning.

Each year I plant Coleus, Dusty Millers and Jacob's Coats in the bed. This year I'll add some begonias.   When the winter is mild, as it should be, they all come back.  This year I fear none of them will be back and I'll need to replant, time will tell.  There's also a Honeysuckle in this bed, but it hangs over the  garden fence and mainly blooms on the other side.  I've got Gladiola bulbs along the sunnier ends and put Pansies there in the winter.  The Mimosa tree overhangs this bed and though it blocks most of the sun its flowers are so pretty that I forgive it.  It is the last tree to leafout in the spring  and the last to lose its leaves in the fall.

The bed around the corner is my main rose bed and I started cleaning it today.  Last year at this time the Wisteria along the top of the fence had already started blooming, but not this year.

Mac is putting in a new raised bed in the garden proper.  Right now there are Day Lilies, Ginger Lilies and Freesias there.  Hopefully   it won't be so damp there now and I'll try some other plants in there.

In the small bed next to the driveway my Daffodils and Hyacinths have started blooming, finally!

It feels so good to have my fingers in the soil again!

Hilton Head Island

We spent the day in Hilton Head South Carolina yesterday.  Hilton Head is one of South Carolina's coastal islands, and definitely the most developed.  Getting there you travel highway 278 which  crosses the Intercoastal Waterway and then over Pinkney Island, the site of a National Wildlife Refuge and then onto Hilton Head itself.   It's a beautiful entry to the the island but it's so built up.  Though they make business's mute their signs all you see as you drive across the island is one strip mall after another.  We drove the length of the island to Sea Island Resort.  There are a number of beaches on Hilton Head, but I'd been wanting to paint the lighthouse, on paper only, at Harbor Town so that's where we went.  The weather was perfect, even warmer than it had been forecast, well up in the 70's, so it was hot sitting in the sand painting.

The harbor area was full up people,

 mainly old, rich Yankees enjoying our Southern winter.  Most of the cars in the 

parking lots were from up north or Canada, and nearly all

of the yachts in the harbor were New England based, and those yachts were big and expensive

 looking.

Sea Pines Resort is an amazing looking place and driving through it we could see why people would make it a vacation destination.  Stopping by one pond we saw a bald eagle perched on top of a tree, in my picture he looks tiny, but in person he was huge, you could easily see his white head even as far away as we were.

  Basking on the side of the pond were a group of Anhingas, through with fishing for the day I guess.

After finishing my  painting we drove back to the other side of the island to have lunch at The Crazy Crab, a restaurant we'd discovered years ago and enjoyed a tasty lunch overlooking the water.  Mac had a broiled fish plate with scallops, fish and shrimp, while I had a 1/2 pound of

 of steamed shrimp.  It is so nice living in an area where fresh shrimp are caught locally 

and not trucked in from across the country.

All in all a nice day, but Mac and I both agree that we prefer Tybee Island

 here in Georgia to Hilton Head.  Tybee is more laid back and definitely less developed.  At Hilton Head it almost feels like you need to dress up to go to the beach, Tybee is a come as you are place.  Still, I'm pleased with my painting and glad we went.

I Knew It!

I knew it, it's not my fault that I'm overweight, it's those pesky bacterium living in my intestines.  Their insatiable need for "food" drives me to eat more than I need.

Gut bacteria have been linked to asthma, cancer and other autoimmune diseases and now scientists are suggesting that they may be linked to obesity.    They believe that the reason people are eating too much might  not be simply because unhealthy food is cheap and available, but rather that it's the bacteria living in our intestines that cause it. 

Now I've always known that humans harbor bacteria, both internally and externally, but I didn't realize to what extent.  I just read that the human body has 10 times more bacteria than human cells with 50 trillion microbes living in the average digestive tract alone.  

And basically what the scientists are saying is that when there is a change in our bacteria it may lead to obesity.  They transplanted bacteria from obese mice to slim mice and the slim mice began eating more and became obese.  Should we get rid of our bacteria, of course not, we need each other.  One scientist was quoted as saying, "...we're not so much individual organisms as symbiotic human-bacteria collecitves", now there's a thought.

So what are you going to do?  Well at my age I'm just going to relax and enjoy myself. Mac said he knew all along that it was an inside job!

Hunting Down the Ancestors, Again

I'm still working on our family history although it is starting to slow down and get harder.  What a kick it is to find how where my family came from.  On my Dad's side, with a name like Strader, I've always known we came from Germany, but family "legend" has always said that the first Strader came over in the 1800's to work in the breweries in Missouri, and that is completely wrong.  I was amazed to find out that the earliest Strader I could track down was William, Hans Wilhelm, Strader who was born in Rotterdam, which was part of the Lowlands, not Germany.  He was born in 1710 and died in Sussex County New Jersey in 1784.  So much for family history, not German at all, though there are German parts to the family.  Through my Father's maternal Grandmother Ellen Wyant I was able to trace back about 4 more generations to Peter Wyant who was born in 1763 in Germany and died in Virginia in 1838.

On my Mother's side I've been greatly helped by a newly found 3rd cousin Monica who has shared family photos and stories with me.  My only memory of my Great Grandmother Lizzie is of a very old woman, but thanks to my cousin I now have a picture of her as a young mother with her children, including my Grandmother Pearl who I'd never seen a picture of as a child!

And through my cousin I've been able to trace both the Irish branch of the family and the Cherokee Indian branch.   I've always known we were Cherokee for my Grandmother and Great Grandmother are on the Dawes Roll, that's a list of all the Cherokee Indians in the early 1900's in Oklahoma, the Federal Government made this list up so they would be able to give land to the Indians as Oklahoma became a state, and so the tribe could keep track.  But it was so interesting to trace the history back and find where one of my ancestors had married an Indian woman named Susannah Senicooie in Georgia before the Cherokees were forced to move to Oklahoma.

Who knows what I'll discover next.

What Makes a Good Neighborhood?

We live in what we think is a beautiful neighborhood.  It's called Redbird Creek,  named for the creek that runs behind it and for the Cardinals that live there.  It's full of mature live oaks and towering pines with landscaping kept very natural.  We are what's called a covenant protected community which means that we have a set of rules and regulations that govern how we keep our subdivision looking good.  We can't cut trees without permission, all building must be approved by an architectural committee, and no boats, ATVs, jetskis may be kept in driveways and must be screened from the road.And as you can see it is a beautiful place.  But now some in our community have decided that in addition to the rules and regulations we have that we should start fining our neighbors if they don't follow the rules.  It's obvious that most, if not all of us, are following the rules, but that's not good enough.  What a horrible thing to do to a community, turning one neighbor against another and 

actively encouraging neighbors to report infractions. 

 Mac and I take a 2 mile

 walk through our neighborhood everyday and have never seen anything being done that deserved a fine.  

 Well this was brought to a vote at our annual Homeowner's Association Meeting on Sunday and the vote ended in a tie, so we're at a standstill.  We don't know what's going to happen, but I hope that they simply let it die and realize that even without fines we'll continue to take care of our properties because no one wants to destroy the beauty we have here and we don't need a fine to make us do it.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, I Mean Visit

Yes the President is in town today.  Not to visit me of course, or anyone like me it seems.  He's visiting several African-American schools and colleges, a program for disadvantaged youths and meeting with the Mayor, who is also  African-American,  and then leaving.

Supposedly one of the reasons for the visit is to show his concern for jobs, but he hasn't time to meet with any of the local small business owners or indeed any business owners.  So last Friday the Mayor, Otis Johnson,  was sent notice from the White House for him, the Mayor, to meet with the local business owners and to compile a list of their thoughts on how to get the economy going and for him to then share the list when he meets with the President.

I'm not impressed.  More and more I'm concerned with how we have elected a man with so little experience in government that he thinks that photo opportunities and teleprompter speeches are all we need to solve our problems.

I hold the media responsible, in a large part, for his election and gain a bit of pleasure each time I hear that newspapers are losing readership and network news its viewers.  They've earned the right to fail.  Unfortunately if this President fails we'll all pay the price.