11-27-07

Florida

The girls, Anna, Tova (her puppies Racy J and Loki) Joanna.

Tova showing the blossom of the hanging moss on the trees.

This is a little native bush that attracts the butterflies.

We took a tour of Tova’s yard and here she is showing off one of the goldenrod plants.

She is wearing a clip with a bird that I gave her a couple of years ago. She has the most wonderful hair, thick and curly.

For my flower loving friends……. This isn’t the best time of year for the blossoms but she has quite a variety around the yard. She is a botanist/biologist so everything has these fancy scientific names.

A sweet potato plant. Anna says that some people eat the leaves.

Tova has just rebuilt her front porch and added sun protection for her windows. These shutters also help hold down the plywood sheets that she has to put on her windows in case of a hurricane. The plywood goes under them, they fold down and there is a two by four that locks them in place.

I think she said these were a cone flower type.

On the back side of the house she uses these screws to hold the plywood covers on.

She built this really nice table using some salvaged cypress boards that she found. They are just beautiful as they are old circle sawn boards. She has a real gift for knowing what looks ‘right’.

I really liked the little pot on the table.

The dogs are comfortable in their back yard.

That darn ‘Tucker Art’ can just show up about anywhere. J

We were headed out for supper and Joanna put on a nice little dress but I thought she might need something ‘special’ for the evening or whenever she needed to get ‘dressed up’.

A special small hair clip was just the thing. She loved it and wasw thrilled to wear it.

One of the things I have been disgusted with has been the bread that I have been buying at the store lately. Both Anna and Tova are world-class bread makers so I had Tova show me how to make bread. Here I am kneading in the bowl. This is the way Tova does it and it does keep the mess down.

Anna and Joanna made pancakes while the bread was baking. Joanna likes little ones and she helps break the egg and stir the ingredients.

Two loafs and they came out just right.

The dogs didn’t seem to mind the belly pets.

I was so proud of myself for finding a Rebel flag sticker for my motorcycle. I looked at like the stickers that I bought down in South America to show that I had gone to Ecuador, Argentina, Peru, etc. but the women in my life (Sheila, Tova, Anna) were all aghast that I would do such a thing. They all said it was racist and red neck. I said “hell no, it just means I rode there” and actually I always thought that the South ought to have been allowed to secede from the Union if they didn’t want to be part of it. There is a movement in some northeastern states to secede now and I sure would like the Pacific Northwest to get the hell out now too. Well, Tova had me do a Google search of ‘Confederate Flag,’ symbol and after reading it decided that they were right. My interpretation is also there but the racist comments were something I didn’t want to be connected with. Too bad, as I really like the flag and thought it was a neat way to ‘mark’ my trail. I’ll have to find another way.

We went to town and when we left it started to rain like I have never seen it rain before. Tova had the windshield wipers on full fast and it wasn’t fast enough. She called it a ‘Toad floater’ and I can see why. Here it has stopped raining but you can still see the water pouring down the street. They sure have the dainage method figured out because there was no flooding. Oh, the people don’t slow down for just a little rain either, it would be interesting to see them drive in six inches of snow……

We stopped at a Gold and Coin shop to look around. After about a half hour I had purchased an antique Colombian coin for Anna’s husband and Joanna had bought a 75 cent Australian coin with a kangaroo on it. We felt good getting out of there only spending a buck.

Joanna wanted to go for a motorcycle ride so I loaded her up and we made several trips up and back the little road in front of Tova’s place. When we rode back in and I parked it, she decided that she needed more ridding so off we went again for a couple more trips. She did really well and told me not to go fast. Anna says that she really likes the motorcycles in Jarkarta but this is the first time she has ridden.

Joanna had Anna’s camera and took this picture of me walking the dogs. She really likes to take pictures but mostly gets pictures of dog butts and pictures from way low angle which come out nice sometimes. She actually took the photo below of the oak tree planting when Anna asked her to.

Anna’s husband is down in Colombia now where he has been attending his father who was very sick. He ended up dying a couple of days ago and Tova went out and planted a Live Oak tree acorn in his honor. Tova did her Masters Thesis on live oaks so we all have great hopes that this will grow up to be a grand old tree. These live oaks are sure wonderful trees down here and they get huge and old with the moss hanging down.

This time she just rode it herself……………..the bloodhound didn’t seem to mind a pretty gal in the saddle.

We went out to the park where Tova works.

I am not sure what this is called but maybe ‘kite surfing’ or ‘kite boarding’? They can really haul ass down the beach and then quickly turn around and come back.

This will give you an idea of the size of them. There is a main tube around the bottom and smaller tubes like ribs off of that main tube.

Some guys had hand pumps but here was a 12V pump. These are the boards they use. They seem almost like snow boards. A couple of years ago when I saw them kit surfing down in Mexico they were using metal stiff kites and long surf boards. This is a whole different thing and seem much more maneuverable and light weight. Humm, a person could pack this on a motorcycle pretty easy I think…………………..

The rigging seems rather simple. One guy I talked to said that the little strings are rated at 500 pound test.

Here is a guy that is practicing control of a kite.

When the big storms come in they erode the sandy beaches and the state comes in and dredges sand up way off shore and builds new dunes at a cost of several million dollars. Tova’s boss John was able to get a project through where they planted ‘sea oats’ that you see here behind the fence. These plants naturally collect blowing sand and build dunes by themselves. You can see here that in one year the grass has built almost two feet of new dune in ONE years time!!! The great thing about it is that when they do this they have roots that go way down and protect the dune from erosion where the man made dunes just quickly erode because they have nothing to anchor and protect them.

Joanna digging for dinosaur bones. She was told she would have to come visit me and we could go hunt for dinosaur bones near my place.

This was out on the Jetty where they had cut a notch in the sand spit to make way for boat traffic. It would be interesting to know just how far these rocks had to come to get here. Florida is mostly all sand.