WATERY WEDNESDAY FOR June 16. Dive in!
CALOOSAHATCHIE RIVER, FROM THE EDISON ESTATE. (There's a bigger house just a little further back from the River.)
The Edisons enjoyed bird watching and picnicking on the river. They had a dock that (in their day) went halfway out into the River. Supply boats tied up to it when their Winter home was being built.
This post is linked to both SHADOW SHOT SUNDAY AND WEEKEND REFLECTIONS ….
…. because when we went for a walk this morning at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, the jungle-like shadows and reflections were just too perfect for both of these lovely collections.
LOOK DOWN, LOOK UP, LOOK EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD TO SEE THE SKY HERE: SKYWATCH FRIDAY
AND MORE BEAUTIFUL REFLECTIVE POSTS HERE: WEEKEND REFLECTIONS hosted by James at Newton Daily Photo.
The world is kind of topsy-turvy right now. Sometimes its hard to tell what's up and what's down.
You can't even count on consistency from certain politicians who are now crying out for government intervention. Oh wait — although that's mind-boggling inconsistency, it's not suprising news at all.
Yes, the politicans are suddenly crying out for more government help to solve the oil spill disaster.
Just a few weeks ago, weren't they saying that private industry and de-regulation could be counted on to solve all our problems?
Uh….ooooops! Now they need government intervention. Industry is hurting.
And yes, the oil spill sheen has reached Florida (North of us, in the panhandle).
The news is depressing.
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But it does no good to walk around with your head hanging down.
Even if you do, the blue sky is reflected back in all its beauty.
Reminding us that even in a topsy-turvey world, there is hope.
RUBY TUESDAY has lots of lovely red images. Scroll down to see red in this post.
How much are those puppies in the (toy-shop) window?
It sure made us look twice! (Along with everybody else strolling Fisherman's Village at Puenta Gorda last Sunday.)
I'm pretty sure they didn't used to make stuffed animals this realistic a century or so ago — or even almost half-a-century, when we were buying them for our kids.
THAT'S MY WORLD . Click on the entrants — there are pictures here from some fascinating places.
There's nothing much in the world more colorful than a day at the Beach. Lots going on. We just went walking – and pointing and shooting, mostly from the Naples Pier.
These were taken last week. Nobody seemed very concerned about the possibility of the oil spill reaching here. I hope they are not unpleasantly surprised and that it will be contained.
Click the links on SKYWATCH FRIDAY for this week's collection of beautiful skies from everywhere.
FOR WATERY WEDNESDAY this foggy waterfront from an April boat trip.
Last month — on an overcast Saturday morning — we went to a boat club lunch at Doc Ford's on Fort Myers Beach. It is one of a couple of restaurants owned by Randy Wayne White, a local author whose best-selling adventure novels feature Doc Ford, for whom he has named his bar and grills. Doc Ford (the character) is a marine biologist and adventurer who works out of a lab that White has set on Sanibel Island. Randy Wayne White (the author) really lives on Sannibel and his first restaurant is there.
I love place-oriented novels, especially when they're about somewhere we've stayed, so I really wanted to like this series — and I really tried, but I just couldn't get into the adventure.
And it would have made such a great lead-in to an update post on my Library Challenge. What can I say? I'm just a book wimp.
I like my mysteries and adventures on the cozy side like this one — where nobody anyone cares about ever gets killed. And look! This reprint even has a pink cover. Yup, a real girly murder mystery. THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
(There is an Agatha Christie challenge going on at some of the Book Blogs I read. I'm not taking part, but I was happy to be reminded of Dame Agatha and it is fun to read some of these books that I either missed or have forgotten.)
But for those with more adventurous tastes in reading, the Doc Ford series would be a good one — and you'd get all those great descriptions and history of this part of Florida. Below are a couple of framed blow-up posters of the series book covers. They were hanging on the wall behind the bar.
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Here's the Amazon link to all of the Doc Ford Books:DOC FORD NOVELS CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
For THAT'S MY WORLD and WATERY WEDNESDAY here's our watery weekend.
We were lucky to have a visit from our son Geoff this weekend. The three of us spent practically the whole three days on the water — that's what you do in Florida in the Summer. (And it seems like Summer here now, never mind what the calendar has to say!)
We took the boat up the river, through Franklin Lock and back. These pictures are at a little county park in the town of Alva.
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Geoff and his Dad look like they're trying to figure out where we are — or maybe where we're going! I guess it worked, because we got home safe and sound to rest up for another day of water-filled adventure.
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We spent a short time on the beach at Sanibel Island. None of us are lounge-around-in-the-sun types, but it was fun to dip our feet in the Gulf. (And as the horrible oil spill comes closer, it may have been our last chance to see the beach in this pristine condition.)
We also visited the Ding Darling Wildlife preserve on Sanibel.
Geoff and I kayaked through a marked channel (that's the picture on top of this post). (Bill chose to stay behind.)
It was a great experience – I had never kayaked before, but it was fun learning — and really good exercise for Geoff, who (literally) shouldered most of the burden. The path was beautiful — we saw lots of birds and an alligator. I have a few bird pictures for another post.
Back at the Visitor Center, we watched a pair of Manatees — it's mating season, so they were in an out of the water more than usual.
So it was another great Florida day on the water!
The next day,we toured the Babcock Wilderness. It's a huge privately-owned ranch here in North Ft. Myers which encompasses several of the watery ecosystems of this area of Florida.
The picture below is part of the Cypress Swamp area of the ranch.
A large part of the property was purchased by the State last year and will remain as a preserve while still allowing farming to take place.
We had a great weekend. Happy of course that Geoff came and happy because the watery weekend didn't include RAIN. His visit broke the record we've had recently — no matter whetherin Oregon or Florida, it has rained whenever we have out-of-town company. But not this time!
In fact, Geoff went home to Colorado with a slight sunburn as a Florida souvenir.
This week we toured ECHO Farm. ECHO stands for Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. It is a non-profit Interdenominatinal Christian organization that exists to help those working with the poor to be more effective in the areas of agriculture, especially small farms in tropical areas.
ECHO has a 50-acre test farm located just across the street from where we live. They chose Ft. Myers for the farm because our tropical conditions are pretty close to the climates where the need is greatest.
We took the very informative guided tour. The whole farm here is for the purposes of teaching interns and visitors how to pass on farming knowedge to those working with the poor in various conditions. The more people who can practice small farm tropical agriculture the more poverty can be alleviated.
This picture is a Moringa Tree. The leaves of this tree are highly nutritional and medicinal. It grows well in poor soil conditions.
The duck pond does double duty. Algae "fed" by duck-waste supports Tillapia. So from the one pond, people can get fish, eggs, and eventually, I guess, protein from surplus ducks.
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Vegetable gardens on the farm are planted in different spaces to replicate various conditions. For example: dry desert conditions, areas that flood periodically, and even heavily urban areas. Here are a couple of them.
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This knobbly thing is a purple yam that our guide cut open. He said that the vegetable that we buy in supermarkets that is called a yam is really a type of sweet potato. The real yam grows in sandy soil. It looked like a rock.
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Yup, this is a dandelion. As our guide pointed out it does NOT grow naturally in Florida. We don't garden any more, so we hadn't really thought about it, but now we realize we haven't seen a one. Of course, the leaves are nutritious and that's why they are growing it. Anyone who does still garden would love ECHO's bookstore which was full of gardening books and tools. And the money would go to this good cause.
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Our guide is showing a manually-operated water pump, made from easily obtained materials. Without a pump, farmers would be transporting water by buckets.
We learned that ECHO offers a separate tour to show more of the farm machinery innovations they have created. Bill wants to take that tour one of these times.
Click on the link below to go to ECHO website to read more about the farm and their other activities, such as their seedbank, animal husbandry, and educational and volunteer opportunities.
It was an excellent tour.
There were a lot of flowers on the grounds. Most of them were doing double duty, such as marigolds and nasturtiums for insect control, and sunflowers for food value.
This one and a few others were just, as our guide said, "to feed the soul."
SKYWATCH FRIDAY : Click there for pictures shared by many sky lovers.
Last season we took the speed ferry from Ft. Myers to spend a few days in Key West. Here is the link to what we posted then: ALL ABOUT THE SUNSETS AND …
Because I hadn't joined Skywatch (or any sharing sites) back then, I thought I'd share these sunset photos again.
EVERYBODY CHEER! (And click on last year's link above to see a little bit of what else Key West is famous for. )
