The Clearwater Threshers!

Rich and I decided to check out minor league baseball in Florida and wound up at a Clearwater Threshers home game. Just look at that action. It was a fun game and quite the stadium. I was just too tickled with the palm trees!

See the silly seahorse?

The Clearwater Beach neighborhood we're in right now is lovely, but mostly lacking the Florida kitsch so prevalent elsewhere. And then there is this mailbox. So perky and cute I had to stop my bike and snap a photo. Don't you wish you could curl your tail like that?

Fussy photos

I joined a photo group for some hot shots at the Florida Botanical Gardens. I'm afraid that most of my shots were uninspired, but this one is fun. I've caught one of our group intent upon a beautiful rose. The scent in the air - it was intoxicating! These gardens were immaculate and fabulous. So many smells, sights and touches. The sun was almost too bright for good photos. I got more sun that morning than I've had in a week!

Phil Phest Phun!

I had the great privilege of volunteering at the Philip A. Bryant Melanoma Foundation's Phil Phest 2009 event. Why a privilege? Because more than 200 people took advantage of the free skin screening. Many of them received referrals to follow-up with a physician. That means someone could spot something pre-cancerous or get treatment early. A beautiful thing really. It was many years ago when I realized that I can't focus on the big picture and feel good about every day. Because people have been fussing over the environment and crime and every other nefarious issue since pre-Christ! But if I can touch people one-by-one each day, well, I can feel very good about that. Phil Phest was a lot of fun with a load of music and hot food, but it was helpful too. People learned how to protect and take care of themselves and more melanoma research will be possible. Yup, I definitely feel good about being at least a one-person part of THAT! Thanx Phil :-D

Arting Around

Rich and I finally made it to the Dunedin Fine Art Center. We went for the Gallery Talk before the exhibit on fine art crafts. This artist, Nigel Rudolph, was explaining how he keeps his integrity when creating artistic, but functional ceramics. He just won't add that palm tree...! The

Tying the Knot

It has taken some years, but Rich and I are happily married. *big, big, grin* Jak was on hand to snap this wonderful photo. We were married at the Rotary Club of the Gulf Beaches in Treasure Island, Florida. It was appropos considering Rich and I met at and attended the same Rotary Club for years before ever going on a date.

The face of the new place

So today we moved into the condo in Clearwater Beach. Sheesh! It's a lot of moving. But today, unlike yesterday's wedding day when the heavens opened and poured forth water on our drought-ridden land, it was sunny and cool.

The sun was kind enough to provide us with a warm show of favor. You can see the shadows of a mother and daughter shell picking team.

Those perky palms!

Every time I walked out the front door of this new house I noticed drops of some thick liquid on each of two stairs. Hmmm. Today I stopped to investigate. Never before have I noticed these curious blooms atop a palm. They were dripping sap. And then there at the base of one of the palms were more of the same blooms. Freaky. How often does one discover new plants that have been long since discovered?

Clearwater Beach - part won

Yes, this *is* my new backyard! How lovely is this? How fabulous is Florida?! We are staying in a house in Clearwater Beach for four days and moving to a condo in Clearwater Beach the same day we get married. Ooops! Cat out of the bag - Rich and I will be wed on April 14, 2009. WOO HOO!!

Yesterday had the heat to match the sunshine and the beach was LOADED. I took my bike into the commercial section because the streets were parking lots. Now we really do enjoy the touristy air of the southern beaches (Redington, St. John's Pass, Treasure Island, etc.) but this place brings a sneer to the word touristy! Children screeching, pouting, laughing, yelling, throwing sand. Teens and twenty-somethings parading, posing, prancing (what is the smallest salad you have?). Oh my. I needed a good night's sleep just to recover from the frenzied fuss of it all! Do you remember vacations at the beach? I don't.

UFO docking

This is our last night at the house in Redington Beach and a big, fat moon was hanging low and orange through the clouds. So I ran out to our dock expecting to get a great picture. Yeah, well. Instead I decided to show you how our neighbors shine green lights underwater, ostensibly to catch fish. I've never seen them fishing, so maybe they just like the green lights. My theory is that there are UFOs docking at his house! Anybody ever heard of green underwater lights being good for fishing?

Shuttering

Doesn't that hinge look a little monster-like? A hooked beak and none-too-happy. We are long since back from New Orleans where this picture was taken, but we are busily gearing up to move out of our Redington Beach house and into a condo in Clearwater Beach. Somehow pictures of cleaning and packing just don't appeal to me at the moment...

Frenchman Street

Close to our hotel was Frenchmen Street. It is just past the French Quarter, about three or four blocks long, and far away from the crass pleasures of Bourbon Street. Nevertheless, it retains a lot of color.

We had dinner at Adolfo's and then listened to some live music at the bar underneath, Apple Barrel. Much of what I saw of New Orleans was worn out, beaten down, and poor. Frenchmen Street was no exception, but the food was ambrosia. I had a fish that simply melted in my mouth. It was more than I could eat but I held on to the dish for a while just in case my stomach might have given me mistaken signals...