from the porches

o christmas tree

      

 This is a Christmas tree in downtown High Springs.  A local factory made it and gave it to the town.

Look what happens at night.

  

Now for the grand finale. Watch this amazing tree transform when the photographer moves while clicking.

      

                                                   "Oh, my word!"

I have just spent two hours putting up my tree and seperating the branches.  We are not going green this year.  It is December 20 and I feel fortunate to have it standing. 

Truett is down and out with congestion and cold so this year it was up to me. Hey, last year it was up to me.  But I've been cheating for the past three years.  I got smart and grabbed one of the employees gently by the shirt and said,  "Come with me.  I have a job for you."  I do thank Bruce for doing this for me because now I realize I don't want to spend two hours of my life putting up the tree again ..and it's not even decorated yet.  So that's one good reason why we should have gone green this year.

I'd just like to sling some icycles diagonally on my tree and then it would look like the tree above, which I think is pretty cool looking.  

going ga-ga

Today I did the very thing I so despised when I was a child..adults going ga-ga over the twins.

Today was pajama day for Kindergarten.  Cute.  Cute.  Cute little kids in their Spiderman, Diego and Cars pj's.  But then I saw them..one pair of the multitude of kindergarten twins.

           

Now isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen.  "Come back.  I want to take a picture of you,"  I shouted.  "Just your backs,"  I said.  I felt like a real heel for going ga-ga but I couldn't help myself.

inspiration strikes

Inspiration hit me this morning as I watched twin girls get out of their car.  Definitely identical twins.  Then my friends told me we had seven sets of twins in Kindergarten at our school. 

Of course that reminded me of my childhood.  In fourth grade we had at least five sets of twins. So a discussion of twins came up in between cars and excited children.

I casually made the comment,  "Being a twin wasn't easy."  You know the typical dressing alike, thinking alike stuff. Then KABOOM!  Inspiration struck and I said,  "I think I'll write a children's book called Being a Twin Isn't Easy.

So during my plan time and lunch time I wrote non-stop and pretty much have the basic first draft.  I suppose I'll publish it on  Blurb.com. Now I'm just trying to coerce my sister into illustrating it for me.

Here is a short excerpt from the book-to-be.

            I tell you.  It's not easy being a twin.  Like the time we went to Pop's Drugstore and

            two elderly silver-haired women gawked and swooned, "Oh, how cute. .. TWINS!... and

            you look just alike." 

            Well, I'll tell you right now I didn't feel cute.  I felt like a freak.  How could I not? 

            All I had to do was look to my right and see me twice. Yikes!  That's downright scary.

             Hey, I just had an idea for a new horror movie called, "The Clones."  Of course

            this movie would have a good twin (me) and an evil twin (her) and the good twin would destroy

            the evil twin by peeling her face back and showing a green warty monster.  I tell you.  It's not

            easy being a twin.

So now you'll have to wait for the rest although I was so inspired I couldn't keep it from a few of my friends.  Thank you for being excellent listeners. 

The story is basically about one of these twins.

           

  Well, enough.  Inspiration hit.  I produced.  Now I'm going to zone out with my DeMille book.               

 

 

            

 

lucy

          

During our visit to Cedar Key I saw a pretty dog standing in front of a storefront.  So I crossed the street to check him out.  Come to find out, the dog was a female named Lucy and she is famous.

      

 Lucy's owner, Chris Buerki, took a year-long bicycle trip from North Central Florida (Newberry, FL) to the Oregon state line via Los Angeles with Lucy riding in a kiddie Kart attached to the bike.  In all they traveled 3,600 miles and had four near-death experiences, plus, seven puppies. 

       

 Mr. Buerki was selling his books, Travels with Lucy, so I bought one.  He is from the area and I loved his dog.

      

Lucy even signed my copy which cost $15, exactly the price of Mr. Buerki's red Schwinn bike that he rode on his journey.

      

 I'm  pretty sure this is not the original Lucy because this Lucy looks younger, but I'm definitely sure having Lucy beside Mr. Buerki helps his sales.  Lucy melted my heart.

       

                It's not everyday you meet someone famous, even if she is a dog.

                 Oops.  You too, Mr. Buerki.       

soul food

Recently I had gotten to the point where everything I saw looked the same.  Dry, brown fields. Same old cows.  Same old cars.  Same old..same old.  Therefore, when Truett suggested we take a ride to the gulf on Sunday, I dropped everything I had listed for the day.  Christmas cards can wait.  Kitty box can wait.  Cleaning the house can wait.  By jove, everything can wait if it means a trip to another area with photographic opportunities.

      

  So with a snap of the finger, off to the gulf we headed.  Oh, what a lovely day it was.  This photograph shows the sky from the opened sun roof in the Acadia.  What better way to imagine cloud images than to look straight up through the roof of your own car.

      

 This is a picture of the marsh at Cedar Key.  The tide was low so we were able to see many oyster beds.

      

This shot was taken from a seafood restaurant at the pier.  The restaurant is new and now has a biker theme; but that didn't stop us from eating seafood.  I was a little put off by the leather mini-halters hanging on the railings; however, we found the seafood better than the previous restaurant that once was there.

      

 This was once a pier but enough hurricane strength winds have left it as a roosting place for sea birds.

      

 The new pier is made of concrete and iron railings..just right for egrets and pelicans.  It's also a lot safer than the old pier.  No boats can dock beside this pier, and that's a shame.  I loved looking at the boats and the fishermen.

      

"Hello British-looking dudes."  About fiveof these skinny guys sat on the pier and played their musical instruments while one fished.  The one looking at the camera posed often for me, but I was ready to say, "I'm taking a picture of the building."  Oops!  That was a fib.

      

      Now aren't you getting that tug in your soul that you want to go to Cedar Key or someplace different for a change.  Gas prices are way down so go for it.

      

How about a dilapidated pier full of seagulls and pelicans, with an occasional grackle?

Yes, we all could get away and nourish our souls.  We just have to decide what's important.

Yesterday at Cedar Key I was intrigued by the seagulls as they begged for food.

      

                                         "Get away you old grackle!"

      

                                  "It's mine I tell you!  It's mine!"

      

                                      And the stranger reaches for more crumbs.

      

                     "Hey, fellas. Keep your eyes open.  She's digging in the bag."

      

                                              "Gimme' some!"

      

                      "Hey, Charlie.  What's going on?  Is that food?"

      

                          "Oh, no you don't.  I was here first!"

      

                       "Oh, rats.  Now everybody and their brother is here. "

      

                         "Look!  She's got cheese puffs!  Oh, boy..oh, boy..oh boy!"

      

                                "Look at me!  I'll dance for you!"

      

                   "Uh oh.  We're in trouble now...a pelican!

And so goes the lives of seagulls, pelicans and people.

                 

festive horses

                

                 

                 

                  

                

                       

Horses are beautiful creatures.  Don't you agree?

   

parade

This morning Truett and I went to a special Christmas parade at Three Rivers, a community of river families along the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe Rivers.  This parade mainly consists of decorated golf carts.Truett was supposed to judge the participants in the parade, but we arrived about five minutes too late so we just watched it.

                                                

                                     

                        

                        

                                 

                          It was a beautiful day for a Christmas parade.

rainbows

Truett and I drove to Gainesville on Thursday, the day our school was on Code Purple and the day it snowed in New Orleans.  We saw three rainbows on the drive to Gainesville.  We had to be quick to catch them because the sky was blue in spots with the sun shining brightly, and the sky was covered with dark moving clouds just beyond that.  I was able to get two shots of rainbows just as they were fading away.  It seems this body doesn't react quick enough once the brain sends the signal Rainbow..Rainbow.

Rainbow!  I pointed out to Truett as we were walking to our Acadia.

      

"Run get my camera!"  Truett said.

"I can't.  I'll miss it."  So instead I dove in the Acadia and snatched up my digital.  This isn't the best shot but at least you can see it.

Then we drove on.  "Rainbow!"  I snapped.  But we were on I-75 in the middle lane, so rainbow #2 was lost forever.

Finally, as we were approaching our destination we saw a third.  Truett whipped into an abandoned BP gas station and we were barely able to get this next photo.  If you look closely, you may be able to see a trace of the disappearing rainbow.

      

 It has been years since I've seen really visible rainbows, not because they weren't in the sky, but because I was at the wrong place at the right time.  I think I blogged about riding in the end of a rainbow once, but I might write that story again.  Rainbows are magical things.

Now have a magical day.

junk mail

I tell you.  I do get some junk email.  Right now, if I had accepted the offers I got on my email address this afternoon, I would be living a different life:  

First,  someone in my family would be taking Lipitor.  I don't even know what it's for, but either Truett or I would be taking it once a day at night with side effects that could kill us quicker than if we had not taken this pill..or syrup..or capsule.

Secondly,  I would have rushed to Chicos and bought my favorite clothes with a 25% discount on the 25% discount I already have.

Thirdly,  I could have gone to Pet Smart and bought two fifty pound bags of Pro Plan for three quarters of the price of three.  (Figure that one out.)

Fourthly, this computer I'm typing on would be a new, more expensive DELL that might type for me.

Fifthly, a million dollars would have been deposited into my bank account from an heiress in England.  Wait.  Maybe it was from South Africa.  I know all I saw were $$$$$$.

Lastly, I would have saved all the children around the world.

So I will end on that note and escape it all by reading my new book by Nelson B. DeMille.

Have a calm, peaceful weekend at some point.