Yesterday my friend, Pam and I ventured off to the RSVP reception for photographer Douglas J. Nesbitt. http://www.djn1111.com/
Being that both Pam and I are photographers, she very professional one, me very amateur, we knew a reception held at the Albin Polacek Museum had to be good. And it did not disappoint
The day could not have been better, low 70’s, puffy white clouds floated over head. The place was totally packed, filled to capacity! Douglas must have been quite happy with the turn out, but we did not see him as the shoulder to shoulder crowds in the main house and galleries were so tight, after looking at each photo, we opted for the outside space. And the outside space is glorious, Polacek, (America’s foremost sculptors of the twentieth century”) knew how to pick a retirement spot on the Winter Park chain of lakes, (oh, if only they had asked us to bring a pole.)
Upon going outside, the food line was filling up so we got into line as I love sampling the food. As we stood in line, the garden was opposite us and what a great and productive garden it is!
Lettuce, herbs, peppers, okra, they all looked well cared for and the planters looked lush. Pics tell the story:
The food line went fast and the food was displayed beautifully, but the food did not really fit my palate. I must admit, I limited my choices to a few items. The downside for me, nothing sweet! (Unless they put sweets out later and we did not go back that way). But that did not matter, the gardens were opulent and Douglas’ work, especially his black and white photos were wonderful to gaze upon. I really liked the colorful buildings in a series in the small gallery off to the left of the main hall. My favorite was one photo taken at the Bar Mitzvah of one of his friends. This reception was a classic example of what the perfect reception should look like, we were impressed, but sorry, because no photos can be taken inside the gallery. So go have a look.
Wandering people stopped and spoke to us, there was so much fun just people watching. We even saw a hummingbird! But not in time for a photo.
So here are some photos of the grounds and I encourage you to go and spend a couple hours looking at the house and the artwork. Polaceks’ sculpture and and landscaping is like icing on the cake of a fantastic piece of property – AND they are in need of volunteers, if you have an extra couple hours during the month, call them. And don’t forget you can rent out the facilities! www.polasek.org
Amazing how fast the years go by – it’s already 8 years since 911. I watched the whole historical footage on the Today show with Katie Couric – it still evokes the same emotions, I got goose bumps and choked up watching that second plane hit. Published two old poems written years ago after 911, they are on http://abberantverse.wordpress.com
It is also my late sister’s birthday, the whole family misses her dynamic personality, her warmth and love. That’s me front in blue and her behind me in white, (and cousin to right). In the bottom shot, she is in the front, I’m behind. We were always close, she was the ultimate best friend and ‘confidente’! So it is a day to remember I don’t have her here anymore and miss her bunches.
It was a good day to escape the confines of this ‘BOX’ I am enslaved to and go to the marina and enjoy the view.
I stopped by Veterans Memorial Park and saw someone had put red roses near the flagpole. It added color to the rather blue day. I was the only one there. It was so very empty. The wind driven water was really whipping up against the sea wall. As I drove up to the duck pond, I could see a number of birds standing in the shade of the trees. I pulled up and could tell right away, these birds are used to getting fed!
I’m sure they were disappointed that I did not come armed with bread.
I always enjoy seeing the different colors on the pigeons and cross breedings of the mallards.
Again, there was not one muscovy duck up there. Forgot to mention that Carbs has also been gone four days now. I assume he will show up again soon. The Band of Brothers has been coasting around the lake lately.
Back by The Palms, the birds and ducks were all quietly sitting in the shade. Did not see any crows, but did view a few grackles.
I came home after watching the waves for about ten minutes. It was very calming.
I came away with a nice sense of peacefulness.
I stopped by my friend Sonja’s. She told me that her chimney had been struck by lightning. I guess because trees cover part of her house when I fish, that I didn’t notice it. So I had to go take a few pictures. Her pergola too had wood missing from the porch where the chimney had collapsed on top of the beams. She has work to get done. It affected some of her electric too. So I guess knowing that her house is just acres away, was struck by a bolt, I won’t sneak out during those random thunderstorms to film.
And back at home, what is the best remedy for the 911 blues? Brownies! Warm brownies packed with a cut up Snickers Bar! So long for today -
Today I walked out to feed the birds and Carbs was gone. I wondered if the BOBs had chased him away. The yard was busy, especially down by the lake where many many dragonflies and bees flew all over the yellow blooms down by the stump of my fallen oak. In fact so many bees were there pollinating, the air was humming.
The fungi growing in the wet grass even looked happily like a cute couple.
The cranes flew over and the baby was quite intimidated by the step-father crane who kept bullying him. The baby would fluff all up and crouch with it’s head down when it was near the male. It knows to try and stay away from that dominant beak.
A titmouse was continually banging itself against my window. I will go into that in a day or two. The butterflies were all over the place, and the roses were young and tender.
The brown thrasher was the bossy bird this morning. The bird was happily having fun splashing and cooling off. and then a dove decided it was it’s turn to get wet . The thrasher was wildly twisting and jumping and I suppose the dove thought it looked like such fun, it decided to join the thrasher. Except the thrasher wanted no part of sharing the bird bath and screamed at the dove and sent the dove flying off. The thrasher fly up on top of the feeder.
Finally it ate enough seed and flew off.
I ran out to my Free lunch at Don Pablos. I won the free lunch for 4 by putting my business card in a bowl about two weeks ago. I took my good artist friends who have been so helpful and nice to me, Pam, Judy and Leslie. The service was great and the conversation too. Judy, Pam, and Leslie are always inspiring to listen too, always have irons in the fire. Leslie is a published writer who should have another book out sometime soon. She writes about film, (movies) and does a very detailed and thorough job of research, she also writes poetry and reads it at local venues. Pam has been juried into many shows, I think she said 8 or 9 this year alone, her infrared photography is a standout. Judy has a super group, she started the Womens Caucus for Art branch here in Orlando and really took pains in getting it to a non profit status. So I am the slacker of the group, well, actually I have one piece, a photo I did of Jimmy Hendrix, to be put on display for a month as part of an interior design show downtown. Tomorrow I have to go pick up the work at RT Art. Just one email and Roger said he’d have it for me so I could get it framed this weekend, that’s service! sales@RT-Art.com
On the 8th of September, I will have 3 pieces at the Gateway in Debary for a month. So things are not that bad for s struggling artist getting her feet wet just like that brown thrasher, enjoying the exposure, lost in her abandon of the arts and the wonderful natural view in front of her window…
P/S, carbs came back and is still here…
Went to a luncheon put on by the Gateway Center For the Arts, and The National Museum of Women in the Arts. They wanted to thank Victor Thomas, the manager of Stacey’s for his generous support of food during the art receptions. I had never been to Staceys which is about a mile north of Saxon Blvd on 17/92. It’s been there many years under different names: Homers and Duffs. Stacey is Homer the owners daughter. They also have them in Ohio and other Florida locations.
There was a good line waiting to get in at 1pm when Pam and I went to the meeting. They charge $5.99 for all you can eat and WHAT A DEAL! The food was DELISH!!!! I ate and ate and looked at the dozens of different desserts and my eyeballs almost went into a diabetic shock! They do have the option of sugar-free pies). They had it all, food food food in all descriptions. I ate fried fish and hush puppies, steamed carrots and mac and cheese, broccoli and soup. They had turkey, tacos, meatloaf, fried chicken and much more. Everything was great. I had a lot of fun and so wanted to really take close ups of the food which was beautifully displayed, but knew that was rather tacky. So just got a few to show.
Victor’s wife, Veronica works there also and could not have been more attentive to our needs. The NMWA & Gateway gave Victor and Veronica a beautiful signed and numbered print from one of the members.
So here’s the thumbs up for a fun afternoon with very nice artists and art supporters and of course, great home cooking, (I never cook anything like this at home,) thanks to Pam for hauling me up there and paying for my lunch, I ate my fill and then some! My turn to get lunch next time!
Back at home, Carbs is still here. Look at duck’s teeth, how uniform, see if you can enlarge to see them. As long as the Band Of Brother mallards stay away, I guess Carbs will stick around. I fished a little while, no bites, but a wonderful breeze blew over the lake. I decided to mow the back instead. Carbs just moved from one side of the yard to the other as I mowed, it didn’t really bother him.
The hurricane is supposed to stay to the east of us, lets hope so. The state of Florida seems to love to gouge us with spiking gas prices as a hurricane approaches, they know we will be gassing our cars and gas cans and any thing that has a gas cap to have the extra gas for generators. It will be reaching about $3.00 a gallon in a week I bet, and maybe sooner if that hurricane comes closer to home. I did fill up a couple gas cans and they are out in the garage, and I can even smell faint fumes in the house – how I hate hate hate everything gasoline. One day they will find an alternative like electric instead! I hate having to gas the lawn mower and blower and having that awful smell on your hands or a few drops on your shoes – YUK!!! But I hate having extra long cords and fooling with electric by the lake!!! One day we should be able to harness the sun with a sensor chip on our lawn equipment! If I don’t write tomorrow. I have been overcome with gas…
Ummum, today at ‘the desk’ — move over Jared – does it get better than Subway’s chocolate chip cookies? (Yes, it gets better if they are warmed ever so slightly.) While my friend Beda in her 70’s, and looks 49 goes to her first pilates class after being so disciplined on her diet, I salute her steadfast efforts! Today I saw a T-shirt that said, That’s a great motto – I agonized with her as she denied herself carbs in order to lose weight and stay healthy and now she goes the extra mile to exercise – Yikes the E word scares me! I will exercise later by getting up from the computer to put the cookies back in the kitchen fifteen feet away, maybe I will walk back and forth five times just to lose a couple calories. Right now I am on the ‘feed the fever’ trend, because I have a slight cold, (and boring enough I think it’s starve the cold – or is it reversed?) Whatever, I admire these efforts by people to trim up and fly right, “I reject your reality and substitute my own“. Here’s one, eat colorful foods, so how about if the food comes in a the colorful bag? Look at that colorful title on the Subway cookies – hows that for rationale?
I was invited to go to pilates class, but no thanks, I remember those years of being chosen last for every team in gym class. I remember taking a Jazzercize class with my then, ten year old daughter who after seeing that I could not figure how hands and feet moved at the same time, requested I sit down or not stand next to her, I remember those days and respect that I am not an exerciser or anything near athletic except for wearing tennis shoes for comfort! The only thing that might make me behave is the sin tax, if they tax sugar, I will become a hoarder and blackmarket sugar runner…I ACCEPT MY LIMITATIONS – Don’t worry be happy, that’s the other credo…
Back to nature – I love ibis, they have those beady eyes and long beaks and make the whackiest noises. I had some vistors, (requiring me to get up and walk outside) and watched as three lovely ibis came to play in my yard.
Another tidbit I found on Wikipedia, “The ibis is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane hits and the first to reappear once the storm has passed.” They are noted for their bravery. I guess they aren’t that brave, they didn’t let me get too close before flying off. Here is the photos of a descendant of birds long ago. One of my favorite favorite, top two favorite short stories is The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst – go online and read it, and get a kleenex!
Here’s some photos for you to enjoy and see how regal they are.
Hello all,
Have been visiting in Tampa since Wednesday and could not get access to working on photos so I am back home
and will be making up for lost time. (Have a few pics on http://offshoot2.wordpress.com )
First, Happy Un-Mothers Day all you mothers – Hope yours was as great as mine. I got so many goodies like and of course what would the day be without eating and I mean pigging out on something I would not buy for myself like this, As you can see I made a small dent in it earlier, but about 1/3rd is gone by now. “
Last night I dined with my son Aaron, the Broker Price Opinion “King” of Tampa, we laugh about that title his friends have given him, but he hustles doing ‘BPO’s for banks. I spent a lot of time driving around with him to look at all kinds of homes that banks are owning these days. There are many dwellings in all types of conditions. It’s very sad really to see so many houses going into foreclosure. Houses are just stagnating on the market over there. Even his townhome has lost about $40,000 in value since he bought it 5 years ago brand new. Many of the same units are now abandoned to foreclosure. We bought a ‘flip’ house two years ago and were very lucky that our hard work paid off and we were able to sell it fast, had it just been a few months later, we might still be sitting on that house! It is a sad time in the real estate business unless you have big bucks and can pay cash for a bargain — then this IS the time to buy something distressed. But it is creepy profitting on someone’s hardship.
Today I came home to more fun surprises, more wonderful flowers from my younger son and also from Leila. Tomorrow my son Adam and I will have dinner and a movie because he was at work on Mothers Day. My daughter gives me fun things all the time. Today she took me to lunch when I got back home from Tampa and brought that cake and these great earrings, She also made a donation to A New Beginnings Pet Rescue, a gift that keeps on giving. I was also given a fun bag of goodies for fishing that I will have to try my luck on tonight! I am sure spoiled! I have a lot to be thankful for – I wouldn’t trade these kids for anything…and no, they are not for sale either! Also, as I was leaving to come back to Orlando, I heard a familiar sound and looked out the front door, A family of sandhill cranes took off just before I left. I think they followed me back to Orlando. In the coming days I should be showing off photos from the sights in Tampa…
The place was totally packed, filled to capacity! Douglas must have been quite happy with the turn out, but we did not see him as the shoulder to shoulder crowds in the main house and galleries were so tight, after looking at each photo, we opted for the outside space. And the outside space is glorious, Polacek, (America’s foremost sculptors of the twentieth century”) knew how to pick a retirement spot on the Winter Park chain of lakes, (oh, if only they had asked us to bring a pole.) 
It added color to the rather blue day. I was the only one there. It was so very empty. The wind driven water was really whipping up against the sea wall.
As I drove up to the duck pond, I could see a number of birds standing in the shade of the trees. I pulled up and could tell right away, these birds are used to getting fed! 
Her pergola too had wood missing from the porch where the chimney had collapsed on top of the beams. She has work to get done. It affected some of her electric too. So I guess knowing that her house is just acres away, was struck by a bolt, I won’t sneak out during those random thunderstorms to film.
It knows to try and stay away from that dominant beak.
I will go into that in a day or two. The butterflies were all over the place, 
and the roses were young and tender. 
The bird was happily having fun splashing and cooling off.
and then a dove decided it was it’s turn to get wet . 
The thrasher was wildly twisting and jumping and I suppose the dove thought it looked like such fun, it decided to join the thrasher. Except the thrasher wanted no part of sharing the bird bath and screamed at the dove and sent the dove flying off. The thrasher fly up on top of the feeder.
I took my good artist friends who have been so helpful and nice to me, Pam, Judy and Leslie. The service was great and the conversation too. Judy, Pam, and Leslie are always inspiring to listen too, always have irons in the fire. Leslie is a published writer who should have another book out sometime soon. She writes about film, (movies) and does a very detailed and thorough job of research, she also writes poetry and reads it at local venues. Pam has been juried into many shows, I think she said 8 or 9 this year alone, her infrared photography is a standout. Judy has a super group, she started the Womens Caucus for Art branch here in Orlando and really took pains in getting it to a non profit status. So I am the slacker of the group, well, actually I have one piece, a photo I did of Jimmy Hendrix, to be put on display for a month as part of an interior design show downtown. Tomorrow I have to go pick up the work at RT Art. Just one email and Roger said he’d have it for me so I could get it framed this weekend, that’s service! 
They had it all, food food food in all descriptions. I ate fried fish and hush puppies, steamed carrots and mac and cheese, broccoli and soup. They had turkey, tacos, meatloaf, fried chicken and much more. Everything was great. I had a lot of fun and so wanted to really take close ups of the food which was beautifully displayed, but knew that was rather tacky. So just got a few to show. 
Victor’s wife, Veronica works there also and could not have been more attentive to our needs. The NMWA & Gateway gave Victor and Veronica a beautiful signed and numbered print from one of the members.
Look at duck’s teeth, how uniform, see if you can enlarge to see them. As long as the Band Of Brother mallards stay away, I guess Carbs will stick around. I fished a little while, no bites, but a wonderful breeze blew over the lake. I decided to mow the back instead. Carbs just moved from one side of the yard to the other as I mowed, it didn’t really bother him.
Ummum, today at ‘the desk’ — move over Jared – does it get better than Subway’s chocolate chip cookies? (Yes, it gets better if they are warmed ever so slightly.) While my friend Beda in her 70’s, and looks 49 goes to her first pilates class after being so disciplined on her diet, I salute her steadfast efforts! Today I saw a T-shirt that said, 
That’s a great motto – I agonized with her as she denied herself carbs in order to lose weight and stay healthy and now she goes the extra mile to exercise – Yikes the E word scares me! I will exercise later by getting up from the computer to put the cookies back in the kitchen fifteen feet away, maybe I will walk back and forth five times just to lose a couple calories. Right now I am on the ‘feed the fever’ trend, because I have a slight cold, (and boring enough I think it’s starve the cold – or is it reversed?) Whatever, I admire these efforts by people to trim up and fly right, “
and of course what would the day be without eating and I mean pigging out on something I would not buy for myself like this, 
As you can see I made a small dent in it earlier, but about 1/3rd is gone by now. “
She also made a donation to A New Beginnings Pet Rescue, a gift that keeps on giving. I was also given a fun bag of goodies for fishing that I will have to try my luck on tonight! 
I am sure spoiled! I have a lot to be thankful for – I wouldn’t trade these kids for anything…and no, they are not for sale either! Also, as I was leaving to come back to Orlando, I heard a familiar sound and looked out the front door, 
A family of sandhill cranes took off just before I left. I think they followed me back to Orlando. In the coming days I should be showing off photos from the sights in Tampa…
