Sunday pics

My son and I had a great time visiting my mom (his grandmother) in Florida, and the weather was about as perfect as it could be for December, which can be variable. Temps stated out at 69 degrees our first day, and got warmer from there. It was divine.

Our favorite place was Venetian Gardens in Leesburg which we went to twice for the birds and because they have nice paths suitable for a wheelchair for my mom who can no longer walk because she had polio as a young girl. My son took the following pics with his awesome camera.

Blue Grey Gnatcatcher

Purple Gallinule

I forget who the last two birds are but they were all very tame, allowing us to get quite close, unlike the birds here in Maine who fly away if you look at them wrong.

We also went to Leu Gardens in Orlando, which is much prettier in the spring and summer but I did manage to find a few things to take pics of...

I also read The Lying Game by Ruth Ware, and got half way through both The First Salute (history) by Barbara Tuchman and The Grace of Kings (scifi/fantasy) by Ken Liu. If I can finish them by the end of the year I'll have read one more book than last year.

We left Maine right after a snowstorm and some bitter cold so it was super nice to be warm for a week. Especially for me. I'm quite certain I was lizard in my last life.

Sunday Pics - Leu Gardens and my new favorite artist

I recently went to Florida to visit my mom and while there we went to Leu Gardens (one of our favorite places), and the Museum of Art in Orlando where I discovered my new favorite artist. But first the gardens. Because, well, flowers.

If you haven't noticed it by now, let me make it clear. I adore flowers and gardens. I could take pictures of them forever, because even a bad picture of a flower can be beautiful. And the colors...oh my! Flowers stun me with their fabulous colors. If only I had a green thumb to go along with my love...

Anyway. Leu Gardens, which was exceedingly hot and humid, but still lovely...

This is a darling little cottage on the property where a black cat was being fed on the front step.

The roses had long since gone by for the most part, but I did manage to find a few that were blooming

Love this cool bird house, though I don't think it's actually a bird house. My boss said butterfly house which makes sense since this was in the 'butterfly garden' but I never knew butterflies needed houses.

No idea what this flower is but wow. Is it not fabulously gorgeous?!

My new favorite artist. Jon Muth. I love him.

Dust Devils.

This is not Jon Muth. I recognized it immediately as a Ralph Blakelock because we have one of his paintings at the pawn shop where I work. I love him, too.

There was more, as you can imagine, but the only other artist I'll tell you about is Nick Cave. Some of his 'sound suits' were on display, and there was a video of a person in one of his suits, moving. The image was then doubled, or mirrored, creating a 42 minute film. I couldn't find a link to what I saw, which was mesmerizing, but this short clip gives you an idea and there are a few brief bits showing parts of the video. It's the black and white one, a bit like a Rorschach image.



So. Wow, right? Lot's of cool stuff to digest. I also read FOUR books, which I will be telling you about in future posts, and saw a movie I can't review without giving anything away but must recommend: A Simple Favor. That's all I'll say.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Progress and The Ringling Museum

First off, in regards to my WIP, working title RUN, I've been fairly productive since I got back from my vacation. I finished up chapter 19, which I'd been stalled on, and wrote a whole new chapter. There's some fun stuff happening. The town got a delivery, someone unpleasant arrived with it, and my main characters have just learned that the power will be going out soon, leaving them all in the dark. Oh, and it's winter. Good times.

As for The John & Mable Ringling Museum, this was the other place we visited in Sarasota, and it was so huge we didn't have time to see everything. We focused our visit on the Circus Museum, and Ca' d'Zan, John and Mable's winter home. John Ringling, in case you didn't know, was part of the Ringling Brothers Circus, which by 1889 was large enough to need to travel by rail. There's a whole diorama of the trains and then the depot and then the circus spread out over a large area with tents for everything. It was so cool and I took lots of pics. Next week I'll show you Ca' d'Zan, but today, it's the Circus!

I'll leave you with this last pic of a monkey statue that there's no way I'd have in my house. He's wicked cool, but oh, so creepy...

Have an awesome weekend :)