Friends ask, "When are you leaving for Florida?"

"Not as late as last year", I answer.

Last year, we departed around November 1st, and see what we encountered in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. (That doesn't look like "endless summer" to me). We crawled along at 15 mph behind a snowplow for many miles up and over the summit. So, we contemplate an earlier departure this year, not so much to avoid snow (that's actually rare), but because our internet contract expires on Oct 9, and OH MY GOD!!!! How on earth would I get by, I ask?

Green Springs Restaurant, Safety Harbor, Florida

A lunch visit to Green Springs in Safety Harbor, FL. (a retrospective from April 2010)... I love the mermaid mailbox with purple shells for her bikini top...
...and how 'bout these 6 beautiful, colorful sister-mermaids...
A sweet yellow cottage with a darling white porch, now turned into a restaurant... check out the rainbow painted bicycle leaning against the cottage...
...bright colored artwork through-out...
...with brightly painted tables...

It's obvious that no one would ever call me a "food" writer. I don't remember food. Here I am writing about lunch a lovely restaurant, with nary a nod to a mention of food. What did we eat? Heaven only knows. Do any of my sisters, my fellow-diners remember what anyone ate? I haven't a clue or a memory for such things. It was the fine company and the pretty setting that stays in my memory.

Alex

Last week, I had the joy of visiting with my one year old great-nephew, Alex, and his parents. What an angel of a boy!
I'll push the definition of "my" creativity, taking care to disclose that it was actually B. who took the photo (below). All I did was use a bit of photoshop, blacking out the hands in the background and adding layers of artistic filters. And I most certainly had nothing to contribute to the creation of the beauty of the model. But as someone said (I'll search for the correct attribution) on the topic of originality "If you insist on being original, in order to create an apple pie, you'd first have to create the earth."



I have more photos of our visit ... here.