Arbor

The birds love the arbor. At first, the mockingbird defended his privilege. Now the bluebirds perch up there and fly kamikaze style down to catch insects in the grass.
Thank you for giving me such a generous gift. I really appreciate it.

I am thinking of you today while you are toiling away in your meeting. If you wish, you may leave comments. :-)

Reseeded

The red salvia reseeded from last year, but the gaillardia = blanket flower is new.
The same salvia with blue plumbago.

A big surprise underneath the palm tree: sunflower seeds from the bird feeder.

PEAR Park

The Palatkaha brook in PEAR Park.On Saturday, I went on a bird walk in PEAR Park which is very close to Legacy. The ranger pointed out many birds, most of which I had only seen in books. Our group walks on the trail along the brook. The huge live oak trees are very impressive.

New Acquisitions

Butterfly ginger: intoxicating smell

Butterfly magnet penta

Thai basil
Lemon basil

A third curcuma: Siam Tulip

Cross-over to The Dark Side

Libraries are dangerous places and the new library in Leesburg is the darkest of them all - why? It has a Florida books section which includes a shelf with real life crime stories that happened in Florida.

"The Mulberry Tree": The setting is the small phosphate mining town of Mulberry in Central Florida in the sixties. Victim: a young man who was nowhere near the first bank robbery, does not look like the real bank robber and is already in prison when the second bank robbery happens. The story how he was vindicated is told in this book. Are you surprised that the robberies were planned by two Mulberry policemen?

"The Embrace" is the story of a gruesome double murder in Eustis in Lake County. 1996.Sheriff George Knupp, 4 times elected, insists on a second grand jury for the 15 year old daughter of the murder victims who, he believes, instigated the killings. Later, the same sheriff is accused of perjury in a different case. One of his detectives is accused of "making" a victim of road rage into the agressor.

In 2008, Knupp runs again for sheriff. I was relieved to find out that he received only 5 % of the vote, exactly 5 % too much. The present sheriff's first word in his motto is 'integrity'.

Maerklin Railroad

Bonn train station ...
...will be placed here.
Then the trains travel around the corner ...

... and wind up here.
Of course, there is more to it. Progress will be shown as it happens. And don't worry, the set will not remain on the greatroom floor.

Cross-over to The Dark Side

Landowner and developer decided to abort this construction project. In summer, nature is merciful enough to cover most of the debris in weeds.

Oak

Luckily, we have quite a few impressive oaks in our neighborhood. This one stands at the edge of the old clay pond.

Mushrooms Anyone?

After a rain, these white mushrooms pop up all over in the St. Augustine grass .

Legacy

Near the East Gate

Wildlife

Story 1:
A group of respectably large carp caused the rumor that we have a python in one of our ponds. Wildlife experts were called in, they put on waders and rumaged through the muck: result: carp! Never mind that a python would probably not spend too much time swimming underwater. Therefore, some people promoted the idea of "the pond with the anaconda".
The carp saw me coming and disappeared into the muddy depths before I could take a close-up.

Story 2:
The missing photo here is of the bobcat mother with her two cubs on her way to the wetlands. Cats teach their little ones how to hunt, and I am sure this bobcat did just that. Bye, bye dozens of bunnies!

Vignette

I like the front yard of this neighbor's house.

Sanford

Veterans' Park with courthouse in background

This monumental 'beauty' and its humongous parking lot separates downtwon Sanford from the lake. What a shame!

Sanford

At one time, Sanford was cute. Today, downtown is struggling to survive. People go shopping in a mall outside of town.


The Willow Tree has Schnitzel, Bratwurst and Schunkelabende on 1st Street.

Sanford

Downtown Sanford has a cute little market.

Sanford

Lake Monroe

Sanford was the southern terminal of the Jacksonville - Sanford shipping lines on Lake Monroe which is part of the St. Johns River.

The pier was built far into the lake for the steamships.

Today, Sanford's small harbor is home to some impressive boats for a sweet water lake in Central Florida. These boats can take the St. Johns up north and access the open sea in Mayport near Jacksonville.

Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund

A Beautiful Garden

This homeowner is a professional landscape designer. He extended the planting area into the easement between the walkway and the street.
The wild grass in the foreground belongs to the empty lot next door.

Sunrise seen across this empty lot.

Curbing

The Precision Curbs crew has arrived.

The material is ready.

Larry thought that a peanut shape looks great.

Concrete is shoveled into the machine and the curb comes out as if it were a sausage.

Smoothing out process

Stamping the keystone pattern. We had the curb glazed to avoid discoloring over time.

Result.

If you happen to be a reader from Lake County, we recommend Precision Curbs, easy to work with, clean and precise, fair price. Precision Curbs does all sorts of concrete work, not only curbing.