First Meal

Last year's summer sockeye salmon with this year's winter grapefruit
along with a spritz of key lime, lying in a bed of mixed greens.

Oh I Would Say About Five Cubic Yards...Recycle Some Rubber

Was at a friends yard collecting downed tree branches from her
one acre property. Heavily treed property can have it's challenges.
The cool weather however made this task a breeze. A task I started
a day before with Tornado Watch weather just south of us, which only
added it's own intensity and to me, it only energizes and fuels the task
at hand.

Also discovered that someone had dumped some heavy belted rubber
strips in her yard. Shows how wooded this yard is. I've rounded up
these cast offs in hopes of utilizing them to cover a section of a long
since uprooted and broken concrete driveway.

Tomato Cuttings, New Beginnings

Hoping this limited effort of cobbling together what is readily available
to me. Essentials only a gardener would be able to cobble together.
 Some partially decomposed compost, fresh Spanish moss plucked
from the trees. This moss makes a great reflective ground cover to combat
our hot Florida winter sun from it's heat build up. I also covered the newly
planted cuttings with the moss, again to lessen the shock of transplanting
and shielding these sensitive cuttings from the hot Winter afternoon sun,
whose intensity is relative to it's state of transplanting. With buckets
of collected El Nino Aqua from the heavens above. Sure there may be
a garden hose in the picture, rarely used, which essentially makes it
out of the picture, sort of speak.

It's just a matter of weeks before these cuttings will acclimate and take
advantage of it's pampered surroundings and start another cycle of life.

Salvaged Two Podocarpus macrophyllus

Started to refer to these has twins, but there nothing twin about them.
These two guys could of wound up in the yard trash, while making room
for a Rail for my porch. What better time spent in making an attempt to
create a potential Macro Bonsai specimen. Only time will tell and it
would not be a surprise how determined these two specimens want
to thrive and beat the odds.

The Mexican Beach stones help stabilize the newly potted plants
to better their chances of surviving.They sort of look like two
palm trees.

A cold front just dumped some rain our way and not sure to attribute that
to El Nino or not.

Late Winter First Blooms

This curbside Indian Hawthorne bloom is the first to flower among this cluster.

Another first bloom of the season is this pale violet Violet. Most flowers that
bloom during cool weather usually have a more intense hue. So if that is the
case with this violet then, it must be a pure white bloom during warmer
weather?

An old Begonia standard, which I call large leaf Begonia is sending up it's
first bloom and is only a one time bloomer until next year. This bloom will
stand twice as tall as it is now.

This Bromeliad florescence last longer than most and fluoresces at a different
time than the others. So that in itself is desirable trait, even though this is the
time when the majority of my flowering plants, do their thing. After all this
time of the year is our Spring of bountiful beginnings.

This Holly Fern, is neither a holly nor fern and it's sprays of creamy yellow
flowers adds to this Winter bounty.

Thank You El Nino And Bald Cypres Tree Tea

Just when you think you got your last rain for the season. After all this is
Florida's official dry season. When I walked outside this morning to find
two of my five gallon buckets filled to the brim with rain water. This is
surely becoming to be that predicted wet winter, complements of El Nino.
 I will have to check for rain totals for the month to see if this is
the case.

These five gallon buckets were rescued many years ago from a Tampa
downtown Subway shop. They once housed sliced pickles, hence the
green?

The Bald Cypress needles and what ever composted up on my carport only
adds to this tea of nature.

I've been able to supply to pots of vegtables their total water needs from this
collection of rain water runoff so far. 

Tomato Cuttings First Glimpse Of Sunshine

Since these cuttings last glimmer of real sunshine was nearly a month ago now.
I am slowly introducing them to the real deal by putting them in the morning's
light. I think I've found a good spot so that is all they get for now and not the
afternoon's intense sunlight.

I haven't used this Salton Yogurt Maker many times in making yogurt, but
it does an excellent job with making cuttings.

Florida State Fair

I make a point to get to the Florida State Fair every year. This year was no exception.
All these years that I have been visiting the state fair I always look forward to seeing
the same exhibits. Except this year there was a dramatic change in venue. The plant
sale that is hosted by the various plant societies was no longer part of the fair. Not
only was the plant sale not there but the host of plant experts with the varying
societies were absent, which I always look forward to talking to.

In spite of that, I still enjoyed the fair and it's offerings. A stroll through the mid-way
while eating some Soba noodles and veggies with chicken. This mid-way looks no
different that any mid-way USA except the for the palm trees.

Purchased a couple of hand made items from Cracker Country, an outdoor exhibit with crafters
and demonstrators, which has been my most favorite. Live Bluegrass music and a Florida demonstration garden all outdoors under a canopy of some grandfather Live Oaks.
A welcome change and compliment to the usual fair. For a moment you could close your
eyes and imagine yourself transported back to Old Florida.

I went back for day two primarily to use my prepurchaced discount ticket and get the name
of this non-toxic saddle soap that one of demonstrators was using to make a whip, a Cracker's
whip to be precise.  Also to check out the Soba noodles that I had read about, and was not disappointed. Along the way I came across this entertaining 'robot'. You can see how tall it
is and still wondering how it was animated. It's master/animator or puppeteer was never
more than ten feet away.

Extremes all around, from food to exhibits, along with the educational. The crowds of people
of all ages and ethnicity and something for everyone. Along with lots of walking at a leisurely
pace, something I'm not used to doing, it's always a fast pace and get that heart rate up kind of
walk. Along with the challenge of finding something relatively healthy to eat and a bonus if
it is something that I haven't had before.

Harvest Time

A great source of my compost comes from the top of this carport. A year and
possibly two years of Bald Cypress needle accumulation and partial decomposed
already. Not that I need more brown material but it is hard to refuse.

The loose needles that haven't composed will make a great dressing for the
side gardens.

Handmade Wooden Sash Screens And Screen Door For This Old House

Found me a true craftsman to make me some new sash screens for my house. This
is my second attempt and it appears to be done really well. An attention to detail all
around.

More to follow for a total of nineteen and had to go online for some sash hanging
hardware. Hope they match what was shown in the picture. 


A screen door to match was also made with similar detail.

First Meal - Tunafish Salad W/Avocado and Mixed Greens

My walking buddy brought over a ripe Avocado. I also bought some mixed greens
just to change up the greens. The mixed greens were just sitting in the refrigerator
and not getting any fresher and as most meals go, lets see what we have on hand.

Planets In The Morning Sky, A Parade Of Winter Blooming Flowers In My Winter Garden

This morning we had a threat of frost, which didn't happen. I did get up early
enough to catch some if not the majority of planets in the morning's sky
before any sign of sunlight. I was able to see Jupiter and Mars from my yard's
driveway. I was also seeing Saturn but did not realize it until after looking at
an App that shows the constellations and planets from my vantage point.

The screen capture above is what I was seeing from my bedroom, showing

planets Saturn and Mars. Thus turning

my bedroom into my own personal planetarium.

This early morning light this flower from a Black Ti Plant caught my eye from
my back door which prompted me to seek out all of the blooming flowers in my
yard.

The Black Ti Flowers don't want to complete with the collage of colors that
this plant brings to it's leaves.

A Turk's Head Cap Hibiscus, a favorite food for Iguanas. Not that we have those
around hear, yet.

A Desert Rose bloom that has been blooming for some time now. It's just that it
has only been a bloom here and a bloom there.

A small and tiny bloom and yet a mighty fragrant flower. The Tea Olive flower.

A Camellia Bloom that is a little past peak and yet still striking among the dark foliage.

A couple of Formosa Azalea's in bloom and whose blooms thrives in these cool temperatures.

A starburst cluster of Clarendon flowers set off by it's dark foliage and can grow to
small tree proportions.

This white Verbena has some really fragrant foliage that always manages to delight when
released.

Some False or Mexican Heather, which has been a long time resident in this garden.

This coral bloom from the Buddha Belly plant never fails to set seed.

 This is some variety of variegated Sinensis flowering bush and it was a challenge to
photograph with my cell phone, worth mentioning. The fact that these flowers are
no bigger than a pea can have something to do with it too.

A very reliable flowering Japanese Eggplant.

The companion plant to the Eggplant is this rather reliable and viable flowering Tomato.
 I can even smell it's stringent and distinct fragrance just from looking at these pictures.

The self seeding Vinca, which comes in a couple of variations.

A another cluster of flowers, this being Walter's Viburnum.

A flower at both spectrum's of it's life cycle, bud stage and spent. This is the African Iris.

A flowering White Powder Puff still unfolding.

Chinese Fringe tree is showing it's first bloom of the year and frankly caught me
by surprise, thinking that it may be out of sink by blooming at this time.

Mostly spent flower of another variety of Clarendon also known as Bleeding Heart.

A fresh cluster of Pink Penta flowering from a recent cutting back.

A white Fire Cracker flower that needs revisiting. There is no excuse for an out of focus shot.

I'm glad I did now, too.

Last minute update and almost missed this Matchstick Bromeliad florescence. Had I not
been cleaning off the top of my carport, I would not have caught sight of this beauty.
Perhaps the most exotic of the bunch here too.

Another last minute update with another bashful flower. This was facing down

and tuck away in the center of this potted Camellia. 

Now for some of those lowly weed flowers. Having said that, this first weed flower has been
known as a collected specimen. I'm talking of Clover. Having captured while it's flowers are
opening, I can see why someone would want to include it in their collection. I happen to have
discovered a variation of this plant that someone had given to me unintentionally. This is a red
leafed variety of Clover that was in a pot of Wandering Jew that was lifted from their garden.

This flowering weed was another challenge to photograph with a cell phone. To as where,
I just gave up and found the end result rather appealing. This extremely small Aster like
blossom was in the stage of opening. Along with some spent flowers ready to go to seed
and broadcast their progeny among this weed choked portion of my naturalized backyard.

This Thistle like flower found the most opportune location to live out it's existence.
Up on top of my aluminum carport's gutter.

I've always referred to this as a Florida version of the Dandelion.