That Time of Year

When people find out I live in Florida, one of the first things they say is, "doesn't it get hot down there?" The honest answer to that question is, you dang tootin' it does!!! From July to September, Central Florida can be miserable...hot, humid, sometimes stifling.

Ah, but the rest of the year makes it all worth it. Come October, the temperatures and humidity drop, the sky clears, the sun shines golden instead of hazy. It's gardening time!!!

There are green beans crawling up my shed with broccoli bordering it. A nice little strawberry patch beginning for a spring harvest. The very bottom picture has cucumber, eggplant and squash. And, a sample of a days' harvest.

It always amazes me how these little bitty seeds manage to take in moisture, warmth and sunlight and become these lovely plants that provide sustanance for us puny humans. I planted petunias too (picture to come soon) and the miracle magnifies. Those seeds resemble the period at the end of a sentence! How can such lovely flowers rise out of such a tiny beginning? It's a miracle I never tire of.

Visiting My Past

This is, uh, was my house when I was in elementary school. The color is about the same. The maple tree, the kind with the pink helicopter seeds, is gone but there are trees in the backyard that weren't there 40 years ago. My room was the window second from the left. I like that it's been kept up. When we moved here from Charleston, my parents bought this house...BEFORE it was built. We lived with friends for 6 months until it was finished which was fun for me because I was 8 years old. I think it was fun for my mother because Pat was her best friend. Anyway, my father would stop by the building site every night after work before he came home to critique the construction. More than once he had the carpenters redo something that wasn't up to his standards. I daresay we had the best build home on the block!!

This is Plaza Middle School formally known as Plaza Junior High. It was my privilege to attend this then state of the art school, complete with 2 college type lecture halls, 3 gymnasiums and a planetarium. The teachers expected us to live up to our environ and I think we did for the most part. The plaque below says the school opened in 1969. I attended the '71-'72 year.

This is the commons area. It hasn't changed a bit. Very dated I know, but also very comforting!