Impressions of an Island City
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Zora Neale Hurston The trouble with listening to authentic American voices is the certainty that they won't tell you what you want to hear. In my last post, I wrote that music industry giants Tom Petty, who started out in North Florida and Bo Diddley, who ended up there, relied on youths spent in the rural … Read more
White Supremacist Richard Spencer's speech recently in Gainesville, FL (home of the University of Florida) was a milestone not only for the school--where students and locals turned out to heckle the speaker, but did not use violence to show their displeasure--but also for the the North Florida region. Alachua, Polk and Marion Counties. These … Read more
South Florida 8/21/17 partial eclipse Memories are the building blocks for the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, but like any other data, they have different weights. The importance of a memory has to do with time and place, and that's why (at least in Anne's world) travel memories focus emotions. On a recent voyage, contrast … Read more
The porch at a bed and breakfast in Gainesville Florida. Summer in north Florida looks beautiful and feels prehistoric. Heat and giant bugs contrast with the dark shelter of live oaks dripping with Spanish moss the way that a cool glass of ice tea (no plastic, please) sets off the the heat of barbecue bought at a gas station lunch counter. … Read more
Larry, a White Crested Polish rooster, who may be smarter than he looks has landed on the side of love and luck in the conundrum I presented in the Nov. 16 blog post. (Scroll down blog to see it.) Larry lives with other chickens out in the Florida scrub at Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' house in Cross Creek where he and his friends hang out and … Read more
Here's a look at the six months since my last post. My youngest son Kyle and long time fiance Kim were wed on March 11. Here's one of my favorite photos taken at the end of a perfect South Florida day. This is a great picture of my inner child. Sebastian, the son of a young friend, is the recipient of a number of letters from me over the … Read more
Larry has bad karma or good luck depending on whether you are a glass-half-full type of person. One black humid August night in Alachua County Florida when the mosquitoes blanketing the ground were almost as thick as the stars in the clear sky, something bit Larry under his right wing and on his right chicken hip. No feathers were disturbed … Read more
Sebastian is the 18 month old son of a friend of my oldest son. After seeing Sebastian for the first time, I realized that he was the embodiment of my own inner child: a tough little athlete, alpha in every respect. Yes, it's quite different my outer persona of an older librarian-ish woman who enjoys the quieter pleasures in life. I've taken to … Read more
All Those Who Wander are not Lost "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost." J. R. R. Tolkien Tolkien, who wrote The Hobbit and its sequels, was a pioneer of high fantasy. That doesn't mean that his books, which … Read more
This is a letter to a young friend. The doll shot below is an approximation of his cuteness. Hi, Sebastian April 23, 2016 Mr. B. suggested I write you concerning my thoughts on Prince’s untimely demise. His … Read more