Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the tropical category.
Florida Christmas tree 2
Last year the Florida Christmas tree posted on this blog shone with lights.
No branches. Strings of lights at the Cedar Key marina
glowing in the dark like a beacon.
c. Jan Godown Annino
Now for a tree like none you’ve ever seen,
I’ve reprised an image I took years ago, during a visit with
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper in South Florida.
This tree stood tall in the Seminole Tribe of Florida
headquarters, with a palm tree nodding nearby.
The tree is typical. Maybe yours is tall & green.
Red bows are standard. So are basic balls.
But the dolls!
How many trees have you seen, where dolls are the decoration.
Handmade dolls.
Dolls made with palm fibers. And dressed to represent
Seminole patchwork clothing. For the textile, fabric art
& history buff this tree is worth a detour.
(Respect copyright. All rights reserved with these images.)
This is a little visit, here.
Or maybe it will inspire you to plan your trip.
c. Jan Godown Annino all rights reserved
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Feb. 13, 2010
Meet me & a ga-zillion other folks at the Florida coast, Feb. 13, 2010 just after lunch at 12:30 p.m.
Link hands along the shore.
Let our leaders know how protective we are, of Florida’s shores.
This is organized by a Seaside Florida restaurant owner.
Visit www.handsacrossthesand.com
or the Facebook page of the same name.
If we don’t show our strength & carry the day, we’ll all be searching for appropriate gear to wear for continual beach clean up. Here’s a future newspaper I conjured up from the coast town where I spent childhood time at the beach. Tar balls, anyone?
trees
In parts of the world, but not where I live in North Florida, plants are stretching tall in springtime.
We always appreciate trees when the leaves are new. But I think in the fall & winter, when the full show of their
green is absent, this is a time to consider what our every day world would be like, if we lived in a land where the trees as we understood them to grow naturally, in woods, & in clumps at seepages of water, down hillsides and circling fileds, were only planted in rows. Or if the trees weren’t there at all. Maybe you have lived without the cloaks of trees. But I have not. I grew up by a woods. My mother recited the line, “Woodman! spare that tree,” to me about the youth who was sheltered by a tree & could therefore not cut it, when he was older.
When I read children’s books about the tree woman of Kenya, Wangari Maathai, I felt that she must have loved being a little girl, & that in that time of her life, she must have loved trees. The shade of them, the fruit of them, the branches of them.
There are several good children’s books about her. The one I currently have is from author/artist Claire A. Nivola.
Like all good books, it made me want to know more about what happened to Kenya’s trees. And about how Ms. Maathai brought them back.
So my bedside reading right now is Unbowed: a memoir by Wangari Maathai.
Chickees
Inspection
The office assistant weighs in on a summer project, experimenting with different materials for miniature chickees.
Palmistry
These are roofing materials for the miniature version of open-air buildings, chickees, in Florida. The chickee is a raised platform, with a palmetto-covered roof, created in history by Seminole Indians in South Florida.
Mine will be models for kids to create in class.
