spring is definitely here

I noticed this wildflower in our garden. What caught my eye was the pretty color of the blossom. Would you call that color magenta? It could easily be passed over because it is so small.

I was surprised that spring flowers had come so soon when New England still has its snows. I guess that is just one of the advantages of living here in sunny Florida. I decided to take a walk around the yard to see what other wildflowers had bloomed.

There was a rich variety of flowers everywhere.

This variety is my favorite because of its intense blue colors. I had used these particular pictures in an earlier post but these beautiful flowers are blooming in a multitude of areas in the yard.

Do you think that this is a great big flower? Nope, just a small wildflower which is numerous in our yard.

I was surprised to see that a wild dandelion had already flowered and gone to seed. I had missed seeing the pretty yellow dandelion flower.

But not to worry, there are more flowers budding and soon they will blossom also.

Even our strawberry plants are flowering and starting to bear fruit.

These are not all of the varieties of wildflowers in the yard. They are so many different types. And they all have such vivid bright colors.

My friends in snow country will just have to have a little patience and "April's showers will bring May's flowers"

I am anxiously awaiting the shuttle launch. We can actually feel the rumble from the rocket engines here in Orlando. I always find the launches exciting to watch and photograph. Anyone who can make it to Florida for the space shuttle launch may want to do just that because there aren't too many left. Have a great day. Did you enjoy my flower show? Lew

Santoku

Why does a santoku knife cut so thin. The only difference that I can see are the shallow grooves along the blade. Does anyone have any ideas? The name sounds oriental.

Mary got one included with a knife set that she got a while back. She really likes the knife and agrees that it does cut really thin.

I have also seen in the stores that you need a special knife sharpener to sharpen the knife. I don't have one but I guess that I will have to get one someday. But as procrastinators always say, "Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow". So I will get the special knife sharpener someday, just not today. And as I always say "Have a great day for those of us in Florida and for those living up north (especially Long Islanders) keep shoveling snow from the driveway. Lew

spring has arrived

Spring has arrived! "What am I saying?" is what the northerners on Long Island must be saying.

Well my heartfelt sympathy goes out to them. But here in Florida I walked out to the shed in the backyard and I spotted a flower blooming. Aren't the flowers blooming a sign of the arrival of spring? I guess that spring comes early to Florida.

The flower caught my eye right away. By the way, see any snow on the ground? No? Hey, it's nice living in sunny Florida. This flower would have been so easy to overlook because of its diminutive size. It is just a wildflower but the colors are so intense.

I would love to have a garden just full of flowers this colorful. The camera allows me to appreciate the true beauty of flower by enlarging my images. With a little more magnification I saw what looked like blue hairs.

Without the camera, all of this would have been missed. Enough about flowers, after all you northerners have to get out there and shovel the snow out of the driveway. For all of my Florida blog followers, have a pleasant day. All the others, hurry up and start shoveling. Lew

It was fun

Yes, it has been fun. But this will be my last blog for a while. I am taking a hiatus from blogging for an indefinite time. I always liked this painting done by Mary and is my favorite. I have it hanging on the wall next to my computer and I look up at it from time to time. I wish everyone a Happy holiday season and may you get lots and lots of fun gifts. Be good, and occasionally pause and take time to smell a flower as you pass by. Have a magical day. Lew

Turkey Day

Yes, it's turkey day and so the blog is about a nice Thanksgiving meal that Mary made. That is my plate in the foreground with some breast meat and the plate in the background is Mary's with a drumstick.

Did you happen to notice my glass? It is a Star Trek souvenir glass. See the starship Enterprise on the glass? The glass came all the way from Logan, Utah. The drink is orange soda. What flavor but orange would a loyal Floridian drink?

But now for a serious question. So many cans can now only be opened with a can opener from one end, which is fine by me. But once the end is removed with a can opener then the label on the can is upside down. Just look at the can of cranberry sauce.

The other end of the can can't be opened with a can opener. If it could, I would have opened the other end so that the can would be sitting with the label right side up. Does anyone have an explanation for this? Has anyone else had this same problem?

Mary also baked a pumpkin pie which turned out really good.

The pie was very flavorful with the pumpkin pie spice. After cutting a piece of the pie we put some whip cream on it before eating it.

And let's not forget our chihuahua Duke.

He is a house dog and stays in the house most of the time. He must have been smelling that turkey baking for hours. I can just imagine how hungry it must have made him. Mary gave him some roasted turkey scraps which he absolutely loved. Here he is opening his mouth just as wide as he can so as to get as much food as possible in each bite. It didn't matter to him at all that he was actually eating out of the cat bowl with pictures of cats on it.

All-in-all it was a great Thanksgiving with lots of turkey left over.

I hope that everyone has as nice of a Thanksgiving as I did and keep those turkey sandwiches coming. What are we having for supper tonight? Turkey, of course. Enjoy and, above all, be happy. Lew

The Swan

This is the most recent painting that Mary has completed. It is a swan painted on a wooden plaque. We have a park in the central part of Orlando called Lake Eola. There are numerous swans swimming in the lake and this picture reminds me of the swans in the lake. The swans don't fly away, probably because they are well fed and well tended to. The swans have also gotten use to people and they beg food scraps from people passing by. Sort of like pigeons in a park begging for bread crumbs. I guess that most parks have pigeons but here at Lake Eola we have these beautiful swans, just like in the picture. In the picture I particularly like the effect of the reflection of the head of the swan in the surface of the water with a little distortion caused by the ripples of water. Also, blue is my favorite color and this painting has a lot of blue in it. Mary tries to encourage me to paint but I tell her that I have tried painting in the past. It was paint-by-number and it was unbelievably terrible and immediately disposed of. I guess that I am left brain dominant.

Today is Tuesday and that means movie day. Mary and I went to see the movie The Next Three Days starring Russell Crowe.

The movie was a mystery/drama with lots and lots of action. The movie was a lot better than I had hoped for. Russell Crowe gave a nice performance. Before the movie we went to Cici's pizza buffet for lunch.

Anyone who lives in Orlando will recognize the logo. They had a special where two people could eat (including drinks) for $9.99. For that price we got all of the pizza that we could eat, plus refillable drinks, and all of the salad, soup, and dessert that we wanted. I had the barbeque pizza which was great. I know that barbeque pizza sounds strange but it is my favorite. Mary likes the spinach pizza best. They must have around 20 different kinds of pizza to choose from on the buffet. It was all quite good and we enjoyed ourselves.

Mary and I went outside to watch the Delta V rocket go up into the heavens from Cape Canaveral last night.

But it was dark outside, which was impressive to see the flame of the rocket engines in the dark of night. But unfortunately that meant that I couldn't get any good pictures of it. But watching the launch on television was quite spectacular.

Have a pleasant day and get a pizza for lunch tomorrow. Lew

Tree of Life

This is Mary's painting she did in November. It is the Tree of Life in Disney's Animal Kingdom. She painted it for me because she knows how much I liked working there. It was the most fun job that I have ever had. I actually worked inside the Tree of Life. I had so much fun that I am not sure that I can actually call it work. The painting is hanging in the computer room so I can see it often and be reminded of the good times there. As we use to say at Disney, Have a magical day. Lew