Vacation

And here we are, halfway through our Christmas vacation. We had a great time in Denver with Em, Beth, and Bob...and Hal the cat and Inu the Dog With the Golden Eyes. All five of 'em were well behaved! We didn't get to Denver quite as soon as we had hoped. We were scheduled to leave Orlando on 12/22 at 1:15 PM, but because of a broken oil cap on the Airbus, we had to wait for a new one to be delivered. From Kansas City. Where the planes were socked in by weather. We finally left at 11:30 PM and got in to Denver after 2 AM Mountain Time. We did get to know many of our fellow travelers-in-waiting, which was kind of fun. Fortunately, the the one man who visited the bar way too many times during the 10+ hours we were stuck was not allowed on the plane. But then, he could probably have flown to Denver all by himself -- he was a mile high already.

We enjoyed worship on Sunday at Beth's church and at night we saw the outdor Christmas lights at the Denver Botanic Center. Beautiful displays! We had snow on Christmas Day and again last Thursday; shoveled snow twice! That was the first time in many years, and we still had the knack. We enjoyed a great Christmas dinner together, talked, played games, read books, saw Bob's Old Navy store, and rested.
We left Denver on Friday. It was 3 degrees Friday morning before we left, and a humid 72 degrees when we landed in Orlando at 11 PM Friday night. Yesterday was just plain warm; we turned the AC back on last night! What a contrast!
Yesterday we worked on projects and got caught up with some things. A palm tree in the back yard had grown too close to the back wall and was close to pushing the wall footings out. The homeowners' association review board agreed with me, so I cut the 15 ft tree down. I didn't like doing that; it was a royal palm with a beautiful shape. I also pruned back the bougainvillea next to the palm. I think I cut out about 2/3 of the bush. My arms look like I've been herding cats, all scratched up from the thorns. I dropped a branch and it bounced into my right leg just above my ankle. A half inch thorn hit a vein straight on; I thought I was at the blood center making a donation for a couple of minutes. Gayle came to my rescue, patched me up, and I kept going. Can you see the difference from the picture in the previous post? Lots more light right now. I want to plant some bamboo in the open area by the wall.
This week I hope to build a couple of gates for the fenced area on the west side of the house. The old gates are tired and falling apart. I also want to do a little stucco work on the ledge in front of our kitchen window. There are dips that catch and hold water, and I will put a little slope to the ledge so the water can run off. Getting ready for school in a week is also in there somewhere. Should be fun...

Almost Winter

We had a storm front go through this morning. Lots of wind for a half inch of rain, but we're grateful for whatever we can get at this point in the year. Central Florida is about 9 inches below normal for rainfall; we've had about 38 inches of precipitation this year, and the concerns have begun already about drought and water usage. Kissimmee and St. Cloud were put on 2 day/week lawn rationing this week, which brought them into alignment with the rest of us.
The back yard is looking lush, so now I'll rework a little along the wall. I got permission from the homeowners' association to remove the Royal Palm. It's grown too close to the wall; if I leave it

alone, it will push the wall over. The bougainvillea will also go. I want to put in some bamboo in the room that we'll then have. The fishtail palms have given us the green barrier from Michigan Street that I had hoped, so the loss of the tree (other than we just love Royal Palms) is OK. We will lose the color of the bougainvillea by the wall, but we can't see it from the house anymore.

The camellia is beginning to bloom. This is the first of at least 50 buds on the tree.

After 18 months, our paphiopedilum 'Pinocchio' orchid has begun to bloom again. Not bad, eh, Bob?

Sooo, with all that green and flowering beauty here, we will be en-wintered in Denver in a week. And looking forward to it! Just one week of kids to go, and an early dismissal on Friday.

Sunday

We had a wonderful Sunday. We have a communion service every first Sunday of the month, and then have a fellowship lunch afterwards. This month we had our Christmas dinner in place of the lunch. Gayle got up at 2:30 AM to put a turkey in the oven...it was done to falling-off-the-bone perfection by 8:30. We had a great time eating and fellowshipping together!
The picture shows Gayle on our deck Sunday, December 2, mid-afternoon. I don't think we have to say anything more...
We took a ride at sunset for about an hour. Riding through residential areas under live oaks that overhang the road and drip with Spanish moss is just amazing.
We found a new favorite ice cream. Publix has a decadent concoction called Chocolate Trinity. It has chocolate chunks AND Mackinac Island fudge in the chocolate ice cream. Whoo! Tingling taste buds...life good!

Thanksgiving

Here's a fast look at our 5 days in DC with the kids & grands...

Scary Luke!

We even saw some great fall color!

All that color meant leaves falling, so we raked 'em. And played in the piles.

Happy Luke.

What big eyes she has! The only time Erin really cried was when Alec was working on some trim in Luke's room and gave Erin a small piece of wood to play with. Erin promptly hit herself in the head with the wood and howled!

I read so many books to Luke I had to re-adjust my glasses.

Grandma time!

Family time...

Our World Is a Little Flatter

This was on the plastic bag that held our Sunday paper today. People will be allowed to begin lining up at the door at 9 AM on Monday -- prizes for the first 2,500 in the door, etc, etc, etc. The Orlando Sentinel had a hilarious article by columnist Mike Thomas on the IKEA experience... check it out! The Big Blue Box is just south of the Mall at Millenia, which in itself is a ginormous place. I'm guessing that the traffic will be truly awful for the next few weeks, and then get really bad once the Christmas season gets rolling. That's in comparison to the normal Orlando traffic of "We've been waiting to turn left for 3 lights; how many CD's did you bring along?" Mike's column is:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/orl-miket1107nov11,0,39259.column

We had our annual walk-a-thon at TCS this past Friday. The kids raised over $38,500 for the school! The weather was as nice as we've seen it on a walk-a-thon day, with temps in the 60's. Cool! Another really nice thing about the day is that the kids went home after lunch, so we teachers had a fine afternoon for planning and prep. Really cool!

200 Days & a Week-end

Tonight's low is forecast to be 56 degrees. The last time the temperature was in the 50's was 200 days ago, on April 17. It's been a long, long, looong time and we're ready for some cooler temps in Central Florida!
The high was 77 and the sky was New Mexico blue today - a perfect day for an outside adventure. We went with our friends from church, George and Linda Bruneau about 45 minutes northwest, through Howey-in-the-Hills (love that town name!) to Tavares and the Lady of the Lake Renaissance Faire. We saw jousters, falconers, a bagpiper, players, musicians, and the queen and her court. We thoroughly enjoyed our day in an anachronistic corner of Florida.

Falconers worked with Harris Hawks. The hawks work as a team to catch prey.

Human chess game...the field clears when one piece attempts to take another, and they fight it out. Like medieval WWF.













The jousters had a script, which was funny. They were skilled with the lance and their lip.












It was easy to get into trouble - wish we could have one of these in the classroom!















The lords and ladies were present and personable throughout the day. Most of them did keep in character. One of our favorites was a man with a fancy pillow for a hat!

En Garde!

Gayle has been getting up just after 5 AM lately to do some power walking before school. It's dark yet, so she's been walking on the sidewalks lit by the street lights in our neighborhood. And yes, she's careful. I'm still abed, catching my last few winks until the alarm goes off again and I get up just before 6 AM. Gayle picks up the paper from the driveway as she comes back in the house and quietly begins her breakfast. A couple of days ago Gayle came back after her walk; the kitchen was still rather dark -- she was being kind to her sleeping husband. And...spotted a roach on the kitchen table. The only weapon at hand was in her hand, so she whacked it mightily with the morning paper. When Gayle turned up the lights in the kitchen, she saw that she had killed a raisin. I had grabbed a handful of raisins as a late night snack and had dropped one on the table. So Gayle beat the snot out of an already dead grape, and didn't even get a drop of juice for the effort. But she was able to pick it up and put it in the garbage.

Growth

This past Saturday Gayle and I trimmed the hibiscus and bougainvillea next to the back of the house in between the rain showers. That got me thinking about the way things looked just a year ago when we re-worked the backyard triangle between the house and the waterway. Just look at the difference a year makes! Gotta love that Florida growing season...all 12 months!
In related news, we had our particularization service for Conway Community Presbyterian Church last night. After more than three years as a mission of the Central Florida Presbytery, we have become a bona fide church in the PCA. We have about 50 charter members - those who have gone through the new member classes - and about 18 baptized children. We also have around 40 regular attenders, so that makes for a good fellowship on Sundays. We had a number of guests from other area PCA churches at Sunday evening's service. There were three pastors and four ruling elders present who constituted the commission for particularization. In addition to the regular service, we had a vote by the charter members to call Don Bailey as our teaching elder, and a vote to accept another man and me as the initial ruling elders. Don and I were installed (I am already a RE in the PCA from a term in Ft. Myers) and Brian, my fellow RE, was ordained. A charge was given to Don, Brian, and me for our work with the members, and the charge was also given to the congregation. We had a fellowship time after the service. It was a thoroughly delightful time!
I'm going to my first Presbytery meeting with Don next Monday; I'm taking a personal day from school. There are about 35 churches in the Central Florida Presbytery, from Dunellon, Ocala, and Lecanto in the west to Ormond Beach, Port Orange, and Vero Beach on the east...and many points in between. We're meeting in Longwood, about 15 miles north of Conway, so that should be an easy ride. We will have our organizational Session meeting next week also. And then the work really begins...

Good Times

We had supper with Tim & Pat Tuesday evening. They were here in Orlando enjoying the largesse of Tim's employer's house in Keene's Point Golden Bear Club south of Windermere. It was good to see and visit with them again. Apparently Tim was overwhelmed to see us...
Saturday we took friend Meg Givens from church to Sarasota -- she had never been there before, and we wanted to let her see some possibilities for her yard. We left at 7 AM and got to Tropiflora around 9:15. Tropiflora had their annual plant sale and we spent two wonderful hours perusing the plants and enjoying the festivities. I had a large gift certificate from last year's 5th graders, and I was able to put a good dent in it by the end of the morning. GB got a neoregelia and a wonderful little pitcher plant for her desk at school. We also found a Tiger Boston Fern; it has a variegated leaf pattern that is marvelous! I found a couple of aechmeas, two cryptanthus, and a little billbergia that were new to our house.
After lunch we drove a few minutes to Marie Selby Gardens. The orchids were as marvelous as ever, and the gardens were magnificent. We came back to Orlando by way of Longboat Key. I don't think there is a more beautiful body of water than Sarasota Bay. I love the green color. We got home around supper time, grateful for safe travel and fun times.

On the left is theobroma, my favorite food group...a cacao tree loaded with blossoms & a seed pod.

Some of the banyan trees were really aggressive!

Quiz of the day: Do you recognize the fruit of the bush on the left? A preparation of the fruit is a favorite of the couple on the right!

Bromeliads

It was past time to switch out some of my bromeliads - several of the ones inside needed to go outside again. I took several pictures of a couple of my favorites.

This one is my all time favorite bromeliad. It is a Billbergia 'Hallelujah'. The mottled cream spots on glossy dark green leaves which can be tinged with pink give an idea of why it got its name! I got this as a bare root little cutting from Tropiflora a few years ago and it has pupped regularly since. As if the leaf coloration isn't spectacular enough, this ridiculously wonderful inflorescence in red, white, & blue comes popping out. It first shows a red sheath and then there is this amazing and patriotic display for a few days.

This cryptanthus is Fosterianus 'Elaine'. I love the markings and coloration on the leaves. There are 5 or 6 pups in this 8" pot.

Labor Day

After consulting with Meg Givens -- Gayle's friend from church, fellow Bible study-er, and our eye on decorating -- we did a little more painting in the great room and rearranged the furniture. The idea was to draw the eyes toward the kitchen with the color up high on the wall of the great room, so we added the mineral red to the wall above the front door and the end of the kitchen bulkhead. We think it works! And it only took me a couple of hours.

Gayle is working on a tee shirt quilt for a TCS eighth grader. His mom works in the school office and saw the tee shirt quilt Gayle made for the TCS office manager's daughter. Gayle does a really neat thing with the proceeds from these quilts. The moms give her the tee shirts that are special memories for their kids, pay for the fabric, and then make a donation to Food for Children. The quilts have a flannel back and will probably be used as cuddle quilts.

We're running some errands this afternoon, and there are some bushes that need to be trimmed again. I may even fire up the new power washer; parts of the sidewalk are getting green. The bike needs to be washed and I have a set of papers to grade. We're barbequing some ribs for supper. Hope the afternoon rains cooperate!

End of the Week

Our second full week of school was one of those "long-short" weeks -- it went by quickly and had a lot packed into it. Gayle and I are on a new committee, the mentoring committee, at TCS. We helped in the formation of this committee over the summer and now Gayle is mentoring a brand new kindergarten teacher and I am the facilitator for the four mentors and their mentees. We had a brief meeting on Thursday before school just to see how things were going. Time is always a problem; the first days of school seem to have lots of changes in the schedule. We are finding that our mentoring document will need some tweaking -- reality has a way of doing that! My fifth graders were in charge of chapel on Friday, so we had to find time this week to practice. The focus this year is on the names of Jesus, so our chapel looked at many different names that we use during the week and then we came to the very best name, Jesus. I used some of the New Mexico pictures I had taken a couple of summers ago in a PowerPoint presentation I put together for a recital of Psalm 8 that the class did at the end of our chapel. I also had a spectacular picture of the Eagle Nebula taken by the Hubble telescope. That didn't hurt either! Gayle had a birthday party for one of her third graders on Friday. The kids got a little goofy with the frosting, but then it was the end of the day.

This is the tall and the short of things in third grade!

We took a trip to De Leon Springs State Park on the motorcycle this morning. We left the house at 7 AM and were home again before noon. It was a round trip of about 110 miles. We met Vern and Linda Stauffer, & their daughter Monica at the park for breakfast. Inside the park is a restaurant, The Old Spanish Sugarmill. They have griddles built into the tables and we cooked our own pancakes and eggs. They do the bacon/sausage in the kitchen; everything else is right at the table. Gayle got blueberries for her pancakes and thought that one pancake reminded her of one of Bob's watercolors. We did take a couple of stops on the way back; it's a long sit and we needed to

stretch. We did get back before the afternoon thunderstorms hit. We've been in a more normal
cycle of morning sunshine and afternoon rain the last couple of days after almost four weeks of hot
and mostly dry weather. It made my commute to school on the bike a dry run in the afternoons, but we do need the rain. Next week we should be at 40 to 50% probabilities for rain so I may just get wet...or I'll ride with Gayle. That's the joy of teaching at the same place! I'm getting about 40 MPG, and the 5.5 miles to school is just a fun ride. I find myself reciting Psalms and songs of praise as I ride to school.

Beginnings

We finished our first week of school -- four days of in-service activities and getting our classrooms ready and a half day on Friday with our new students. It is so much fun to see these wide eyed kids come into their classroom, full of hope for the new year, a little intimidated by new surroundings, a new teacher, and new routines. I tell my fifth graders that they are fifth graders in name but they will ease into "real" fifth graders over the next several weeks. They are not quite sure what to do with that one! GB has several kids in her third grade that she also had as kindergarteners. One second-time little girl has a dad who often works in Jamaica and has gotten in the habit of giving GB Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee. We received this wonderful variety of coffee again yesterday -- Wallenford Blue will be our Sunday coffee for the next couple of months! GB makes these amazingly creative thank-you cards, and we think Hugh keeps giving us this decadently delightful coffee just for the cards...Hope that Hurricane Dean doesn't smash Jamaica too badly, but this storm seems to be a whopper heading directly for the island.

GB and I are members of a new mentoring team at TCS. We worked with the school administration over the summer to put this much needed program on its feet. GB is one of four mentor/mentee teams and I am the facilitator of the mentoring committee. GB is working with her kdgn teacher replacement, a brand new just graduated teacher. We've had a good beginning to the program and it is doubly good because our school head's opening devotions focused on the Body of Christ. Great way to extend that idea on a personal level. GB has some new tools in her room -- a video projector that connects to her teacher computer, a document scanner that also feeds through the video projector, and a room audio system that has both a personal microphone on a lanyard for GB and a wireless hand held mike for students. GB is one of five teachers who have this new system. TCS wants to fine tune these rooms throughout the year. I'm hoping that my room will benefit from the next round of technology improvements. GB's third grade classroom is right next to my classroom, and my fifth grade partner who teaches the other section just across the hall also has a technology enhanced classroom. They both have offered their classrooms if/when I need to use the equipment, and I'm trying not to be jealous. We also have a portable projector and laptop on a cart, which I do plan to use already this next week.

This Monday we connected to the local cable company. Several reasons, the first being total frustration with the large national phone company that was providing internet service. New oxymoron: AT&T customer service. Impersonal, time consuming computer driven phone menus, dropped calls. Imagine! A phone company that can't complete the transfer of my call within its own company! We also get strong ghosting when planes fly overhead, which they do every two minutes coming in or leaving OIA. Minor joy of living within 10 minutes driving time of the airport and exactly north of the west runway. Now that we both have cell phones, we also decided that we did not need our land line so we are quitting Bellsouth/AT&T/Embarq the end of this month. So our internet is through the TV cable company; we've heard nothing but good about their service, and they really do have lots of real live people to help you. Whoa! What a concept! If you don't have our new e-mail or our cell phone numbers, better get in touch with us soon...

I Don't Bake Bread

Gayle and I spent the afternoon giving our bromeliads some much needed attention. We cleaned the debris out from the leaves and split apart eight plants. In two cases we got three pots out of one crowded plant...love those pups! GB now has bromeliad plant lover's hands to go with her quilter's fingers -- the rough edges of the leaves chewed on us pretty good. The fun part is that I'm giving 11 plants away. I get plastic pots and potting soil from Home Depot and then share my hobby with others. One of these week-ends we're going back to Sarasota and Tropiflora for more bromeliads; I've got a $150 gift certificate from last year's 5th graders winking at me.

I brought three neoregelias into the kitchen. I like their names. The one on the right is 'Hannibal Lecter' #3 'The Governor's Plea'. The plant's hybridizer, Chester Skotak, apparently is a fan of Thomas Harris books. It has wonderful leaf color and really nasty teeth along the leaf margins, which perhaps is how he came to name it. The middle neo is called 'Angel Face' and has a great red blush in the middle of bright green leaves. The neo on the left is my second favorite, called 'Perfection'. The leaves are variegated, light and dark green, and have a deep red tint toward the center of the plant.