My students led chapel this past Friday morning. We had practiced for a few minutes Monday thru Thursday, and did a walk through Thursday morning. They are quick learners and did very well. We used Psalm 51:10 and the idea of God being steadfast -- dependable, trustworthy, and unmoveable. We were the first class of the year, and I think we set a good example. We had one curve ball; one of my girls caught the chicken pox

from her 3rd grade sister in GB's classroom! The billbergia pyramidalis are in bloom. They don't last long, but are spectacular. We have six influorenscences this year. The close up shows the complexity of the flowerets -- some deep purple at the tips and a gold stamen. The bromeliads are stoloniferous, which means that they will sort of "climb" the laurel oak...up to a point. The net result will be a dense border of plants around the tree trunk. This is from one plant we took with us from Ft. Myers, so this has done well in four years! We had 4.5 inches of rain this past week. Fay left a great amount of water and when the afternoon thunderstorms got going this past week, there were tremendous amounts of moisture for the storms to feed on. We had a couple of real cloud bursts -- spectacular, roaring downpours. We got our rain yesterday courtesy of Gustav. Even though we were 450 miles away, Gustav was pulling moisture bands from the Atlantic across Florida all day, to the tune of 1.6 inches of rain! The effect on our community is that the St. Johns River continues to be in flood stage; over 400 homes are under water. Our retention pond behind our house has water in it as high as it was after the three hurricanes in 2004! There were three pairs of mallards feeding in it this morning, and from the sound of things the frogs are really enjoying the water also. Tropical Storm Hanna is behaving in a confused manner out in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas. It seems like it will stay at tropical storm or minimal hurricane status. We should know by Friday what is what with Hanna. It looks like another rainy week; we're over 10 inches above our yearly average (45.03 inches of precip to date). The last two years were below average -- that's how averages are made!

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!