Beautiful Week

An eclectic post...Here are two of the four Gertrude Hausermann cattleya orchid -- they're corsage size!










Steve Mercier, a friend from church, and I went riding today. Steve has an Electra Glide Classic Harley, and I rented (used my gift from last year's 5th grade class) a Heritage Softail Classic Harley. We started at 8 AM - a cool 50 degrees - and rode north on 436 to US 17 92 and Sanford. We went along the south side of Lake Monroe and then up to Orange City. We spent some time at Blue Spring State Park. There were 172 manatees this morning (so the park ranger said). We caught a beautiful morning, cool enough that the manatees were just swarming in the spring!





The scenery was exquisite at Blue Spring. We were in shirt sleeves by noon, and heading toward Eustis and Mount Dora. We came back toward Orlando on 441. I should have used my sun block!









The best part - Gayle went for a ride with me after we got back to Orlando. GB had been testing prospective kindergarteners at TCS this morning. GB is a good sport; she said that I go to quilt shows, so she can do this...and it was a great day to be outside.

Long Weekend

Last Saturday we went to a local sports pub (sounds better than bar) and watched the satellite feed of the Calvin - Hope basketball game. We had about 50 people - alumni from both schools there. Good game, good time with new and old friends. Too bad Calvin lost, but at least it was closer than last year!
We had MLK Day off from school so we used it well. Gayle had two doctor appointments and I cleaned the carpets and the cars. I hadn't cleaned the cars or the carpets in a while. Looks much better now!
We're looking forward to this week-end. Uncle Paul & Aunt Shirley are staying here for two nights. GB has to work at the quilt show in the afternoon and I think the rest of us will go to Leu Gardens. The camellias and roses should be pretty good yet.

Garden Additions

I made some changes to the yard over vacation. Gayle gave me a staghorn fern (upper right) which I hung on a hanger on the laurel oak in the back yard. I have a fern hanging from the same tree -- had it in Ft. Myers and it even survived Hurricane Charley! It is very large and was still in its plastic container. I was afraid that it would crack the plastic hanger that was attached to the pot so I got a new, sturdier pot and hanger. I was amazed at the weight and the root system. I had to smash the plastic pot to remove most of it; I was able to split the plastic rim but the woody root system of the fern kept me from getting it all. I'm guessing that it weighs about 20 pounds.

We took Bob and Emily to Lukas Nursery last Friday and Gayle and I saw a beautiful pink camellia there. It was a japonica camellia called Pink Perfection. I went back and bought it on Saturday! It's on the lower left -- what do you think? Is it not perfection itself? I planted it in the front next to our pink hibiscus, under one of our front yard laurel oaks. It's a little hard to see in the picture above; it's right in line with the tree trunk. Camellias like shade, so I think the location will work well. Our back yard camellia is a double flower and is in full flower right now (bottom).

Christmas 2006

Here we are opening stockings on Christmas morning. Nothing like fresh coffee and more gifts to get the kids up and at 'em! Bob enjoyed his 20 Questions electronic game and shared with us...it even guessed my "orchid" in 20, and then insulted me with an "easy guess" comment.

Gayle found a single serving

skillet and small spatula for my fried eggs.

Emily found an ornament that fit me also - harks back to our Iowa farm house days. Yes, she's butchering a chicken.

Em tried out her toe spreaders. Bob read his Marvel comics graphic novel The Uncanny X-Men.

...and on the Christmas weather front, we are in the middle of severe thunderstorms. Lots of rain, dark skies, and a tornado touched down to the NW of Orlando. The TV weather boys are showing off their expensive radars and giving us a blow by blow of the storm. I don't think we'll be eating Christmas dinner out on the deck.

Merry Christmas

We are waiting to head to the airport to pick up Emily. Thankfully she's the Chicago daughter and not the Denver one - Beth would have been delayed big time after this week's storm and snow. As it is she ended up with many extra shifts, lots of snow to shovel and many hours of overtime.

We're enjoying a restful vacation with Bob. He's been sleeping in, requesting his favorite meals, and working on his applications for grad school. Rob's been puttering in the yard and garden and I've been working on quilting - real vacation time for both of us.

Our camellia bush decidied to bloom big time with all the warm temperatures and rain, and since it sits behind the orchid stand and can't be seen from the house I decided to bring it's beauty indoors. We are also having fun watching our tomotoes grow on the deck this year. There are several quarter-sized tomatoes on and many blossoms.

2 1/2 Days

Bob is home for Christmas, so we put him to work...and he was a good sport! We did the trim - a cream color - on Monday. It was a great day; we got all the trim done!

On Tuesday we did most of the wall color - a soft green. We got all but the east wall completed.

On Wednesday morning, after the dew burned off, we did the final wall and the accent color on the front of the house. The accent is a darker green.

Sure beats the old Florida pink!

We were glad we had a rather small house to paint. The stucco is hard to cover with a roller. No wonder paint spraying is popular with the painting crews! We were glad that Bob was home to help; he did most of the rolling, which was the hardest job. Now that we're done we have most of Christmas vacation to relax and do other, less strenuous stuff. And I think we did a pretty good job on the house!

More Thanksgiving

More Thanksgiving pictures...we had a great time!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful thanksgiving weekend with Katie, Alec, Luke, Beth and Bob. The weather was nice enough for us to have one day downtown at the Museum of Art and we ate our sandwiches out on the mall. We enjoyed all of Luke's new skills and tricks and of course he made us laugh with all his animal sounds and jabbering. He does an awesome pirate sound which Grandpa caught on a video clip. He still enjoys books and entertains himself for long periods of time "reading" his favorite stories. You can tell what page he's on by listening to his sounds and words. I ended up with a dandy sinus cold thanks to the hackers and sneezers on the airplanes, but other than that we had a healthy and safe trip. Rob has more pictures than I do - I'll include some now and he can add more later. I made Luke a little colorful fleece vest and he enjoyed wearing it - even when it didn't coordinate too well with the rest of his outfit!

Complete

Here's my finished project -- rather nice, I think! The variegated tree type bush in the middle is a duranta repens. It has blue flowers and gets orange 1/4 inch fruit. The 3 variegated low plants along the water channel are dianella, and the 4 yellow bushes are called gold mound. The green along the stepping stones are dwarf mondo grass. Near the duranta I put a croton, transplanted from the back corner of the yard. It was getting crowded out by the pampas grass. I think I've found enough color variety to offset the eternal green of Florida! I did undercut the hibiscus and bougainvillea by the house so I could stick some pots of my bromeliads under the large bushes.

Next project is painting the house exterior during Christmas vacation. Gayle and I have agreed on the colors -- a soft, fairly light and mossy green for the walls (called Hazy Jade); a cream color (La Fonda Ecru) for the trim; and a darker green called Blanched Thyme for the accents. I have some power washing to do first, and a few stucco repairs, and I need to adjust the corner of the deck...it's too close to the house and I need to cut out a corner so we can paint. We look forward to getting rid of the Florida pink.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

A Fine Weekend

Our backyard bougainvilla looks like its ready for Christmas!

We had a very nice weekend - plenty of sunshine and outdoor work to do - windows open to the cool breeze and time for a walk around the neighborhood to look at house colors and try to decide on what we'd like when we paint at Christmas break. I think we've come to an agreement - not too dark for me, and plenty of color for Rob. The houses all around us are various shades of tan, brown, and putty so we're thinking a nice green with a cream color for trim.
Rob spent most of Saturday with his fix up the back yard project and I worked on school work with a nice break to explore a quilt shop I discovered not too far from here. I was looking for a particular piece of fabric for this year's quilt for the school auction. I figured I should get going on it as the auction is the first Saturday in March --coming soon enough.

The Challenges of teaching in FL

This week's little predecodable reader brought out an interesting response from one of my students. I asked, "What is the man in the picture doing?" The response was "He's cutting his grass, but I guess it snowed."

What just happened?

Tuesday afternoon I was coming home from school just after 4 PM. As I was pulling into our driveway, I noticed a car backing up away from me, heading east on Mystic Point. He was moving backwards quickly so I stopped in my driveway to watch. I watched him back into a parked Nissan Sentra! Wham! Crunch! He got out (me still watching), looked at the back end of his car, and the back end of the Sentra. He got back in his car, and I thought that he was getting some paper and a pencil to leave a note. But this is 2006, Orlando, and he -- apparently -- an irresponsible teen-ager. He continued backing his car around the Sentra and down the street. I called 911 to report what I'd seen. I was asked, "Did you get the car's tag number?" Duh! I told you he was backing away the whole time...Florida only has one license plate, and it's on the back of the car, the end that was away from me!!!

So I was getting some donuts at the neighborhood Dunkin Donuts Saturday morning -- work day scheduled for the homeowners' association members to clean the cabana / pool area. I ordered a dozen glazed from the woman at the counter and she started to ring up my purchase. She looked at me and asked, "Are you 55?" I was nonplussed; no one had ever asked me that before. I had to think...when was I born? I finally figured out that yes, I was that old and stammered out a yes. I got a 10% senior citizen's discount! I liked saving 70 cents; not sure how I feel about the senior citizen thing. Gayle and I ate the donuts; only one other person showed up to clean.

Saturday evening we had a church social / supper at George & Linda Bruneau's condo. We had 12 people there, just right for good food and fellowship. The best part was that Pat's husband Steve came with her. Pat has been in a women's Bible study with Gayle for more than a year. Steve has been church shy but on many people's prayer radar. We had a great time. Steve hit it off well with Pastor Don; they both had grown up in Orlando and knew the same schools and many of the same people. And there Steve was this morning -- in church with his wife Pat! I talked with Steve for a while as we put the furniture of the cafetorium back in place after church. He enjoyed the service, told me how much he enjoyed Saturday evening, and said he'd be back.

Fall Comes to Florida

Even if it only means that we have the air off and the windows open, Fall has arrived - at least for a few days. The sounds from outdoors and fresh air smells are about the only indicators - but I was surprised at how just that much creates a different feeling, a changed atmosphere. I guess I have to grab at any little thing to experience seasons here. My assistant gave me a pumpkin scented candle and on the note it said "We can pretend." Working outside is much more pleasant so Rob made some plans to fix up the backyard a bit. The grass back there never did recover after Hurricane Charlie and he's looking for more shade for some bromeliads. We're hoping to paint the house this year. Maybe we can get some help from Bob (?) when he comes home at Christmas. We've been looking at paint chips - most folks in the neighborhood have gone to darker colors recently instead of the Florida pastels. I'm ready to get rid of the "pink". Here's a few pictures of my students at the Green Meadows Farm and Pumpkin Patch this past week. We had beautiful weather and plenty for them to explore and enjoy. They especially liked the horseback rides and holding the baby chicks.

Enough Already

OK, I have had it! Where is integrity and honor among the leaders of our country? It is apparent to the public that Mark Foley is a predator. It was known for several years that Foley had a problem and yet the House leadership seems to have minimized, brushed off, and now stonewalls. Bah! Anyone who knew and did nothing should resign.

Bush just put off requirements for more alternative fuels 20 more years and continues to deny that there is global warming. Maybe it is only a large weather cycle, but there is no question that the Arctic ice is melting at an alarming rate. Can we do nothing to get us less dependant on oil? Are we so tied to conspicuous consumption? Americans put more money into their pets every year than some countries have in their whole national budget!

Why is it that our politicians in Washington are so power oriented, so political that they cannot pass a decent, reasonable law on illegal immegration? Build a wall? What a waste of time, effort, and money. Even the Berlin Wall couldn't keep people in, and this surely will not keep persistent people out -- people who want the opportunities available in the USA.

The Senate race in Florida is between GOP challenger Katherine Harris and Sen. Bill Nelson. Katherine Harris has accused Sen. Nelson of not acting like a Christian in some of his voting in the Senate. This is the man who took his Bible with him as an astronaut on a space shuttle flight in 1986, the man who lead the national prayer breakfast, and voted against partial birth abortions. Nelson has my vote...

And why do we continue to allow people to possess hand guns and assault rifles? This is not a Bill of Rights question. These firearms were made for one purpose -- to kill people. I'm not against hunting, but let's stop the people carnage!

I ache for people who will truly lead. People want leadership, and yet what we have is a Chimera, a mirage in the desert. I want a new party called Common Sense, whose members understand and hold to honor and integrity, who know right from wrong and do what is right.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. -- Micah 6:8

Cold Front

A cold front went through Orlando last night. As you can see, we really know how to have a front. Actually, we were only 3.7 degrees away from our all time record low for September 21. The chill was almost palpable, and I nearly had a goosebump. We even rode to school this morning with the windows down...well, we made it half-way to school before we turned the AC back on.

In other news, TCS had its most successful golf tournament ever last week-end. We raised just over $38,000 for the school! Now that is a warm thought!

TCS Golf Tournament

Saturday we got up at 4:45 AM so we could be at a golf course by 6:00 AM. We were volunteers at the annual Christ School golf tournament, held this year at the golf club in Celebration, Florida. Celebration is a Disney-planned community southeast of DisneyWorld just south of the Orange County line in Osceola County. The whole community is planned to look like an old style community -- houses have front porches, garages are entered from an alley, and even the strip mall looks like an old set of farm buildings with tin roofs.

We helped set up the golf carts in the dark; each cart got two goodie bags and two polo shirts in the correct size of the participants. There were 55 carts and 110 golfers! This is TCS's 11 year and the eleventh time it has held a golf tournament / fund raiser. The tournament is a best ball competition and had a shotgun start.

Gayle and I were tasked to sit at a table at the tee of the 5th hole, a par 3. The deal was that the golfer would give us $10, and if they landed on the green with their tee shot, the golfer has a pick of neat stuff worth way more than the $10 put down. We had a lot of fun talking with and taking money from the golfers. Many of the folks were parents and grandparents of current and former students. I had my camera along and took lots of pictures...and we will use a few of them to delight our students!

There was a luncheon in the clubhouse after the golfing was done. We raffled off various prizes -- awards for longest drive and longest put, lowest score and highest score. We got home around 3:00 PM. We were whupped puppies! The day was sunny and near 90 degrees so we were hot and sweaty. It was a good day -- lots of good fellowship, good food and prizes, and if the work at hole number 5 is an indication, a financial success for TCS. We took in $530, and were just one of many hole competitions!

Our goodie table at the 5th tee Light luncheon in the clubhouse

Team with the highest score...and youngest player! Tired, happy volunteers!

Jake, a 2nd grader at TCS, actually hits a pretty good driver! The driver head is almost as big as Jake's! Note the bobblehead high score prizes...

Ohhh, Crud!

The tropics were quiet for so long, we were hoping that it would be an uneventful year for the big winds and rain. And then, here comes Ernesto. In 24 hours, we've moved from feeling sorry for New Orleans - again! - to dismay as the Ernie track moved farther and farther east. It seems to have spared Jamaica but now will slam through the middle of Cuba. The latest prognostication on US landfall is Tampa, Wednesday, with a lead pipe...that would be a category 2...then cutting across the Florida peninsula and exiting north of Jacksonville on Friday morning.


My current favorite hurricane web site is http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/ because it has the 4 or 5 most used computer models that our Orlando weather stations talk about.

The thing I've learned in the 10+ years we've lived in Florida is that the projected track of the hurricane will change. Stay tuned! We will see what the week brings...

Back to School

It's been so long since I posted --school starting may have something to do with that. I'd better not chide the rest of you who haven't put anything new up for awhile (hint, hint.) The weather is hot, school is going well, we are fine except I've got a dandy cold (thank you little student who came the first day with a huge congestion!) Since then three other students and my classroom assistant and another teacher have caught it. Here are some pictures of the little darlings. The letter "C" was our new sound this week thus the canines and Clifford ears. The older students are dad's kids on the first day going through their supplies and getting organized.

Vacation Pictures

Nutria Canyon -- headwaters of the Zuni River-->

<--On the top of Pyramid -- we hiked up from Red Rock State Park.

Mmmm! If only we could bottle that smell! Douwe Yaalanie mesa east of Zuni...and that

incredible New Mexico blue sky.

Rocky Mt. National Park / Bosscher Reunion!