Comment Commentary

Every now and then, I'm surprised to learn that I have more readers than I thought. Today in a group someone mentioned my post about "Life Lists and Lessons" on Thursday's Child, the companion blog to this one. Then two other people in the group piped up that they had read that post, too. Wow. It's great to know that I'm not just throwing words (and pictures) into cyberspace the way a person stranded on a deserted island tosses a note into a bottle and sets it adrift. Please, though, if you have any reactions, suggestions, questions or comments--feel free to leave a comment or even send me an e-mail. Part of the blog experience is to have a conversation, so if I've said anything worth talking about, please let me know, now and then. Otherwise, I feel like I did at summer camp in the seventh grade, waiting for mail call and no letters for me today.

To leave a comment, just click on the "comment" link below each post and simply type your comment in the window on the page that comes up. You don't need html tags or code. You don't need a Blogger/Google identity to comment. You can post as Other (click the button near the bottom of the comment page) and just leave a first name or initials. Or you can post as Anonymous and let me guess, as my frequent correspondent "d" is wont to do. Click the orange "Publish Your Comment" button and you are done. Your comments come directly into my e-mail so I see them right away. But your e-mail address does not come along with them, nor is it ever published on my site. Or if you have a reply that you prefer that the rest of the world not read, you can send me an e-mail. If you don't know my address already, there is a link for e-mailing me on my profile page. Just click on "view my complete profile" near the top of the blog to get there.

I'll be back to posting more Home Stories and pictures in a day or two. Hope everyone has a memorable Memorial Day.

Florida: Naples and Farewell

Wednesday, May 23--Our last day in Ft. Myers dawned clear as all the others; no sign yet of the rainy season although everyone is eager for rain (but not looking forward to humidity.) Matt had to work but Doug went with us and we drove our rental Mazda 5 ( a mini-mini van) to Naples, about 30 miles south of Ft. Myers. We went to the Old Town shopping district, which is quaint and..um..upscale. And beautiful.

Almost everywhere we went, from Sanibel to downtown Ft. Myers to Naples, we saw these brilliant coral flowered trees. The leaves look like a mimosa, but they are hugely tall and the flowers are very different from the pale pink puffs we know as mimosas in our part of the country. I finally got close enough to one to take a picture as we walked some three blocks from the shops to the beach.

The beach is sugar fine sand and dazzling white; the photos I took were so overexposed they really won't show up here. But on the beach we finally got a good look at a plant that is protected: sea oats. Here they are pluming against a backdrop of the ubiquitous sea grape that grows everywhere. It is against the law to pick sea oats and some plots of it were cordoned off on the beach, to encourage it to grow.

Brown pelicans are far from endangered but their antics amused us as we walked out on the historic Naples city pier. In this group, one was apparently sleeping; two were digesting and one was thinking about taking a short flight and then a dive for a fishy lunch. The water was filled with swarms (I know, fish are in schools but these were really thick and roiling) of small fingerling fish of some kind. It was almost blinding to look down at them.

Watching the pelicans dine made us hungry so we ended our tour of Naples by having lunch at a charming outdoor cafe. The view was reminiscent of some parts of the old French Quarter or Garden District restaurants in pre-Katrina New Orleans. Or Italy, maybe, but we haven't been there yet to make a comparison. Later that afternoon we returned to the condo, bid Sam, Matt and Doug farewell and drove to the airport which was covered by a thick pall of smoke from a big brush fire. Our flight to St. Louis arrived a little early and we were snugly home by 10 p.m. CDT. We are already looking forward to our next trip; there are more nature preserves and historic sights to see. Now we are catching up on laundry, bills, errands and local meetings so we can go to Kansas for the Linville Sibling reunion in another week!

Florida: Historic Winter Playground

Monday, May 21, 2007--Today we paid a visit to the Edison and Ford winter estates along the Caloosahatchee River at Fort Myers. Thomas Edison bought 13 acres along a cattle trail and the river in 1885 and established a winter retreat and a laboratory for plant experiments. A look at the view at left above explains why this area enchanted him. The Edison family continued to use the property until 1947, when his widow deeded the entire estate to the City of Fort Myers for $1. It is now a historic site.

Edison developed an interest in plants and was looking for a source of natural rubber. In 1924, the tire industrialist Harvey Firestone gave Edison a native India Banyan Tree that was 4 feet high and 2 inches in diameter. Here Norm, Matt and I posed under it to give some idea of its size. It is said to have 350 roots and be an acre in diameter. A statue of Edison is seen at the far left.

Edison built two houses on the property and they were later connected by a walkway. One wing of Seminole Lodge was the winter retreat for the family and the other wing was a guest house. Many of the rich and famous were guests of the Edisons, including Henry Ford, a friend who bought an estate right nest to Edison in 1916 called The Mangoes. Lore at the site says that the Fords were invited to go camping in the Everglades with the Edisons and they, too, fell in love with the wilds of Southwest Florida. Given the type of vegetation, wildlife, and insect life around even today, it's hard to imagine these folks camping anywhere, much less in the Everglades! As the photo above of the family wing shows, the area didn't remain wild for long. In the 1920s Edison began importing all kinds of plants and installed them at the manicured estate.

The property also had an artesian well, and Edison built a swimming pool for his family and guests that is still in operation today. The overflow from the well was used to create a pond next to the pool. Plantings were added, including a grove of banana trees, to shield the view of the pool from curious onlookers boating or canoeing on the river, trying to catch a glimpse of the Edisons and their famous guests.



The pond also has a grove of papyrus, which was taller than Norm. Edison left his mark on the area in many ways, including the planting of Royal Palm trees for a 12-mile stretch on the main road into Ft. Myers. The city took the name, City of Palms from Edison's gift and the palms still line historic and beautiful McGregor Avenue today. There also is a link between the Edison estate and the Koreshan community we visited on Sunday. It seems the Koreshans acquired some bamboo from Edison and the plants still grow on both sites today. Edison grew the bamboo to have a source for the carbon filaments in his light bulbs.

Matt and Doug said that they probably would not have gotten around to visiting either the Koreshan site or this one except when guests were around, so we were glad that Doug is between semesters and Matt could take a day off from work for the excursion. After this tour we ate lunch at Rene's Deli, which serves a really mean and huge slice of carrot cake, if you are ever there.

Florida: Remains of a Utopia

Sunday, May 20, 2007--Late in the afternoon we visited the Koreshan State Historic Site in Estero, a community just south of Fort Myers. In 1894, a group called the Koreshan Unity moved from Chicago to a 300-acre site along the Estero River, not far from where it enters the Gulf. A campground run by the Florida State Park system features this scenic river overlook.

The area is home to the Gopher Tortoise, an endangered species. This was the second one that we saw. It was dining on grass and didn't seem at all bothered by our presence.



The Koreshanites created a settlement that they expected would someday become the New Jerusalem and hold 10 million people. They were attempting to restore Christianity, but they had some unusual beliefs, such as that they were already living at the inside of the universe, and that when their founder, Dr. Cyrus Teed died, he would come back to life and make all of them immortal. Koresh, by the way, is Hebrew for Cyrus, or shepherd, according to literature at the tour site. One of their improvements was to plant a wide variety of trees in the former jungle/swampland. This huge old live oak hung with Spanish moss resembled Annie Dillard's Tree with the Lights in It in the evening sun.


This shotgun house was actually inhabited by a descendant of the colony until the 1960s. It is awaiting restoration. We were amazed to think that this group of folks moved into what was a true wilderness, infested by bugs and unfriendly plants like saw palmetto, with these high ambitions of creating a perfect society where everyone had a job and no one went without.



The settlement was governed by the Planetary Court, a group of seven women who had sold their property and helped invest in the venture. They lived in this house, built in 1906. Each had a room with a window and door on the second floor; a male guardian lived in the third floor cupola room above. The house had a cistern to collect water. The settlement had an electric generator and all of the buildings had electricity as well.

The building at right was the Art House, site of many musical events and lectures, some of them open to the public. The group was progressive in many of its social views, including support of the Suffragette movement. However, those who lived on the communal grounds had to remain celibate. This building was under restoration and not open. Its unusual knee brackets supporting the roof are a distinctive architectural feature.


At left is Founder's House, the first structure built in the colony. The group operated a general store and gas station on the property well into the 1960s. The Koreshan settlement was the only stop between Fort Myers and Naples before the Tamiami Trail, now US 41 linking Tampa and Miami, was built. They sold bread from their bakery and operated other businesses. Some more research brought up the information that Dr. Teed clashed with some thugs from Fort Myers who were upset that the group practiced communal or "communist" economics. He died some two years later of related injuries.


Eventually, the colony lost believers when Dr. Teed did not return, as he had promised, after death. One of the last women to live on the site, a daughter of one of the founders, observed that after 1969, when she "saw those boys" walking on the moon, she lost her faith in the founder's belief that the center of the Universe was inside Koreshan. For us, it was an interesting and educational trip, especially when paired with the next report about Monday's safari to the winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford on what is now the Fort Myers waterfront.

Florida: Lakes Park Flora & Bird Life

Sunday, May 20, 2007--We continued our Florida sight seeing at Lakes Park, which is just a short drive from Doug and Matt's condo. After parking our rental Mazda 5, we changed gears and set forth in a 4-passenger bicyle buggy for a tour of the paths through the park. Matt steered and the rest of us pedaled, sometimes with great effort on the slight uphill climbs. (Florida is so flat that "uphill" is relative.)



We saw lots of birds on the lakes, including ibis, a small blue heron, a large white heron, and numerous anhingas (anhingae?) drying their wings in the sun. This flock of ibis were taking baths and fluffing themselves near the shore. Doug said that the lakes were originally a rock quarry, that was sold to the city. Ground water and rain water filled them up, the wild things came and they built trails, a beach, and lots of picnic shelters. It's a lovely park.

In our travels, we found ourselves in a forest densely populated with palms, cypress, palmettos, vines and all kinds of vegetation. It was pretty and peaceful and cool. This is the end of the dry season and once the rains come, this will be quite swampy. It's amazing to me how these plants can adapt to living six months of the year with their roots in deep water and six months in what feels like a desert.

After our hour was up on our bicycle buggy, we returned it and headed for lunch at Jason's, a favorite deli. The BLT is excellent, and they have free ice cream!

Florida: Sun, Sand & Surf

Saturday, May 19, 2007--We arrived last night in sunny, warm Fort Myers, Fla., for a few days of R&R and visit with Doug and Matt. Our object today was to go to the beach, so Doug drove us to Sanibel Island, home of one of the largest and nicest public beaches in the area. On the way, I took a photo of the Sea Grape in bloom. We saw these beach-erosion controlling plants when we were here in December. The fragrance is very sweet, almost over powering.

It's a short hike from the parking lot to the beach itself. Doug and Matt have decided they need a beach cart for future outings, but since they didn't have one, we each shouldered a bag chair as well as dividing up the cooler, umbrella, and other gear. The sky was a fabulous blue and the sand was blindingly white. It was warm, not too hot, with a stiff breeze blowing that kept us cool, although it would later demolish our little beach umbrella.

Here the umbrella is on its last ribs, alas. At this point we had been in the sun for about two hours. We ate sandwiches from home and had plenty of cool drinks. Norm and I strolled along the beach in the surf, which was cold at first wave but felt better and better as the sun warmed up. We collected a few shells, since Sanibel beaches are famous for them, but we tried to leave most of them behind. We left about 2 p.m. but a lot of people were just arriving. We came home, took naps, and later Doug cooked delicious salmon steaks and then we played rummy until bedtime. Doug won.

A Garden Blessing

For some time, several of us at our church have dreamed of creating flower garden plots on the vacant lot we own next to our building. Because it is in a neighborhood with restrictive covenants, we cannot build or expand onto the lot--it can only be used for a residence. But we can garden on it. Last fall a bulb garden was planted, and this spring, Norm and I divided and transplanted some of our hostas to help create a shade garden. Today was garden blessing day.


Donated plants included flats of sun and shade loving annuals, and perennials from a friend of one of the members. Another member brought a year-old white pine seedling that had sprouted in his yard. About a dozen of us gathered in the afternoon to see how much we could plant. But first, we had a garden blessing service. That's us, gathered in the circle above.

While we waited for everyone to arrive, we practiced Pete Seeger's "Garden Song" accom- panied by Larry on his guitar. Here our pastor Jacque, Jan and Dave all join in the harmony.


Planting is not easy work, but Norma found a shady spot and settled to work. She is the moderator of our congrega- tion and she never fails to set an example the rest of us have to work to keep up with!

There will be more photos in the future of the various gardens as they grow during the summer. This is the hosta garden we started, with one flat of burgundy impatiens that we added today for color. Now, where IS that bottle of Aleve?

Finals Time

It has been very damp and rainy here for the past couple of weeks, but a week ago I caught the "Quad" at the university on a sunny day. Finally it is warm enough for students and faculty to sit outside and enjoy nice weather between classes. This week is finals, with commencement on May 12-13. Since I'm teaching part-time now, I don't have/get to go to commencement.

Last Friday the student newspaper staff held its end of year picnic at our house. The plan had been to barbecue in the back yard, but a week of rain and persistent drizzle took us to Plan B, which involved cooking under our neighbor's carport and somehow squeezing 17 eager young people onto the front porch and into the living room for some light-hearted awards and the passing of the silver mug from last year's editor to next. Here Adam is smiling because he has just passed the cup on to Paul. The toy air gun is not part of the editor's official equipment, but something that the last 4 editors have passed along. That wacky tradition started when we had a budget funding crisis about 4 years ago. The silver cup was started in 1991 and it still has room for a few more names on it before it will have to be retired.

Speaking of retirement, it looks like I'll still be the adviser of this group in 2007-08. Rumors of my "total" retirement have been laid to rest, but I stand firm about not teaching in the fall. The Elderhostel catalog came today and there are some really neat trips and excursions coming up! First, of course, I have to grade the 15 final papers that were turned in today by my feature writing students, and get their grades posted. Back to work.

Spring Planting

Last weekend was beautiful, and we are finally seeing signs of the spring that was almost wiped out in the Easter weekend freeze. Our little red bud, that we call Muriel (after Muriel Richmond, whose husband Herschel gave us the original seedling) didn't bloom this year but is now leafed out well. After getting beaned by a falling oak branch three years ago, this transplanted seedling from our Ferguson house has developed a new lead branch and may yet grow into a full sized tree. It is now as tall as I am.

The various columbines we have on the place all escaped the freeze, and these in the rock garden were there to greet the purple and white violas that we brought home from the garden center. The wall that Matt built continues to provide a delightful backdrop for flowers at various times of year.

The freeze was very hard on our hostas. These lime green ones were just mush the day after Easter, but they are rebounding nicely now and we hope they will all bloom on time. We planted two flats worth of these coral impatiens to add color in the shaded front garden all summer.

The hosta and impatiens will fill in when the spring bulbs fade. These new daffodils were amazing; there were still three flowers blooming on Sunday when we planted, a full month after they first bloomed. We also have plants in pots under our maple in back, and some herbs and tomato plants still waiting to go into the ground. They'll have to wait until this weekend, because we are in the middle of five days of rain here, moisture we can use. But it was good to get dirty fingernails and play in the dirt after the delayed spring and cold April.