Labors of nourishment

The Haitian Migrant workers in south Florida brought me this onion.

I'm so grateful.

Tonight we toasted their hard labor with our delicious pot roast. They, and the farmers, truckers and grocers, give us life.

The show goes on

This weekend the junior thespians are dominating the stage with a wonderful and rich production of Seussical:the Musical Jr.!!! I had a lot of fun working on the stage- it really turned out wonderfully.

After painting the stage floor, John Baldwin brought in the sets and special effect lights.

But really- the kids, the actors, stole the show! they reminded me of my own childhood doing small productions on the summer lawn, and also I think of my dramatically inclined nieces... (what are they up to these days?)

I love hanging out and collaborating with theater people!

Continents under our military

Working my boot

MLK Boulevard

Woke up to a free day, off of work, in honor of the great Martin Luther King and I decided to explore the boulevard named in his honor, in north Miami. There are almost 700 MLK boulevards or streets across the USA. My son lives off of one in Sacramento! The Miami MLK Blvd. was also E 9th St and NW 62nd St.. I figure that the legacy of MLK is made concrete in the landscape by the boulevards named after him. There is still so much work to be done to fight inequality and racism in this country! The road started north of the airport in a corner of Hialeah, ran through the neighborhood projects of Liberty City, cut into Little Haiti and hit the Bay in Lemon City.

 Seems, as we got in the vicinity, we had just missed the parade!

 We had to go around, because it was blocked off by police.

 Families were unloading trays of hot food and setting up smoking grills on front lawns

Liberty City

Little Haiti

End of the MLK hits the water...nice Jaguar!

I am bad at taking pictures. There was a lot to see, fancy cars and gangs on motorcycles, pink sofas on the curbs with ladies selling conch salads, helicopters overhead...and next year I will try to get up there earlier to catch the parade. I'm glad the city was celebrating.

Nine mile pond in the Everglades

What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday morning... on a free guided canoe tour of nine mile pond in the lower Everglades...near Flamingo Marina! We got up at 5:30 a.m. to make it down to the shore in time for the 7:45 push off.

 Leaving the parking area it was a bit cool and misty, but it warmed up fast.

 We crossed a wide expanse of the "Borrow pit" and went through mangrove tunnels...

 around the marshy area and past hammocks of terrain a foot or so higher in elevation but containing a totally different array of life species.

Alligator along the shore

The water levels from all the rain was high and so there were no shore birds to see. The dwarf red mangrove with Epiphytes and Bromeliads were distinct and numerous and when we rowed over the sawgrass, the sound as the blades tapped against the metal canoe was music. I wish I had recorded it.

Michael was in heaven. Within hours he started getting a little feisty. Imagine my relief when I found the short cut!

periphyton in the water- good stuff!

Gift at my doorstep

When I went into my classroom this morning I found a perfect dragon fly specimen laying on the floor just inside the door. It is not even the season for dragonflies! So as many students seemed grossed out by the fascination I showed, I had to use it to demonstrate how a real model could add a unique perspective to a painting. Instead of painting it as I photographed it, I tried to paint it at and angle, and then from the underbelly.