Autoharps: I love them...

Here is my favorite accompanist, Annie! My harp was of course, made by the late Mark Fackeldey, a great friend of mine and friend to the late Marty Schuman, whose grandaughter you see here. For those of you who have not heard me bragging, I am Florida Old-Time Music Champ 1999 on autoharp. I plan on competing again this year at the Sertoma Ranch in Dade City. I also expect to take sandhill crane pictures and to kayak that weekend. It is really fun.

The autoharp underneath us was recently made by Jim Lorenz for his wife. If someone made me an autoharp like this one, I'd have to marry him! Sigh.....

These rainy weekends are beginning to get old. I worked in the yard last night after work and sat in front of the fire pit until the phone beckoned me indoors. Oh, well, time to play music....Maybe tomorow will be a good day for the Wakula River. Getting up early for the carpenter to come over to redo my master bath is getting old. But it will be gorgeous!

Piney Z Lake kayaking again!

The 3:30 CSX freight train.

" You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!"

It was just too nice today to do any work, which included a six inch pile of papers to read through...so I jumped into the truck and drove to Piney Z Lake. I kayaked around the lake in under two hours. There were no wood storks so I guess they have moved on. I saw many cormorants, anhingas, great blue herons, white herons, more than one osprey, and even a lone redwinged blackbird. I didn't see any ibises.

The song of the red winged blackbird is very distinctive and reminds me so much of my childhood. I lived on the back dock of the lagoon at the DYC during summers, and there were scores of redwinged blackbirds which nested around the dock boxes in the thickets. I adored their song. Now I can reliably hear some singing and watch those red wings flutter in the cattail thicket near the YMCA pool. I love to listen between laps when I swim in the summer.

There is a long thicket in the middle of Piney Z Lake which appears to have grown up on some dredgings. It is used for fishing and lots of small birds fly among the trees and plants. There are also lots of blackberry bushes which I intend to visit in June. The poles you see above mark some cuts in the dredging that runs through the middle of Piney Z Lake.

Camping at Blackwater River State Park

Last night I camped at Blackwater River State Park. It was very cold but I had a portable heater in my truck and I was very toasty. I spent the evening in Pensacola helping my son recover his computer, load Windows updates, antivirus protection, and the Windows Service pak which was 90 megs. Now he is hooked up in his dorm room dad, so you can send email.
I got to the park about 11pm and threw my truck tent over the back, fired up the heater and fell asleep after playing a few tunes. The moon was full.
In the morning I made coffee and went for a walk on the nature trail by the river. I took a few pictures.
The bridge you see is the one that Nathan got trapped against when the kayak overturned last year and pinned him against the pilings. Lucky for us we got him out! He was very cool headed. He wanted to save the kayak which of course was not important, but he finally freed it and grabbed onto it and floated downstream where I picked him up. It was very scary for me but he thought it was a grand adventure!

A visit at University of West Florida

I had the pleasure of visiting my son at his University this weekend. He is having a fine time. He won a darts tournament and a complete poker outfit including table was the prize. He has gotten a job in video sales. He has fun with his roommate Jon P. I'm hoping the school part goes as well! Here are some photographs!

Ozark Breeze by Frank Williams

In 1978 I spent a great deal of time talking with Frank Williams in Fayetteville Arkansas. Frank lives in Moscow now. He is a sculptor of mammouth output who takes big risks. He did many resin based sculptures in his workshop at the Gregory Center. This was one of may favorites. Click on the title to see his website and take a tour through his work. The 1978 sculptures are all familiar to me as I spent many hours in his studio talking and playing my autoharp. I should have been in my University office doing research. Frank said you have to get around and get new input, whenever I felt guilty about not holding office hours!

The Street Singer

Not too very long ago I took my mother to an impressionist show at the Norton Gallery in West Palm Beach. I saw "The Street Singer" by Manet. This image stayed in my mind and I thought I had known her or perhaps I was her in some other time. My mother enjoys art as much as I do and she gamely went downtown with me. She is eighty one and fearless. I want to be more like her.

Bluesgotus.com

I got an email from Bill and Eli Perras today about their performance schedule so I checked our their website. Low and behold, they are using the photo of them I took last May at the Florida Folk Festival. I was MC-ing the Azalea Stage in the afternoon on Saturday and they came strolling by. I thought "Tie dye Mark's" guitar tee shirt looked so good on Bill and that Eli looked so cute in her hat, that I snapped this photo! Check out Mark elsewhere on this blog.

Thinking about how I got to enjoy photography so much makes me grateful once again to my parents, Marge and Bob! My mom is so creative and fearless! She taught me to knit and to sew. She did many crafts in our basement, such as decoupage and view de optique. She has flown anywhere or sailed anywhere right alongside my dad for 57 years so far.

My dad had his photography darkroom under the basement stairs when I was a child. My toy box, a beautiful pine box with my initials on the top, was across from the darkroom. Next to it the dirty clothes came down a shute from the second floor of our house! Mom would pick them up and take them to the washing machine, which was in the back of the basement along with my dad's workbench.

Whoa, I'm starting to sound like my dad reminiscing on his blog! This was supposed to be about Bill and Eli's picture. But, taking photos is fun!