Confederate Jasmine, Garden, Roscoe

The whole yard is in bloom now, and smells wonderful.

Sonic drive through, Jax Beach

They love reds here.

Radishes, kitchen, Roscoe

The first picking of the second crop from my French seeds. Very tasty.

Magnolia leaves, garden, Roscoe

 Having moved here from the Northeast, I still am not used to leaf management as practiced by Ma Nature. Our leaves happily hold on all winter then fall in the Spring. The new leaves on a lot of tree species emerge as colorful reds and yellows. In Vermont we called those occurrences Autumn. I like it though. These leaves take a long time to decompose, but make a great mulch.

Shadows, garden, Roscoe

 This time of the year yields some beautiful shadows in the late afternoon.

Graffiti and quick response, Jax Beach

This was "disappeared" within a week, an unusually fast response around here.

Boat on the river, Roscoe

The river traffic is always interesting. Good boats are always lovely.

Door handle, Dodge van, Jax Beach

I love the look and feel of something well used. This van was old and the paint was chipped but the tires were new and I heard the engine start and it sounded new. Somebody is getting their money's worth.

Marble slab, Jax Beach

Right next to the car repair shop below is an interior design shop. This was a slab of marble, very thin and backlit.

Bi-lingual Mangling

This is a small repair shop for Mercedes cars. The title is a bit of a reach.

Graffiti and downspouts, Jax Beach

Wires and clouds, Jax Beach

Every now and then, I look up.

Terra cotta pot, chive buds, Dock, Roscoe

Evening light.

Confederate Jasmine flowers, garden, Roscoe 2

These are tiny flowers but have a powerful scent. When they are in full bloom I think of the Van Gogh painting Starry Night, as the leaves are a dark bluish green. I also think of Don McLean's song.

Confederate Jasmine buds, Garden, Roscoe

We are about to have an annual explosion here on Roscoe. In April the Confederate Jasmine vine bursts into bloom and perfumes the air all around it with a lovely light scent, at the same time the gardenias are about to pop and add their heavier scent to the mix. It adds another sense in the yard.

Garbanzos, Cecchi, Chickpeas all soaking together.

I combined these with a few sliced bell peppers, some herbs, lemon juice and olive oil. So good. Thank you Mark Bittman.

Live oak by dock.

Nice shadows this evening.

Evening chair, dock, Roscoe

We're having lovely soft air in the evenings now and it is wonderful to sit here with a glass of wine and watch the river.

If Carl Weese can do it..............

There...now two of us have done it!

Couple with shovels, Jax Beach

I took this from the pier. It was a lovely day. This couple apparently walked or drove down to the beach, fully clothed, with a beach ball and two big shovels. I have no idea what they were thinking of doing with the shovels.

Road work, Jax Beach

Some of the new trees around 1st Street in Jax Beach.

Idle chairs, Jax Beach

You leave chairs to their own devices and this is what happens.

Mid-point

When I go on my Sunday walk I follow the Lamar Swanner approved route. This means meandering down Beach Blvd., all the way to the Red Cross station and walking the length of the boardwalk, then returning with a detour onto the pier if it's nice weather. This is the end of the boardwalk.

Stop sign, Jax Beach

It's getting so you can only tell they're stop signs by the shape.  Graffiti, advertising and political sites plastered on all of them.

Really?!?

Have people gotten this lazy?

Ninth St. and Beach Blvd. 2

Now it's open and you can finally go from Beach to JTB without having to face 3rd Street. Woo hoo.

Freebird, Jax Beach

I am not quite up on the history of this bar/music venue. I believe it is owned by members of Allman Brothers Band or their relatives. What caught my eye were the coming attractions. Do tornado riders become cannibal corpses? I hope Carolina can breathe because she can't spell.

Deserted shirt, Jax Beach

This was just laying on a spider lily plant near the boardwalk, nobody nearby. Great colors.

My Kirk Tuck photo walk.

 One of my favorite blogs to follow is Visual Science Lab, written by a working photographer in Austin, Texas named Kirk Tuck. He is a wonderful portrait photographer and holds forth on all things photographic, culinary, camera and, of course, coffee. He is an avid and accomplished master swimmer and he loves to share.

When he gets a new piece of photo gear, camera, lens or both, he sets off on a walk in Austin and takes a lot of pictures for fun and then lets his readers know his opinion. For a while he was testing new stuff every week. He buys it all himself and doesn't take freebies or even advertising on his site. His opinions are not scientific but rarely wrong.


Two weeks ago I gave my G3 and 25mm Leica/Panasonic lens the Tuck test. It is a wonderful combination.

Lifeguard station, Jax Beach

 We have a real treasure in our beaches here. They are full from April through October and there are lifeguard chairs at measured intervals all of the summer. The kids above are in full training for their summer work. One of their tasks this winter was to repair and repaint their chairs...see below.

Lily, garden, Roscoe

I love these lilies. Their leaves are very tough, strap-like, and dark. Every now and then they send up a bunch of these incredible flowers. They require almost no care or watering and slowly spread.

Stone on dock, Roscoe

Spring cleaning.

The hanging things are some of my old ties and belts. I wear a tie about once a year and these were 40 years old and tired. The belts are from when I weighed 333 lbs (149 kg) I am now 250lbs (113kg) and feel much better and don't need those huge old belts. The little pot is a new one from Rockaway Gardens. I have since added a twin and two smaller matching ones.

Bottlebrush bush, garden, Roscoe

When I bought this "bush" I was told that it would only get about 6 feet tall and was not very hardy. I liked it because it looked oriental and fit perfectly next to a Japanese maple and a ginkgo tree. I thought it would look very nice under the two others. Well, it is now taller than either of them and puts out these lovely flowers every April. I should have done the research.

Rope and shadows, dock, Roscoe

I've spent most of the last month here at home, getting the garden in and clearing dead magnolia leaves only to see them replaced the next day. So my photos will be mostly from here and my walks on Sunday in Jax Beach.

Spider hatch, dock, Roscoe

 We have a small concrete gargoyle, with broken wings, on our dock railing. I noticed what I thought was a spectacularly successful spiderweb under it's wing. What it turned out to be was a massive hatch of baby spiders. They had dispersed by the following day.

Wells - Pumps, Jax Beach

Rust never sleeps

Ninth and Beach 1, Jax Beach

This was on the last day before Ninth Street was reopened.

Graffiti, Jax Beach 2

This seems to be a challenging place to get a clear tag.

WAR tamper this, Jax Beach

Baldor the pump and birds, Jax Beach

Baldor has a Lord of the Rings/Harry potter ring to it. Very odd color for a huge pump.

Graffiti, Jax Beach

A new tagger has hit Jax Beach.