Visiting the Villages

Arts and crafts show this weekend at the Villages at Spanish Springs...Where's that, you ask? Uh, you better ask Eldo because I don't have a clue how we got there this morning! A bunch of county and side roads. I do know that it's between Ocala and Leesburg. It didn't take long to get there, maybe about 40 minutes or less from Webster..The Villages is a really cool place...It's a different type of retirement community that is based on the idea of a "hometown" atmosphere. It has town squares and tons of amenities...Between the two town squares, there is live entertainment 365 nights a year. They have high quality shopping stores, sixty-two restaurants, and three residential villages from what we gleaned from some literature we picked up. There's even a "lifelong learning college" that is based in the area where you can take all sorts of classes. They have four softball fields and a polo team! The recreational guide alone was 57 pages! They offer over 1,000 activities! Wow! That's my kind of retirement community! (Is Sparky excited???? YES! But we aren't going to live there, Sparky, so calm down! cautions E.) Well, at least I got to see a glimpse of a terrific, ACTIVE retirement community today....That gives me HOPE! Shuffleboard isn't even mentioned!

The arts and crafts fair had many, many vendors there today with all sorts of wares....We saw everything from goofy clocks to scarves to woodworking, metalworking to jewelry making to painting and photography....Lots of amazing talent here today.....

                                                                        Yard art.....

Cool tiled tables and mirrors...beautiful work done by Gehris Tile...mosaic tables and mirrors...some are custom tiled for the customer's preferences...tiled stuff is one of my favorite crafts to see at shows. If we were stationary, I'd probably be having a tiled table or two in my house and on the patio. They were kind enough to let me take a photo. I  try to ask first, as craftspeople have to constantly worry about people copying their ideas!

Funny signs...I liked the one that says, "Frozen concoctions help me hang on!"

We sat and rested at the center of the town square....

There was some wonderful jazz guitar being played by Paul Price. He was playing a harp guitar, a beautiful looking guitar with two necks!

The harp guitar is a cool looking instrument with extra bass (?) strings....Never have seen anything like that! He played wonderful music with his guitar....So wonderful we bought a CD to bring home and relax with.....It was a beautiful day as usual...Temperatures climbed to the mid to high seventies....More of the same it looks like.....Tomorrow is the Webster Flea Market, we're gonna have more fun!