Well, Hello Once Again!

Life really keeps us busy and time gets away from us....But every once in awhile, it's nice to get back to the blog to document our lives, and we always appreciate anyone who stops by to read.....What are Sparky and Eldo up to these days?


In November, Sparky's daughter and handsome little grandson came for a visit.....We went to Coquina Beach and he had a wonderful time! Coquina Beach is a nicer beach, in Sparky's humble opinion, than Siesta Key Beach. There is a lot of shade from Australian pines, and a shaded boardwalk that stretches for a couple of miles. You can walk or ride your bike from one end of the walk to the other and get some great exercise, or have a picnic at one of the many picnic tables along the boardwalk in the shade. There is a wonderful playground for kids, informational kiosks, and plenty of places to sit and watch boats come in and go out in the channel or you can fish along the shoreline.

Sparky took the kids to Marie Selby Gardens, in Sarasota. They have a fabulous rain forest garden for children. You can walk across a suspended wooden bridge and jiggle it as you walk to make anyone nervous that's trying to cross, (Grandma was naughty), you can play several different musical instruments as you travel through the kids' sections of the rainforest---marimba style, drums, and other percussion style instruments. There are cool sculptures for the kids to climb on. The gardens have fabulous displays, sometimes from guest artist exhibitions to holiday lights celebrations. The koi pond is cool with a waterfall and a special bell to ring that just beckons anyone walking by to ring it.

Sparky's favorite at the gardens is the huge tree--it's either some kind of fig or banyan tree, she can't remember....Grandson loved it, too....

And when not visiting the beaches or cool places, it was great to just rest and show Eldo how to play video games....

Got a lot more catching up to do, but right now, we gotta go......
See you again soon...we promise!

A Beautiful Botanical Garden in Our Midst

Sparky just LOVES botanical gardens....Everywhere we went on our travels, if there was one, Sparky had to go see it. Sarasota has an AMAZING one, it's called Marie Selby Botanical Gardens and it is right downtown Sarasota.

What's so special about this place? Well, let her tell you! First, it's a bayfront setting...yachts and boats and fishing boats on the bay on one of the sides of the gardens...Second, it's a world class facility for research, education, and conservation. Third, it's got a conservatory that is like being in a tropical rainforest. It's got some VERY cool plants in it. Last month, it had the corpse flower, a nasty smelling flower that blooms very seldom. More about that in a minute. Fourth, it has an epiphyte garden (air plants) with a koi pond and a waterfall with a Japanese gong that people love to ring. BONG! Sparky does, too. :-)

Fifth, a tropical rainforest environment for kids and grownup kids like Sparky. LOTS of cool instruments to play,

Another instrument.....

Play areas in general...LOVE these frogs!

Wandering areas to explore all about the rainforest for families with kids and grownup kids--a suspension bridge, an exploration laboratory with a staff member, waterfalls, boardwalks in and among huge oaks... Sparky could have spent HOURS in the gardens today, but rain threatened.  Still...LOTS and LOTS of the most amazingly beautiful plants and statues....

This one looks REALLY exotic..have no idea of the name of it, but the plants are labeled in the gardens....

Caladium blooming everywhere...You see a lot of caladium in landscaping here in Bradenton and Sarasota, but these specimens were extra beautiful.

A Japanese pergola with beautiful stain glass panels of birds....

Cool colorful sculptures...

"Seymour"

(HEY, SPARKY! What about the corpse plant? The main reason you went there today! reminds E.) Oh, yeah...that was really cool. The gardens spent a lot of time hyping up the corpse plant. It is supposed to have a BIG stench between rotting flesh and really awful sweaty sox. It got a big buildup in the local paper. Well-l-l-l-l..honestly? It wasn't that bad. Yeah, something smelled rotten in Denmark when you first walked into the conservatory but only for a second, and then the smell dissipated. But the worst smell is within 24-48 hours, so Sparky could have visited at the tail end of the worst. The corpse plant is very unusual in that it only flowers every 3-7 years, and Selby had not one, but TWO of them blooming at the same time, which was even more rare! They named them Seymour and Audrey, (from the Little Shop of Horrors, a great musical about a carnivorous man eating plant.)

The plant is over 6 feet tall! It comes from Sumatra, Indonesia. The flower heats up to about 100 degrees to attract bugs, flies, and other insects to pollinate.

See, Sparky told you it was a cool place! The gardens is a FANTASTIC place to spend many hours....and a terrific place for families, a first class facility. Don't miss it if you come to Sarasota.

Bye for now.....

"Families are Like Fudge…"

"Sweet, but with a few nuts…." (Sparky, are you saying my family is a little nuts?! asks a concerned Eldo.) Nope, just saying they can be a little goofy at times…Which is true of both Eldy's and Sparky's families…They have lots of wit which is a WONDERFUL thing when you are entertaining family members. It makes being host and hostess a whole lot easier when there's lots of laughter on a family visit….And laughter we had, when Chuck and Theresa, Eldy's brother-in-law and sister arrived recently for a visit.

We've had visits from  both sides of our families over the past six months, and it's been so much fun showing them our newly adopted towns --Bradenton and Sarasota. Of course, everybody wants to see the stuff we've had in the blog, Myakka River State Park, the Ringling Museum, the Mote Aquarium, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, the drum circle, Ocean Blues--the bar and grill on Hillview Street that has entertainment 7 days a week, the Sarasota Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings, breakfast at the Gulf Cafe in Anna Maria Island, Sarasota polo, the Bok Tower in Lake Wales and so on and so on….

So when Theresa, Eldy's sister arrived for a week with her husband, Chuck, the day after Christmas, we were ready to be the host and hostess with the mostest! Not necessarily in the order we did them, here we go….First, the Marie Selby Gardens which had their nighttime Christmas light spectacle going on. Nineteen dollars for adults, children four to eleven are six dollars. It's gardens, a tropical conservatory, a museum of botany and the arts, and a garden shop. The gardens are open 10-5 every day except major holidays. Unfortunately, we arrived the very next day the night lights display had ended, but we still got to see some wonderful things there during the day time. They've developed a new children's rainforest section which was MARVELOUS and a wonderful opportunity for kids to walk a suspended bridge and learn about the rain forest.

One of Sparky's favorite things at the gardens is the Wishing Tree…..People write wishes on strips of fabric…

If you look a little closer, you see all kinds of interesting and wistful wishes…..

You see amazing plants and beautiful flowers at the gardens….Sparky gets a kick every time out of seeing the wild coffee tree plant and its accompanying scientific name…."psychotria nervosa"…Too funny….(I'm glad she's not a coffee drinker, that might just put her over the edge, explains E. She drinks enough Coke as it is!)

And how about some beautiful orchids….WOW! There's the conservatory there filled with all kinds of exotic ones….Marie Selby Gardens has over 6,000 species of orchids, there are bamboo and banyan groves, and a mansion on the register of historical places that houses botanical art and photography exhibits. They have different kinds of classes and many different styled gardens. This is quite the place!

And how about some beautiful bromeliads?  The center of the bromeliad had filled with water from a recent rain and these little lavender flowers were growing inside. This is so cool with the little tiny plants inside the main one, like a mini cistern! Amazing!

It's such a beautiful place Sparky is thinking of becoming a member so she can go there often for free to work on her photography skills….And on to the next place…..Mote Marine is scheduled for tomorrow…..