It was the summer of 1988 and I was vacationing in a rental cottage at Dekle Beach with my mother and seven year-old nephew. Mama was taking a nap one afternoon when Hogun came banging in the screen door. He had a pitiful look on his face as he said,“Aunt… Read full post »

_{This remembrance of a special time and place is dedicated to those that lost their lives in the 1993 Storm of the Century.}

The bare feet of a little girl pad out of the sand and up the ramp to the covered wooden walkway. The carefree… Read full post »

 Welcome to our garden, two years ago it was all lawn.

Alfalfa is a delicate little seedling that needs assistance battling the weeds, but once established, it is a cut and come again hay producer.  The rabbit approves.

 

My first encounter with a manta ray was while reading “The Girl of the Sea of Cortez” as a teenager. This novel by Peter Benchley is about a young woman that befriends a manta ray on a sea mount located off the coast of the Baja peninsula.

In… Read full post »

1966-1968

This is the true story of Sam, my childhood friend and the coolest hamster in the world. He was the namesake of Sgt. Sam Troy, the lead character from the 60s TV show “The Rat Patrol.”

Set in North Africa during WW II, the show ran… Read full post »

Back in the days before Disney World came to Florida, small roadside attractions were common along highways in the state. Interstates have since lifted most of these travelers above the small towns and rural areas, but in the 50s and 60s, motorists were free to pull off the road anywhere… Read full post »

 

It is a salty, damp, safe place and the sound of bump-bump-bump at a rhythmic pace has lulled me into a deep sleep.  I’m just waking up as the sounds retreat into a steady, low idle.  I know we are back in the canal and almost home.… Read full post »