Where The Hospitality Starts

This is where the hospitality starts. Our front door has a beautiful chime door bell. But our real hospitality starts at our kitchen door. Our close friends know which door to use. They use the hand and don't think of using the door bell. The kitchen door has a minor chime but only strangers use the door bell.

Water Lily Fountain

Once A Shoe Box Now A Beauty

The shoe box is the back part of the house now. The house was doubled but it fits the property.

From The 20's

This house is one block away from yesterdays large house. You don't need outside help to keep this house clean and in good shape.

Another SUV house

A fine modest house was taken down and this is what happened. The first house was built in the 40s, with three bedrooms, one bathroom and no granite in the kitchen. I doubt if this house can be cleaned by the owners. It will take two maids and a gardener.

Cuban Petticoat Palm - Copernicia macroglossa

The palm house of yesterday has this in the front yard. It is a very slow growing palm. This one is at least 10 years. Don't expect any shade from this one. Here are some pictures, not all of the matured ones are good looking.

The Palm House

There's a lot of nice palms but I can't see the House. I know the house and it really doesn't need to hide. Maybe the owner is waiting for a charming prince to rescue her.

Another Old House

Landscape and a great paint job make you look at the house every time you pass by.

Now It's For Rent

Three years ago the owner died and left the house to the caretaker. The caretaker already had a home and they tried to sell this home 'as is'. They were unable to sell the house so they fixed it up and now are trying to rent the place.

A Climbing Tree

The picture shows only 20% of the multiple trunk. Now that's a fig tree - a Ficus and not the eating fig type.

Adenium obesum

The true color is what you see. I have not edited this picture except to add a water mark. I bought it as an unflowered seedling. It was supposed to be very dark. The flowers are darker then I thought possible.

Victoria amazonica, Victoria. cruziana. and hybrids

I went to Paradise yesterday. This private garden produces most of the Victoria water Lily hybrids that are distributed in the USA. This swimming pool is in Cocoa Beach Florida. I have more pictures.

A Wedgwood House

Just like a piece of Wedgwood Jasperware.

Seek Alt. Route

This sign has been there for three weeks, but for two of those weeks nothing was done except to cause a traffic headache. But last week the city started tearing up the road. We are going to have another roundabout. The best thing about the work is that it will finished by 12 25 08. Sure! Sure! Sure! The sign said it was.

Another Baobab

I remember this tree since I was a youngster. It's now partly hidden by a hedge. You can still see the wide trunk. Google Image and you will see most of the pictures look like this one. Fairchild and the Kampong have Baobab trees the are much taller due to much fertilizer. The one in the Kampong fell over three years ago when Rita the hurricane came by. It is now up and healthy.

It's A 4 Way Stop Today

Early this morning a large group from Florida Power and Light and there trucks started out for Texas. Shortly after that our electricity failed. The first thought was if we had enough people to fix our problem. We were out of electricity for only two hours. The police can quickly and made the corner a four way stop. Many thanks to the Coral Gables Police.

Desoto Fountain

It took more then a year to repair the fountain. There are many people that pass this fountain and they never see it. But I sure see it.

Double The Size

This is the reason that the septic tank was moved. It is not your little addition. It is going to be a SUV house.

A New Septic Tank And Drain Field

A few days ago this front yard was ripped up for a new septic system. Most septic systems were placed in the back yard because there is more space for the drain field. But it was often difficult to get the machinery to the back yard to service or repair the system. Now when the systems needs to be replaced it must be put in the front yard. For a week this house looked like it was building a pool in the front yard.

Just West Of David And Goliath.

The high rise buildings park the cars within the building. The one story building never needed to worry about parking cars. A three story building can use the entire property for the building. The parking lot to the right of the building belong to a high rise building that is two blocks to the south. People can use the two parking places in front of this building. I think we are going to have a parking problem.

A Bud Base

I visited a friend in the hospital this last Sunday. The bud vase is my way of giving a bouquet to a man and make it look a little bit masculine. The nurse offered a proper vase - she had no idea of what I did.

David Refused Goliath.

The little building refused to sell out to the builders of the large building. I was told that the little building refused 3 million. If the builders were able to buy that 25 foot wide parcel they would have tried to buy the next 150 feet.

Merrick House Ready For Ike

The shutters went up on Friday. Since it was a city job it took 10 trucks to get all of the workers to do the work properly. To shutter my house it took one old man 4 hours. Just remember that the old man is me. The storm looks like it will miss us. If I put the shutters up when the storm is close and certain that it would strike use, it would be a very hard job to do.
See the Merrick house when it's open.

A Very Sad Haircut

This is the variegated Ae Ae banana. It is very rare and thought to be hard to grow. I trimmed the leaves yesterday, thinking that a hurricane was coming straight for use. Now it looks like we will just have a tropical storm. Instead of shaving all the leaves, I just removed 75% of each leaf. With the trimmed leaves they should not fall over. Here are some pictures of the bananas in good times and bad.

Talipot Palm vs Ike

The leaves are giants, but will they stand up to the wind of a hurricane. We now have rain from the second hurricane that came close. Ike looks like it will be in our yard this coming week.
Click here to see mature Talipot palms.

The City Is Growing Up

The school has the stamp of Coral Gables. The high rise buildings have the stamp of the twenty first century.

We Had A Party And No One Came

Yesterday I put up half of the shutters, just in case of a storm. I shuttered the more difficult areas and will do the rest when a storm gets closer. Today there are three storms and one depression out in the ocean to the east of us. While a hurricane can visit Florida any month of the year, this is the most likely week of the entire year. I have been in at least 12 hurricanes here in Coral Gables. The homes usually have very little damage but the repair of the outside is really a major problem.
This page of TOGs site will show some of the damage that Katrina (2005) did to my yard:
http://togofcoralgables.com/Hurricanes.aspx

Ready To Go

This will be another high rise. Just as soon and the money comes.

More Eye Candy

In cooler gardens perennials or annuals are used to produce color. In our garden we use orchids.