The First Door Of Our Church

This is the original sanctuary from the 20's. When I was young it was enlarged twice. But it only had one door to the street. Now this is Founders Hall. The contemporary service, and most dinners are held in this hall. I cooked many a dinner for a full house in this building. I still think of it as my sanctuary.

12 Cars And Trucks

A large crew of construction workers for building a new wing on this house. They come early and stay late 6 days a week.

One Of The Things I Was Thankfull For

But more important then good food were the people around the table. Four of our visitors were from other countries. It was nice to talk about the positives of life.

13 Pounds Of Thanks

All of the bones were removed and the skin left to keep the meat and stuffing together.

Garden Gate

A beautiful gate but no garden. The owner is allergic to plants and she has taken out all the plants except the grass.

Cassia roxburghii (Red cassia)

Red cassia is native to Sri Lanka and southern India. It is uncommon in cultivation, especially in the West. But Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has a large tree of this cassia, Cassia roxburghii.

An Old Spanish Home For Sale

Two generations of Realtors have lived in this house. They knew a usable house when they saw one. I know of only one addition on this house. Many old houses have been reworked to the point of lousing their simple beauty.

Welcome Center

This is our churches fifth external door to our sanctuary. We have a lot of them, we want to be sure everyone finds their way in to our services.

Purple, Green And Gold

The color of Mardi Gras in the back yard with purple orchids, and gold from a daisy tree and plenty green leaves.

The Strangler Fig Lives On

This tree died due to a thunder bolt or the white flies that are now killing some species of Ficus. The branches are falling and the city has not tried to remove this dangerous tree. That's because there is one branch that has a thriving Strangler Fig. This fig started half way up the branch and the tree sent the roots down 20 feet to reach the ground. Enlarge the picture and you will see the roots strangling the branch. The strangler would not kill this tree, but when it's in a palm it will kill the palm.

From A Sow's Ear To A Silk Purse

Since I was young I thought that this was a very poor looking house. But in the last few years the new owners have worked magic. The tile roof and the new fence has done the job. I think that it finely looks very good.

A Little Big For Your Back Yard

These Ficus trees are at there best on the golf course.

Foxfire Water Lily

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has this lily in a large pond. I have the same kind in my backyard pond but my flowers don't get that big. It's a tropical water lily and it booms all year around. I usually call it Firefox (as in Mozilla). Take a look at my Foxfire.

Coral Gables Water Tower

The city hasn't used the tower for water storage for as long as I can remember. The locals cherish the beauty and the city pays to keep it in good repair.

The Forth Door

This isn't the last of the doors.

B. Little Stars

This orchid is growing on an avocado tree. The fruit is now ripe and will be for at least 3 months more. The orchid has a fragrance in the evening and major eye candy for at least a month.

Walkway vs. Tree

The city gave the tree 4 more inches, but that will not be enough for that Ficus. The tree can cover the cement in due time.

Seraphic Fire

This picture is from our low definition television. The S F have a home in our church and often use our sanctuary for they concerts. The members of this chorus come from all over the country. The Coral Gables TV channel has the rights to the concerts. I'm not sure that the rest of greater Miami can see our channel. The Seraphic Fire has a very nice internet site.

Be sure to see the movie clip of Precious Lord, just scroll down this page.

One More Front Door

This is the third door to the front of our church. We have made it easy for people to come into the church.

The Silk Floss Tree, Chorisia speciosa

If the temperature is low enough or the ground dry enough all of the leaves will drop and all you will have is pink, pink, pink and more pink. There are some pictures of this tree in the movie clip about the Ramble at the FTBG. Click here to see the movie clip.

For Sale

This is one of the few large Spanish homes that are for sale. The number of houses going on the market are normal but the houses don't seem to be selling.

A Ramble

The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden has the Ramble every November. This garden festival is very popular and this afternoon it will be mobbed. This evening I made a movie clip of the Ramble.

Click here to see the movie clip.

Key Largo

This is the front yard of our house in the Florida Keys.

No Bougainvillea On This Pergola

About 60 years ago a friend and I sat across the street under another pergola and we painted this same picture. We used oil paint on corrugated cardboard. That was my first try at oil paint. The picture was pretty good for a starter. Unfortunately the cardboard didn't hold up. But 20 years later I bought a home behind that pergola.
My second painting was 19 years later in an oil painting class. I found my wife in that class. She still paints and teaches it at the local school.

White Bougainvillea

The white bougainvillea doesn't get the Oohs!! and Aahs!! that the red ones always seem to be getting.

A Happy Change

The other day I posted signs of my neighborhood 6/4.
Today I noticed that our county Miami-Dade gave Obama 60% and McCain 40% votes, the same as the signs in our neighborhood. The Miami area has voted for the Democrat the last 3 times. This time the state voted for the Democrat.

Our Polling Place

Our Polling Place We voted 12 days ago and it only took 45 minutes. Florida has early vote (14 days) and by mail. It took us 45 minutes. Friends voted the last early early day and it took 5 hours. Today it is taking about 90 minutes, not too bad. Notice every thing is in English, French and Spanish.

OH! I Know It's Blurred

Two or three times a year the lady of the house has the women over. Sometimes they come to figure out what to do and someone needs a card table to take notes. Then sometimes they come and eat and listen to a speaker. I don't stay around, it's all blurred to me.

In The Neighborhood 6/4

Four years ago our street had 1 Kerry sign and 9 Bush signs. This year I walked around two blocks and saw these signs, 6/4. The white sign has a note below the sign - don't remove this sign written in English and Spanish.

Theme Day: Books

The bottom book is 'Knowledge, Solutions, Mastery for Red Hat Linux'. Only 1048 pages to learn for your first try with Linux. Now that I am able to use Linux this book doesn't look so bad. The book on top is 'Gimp for Linux Bible' with 760 pages. You can use Gimp in Windows. Gimp edits all of my pictures, and Linux is used in building my blog. I have Photoshop CS and Windows XP that cost $800 or $900. I prefer ubuntu and Gimp, they are free.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants