Orchids In A Flower Bed

The tenth hole of the city golf course has a bed of orchids. These orchids, Epidendrum radicans, grow like weeds.

Serenity

With a bit of osteoarthritis it's sometimes nice to just sit and enjoy the beauty of the water around us in Coral Gables. This is another pond at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden.

Lotus 'Momo Butan'

This is my first double lotus flower of the season. On the first day it's only partly open.


The second and third the flower opens and the forth day the petals shed.

8 AM On A Sunny Sunday

The rest of the block is sleeping, but Starbucks is busy. The 11 newspaper boxes are getting a workout.

The Monarch Is Gone

When I went into the garden I saw that the chrysalis was empty. I had missed the unfolding of the new butterfly. Then I saw it about 3 feet down the branch.

The inner wings were still curled. The butterfly disappeared in a half hour, no were to be seen.

Memorial Day

The flag in our garden is the most important part of the day. I honor all that went before me, not just heroes, but all of the people that gave to our country.

This floral flag below is 740 feet long and 390 feet wide and maintains the proper flag dimensions. This flag is 6.65 acres and is the first floral flag to be planted with 5 pointed stars. This flag is close to Vandenberg AFB. I thank the friend who sent it to me and let me share it with you.

Freedom of Speech

A few days ago a viewer ask me if Coral Gables had problems with newspaper boxes. I talked it over with my wife and we thought that we have it under control. It had been bad, but the city cleaned it up. Early this morning we went to the center of the business district. Wow where we wrong. This corner at Starbucks Coffee has 11 boxes and the other three pictures are across the street.



The Miami Herald in English and Spanish

Coral Gables Gazette, New Times, and Coral Gables News

Sun Post Weekly (Ft. Lauderdale) and the Career Building Extra (part of the Miami Herald)

We did stop the the boxes that had circulars about houses for sale or ones about cars that were for sale. The city would like to clean up the sidewalks but FREEDOM OF SPEECH is more important.

A Place For A Wedding

The last time we were at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden this area was getting ready for a wedding. It was strange to see all of the imported flowers (white roses, hydrangea and calla lilies). A royal outing if it doesn't rain.

First Lotus Flower Of The Season

Columns Of The Prado Are Being Fixed

Money is tight for the city, like anyone else. It's nice to see that the infrastructure is being kept up.

Time To Take a Swim

Every Thing Is Grand At The Biltmore

This swimming pool is one of the biggest in the country. There is a pool in Chile that makes this look like a bath tub. But that big pool uses salt water.

Mexican sunflower or Nitobe chrysanthemum (Tithonia diversifolia)

pupa/chrysalis

Fridays butterfly never was able to fly properly and this morning I found the wings near our back door. But don't be troubled, the next one is on the way. Every 3 months the caterpillars eat the entire green parts on my milkweeds. In the last 4 years the milkweeds have flowered once, the caterpillars are always there to do their thing. I was never sure that they had enough food to mature properly. Now I know. Check out, pupa/chrysalis

The Columns Of The Prado

This column is in good condition.

But this column has a slight problem due to a hurricane, many years ago.