My quest for Santa

I went to the flea market this morning on a quest to find Santa. But I didn't find him. I showed the photo, inquired. Felt like Nancy Drew sleuthing about. I did talk to Norma and Sandy in the front office and had a nice lead. Norma said she remembers him, but his name escapes her. So, I am to call her back.

But, I did get a couple of photos from the market.

"I bottle  emotions and place them into the sea for others to unbottle on  distant shores..."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Saul Williams

Looking for Santa

My mission this weekend is to find this man. Not a normal man. But Santa. A little strange. But not for this time of year I suppose. At least my chances are hugely increased.

I took this picture last year at the Gulf Breeze flea market. Now I would really like to get a model release from him. So off to the flea market I will go. Hi ho hi ho.  Wish me luck.

"She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year."
¸.•*´¨`♥ StoryPeople

pelicans in paradise::4

Another addition to my Pelicans in Paradise series...PeliJoc Doc. He lives in the Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze. He is adorable!

"Creativity is intelligence having fun."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Albert Einstein

Boats of Gulf Breeze

A couple of random shots of boats in the waters around Gulf Breeze. Serene.

"Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless when facing them."
¸.•*´¨`♥ Rabindranath Tagore

"Reflection must be reserved for solitary hours"
¸.•*´¨`♥ Jane Austen

Holiday this and that {page 1 of 3}

Oh. We had barely moved in. Not settled by any stretch of the imagination, but we were in. Then the holidays were upon us. Daughter to visit. Presents to buy. Tree to decorate. Cookies to make. Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks. Snippets of this and that.

We, meaning Nikki and I, went to the Gulf Breeze Flea Market. Always an experience. This time Santa was roaming the aisles, much to Nikki's delight. He really had a beautiful red velvet cape. One of the best I've seen. Even though I caught a grumpy appearance, he was a bit on the jolly side.

Happy daughter grumpy santa




"She asked me when the season of joy was supposed to end & I said I didn't really think there was an exact date, so we left the tree up till June that year." ¸.•*´¨`♥ StoryPeople



"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Albert Camus

This man was painting with spray paint. I guess you would call it air brushing. He had quite an audience. His music was pounding away and he worked with the beat of the music.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Scott Adams


{Continue to part 2...}

Old and new

It has been awhile since I've posted. There is a reason. The move. I put my camera away and dug in. Now it is pretty much done...boxes packed, moved and unpacked. There are final touches to be done, pictures to be hung, probably things to paint. But, I have my camera out again! Here is the last picture I took from our dock at the condo.

"The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


My first camera outing after the move was to J.W. Renfroe Pecan Company. They had candy. Pretty much that is all I could think about.

"Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Erma Bombeck




"The jelly - the jam and the marmalade, And the cherry-and quince-"preserves" she made!" ¸.•*´¨`♥ James Whitcomb Riley



I was slow on the snapping, cause I only got a couple that I liked. But it is a start!

Saturday Morning at an Antique Shop {Post 1 of 3}

I love looking through antique stores. Occasionally buy something, but rarely. (My last purchase in St. Augustine was a totally awesome enameled iron casserole in the most lovely seaglass green...oval with scalloped edges and small darker green flowery decoration around the edge. So lovely. Bonus: when watching Julie and Julia I saw other pieces like it in Julia Child's kitchen! I will take a picture of it someday and post it.)

This trip was a little strange. First shop I stopped at they all but stripped searched me. Then told me my camera was too large. Hmmm. Large. According to them if it was smaller or a phone camera, it would be ok, but they apparently have a fear that people swoop upon there precious store and take pictures of their items with large cameras then, gasp, sell said item on ebay!! HORRORS!! Think about it. I don't understand stupid. Needless to say I looked at them like they grew horns said a few choice words and turned and left after gathering my purse out of lockers provided because God only knows we could never never carry a purse in their antique shop. Can you tell I was a little peeved? Thank goodness at the next antique shop I got a cordial greeting and a sweet smile. Here are the beautiful items I saw...the first is a very old doll buggy. Sorta creepy. Then other times sorta sweet.

"Every child begins the world again...." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Henry David Thoreau


"What becomes of the broken-hearted? They buy shoes" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Mimi Pond


"Boy, he is great! Jeez, that old fat man. Look at the way he moves: like a dancer... And those fingers, them chubby fingers. That stroke... it's like he's, uh, like he's playin' the violin or somethin'. " ¸.•*´¨`♥ Fast Eddie - The Hustler (1961)



"Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music." ¸.•*´¨`♥ William Stafford


{Continue to part 2...}

Saturday Morning at an Antique Shop {Post 2 of 3}

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Ernest Hemingway



"And, since sensible humans know that there are no such things as people four inches high, a gnome who doesn't want to be seen probably won't be seen..." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Terry Pratchett



"I have the heart of a child. I keep it in a jar on my shelf." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Robert Bloch




"Fortune is like glass - the brighter the glitter, the more easily broken." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Publilius Syrus


{Continue to part 3...}

Saturday Morning at an Antique Shop {Post 3 of 3}

"There never was a good war or a bad peace." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Benjamin Franklin



"The examined life is no picnic." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Robert Fulghum




"The table is the only place where one is never bored during the first hour." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)



"Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin they think of firelit homes, clean beds, and wives" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Siegfried Sassoon

Flea Market Treasures {Part 1 of 2}

I love a Flea Market. D does not. And we have been together for ages. How this ever got by me is a mystery. So, I go by myself. It so happens that there is a Gulf Breeze Flea Market, so I went last weekend.

The first is a picture of a old dovetailed copper pot. I figure it dates back to the early 1800's. BEAUTIFUL!! I didn't get it last week, but I did go back this weekend and bought it. It weighs a ton. But it is a ton of sheer copper beauty.

Copper pot my copper pot




"The heart has its reasons that reason does not know." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Pascal



"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life." ¸.•*´¨`♥ William Faulkner



"The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Brooks Atkinson


{Continue to part 2...}

Flea Market Treasures {Part 2 of 2}

"Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Doug Larson



"I guess I should warn you, if I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Alan Greenspan



"Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Author Unknown



"There are things in American culture that want to wipe the class distinction. Blue jeans. Ready-made clothes. Coca-Cola." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Leslie Fiedler

More of a walk along the beach and a new Farmers' Market!! {Part 1 of 7}

Here are some more pictures of a walk on the beach. I love how warm the water is! And how soothing for the soul the walk is.

The Gathering


Upside down


"Sea Shell, Sea Shell, Sing of the things you know so well." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Amy Lowell


"The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Leonardo da Vinci


{Continue to part 2...}

More of a walk along the beach and a new Farmers' Market!! {Part 2 of 7}

"Sticking his neck out because he's tired of just sitting there hoping people will notice him for his calm energy" ¸.•*´¨`♥ StoryPeople


Can you tell that I love the hermit crabs? They tickle me beyond belief. They have gatherings (shoots the hermit theory doesn't it?) and can scoot around like crazy. I especially love the ones in the old crusty conch shells that have barnacles. And I covet the ones that have the beautiful shells that would look simply marvelous on my window sill. How does one convince a hermit crab to vacate their shell for another?

“I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone” ¸.•*´¨`♥ Rainer Maria Rilke


" From such crooked wood as that which man is made of,nothing straight can be fashioned. " ¸.•*´¨`♥ Immanuel Kant


These trees apparently have taken a hard hit from past hurricanes and just general weather from the Sound. But they are beautiful in their starkness.

“Purity is obscurity.” ¸.•*´¨`♥ Ogden Nash



{Continue to part 3...}

More of a walk along the beach and a new Farmers' Market!! {Part 3 of 7}

Bob Sikes Bridge


Looking homeward


Our little cove


"For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight." ¸.•*´¨`♥ Richard Bach, 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'


{Continue to part 4...}

A walk

One of the most completely, simply, totally awesome things about where we live now, is in the mornings I can get up, put on my clothes (forget the shoes) stroll out of my garage right onto the beach...and then walk. Not only is it a sweet private beach, but about 1/4 mile up the beach is the Gulf Islands National Seashore. It is completely undeveloped and wild. Quiet and beautiful.

Anyway, these are photos from one of those walks.

"For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail?" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Ralph Waldo Emerson



“No soul is desolate as long as there is a human being for whom it can feel trust and reverence.” ¸.•*´¨`♥ T.S. Eliot



“No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.” ¸.•*´¨`♥ Jackson Browne



"Well I never had a place that I could call my very own. That's all right, my love, 'cause you're my home" ¸.•*´¨`♥ Billy Joel

Up by the Bay

This has been a time of getting settled in. And exploring here and there. This particular morning we were close to the Bay waiting for Jambalaya's to open. (BTW, this is not a place I will eat at again.) But, the wait was beautiful. The water was calm but there was a gentle breeze.

“We are all in the same boat in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.” ¸.•*´¨`♥ G. K. Chesterton




“Casually elegant. Barefoot elegant. Not ultra fancy. That's what we are striving for here.” ¸.•*´¨`♥ Julie Norton



“A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say 'How to Build a Boat” ¸.•*´¨`♥ Stephen Wright



"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. " ¸.•*´¨`♥ Henry James