~Vitamin Sea~

Back to the Good Earth

Alrighty, the garden is growing along just fine, soon to yield its mighty green bounty direct to our dinner plates and hopefully to our bloggy pages in the form of photographical goodness.

Now, folks... I've been on several gardening sites lately, and even some on Flickr, and I would like to ask you.... can we call a moratorium on the word "sustainable?"  Please, I beg of you!  It's an overdone buzz, used to make you feel all righteous and helpful.

What other words can we use instead, when we speak of the greening of America?  Go forth and let us be fruitful with our adjectives instead of using media-induced politically correct crapola in our writing!

Last year in the home and design section of the St. Petersburg Times,  it was suggested that we use bamboo cutting boards instead of our usual, whether those are wood or plastic/acrylic/glass, etc.   And that begs the question, should we all fill up the landfill with our old cutting boards in the quest to have a politically correct, sustainable kitchen of merit?   

Grrrrr.

Lettuce go back to the garden and be corny again:

This is soon to be a yellow banana pepper!

 

 A Big Boy tomato, about to shoot upward with all abandon. I have just 3 tomato plants this season! 

Behind it sits another tomato plant that is not doing very well.  I'm not sure why. Possibly too much water? Bugs? More investigation is needed. Suggestions welcome!

 

The red and yellow bell peppers are doing well. I'll get more photos of them soon. 

Let's get out of the yard for a moment! 

I noticed these guys on the top of a power line on the other side of my neighbor's house. I climbed on a ladder and tried to shoot, blocking out the neighbors roof. This is a closely cropped photo. 

 I've been watching them for a few weeks. Everytime I get closer to the pole, they fly away.  I will catch you, my pretties...

Meanwhile, back in the garden, this little guy and his cousins have been causing me to jump in my tracks.  Quite often, my neighbors hear  me scream. 

This one lives near the pool.

  His cousin is a good 2 or 3 feet longer and is frequently seen slithering through the side yard.  I'm not sure how big they get, or if they're territorial.  Anyone know?  They've been living here for years, lighting fast and harmless (in my opinion).

I've  named them Jack and Mack. They are of the familius Black Racer.

And out by the pond,  a symphony in pink:

That is all.

 TOMORROW, a photo meme! join us!

See details below  <---click there.

Oliver and the rest of Florida

Oliver returns, and he is having more fun than you.
Don't forget to click the Previous button at the top of the page.

Blogging has been slow lately as we've just been really busy around here. I am a tad exhausted. Rick is just wiped out. On Saturday morning I plan to sleep very, very late.  At least till eight. 

In the meantime, I have yet another warning on why you shouldn't move to Florida.  Bad enough that we have too many condos, homeowner's associations and scorpions.  But now our pelicans are attacking!
Read the article, I kid you not!  Twenty-five stitches resulted after that dangerous day in the Gulf.

This poor woman was not only attacked by a pelican that mistook her for a fish (ahem), but also, area wildlife conservation agents are complaining that there's not ENOUGH money in the budget for eyesight checks for pelicans.  They will apply for a government grant to study the pelican population and see if there is any danger to the general public.  Y'all might as well stay in Arkansas, what with all the alligators wandering into the kitchens and black bears climbing trees in the city.  It's a tad scary down here in Jungala Florida.  Think I'm making all this up?  Then come on down and move right in!  Just wait'll you meet your local homeowner's insurance agent.  Then you'll know real fear.   

~Back soon!~

Summer Photo Meme

It's summer in South Florida (almost). The days are getting warmer and the kids are itching to get out of school. With temps in the 80's and the humidity soaring, our a/c is running full speed ahead.

We're STILL getting cool breezes every morning, with night-time temps in the 60's, so I suppose you could argue that it's officially spring.  I wish I could bottle those breezes and use 'em in July.

But summer IS on it's way in, and that brings to mind a summer photo meme. 

What does Summer mean to you?
Express your idea of summer in Photos next Monday, May 19th on your blog, and let me know if you'd like to join in!

I'll list participating blogs here on VSea.  Let me know  by Sunday night if you'd like to join in.
Late comers can add their site as late as Monday morning for just $19.95!
A bargain, really.

Use as many photos as you'd like for this meme and be sure to link back to VitaminSea so that everyone can go see the other participants in the meme.
Be sure to ask your readers if they'd like to join in!

That's all, folks.  email me with any questions:  laura 761 at gmail dot com.

Have fun!

Tampa Bay Storm

Shame-faced admission: I didn't even know we still had an Arena football team in Tampa Bay.

They are the 5 time World Champions! Where have I been?

At Friday's game, they played New Orleans.  I found it a  little disconcerting at first because the color of the Storm's uniform is almost identical to the New Orlean's Saints.    

For the record, I still think it's like watching peewee football.  The goal post looks like it's made of legos and it's hard to take the plays seriously.  Still, there was a lot of side entertainment going on between plays, such as the football throwing contest, the uh, tricycle riding contest, some odd dancing?  All kinds of funky stuff. The crowd was having a great time Friday night, and I'll say this yet again: no matter which team they're rooting for, Tampa Bay fans ROCK!

A great night at the Ice Palace, oh yeah. ;)

(photo quality courtesy of Nokia Cell Phones... *ahem*).

For My Mom

Psychedelic Experience, The Circumzenithal Arc

Legend has it that on the third of May, a circumzenithal arc will appear in the scabrous sky and center itself below the raving sun; so beautiful, so teasing, so dangerous to see.

The arc, an upside-down rainbow, is at once a stunning presence to behold.
The rainbow appeared on Saturday as we spent the day on an island just south of Clearwater Beach. Shortly after four p.m.,  as sun beat down upon the Gulf, those who dared to look in the abyss could see the rainbow hovering just below the lethal rays. 

We did not stare, we knew of the legend that could render us unstable.
Psychotic, as it were.  Those who look just below the sun in search of the circumzenithal arc will find themselves drawn to its powers, and they will never be the same again.

To my horror, Zoey was outside at the time, and he could not bring himself to look away.
In the first few hours afterward, he simply looked confused:

 

And then the powers within consumed his little body, and he will never be himself ever again:

Be warned.


(photos by Brittany) ;)

Another Travel Post!

Here at VitaminSea, we believe it's important for all of us to travel the world over as often as possible.

With that in mind, today we're going to take you back to the wonderful town of Miamisburg Ohio!   Yes, I know this post is a tad dated; after all, I was there a month ago.  And we actually stayed in nearby Dayton, not Miamisburg. 

And I know it's this isn't exactly a world destination, but still, it's out of Florida, and everyone spoke English, quite a novelty for a girl from the Real Miami. 

Alrighty, enough of that.  The main reason I wanted to do this post was to get all the Florida property zoning inspectors to take a look at the next few photos and have them shudder right into their rule books!  I can see them reaching for the Tums already.

Because, you see, when I first took this photo, I thought the best thing about it is....there was not a strip mall in sight.  My God, can you imagine?   Poor Dayton, they had to go and build about 20 of 'em.  And ruin their whole chance to be a world class destination.

Anyway, upon reflection, I realized there was something rather odd about the alignment of this road. Click to embiggem!  It's not so much that it's located rather close to not one but several out-of-the-way roadside bars.
Or maybe that did have something to do with it.

But you can tell from the photo that the boys from the power company stayed out of the bars when they had to do their job.

NOT to make fun! I did love this little country town, with it's lack of strip malls and gun fights and zoning codes galore. I just wish they'd had more cows.   

Buzzing around Miamisburg on a cold, frigid morning, we came across this house. 
Which, I think, is proof positive that the building inspectors up there are spending wayyy too much time in the aforementioned bars.

This is not photoshopped, nor trick photography, folks!   What do you think about that?!

Moving right along, I found this street light, which made me think of our friend Paul. I've been taking photos of street lights for him ever since.
For which, um... it's a good thing I live several hundred miles away...

Let us continue on our tour! click below the fold for More Spectacular Photos from the great state of ... Ohio!