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Though there are no rocks here, Florida roots ripped apart my last one, so I bought the toughest new shovel I could find to begin hand-digging a backyard wildlife pond. My heavy duty spade weighs over twenty pounds because even the handle is heavy steel. Naysayers and supporters alike may be interested in following me…

As he explained the poorly rendered image of something holding an accordion on the back of his left calf, he reminded me of the cross dresser out on A1A who’s ink reaches up from beneath her sequined blouse, and the legless vets and dirty teens panhandling with their pets in the shadows of this tourist…

Imagine a young, hairless Patrick Swayze with calves the size of footballs smoking a cigarette while leaning bewitchingly on the rail of our Airbnb deck. “What if he has alopecia,” I wondered rising from my lounge chair to make nosey small talk. “Everything okay?” I asked sauntering over. “Perfect,” he said. “She’s in there washing…

“Honey, come look. Hummingbirds!,” I chirped to Dave from the bee-filled wildflower garden. We’d been lounging by our backyard pond, awaiting the arrival of our latest Airbnb guest who was a bit of a mystery. It’s rare to accept a guest with no reviews not to mention a head shot, but we allowed this guy…

Before my friend Shirlee linked me to the Wikipedia article below, I thought among other things, I’d discovered something akin to a Rosetta Stone. I knew how exactly how Leonardo must have felt upon sketching his first Vitruvian Man. No matter how I carved, packed or shaped it, the sand in the pond I’d been…

My journey from wimp to wizard continues. While upending the patio I laid last summer to dig an 18” deep trench, in preparation for the electrician to wire my pond on Monday, new fears descended. I was unprepared for lack of rocks in Florida, and sand in general when I committed to this project. As…

“Reflets Dans L’eau” The hole will slowly drain itself of this morning’s impressionistic reflections and soon I’ll be ordering the 300 lb. rubber liner, pump and skimmer. Meanwhile, we visited a fancy pond place in Jacksonville a few days ago where we saw many perfect Coi ponds with extensive rock formations like the one below.…

My mother was one of the founding residents of Symphony St. Augustine. She’d been unable to take care of herself for 15 years and had lived in four different facilities in Connecticut. We moved to Florida and placed her in Symphony, where she lived for two years. She comfortably passed there two weeks ago. At…

Ospreys regularly circling above our house looked just now like vultures about to descend on me. It’s stunning how immediately my self esteem rots when I’ve offended someone. I just received a call from an activities director at a nursing home where I’ve sung twice. They loved me so much the first time, I was…

Though there are no rocks here, Florida roots ripped apart my last one, so I bought the toughest new shovel I could find to begin hand-digging a backyard wildlife pond. My heavy duty spade weighs over twenty pounds because even the handle is heavy steel. Naysayers and supporters alike may be interested in following me…