Johnson Street

It's the time of year in Key West when the snowbirds come back to roost in our midst and we are supposed to be grateful because they bring filthy lucre in their wake. Plus they prattle on about chickens and noise and parking and how things are done Up North. Because I am a graceless clod I resent their intrusions upon my life, the slow moving long lines of cars idling along Highway One, the retirees walking on my street and TALKING REALLY LOUDLY at 8:15 am just as I fall into a profoundly deep sleep. I see chickens and I wonder how people can find the energy to get annoyed at them. The fact remains I prefer ibis and herons and local wildlife that does the same good job of eating insects, but these wild birds do it with dignity and in silence, unlike the feral chickens.I got to thinking these thoughts when I saw the birds photographed above, while walking Cheyenne on Johnson Street.It also occurred to me that there were a fair number of still unoccupied homes so perhaps not everyone has arrived yet to escape winter, though it sometimes feel like they have.Quite a number will show up, throw back their hurricane shutters and air out their winter homes. But the holidays will intervene and they will hurry off back Up North to celebrate Christmas with snow and then they will be back in the New Year for a few months.These ruminations on winter migration patterns were induced possibly by the rainy weather and dark skies of the past few days, which have given way to a blast of cold air as winter starts to settle in, especially now that we have moved our clocks back an hour and the days are appreciably shorter. Darkness will close in around 6pm and the sun will rise around 6am on the winter regime of Eastern Standard Time.Key West is less wintry than many places not least because of the influx of money into this resort town.Palms and grass are a year round phenomenon here.It's better by Bonneville.

this section of Johnson Street, it occurred to me, is full of 1960's type Florida ranch homes.I get to use the space underneath my stilt home but these places have those splendid American inventions called car ports.

And lacking a car port there is room enough around here to park your mobile storage unit off city property more or less.All the charm of Key West home with none of the hassles of living in Old Town.Another old fashioned but entirely charming home.

As usual I have no idea what possess people to decorate their gardens the way they do.

Here's another car port.

These tin wraps on the trunk of the tree are supposed to keep rats at bay, I think, though one hardly ever sees them around here.

Strange people, strange dogs, what's the difference.From splendid mansions...

...to strangely decorated cars. This was labelled a boom box:

Another street, another day wandering Key West.