Head In A Box

I suppose a discount can't fail to pull in customers can it? Even when the purchase involves a disembodied head in a case? Seen on Fleming Street.

"We're at our best when we're together," that gratuitous piece of advice from an annoying corporate message on Duval Street. I usually drink tea if we stop at Starbucks on the road but I marvel how visitors drop in to Key West and turn their backs on that most ethnic of foods, Cuban Coffee in favor of one more cup of the familiar. 

One cup of Starbucks didn't make it and was abandoned by some thoughtful shopper. The scene of the crime:

I have thought about grouping together a whole bunch of these pictures and titling them "Urban Forest."  This one is on Whitehead Street and it's there if you look for it:

I really liked this next picture, over exposed and fuzzy of focus.  Documenting Key West pushes me to take as much care as I can of the basics of modern digital photography but this one got away from me. I like the effect of light and speed and blurriness as much as I am annoyed I wasn't ready to take the shot.

From time to time bees take up residence around Key West coming from as far as Cuba I believe.  We live in a time of bee stress so it is now popular to leave them alone and encourage them to not die off. The inconvenience seems worthwhile especially as I wasn't looking at the time for parking at the county courthouse.

A face in the plywood. If I can see it I sure hope you can! Angry isn't he? On Whitehead Street.

We started with a head in a box and end with a face on a plank. Yup, Key Weird it is.

Higgs Beach

It is said that photographers hate bright sunny days and prefer moody gray skies. Not me. I love tropical brilliance primary colors and sharp shadows.

So  naturally it was gray and overcast on my visit to the beach so i tried to make some drama out of the cloud cover.  I like Higgs Beach which is actually maintained by the county even though it is an enclave in the city. The sand, imported, is actually thick and real underfoot, not a composite of pebbles and small rocks typical of the Keys "beaches."

Monroe County has off duty deputies to patrol the beach and keep order which means you can enjoy a family day at the beach and use the two childrens' parks without fear of being accosted by panhandlers and the like. Or  you can hang out and mediate at will:

The Martello Tower is half ruined as it was used in the 19th century for target practice  by the gunners at Fort Zachary at the southwest corner of the city. Nowadays it is home to the garden club of Key West.

And the brickwork offers a different silhouette in a town made of wood.

  You can bury your feet in the sand and look out across the straits of Florida. 

You can see various boats off the beach but you cannot see Cuba as some wags would have you believe. The Earth is actually round and the curvature of the surface will prevent you seeing the mountains of Cuba 90 miles away. That alone should convince you the Earth is round but I am astonished by the number of people who take the flat earth belief as reality.

  The moon of course is a flat disc made of silver cheese. Everyone knows that and here's the proof:

Cactus spikes don't hurt, and to prove it you can try touching these examples at the garden club. You can run your finger over the screen with no problem at all:

I stayed for a while at the beach and waited for the sun to get closer to the horizon.

After such crappy gray skies some golden light was a welcome change:

Lighting up time on the shrimp boats getting ready for night fishing:

Mangrove Sunrise

Conventionally speaking a sunrise away from the beach might look like this:

I keep seeing black and white landscapes elsewhere, but around here I don't think mangroves offer enough contrast:

 A car on the Highway beyond the hedge managed to look menacing:

 But this is what the walk was about, aside from exercising Rusty:

 Rusty relaxing with a gin and tonic after his exertions.

Gato Village Pocket Park

I think this little pocket park behind the First State Bank on Simonton Street has been here for almost a decade. Time flies, it really does and yet the place, known as Gato Village Pocket Park, still looks pristine. 

That ugly jumble of cement across the street is the bank and the park is surrounded by a fence to resemble a garden in front of a cigar maker's cottage typical of what you might have seen a hundred or more years ago.

The wooden facade is built at one end of the park and offers  a pleasant spot to hide from rain or sun while enjoying the greenery.  Originally cigar workers came from Cuba when tobacco importers decided to bring raw leaves to Florida to avoid import duties on finished products. Key West was the closest port to Cuba so at first they came here. Gato in Spanish means cat...so here's the cat at the Gato Village Pocket Park! Very cool.

The whole thing is actually named for the family that ran the whole enterprise in Key West, and they built a factory on Simonton Street to process the tobacco and have the workers roll it into cigars.

Nowadays the Gato Building is owned by Monroe County and is home to several county offices including the department of public health. It is an imposing structure that hints at the value of the tobacco industry in Key West.

Eventually the same old bugaboo that haunts Key West today, the cost of doing business  on a small isolated island, caught up to the tobacco industry in the city. The people in charge figured they could have more land and cut costs by heading north to Tampa which is how Ybor City was born. All that is left is this representation of their famous Cuban  cigars:

This pocket park really is small and usually I find it quite empty. You can sit on the floor under the awning or on a bench among the flower beds. 

 Its a bit surprising to see it so well maintained after all these years!

I only know it's been here quite a long time as I unearthed this picture form January 2014 of Cheyenne resting on one of our walks through the area.

   

Southard Street

I have been riding my new to me electric bicycle during my lunch breaks but I don't find it very conducive to photography. I bought the bicycle for a very specific reason, to try to avoid traffic jams projected for the next  year at the sole bridge into and out of Key West which will be undergoing almost overdue repairs.

In Key West the Cow Key Bridge is known as "The Triangle" as North and South Roosevelt Boulevards meet Highway at this critical three way junction. Anything blocking the bridge backs up traffic for miles so my plan is to park somewhere on the shoulder and complete my commute on my $600 Pedego Classic, lightly used six speed cruiser with a 350 watt electric motor powered by a 10 amp battery . Phew! Its as big a mouthful to describe as it is heavy to lift. This was me cruising down Southard Street with Light Pedal Assistance.  I got back to work sweat free, as I go to the gym for my exercise.

Aside from riding the bike lane at 12 mph I also enjoy walking Southard Street a one way ride away from Duval Street toward White Street. My yellow buzz bomb was rather overshadowed by the giant hump I saw on the hood as I walked by a couple of days earlier:

Walking, especially with Rusty gives me a chance to look as we go, and for all its usefulness as transport a bicycle still requires you to watch traffic more than the architectural oddities passing by.

An oleander flower (I think) celebrating the summer heat that has descended on a winter short by even Key West standards.

Rusty settled down on the sidewalk in front of Mangia Mangia restaurant, the corner building with the inviting awning.

I labeled this picture "White Ghosts on Patrol" on Instagram:

And I reserved a street corner panorama for the overloaded cyclist:

Rusty took our break in stride, paws carefully crossed.