Duval Pocket Park

It has been noted that the rather crass pedestrian only sign planted in the middle of the new pocket park at the end of Duval Street does detract somewhat from the generally pleasing urban garden atmosphere of the place. 

It was not always so. I took a couple of screenshots of Google Street View, nothing high resolution but on the history slider you can go back as far as 2011 though the street scene doesn't change much. 

 As you can see if you aren't familiar with the way the south end of Duval Street used to peter out it was a block of parking, no urban planning and a lot of dead seaweed pushed over the seawall by the prevailing wind direction. Not exactly a delight.

Naturally there was so grumping about the loss of parking spaces. Parking is always an issue in Key West whether it's at a tourist site or in residential zones. There is to hear people talk, never enough car parking. Sometimes though seating can be a nice replacement. I took advantage to put my feet up myself!

 The original plans called for a public private partnership to create an outdoor cafe associated with teh Southernmost House hotel visible behind the trees to the left:

However it seems now to be a simple and rather attractive bricked walkway with raised flowerbeds and plants that will soon no doubt arch up and give lots of shade.  

 It is combined with a public cement pier that sticks well out over the water and is quite popular: 

You can get some nice views here if you feel like avoiding Mallory Square crowds and performers at sunset. 

My rules, self imposed, about ocean swimming call for a first attempt when we start daylight savings time in the Spring though it is generally a bit too cool for comfort with all swimming wrapped up by the end of summer time and a return for standard time in the Fall. Tourists and hardier people from Up North ignore my feelings about cold ocean waters.

I heard it said many many years ago that an acquaintance of mine viewed himself as an 80/80/80 kind of tropical human being. 80 degrees air temperature, 80 percent humidity and 80 percent water temperature.  Sounds good to me!

 It was mildly windy when I was there which produced modest waves. The reef surrounding the southern and eastern sides of Key West are very useful barriers to building seas especially in hurricane season. The result is poor surfing conditions and not spectacular wave action photography. Oh, and limited effects from massive ocean waves crashing into people's lives during massive storms.

The pocket park does actually have an entrance to the Southernmost House so who knows what might develop. A scenic gate perhaps.

 Blue on blue. I've been seeing a lot of this in one form or another:

And still you see the local architecture looking over the new garden park. It must be better for them too, the new landscaping. 

Patterson And Eighth, Pocket Park

I drove past this pocket park a few weeks ago, quite by accident and I determined to come back to check it out.

The utility company used to keep electrical transformers dotted around the city and I guess the advances in technology made them redundant. 

So, rather cleverly they have been transformed with some mild landscaping, some art and a few benches, into places to hang out.

I wouldn't mind if they parked a porty potty in this spots. Te irony of walking the dog is that he gets to pee and I don't. After a while having to hold it interferes with the pleasure of the walk. But you do get a shady spot in which to sit.

Properly fenced it can be an off leash moment as well.

Except ny nuisance hound was on a mission and and let me know he wanted to get going again.

So we did. Been there done that and sniffed the artwork. Ready to keep moving. Sigh.

Louisa Street Pocket Park

It's located at 616 Louisa Street, roughly behind the First State Bank on Simonton and Catherine Streets. If you had a strong arm you could toss a rock (a very strong arm) into Abbondanza Restaurant, though why you want to I couldn't say. Rusty and I took refuge there from a  rain storm.

Cheyenne's last visit was to take refuge during winter heat. The pictures I took of her in January 2014 I remember like it was yesterday. Well it kind of was.

Rusty was a huge consolation for me after Cheyenne died in February but he has grown into much more than that. I enjoy his company a lot and he has a very different character from her.

 I got Cheyenne when she was eight in 2009 and she was not only stubborn but she was also much more laid back and stand-offish

Cheyenne is gone but the silhouette of a cigar maker's cottage abides:

 It was put up in the spot where those workers used to live to mark their passing...the factory was in the county building called, by no coincidence, the Gato Building. 

The Gato Building is a tad bit more monumental than the cigar worker houses... and ironically these days houses the Monroe County Public Heath department among others. 

One of the pleasures of key west is that getting wet, unless you are on your way to work of an office type, is no big deal. I sat and spluttered and waited for I don't know what.

 It was entirely comfortable for my dog and myself.

There is a geocache out here somewhere and I have hunted high and low for the damned thing but I cannot find it. Yet.

 Abbondanza is visible in the distance, across Simonton Street.

 The giant representation of a cigar is the largest of its kind we are told.

 And this is where we are told: