Full Moon Stroll

I hadn't planned it but Cheyenne was restless, demanding an evening walk, and by the time we got out of the house night was crowding in on us.

This is the time of year I imagine to myself that a little winter is no bad thing. Cold air, fireplaces and snowdrifts all seem rather attractive from a distance. Close up I think I would go mad were I obliged to stay indoors or face life threatening cold. Sometimes a cool evening in the Keys seems life threatening but that's just because I am a wuss.Wandering out of doors relaxes me and Cheyenne is my ideal companion. She loves to explore as much as I do and she is always ready to check out a new trail or a find pleasure in a trail she knows well. I always load her in the car so we can seek out places further from home than just our street. On this particular evening I went no further than the north side of Highway One on my home island, Ramrod Key. She was looking down while I looked up and saw an osprey nesting.The tower appears to have an actual osprey platform for the birds to nest on:For such a small island Ramrod Key (named for a ship that went aground south of the island in the 19th century) has lots of commercial activity. There's a vet, two bars, a mechanic (who also rents U Hauls) a commercial welder, a canvas maker, a Cuban grocery store and deli, a plant nursery, a car detailer a construction company, a towing company and a bunch of storage lockers. You wouldn't think there was enough room here for all that and a few I've left out.There are a number of small residential streets cutting a cross the island as well, putting these people about 30 minutes from Key West and a similar distance from Marathon in the opposite direction. For Cheyenne Ramrod Key is just an assortment of streets and wooded trails and a host of different smells.It isn't an island covered with pine trees, like Big Pine Key three miles east of here, but there are a few of my favorite trees.You can buy homes or a piece of land here if you feel like it. Realtors like to put their pictures up to entice you to work with them, though I'm not sure what kind of a qualification a winning smile is for something as complex as a land transfer. Not everyone thinks Christmas decorations should come down on twelfth night, it seems. January 6th is long gone but these lights aren't. Very nice they are too.It was a hell of a moon.

One more sunset ending the day in a golden glow.

This house appears to be empty, old tenants have gone leaving behind a pile of rubbish curbside.For some people the constraints of living on a narrow neck of land, with a high cost of living and relatively limited job and recreation opportunities makes it hard to hang on. For people like me the fact that I can't go snow skiing or turkey hunting doesn't bother me in the least.

Some people think these flat landscapes are boring.I find these landscapes amazing.

I wonder how I would cope if I had to live somewhere else.Cheyenne doesn't pose these problems for herself.Her walk is done and she's ready for the drive home and a deep, snoring sleep.

Ixora Big Pine Key

It has rained a bit in a series of slightly odd weather events that have seen fog, heat and humidity and a snap cold front that came and went ion half a day and left winds out of the southeast and cold as though they should have been out of the north.The gray skies didn't show Big Pine Key, off County Road at it's best, but this is a good place to walk Cheyenne after rains have flooded many of her preferred off-street walks. It's isolated but the road surface is solid.Years ago our realtor showed us this house, much bigger than the home we bought on Ramrod Key, but we have no regrets about not buying it.It lacks the charm of our little wooded tree house and the swimming outside the canal is much better where we currently live. This house on Ixora Drive is quite large, however.There are lots of side streets leading intriguingly into the woods...... and this is a place where a lovely tamarind tree is just another flag pole for some.It's a long enough way to open waters from here. This house intrigues me, a single level home on a large dry (no canal frontage) lot with a lush lawn and landscaping swept up to the house itself.

This sign makes no apology for the occupants:

And this welcoming committe was just a sample of the vociferous residents. We went away.This home had far less signs of life but lots of signs protecting the trash dumped inside the fence.The skies remained overcast and I had a waterproof jacket on but the rain never came.I'm not sure but I did wonder if this might not be an actual Ixora plant:I had looked up the exotic name of this street previously and found this entry in Wikipedia:Ixora is a genus of 529 species in the family Rubiaceae, consisting of tropical evergreen trees and shrubs. Though native to the tropical and subtropical areas throughout the world[2], its centre of diversity is in tropical areas in Asia, especially India, Ixora now grows commonly in subtropical climates in the United States, such as Florida. Ixora is also commonly known as West Indian Jasmine. Other common names include: rangan, kheme, ponna, chann tanea, techi, pan, santan, jarum-jarum, Jungle flame, Jungle geranium, and many more. Plants possess leathery leaves, ranging from 3 to 6 inches in length, and produce large clusters of tiny flowers in the summer. Members of Ixora prefer acidic soil, and are suitable choices for bonsai.

So there you have it, everything you might ever have wanted to know about the Ixora. Meanwhile back on Planet Earth I was wondering what it might be like to own enough land to get lost in, on Big Pine Key.

Cheyenne and I were happily lost on our own account simply following the rapidly deteriorating street.

We marched right along, passing mysteriously large homes on equally impressive sized lots.

We met some of the reclusive inhabitants...

...who Cheyenne ignored completely in her pursuit of the ultimate good smell.

We got home in time to settle in for an afternoon of wind howling, plumetting temperatures (52 degrees that night) and rain slashing around the house. Cheyenne ignored it all and slept the sleep of the just.

Niles Sunset

Cheyenne was restless once again, utterly uninterested in the reason for my sloth. I have started out on the very long journey of the tale told in four books called The Raj Quartet, a colonial soap opera set in World War Two India by Paul Scott, so my interest was to stay home and curl up in my armchair under my reading light. My dog would have none of it, so off we trudged to find her solace afoot.I had postponed satisfying my dog until well past the last minute, such was my comfort in my armchair with windows and doors open and a fresh evening breeze wafting through the house. Miss Crane had taken down Gandhi's picture in protest at the Mahatma's support of an anti-British uprising, the Quit India Campaign, and in that initial struggle Mr Chaudhuri had lost his life, and Miss Crane her Model T Ford. My Ford Fusion I parked a little way from the Niles Channel Bridge to give Cheyenne an extra distance to walk.In the end of course I had to thank Cheyenne for getting me out of the house on such a perfect evening. The light was hazy, partly the effect of all this weird fog and humidity we have been having between cold fronts. The waters of Niles Channel were as calm as they might be in summer.Cheyenne enjoys getting to visit different spots between Key West and the Seven Mile Bridge and I know when a walk, however unpromising the terrain looks to me, is going to be interesting for her, and therefore a success. That's when she gets her head down, ignores me and starts sniffing everywhere. I don't think she got to hang out and do much sniffing in her previous life because her sniffing has been compared to the sound made by a vacuum cleaner so loud is it, as though she is making up for eight lost years. I have also noticed she is getting abit more sociable around other dogs, though she still barks at me if I get too friendly with them. Cheyenne is a jealous dog and will allow no other dogs before me. While Cheyenne vacuumed I stood around and took pictures.This was supposed to be a quickie walk but my Labrador was not giving up. She had exploration on her mind and we had the entire old Flagler bridge to ourselves. Not an angler in sight. One guy walked off the bridge as we arrived, and he was clutching a rod. At that stage of the evening it looked like rain and he probably had dinner waiting at home. He left the one hundred year old bridge to us. I was glad to take possession of the space.

Cheyenne took off sniffing all those spots where bait must have been set down and in so doing left behind an indelible, and apparently delightful, smell.It was a lovely evening after all the threat of rain was said and done and forgotten. I cannot help but imagine how many legions of people Up North wish they could wander and watch a sunset dressed in shorts. Or how many people were home watching TV instead of being out bothering us.The sky over the Florida Keys was a lovely sight as per usual.I wondered if Fat Albert was grounded for fear of damage from a predicted high wind cold front, but as I watched the blimp it slowly and silently rose into the air, already guarding the southern approaches against surprise attack. The blimp is tethered to the only Air Force base in the Keys, on the northern edge of Cudjoe. One hell of a lovely evening indeed, even if the sound of winter road traffic on the "new" (1982) bridge was loud and continuous.

We stumped out to the end of the bridge, my Labrador and I, pausing at the fence that marked the opening cut in the low old bridge to allow boats up to 40 feet tall to pass under the new, upswept road bridge.And there we were when my cell phone rang. It was my wife calling to say she was on her way home with a meatloaf dinner from Bobalu's on Big Coppitt for us to share. I speeded up the pace, now looking forward to green beans and creamed spinach for dinner, and a glass of wine to wash it down.

Cheyenne's little stroll upon which we embarked to calm the dog became a full fledged exploration of the beauties of a Florida Keys sunset. Easily done.