Cat Food

Sometimes it takes walking with a plant lover to learn to appreciate once again the simple joys of botany in Key West.

My plan had been simple enough, to take Thérèse to breakfast in the most evocative (and pricey) of Key West eateries in Bahama Village. On the way to Blue Heaven we were distracted hither and yon by plants, for such is her delight.

She was quite interested in the Hemingway House but happily hunger prevailed and we kept walking. I took her on a circuitous route to breakfast because I figured she would enjoy the walk and she is pretty impervious to heat. She works for the United Nations and neither humidity nor flying bullets are generally too hot for her in the odd places in Africa where she frequently lands.

It wasn't too humid and flying bullets were in short supply so the walk turned out rather well. Including a close encounter with a bottle brush plant (I think that's it's name).

A fine Conch cottage with a nice hedge, a soaring palm tree and the benefit of off-street parking is a thing of beauty.

"Ooh look," she said in fluent American-English, fluent because she did spend a great deal of time in the US in years past. And I looked and there was Art, lurking.

Les chats artistiques struck a chord too so I took a picture.

These bowls set in a lovely green lawn were put out for real cats, not artworks. And they were wiped clean, by the hungry feral buggers.

It seems there are quite a few in the bushes of this alley.

I think feeding cats abandoned by people is a laudable endeavor. Did not Christ himself suggest that giving a glass of water in His name would garner the giver a reward in Heaven? Giving cat food must be magnitudes of goodness more ample, don't you think?

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Tourism In August

The Key West lighthouse on Whitehead Street was built as a landmark for ships at sea, and it was built inland to protect the structure from storm action. Nowadays it's a landmark and attraction for visitors, and as I have documented elsewhere it is quite the climb to the top- for some excellent views!


August is generally the start of "quiet season" in Key West, but this year the city has been packed. Cars come and go all week on the Overseas Highway but weekends are crowded like winter. Around town there are tourists everywhere, guest houses are full and there are lines in restaurants. It's amazing and utterly unusual.


The speculation is that Americans are looking for interesting destinations closer to home and Key West qualifies, while for Europeans the value of the Euro so far exceeds the battered dollar that a trip to exotic south Florida is relatively painless.


Whatever the reasons it has been a bumper summer in Key West for tourism operators. And so far hurricanes have been well behaved even as we keep an eye on a potential threat wobbling around in the Eastern Caribbean.


Wandering past that perennial attraction, the Hemingway House, there were tons of people taking the time to check the place out though the sidewalk artistes seemed to be going through a slow moment.


"Hemingway for a buck!" he called out cheerfully. No art this cheap in Key West, he added as he scattered his stuff on the sidewalk:


I quite liked this piece of "folk art" on the trash can - no recycling bins around here.


On the Olivia Street side of the famous house there was another salesman plying some sort of wares, I didn't look too closely.


It's amazing to me what a lot of commercial activity is spawned by the writer's one time home. I liked the droopy palm frond, making an artistic statement of it's own, and for free.


"Look at those Geckos" Thérèse remarked as we walked.


I think she thought they were worth a picture and I agreed.


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Snipe Key

Please go to http://zuzuandtootie.blogspot.com/ for the proper story of our fabulous day at Snipe Key yesterday. Whence I stole these mementos of the day. Hey Chuck, you take nice pictures!I was without my camera and enjoyed a glorious day at the beach thanks to Wayne (above) and Chuck (behind the camera).

The tides were exceptionally low and miles of sand and mangrove were open to inspection. My wife and our French visitor spent most of the time in the water but Cheyenne got anxious when I trudged off for a swim so I spent the afternoon with her as was proper.Zuzu and Tootie, Wayne and Chuck's rescued Viszlas ran like crazy and kept Wayne busy keeping up with them which was fun to watch.

We sprawled in the shade and had a perfect Saturday in the Keys. Not too many other boats were there and Chuck got us home through tremendously shallow water without a bump. Great stuff and many thanks for a memorable day.

Square Grouper

I am very fond of the Square Grouper on Cudjoe Key, but the Wall Street Journal needs to taste the Key Lime Pie at Parrotdise up the road on Little Torch Key.

Besides we had our minds on a different dessert entirely.

Dolly and Robert met us for dinner and a planned round of miniature golf on the refurbished course at Boondocks. Dinner and conversation were so prolonged that we ended up canning golf which was a disappointment for me as I had been looking forward to it, but it was a work night for my wife and she has a tendency to overdo things.

Our server was Kerri and I know that spelling because at Square Grouper they have paper table cloths and wax crayons and she wrote her name in front of me. Service was prompt and with a smile which was good.

Dinner was elegant and delicious and and fun but it was pudding that was the point of food discussion- chocolate fondue.

Being as I am a man I wanted milk chocolate but got voted down, en masse and had to suffer through a pot of melted dark Belgian chocolate, dipping rice crispy treats, bananas, strawberries and pineapple chunks into the communal chocolate pot. My favorite are churro chunks, deep fried Mexican pastry...

Square Grouper is the place everyone should eat at least once but the odd thing is, it's easy to drive by at Mile Marker 23, and not notice a thing.

The building looks like a barn, advertising a beauty salon, oddly enough but inside it is warm and welcoming and lovely. And very popular, deservedly.

The name comes from the ironic designation of bales of marijuana frequently found abandoned and floating particularly in the 1970's. Go to lunch or dinner and check the photos in the loo.


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A Busy Dog

Cheyenne and I are having our regular routines interrupted by an out of town visitor (camera shy as it happens), but we are squeezing in time together.

The skies early in the morning have been spectacular with moisture filled clouds and a wild array of colors.

There is plenty of evidence of rain in the backwoods.

The mangroves are now sitting in puddles of water as it has been raining a lot, all across the Lower Keys.

The rain comes and goes but at last it is coming in the normal way and it makes for great skyscapes especially close to dawn and dusk.

It's August so the are no snowbirds walking their dogs at the pool this time of year and Cheyenne had the place to herself.

Looking across to Summerland Key the sunlight reflects off clouds and water.

But it's just me watching the sun come up.

Cheyenne is always a busy girl.

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Signs And More Signs

A colorful sign hard to miss, but I have to confess I was surprised to see the Masonic symbol on the bottom left-hand corner. Do Freemasons have a lodging handshake as well?


Stained glass of an elaborate nature is rare to see nowadays and I spent a little time contemplating this window. And the nature of the immortality of Fame. Cardinal John Henry Newman started out a Protestant, became a Catholic and died a Cardinal in 1890. Last year he was beatified and he is his name on a Methodist Church.


Beware of the dog, a banal and generally ugly sign on so many fences in this case made amusing by then other sign indicating the fearsome creature begs to be let out. Take him for lots of walks, I say, and like mine he will be delighted to be home.


A nicely gnawed sign here. On Duval Street where tourist traffic is highest, who cares? Not this lot.


Okay, I have a beef here. Nice shop good food, and it's not their fault but in Italian "panini" means sandwiches. One 'panino' is a single sandwich. To order a "panini" grates on my ears. Sorry, but it does.


Miracle of miracles, a recycling bin next to a trash can actually on. Duval Street. In a town that refuses to recycle this is nothing short of astonishing.


An actual miracle, more powerful even than the suggestion that the Blessed Cardinal Newman cured a deficient spine in a believer. A simple recycling bin. Wow! Watch out Seattle, Key West will soon be as green as you. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves...


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