Village Colors

It is a fine thing to see bright sunlight. I am one of those who notices everything much more clearly when the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

Walking Emma Street in Bahama Village the world seems made of primary colors.

The old hall above merges its blue wall with the dark blue of the sky imperceptibly. Below the Frederick Douglass community facilities have been voted money for refurbishment from the special Bahama Village tax. I hope the color scheme doesn't change.

I must have photographed this building once a year every year of the life of this blog. And why not with shutters such as these.

Even the modest conch cottages sparkle under the sun in their monochrome glory, white as the driven snow.

An apartment building in mustard may not seem quite as perky as the other colors shown here but this sunlight in January brightens it almost into yellow, bright enough.

Key West, brightest place under the sun.

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A Few Keys People

Random shots around Key West. Another few pictures without words...

 

 

 

 

 

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Keys Trees

A few trees...pictures without words.

 

 

 

 

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Another Splendid New Day

It's been a quiet week in the Lower Keys, the community that time forgot and the decades cannot improve.

We have survived the holidays and next week my wife goes back to work and as time passes so the days get longer. Not by much around here until summer time starts but a little at a time it gets lighter earlier when Cheyenne and I take our morning constitutional.

New Years Eve was busy, work was crazy so I hope that the town made money.

I have the next few days off, my wife wants to go out of town before she has to dig in and deal with her students for foreseeable future.

The car is field and ready to go, dog food in the trunk and clean clothes packed.

So I have decided to take a few days off and start the year with some pictures without words.

Cheyenne will be in the back of the car happy to be involved, but not much liking the travel. Between now and Monday I'll post some pictures of my home town and on Monday I'll have a few thoughts to share as usual.

 

 

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That Hemingway Fascination

I am forced to wonder at myself from time to time. Walking Cheyenne up Olivia Street I was quite surprised to see a crowd of people on the corner of Whitehead Street. Silly me, it's one of the biggest attractions in Key West.

Of corse I have visited from time to time because I do want to see what people come to see, even though I am not a huge fan of Hemingway's writing style, as spare as it is.

His home is also a slice of Key West history, this is how the wealthy lived in the twenties and his life is preserved. That his favorite home is in Cuba, also recorded on this web page if you search Finca Vigia doesn't detract from the historical value of this home.

It's a popular place and it never ceases to amaze me that this historic home is privately owned. In Europe where I grew up public places lie this with national significance would be owned by the state and held in trust for the people. That this is now a money making operation strikes me as a little weird.

The cats are always an issue in a town where neighbors have a hard time getting along. Supposedly the cats are descendants of Hemingway's felines and by means of the all-American lawsuit neighbors who hate the cats have managed to get the might of the Federal government involved in overseeing the animals. A federal judge ruled they are the equivalent of commercial bovines and need to be overseen as farm animals by the US Department of Agriculture! Strange neighbors indeed.

There's lots to see inside the gardens which cost a few dollars to enter but is not apparently entirely worth it for everyone. A quick peek is enough, whichnis how some people view Key West in its entirety, a small town, worth a quick view, no more.

Cheyenne likes the deeper longer inspection of her surroundings and she never seems to tire of walking city streets. It's not every dog that gets to sniff the famous Hemingway brick wall (which wasn't here when he was) and I doubt most dogs care.

I try not to get supercilious about the attractions that draw others to town. It is after all home to a writer who won the Nobel Prize. No small thing that, and there are tons of visitors to show it is an interesting thing, even if it isn't a properly registered National Monument.

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A New Key West

Not really. Same old, same old and the same old blog in a new year.

I have noticed quite a few blogs that I have followed fallen by the wayside in the past year. if you check my list of motoblogs they are stalling. Possibly it has to do with the season, for winter is not riding season Up North. This time last year I tried a blogging experiment working with Chuck and pretty soon I knew it wasn't going to work. He started a new business and I felt burdened by solitude in a blog that was supposed to be joint effort. I went back to doing what I like, for myself. Jack Riepe calls this the Seinfeld of blogs, an ongoing story about nothing much, interspersed with pictures. So be it.

Key West has narrow streets, cluttered with bicycles and winter people. Key West streets are irrational, littered with silly signs and angry privacy signs, unlike most cities in this continent dedicated to newness. My blog is dedicated to noticing this sort of stuff.

I have almost three thousand essays in this blog and only a few of them lost their pictures in my recent picasa fiasco when I accidentally erased a collection of pictures. Enter a word in the search function and who knows what might appear. For me this blog is a diary as certain essays trigger certain memories, for everyone else these pictures are whatever you want. I do not anticipate any change over the course of the year.

I am not sure how I got this far, nor do I recall precisely how I decide what to write about. I saw yesterday's picture while my wife bought a bottle of champagne, she watched me take the picture and I knew she was wondering what I saw. I saw yesterday's postcard. How? I haven't a clue, it's just there in my head.

I see a couch in a trailer and the possibilities for Monty Python style comedy seem endless. I see an absurdly slow speed limit and I am reminded it is the rule now across Old Town. Why can't people pay attention when they drive?

I am not dedicated to selling Key West, I am not an arm of the Chamber of Commerce, I earn my living elsewhere. I dumped the stupid advertising on this page. I write about good and bad, I try to use common sense as my guide and though I am frequently impatient I hope I among cruel. I am unwilling to dumb my page down, I don't write to a third grade level, this isn't a newspaper. It's a slice of my very modest life.

A reader sends me notices from time to time that a blog called KEYWEST--THECONCHDIARY.COM has published a new page which happens infrequently but I read each one and wonder. It's generally a page of lists and rhetorical questions mocking victims frequently sourced in the newspaper. Aside from the unfortunate similarity between the title of the blogs, and mine has been around since June 2007, I find it odd that anyone purporting to live in Key West can't find anything original or kind to say about this extraordinary town. Read it and see for yourself.

I live a pretty regular life in a town where irregularity is the order of the day. I'm not a party goer and I dislike costumes and disguises. I have been accused of being gay from time to time, as though being gay is a bad thing. I can only say there is room in Key West and the Lower Keys for a few of us who are neither dipsomaniacs nor gay. Some of us just live here and of us all only a few have words and pictures on a web page. Doug Bennett comes to mind, This Week on the Island . Doug has something to say each week without fail and has at last decided to add pictures. Check it out. I have a long list of Keys related blogs on its own page. These are just the worst and the best.

I like living here on my terms and writing on my terms. I have that to look forward to in the new year, and so do you.

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