Old Bahia Honda

Rusty needed a walk and I felt like taking some pictures so this was an obvious destination as heavy rain would have muddied the trails in the mangroves. Yuck!

 Summer stillness on the water.

 My Lumix FZ1000 really does seem to do a better job with wildlife and I am only just starting to figure out some of the subtleties.

 Rusty looking busy:

 I am very fond of this dog.

 I hink this vast leggy arachnid is a harmless golden orb silk weaver.

 Sunset looking  good.

 Having a good time:

 What an evening.

Idiots defying the signs and common sense and walking through the fence. No doubt they will sue if they hurt themselves. 

 Just lovely.

B'Nai Zion

We are told Key West has the oldest Jewish community in Florida which isn't surprising when we also learn Key West was the largest city in a state rendered mostly uninhabitable by heat humidity and mosquito borne yellow fever. Not that they didn't die of yellow fever in Key West, people did in drives, but it was worse on the mainland, much worse.

There is this corner of the cemetery set aside for Jews just as Catholic's have their corner but you will find  members of both sects scattered through the main cemetery. Apparently Jews can be buried outside their own cemeteries with appropriate permissions form religious leaders.

I went looking to see if any of the graves had my wife's last name but I could only get as close as one maternal grandmother, but who knows what I missed. 

For those that don't know it is traditional in Jewish cemeteries to place a pebble on the grave when you visit a loved one. More than marking your visit the stone is supposed to represent your devotion to assisting the soul of the dead person which is said to be residing in the grave for a period after burial. 

When we went to visit my wife's family graves in Illinois they had a bucket at the entrance filled with suitable pebbles for visitors to deploy. For some reason flowers are viewed as not suitable and you won't see them in Jewish cemetery. On the other hand Judaism is a beautifully flexible religion is some respects and local custom is local custom so I'll bet some cemetery somewhere has flowers!

One thing I like about Jewish cemeteries is the stipulation that all graves should look similar. The idea behind this custom is to "not put to shame" those members of the community who cannot afford lavish markers. Serenity in equality. 

 I also like the custom of including a line about the deceased, though photographs and representations of human forms are not allowed, I'm told. From the Chabad instructions:

When preparing the text for the tombstone, one should avoid embellishing the deceased's qualities and praises, since some believe that the soul will have to account for what is written there during judgment.

Again Chabad, a fairly Orthodox branch of Judaism:
It is best to use only the Hebrew language for writing on the tombstone. It is also highly advisable to review the text with a competent rabbi before ordering the tombstone.

Locally the Appelrouth name is well known thanks to the lane between Duval and Whitehead Streets. That Appelrouth was a well known and well respected merchant with a store in Key West.

Aronovitz also has an eponymous lane and recently the Federal Building on Simonton Street was named for the Miami based Judge Sidney Aronovitz who was born in Key West in 1920 and died in 1997. 

Key West always leaves its mark and perhaps especially in a quiet spot like a cemetery:

It is a very special corner of Key West history tucked away and next time I shall plan ahead and bring my yarmulke which I did not think to bring and which left me, a lapsed Catholic feeling a bit uncovered. My wife would not have berated me at least, as she is forgiving of my lapses in the face of the complexities of her religion.  

Dawn Wandering

I ended up after ninety minutes hot and sweaty even though the sun still hadn't come up and Rusty alongside me was panting with his tongue down to his knees. We got home and he stretched out on the kitchen tiles not to be heard from again. Till five pm when we went iguana hunting and he was still tired enough to catch nothing. Yes it was a long hot walk between 4:30 and 6:00 in the morning.

I like that hour in the city as the bars are closed and no one is around and with Rusty sniffing everything I get to look around and see what I see. It's very peaceful in a town noted for its revelry.

We stopped at Elizabeth and Green where I sat for a few minutes contemplating the boats and the still waters and the impenetrable signage. "ONDIVING." I couldn't figure it out until I saw some similar signs and realized someone had sent the least literate imbecile they employed to stencil NO DIVING signs on the dock posts and it had just got away from the sign painter. 

 That I spent so long to figure out the obvious may be attributed to the ungodly hour perhaps.

CVS on Duval Street and Front needs workers. I went to check on line and they maintain a discreet silence about the actual amount paid which makes a skeptic like me wonder what "top wages" actually means. Most such workers have two and usually three jobs to live in Key West or Stock Island. 

I saw the headline in the box and was prompted to check the story out as I wondered what was upsetting lobster fishermen this year. It turns out it is a really wide angle view of the trade as reported in the Citizen:

Fishermen began soaking their traps on July 27 and will begin pulling them on Tuesday. Local trap fishermen are coming off a dismal stone crab season, and this past year’s spiny lobster season was mediocre at best.

In the past decade, Keys fishermen have relied heavily on the Chinese market to significantly bump up prices. But in recent years, Chinese buyers have become more savvy to the industry and an ongoing trade war and increased tariffs made the local spiny lobster fishery less profitable last season and could do so again this year, Keys fishermen said.

Front Street looking the way I like it, towards the distant Custom House Museum.

Yes I went artistic for a moment and saw wavy brick patterns.

I  tried an experiment putting my camera on a post for the first picture with a ten second timer.

And then I tried hand  held and thought I didn't do a bad job but still its pretty fuzzy. I am very much enjoying my new old Lumix FZ1000. I bid for it on eBay more as idle wish and then I found myself leading the pack and ended up buying it and was pleased too. I find it easier to use than the FZ300 and  as much as professionals play down megapixels 20.1  versus 12 is way better. The FZ300 has a longer telephoto but unless I use RAW  format (and I can't be bothered) the 600 mm pictures are too noisy and distorted to use so the FZ1000's 400 mm telephoto is fine and those pictures are just on the edge of being distorted in JPEG fine mode. That the FZ300 is rain and dust proof is a great thing so I will keep it for back up in case I wreck the FZ1000 on our travels.

And we close with a look at Mallory Square empty and with a light breeze, flags half way down thanks to the recent massacres, SNAFU, and we keep on living.

Poinciana Flowers

I have written previously about these bright red flowering trees which mark  summer in Key West and I was moved to take a few more pictures while I was visiting the cemetery in he city. You can see them all over town  from May until maybe September though I have to say they are getting a bit thin on top already.

They go by several names and have slightly varied flora according to the scientists but in the Caribbean they call them Flamboyants. In Australia they are called Flame Trees and they use that name in parts of Africa too, which region is where they are from, more precisely originating in fabled Madagascar. The thing they have in common is an aversion to frost, hence their concentration south of Lake Okeechobee.

In Key West they call them Royal Poinciana thanks to their official Latin name Delonix Regia but to ordinary mortals they can simply be poinciana and there are several structures around New Town named for the plant.

 Thye are known for growing hardily in drought and salt air and thyey have a tendency to grow sideways which makes them excellent shade trees but they shed horribly and are thus not advised for home gardeners as the clean up will be extensive and continuous as long as they are in bloom.

 But they are lovely to look at.

 And even when deflowered they have a bushy green quality I find quite attractive:

 Shots  from a round town: