I made a total mess of the first attempt at gardening.
It is true that we have harvested a few modest tomatoes and our cilantro has grown strong and stout but that was because they were potted in full sunshine. Actually the tomatoes could have done better but they have at least produced something. The vegetable beds less so, before I moved them into full sunshine also:
I decided late last year that we should be growing vegetables as part of the not completely serious Dig For Victory revival spurred by the economic slump. There has of course been a determined move by some forward looking people to support local agriculture and diversity in plantings which gained momentum when petroleum prices skyrocketed to $147 a barrel last summer, in 2008. My idea was, in less visionary style, to get some practice growing stuff before it becomes absolutely necessary. With everyone skirting the notion that this recession might very well turn into a depression I figured it would be smart to spend a couple of hundred dollars on lumber and make some plywood and plank vegetable beds. So I did, and this is what they look like in their new full sun location:
The thing was I had no idea how much sun they should get and it turns out that in winter the sun moves way to the south, even here, and they weren't getting enough sun at all closer in to my house on stilts. The situation is exacerbated by my splendid trees that surround my home and the next result was small plants and seeds that sprouted okay but then withered as they tried fruitlessly to get sunshine....This, the fourth of my beds, I left in its shady place while I brace to select some of the plants to save and others to discard after much sunless effort on their part:
The business of moving these beds from their sunless location under the house was fairly hard labor. I shovelled the dirt into the wheelbarrow. Lack of sun also caused the dirt in the beds to stay rather more damp than I had planned and thus I think I was also over-watering them which didn't help. Anyway I shoveled the dirt into the wheel barrow and some trash cans and hauled the empty frames to their new locations. One started here in full shade:
And clearly it was too shady because the spinach and lettuce just went all spindly on me as they sought sunlight. I guess South Florida winter sun looks feeble to me, comparatively, but it is as strong as summer sun in northern latitudes...
My potted fruit trees, key lime, lemon, mango, avocado and pomegranate all seem to be benefiting from their move into full sunlight as well and the strawberries have finally produced a flower or two. And I hold high hopes for the pineapples as well enjoying some late evening rays alongside the pomegranate tree:
Now I'm going to have to regulate the watering a bit and make sure they get enough. Then I will have to see whether or not I might have to move the beds again (oof!) back under some partial shade under the full grown coconut trees for the summer. Perhaps, I hope faintly, full summer sun won't be excessive...? I need this time to experiment clearly because knowledge as the saying goes comes with experience...I did have a couple of small successes with jackfruit seeds which I got from a fruit that I bought at Fairchild gardens in Miami. I put the seeds in water and of five, two sprouted, and this one is the strongest of the two:
I have seen a couple of homes in the area with vegetable beds appearing, though not all are bursting with life as it were:
Though one up the street near my house is looking excellent, grown by a surer hand than mine:
An interesting by product of all this industry was when one of my neighbors stopped by to chat about my growing efforts. Interesting because I have noted that I live on the second most unfriendly street in the Lower Keys. Gardening, not motorcycling it turns out, is the great leveller.
To say Park Key is a wide spot in the Overseas Highway would be exaggerating. Park Key consists of two signs, one at Park Channel and the other at North Harris Channel which pretty much defines this tiny uninhabited Key. And there's another exaggeration, it's not totally uninhabited:
At the spot along the highway where I stopped to take a quick stroll I found numerous spiders building cobwebs. I have no idea, as usual, what they are called but they are little square buggers, very industrious, who look like they are built of armoured plating. Their webs shone in the sunlight which made them easy to duck and avoid, but they and a few birds are the only residents of the half mile long Park Key. The island is basically a causeway connecting the two arms of Sugarloaf Key but it does have one small sort-of-turn out, which county public works has done it's best to make totally unfriendly:
The thing is, every time I ride by here in the dark my peripheral vision flashes a reflection or two back at me and I get this anxious feeling like something white with the word "Sheriff" could be parked here; an anxiety inducing feeling as the speed limit on this section of highway is a soporific 45 miles per hour...so I figured perhaps I would stop thinking about it if I took a short walk and explored the mysterious little area:
Of which there isn't too much to explore, just a gravel path through the shrubbery to the water's edge...
...which on a bright sunny winter afternoon at 80 degrees (27C) looked quite lovely:
They are quite obsessed about not parking here for some reason, and it verges on mania in my opinion because about the only thing that could get out here to get parked would be a skinny bicycle and I can't think why they would be worrying about that. Perhaps they have surplus quantities of "No Parking" signs to distribute around the county. Or perhaps they are worried about some half wit actually trying to use the old and very distressed boat ramp here:
So I stood there feeling all illegal and everything, neither using the boat ramp nor dumping trash but simply admiring the views off towards the west and Sugarloaf Lodge:
Or the not entirely dissimilar view to the east which is where Sugarloaf Middle school sits invisible somewhere among these mangroves:
And off to the north, barely visible sat a houseboat. I've seen it there for months and on a day like this the lifestyle looked enviable:
The boat was so far away my telephoto lense was hard pressed to pick up the boat, and it's Jolly Roger snapping in the breeze:
Back on land busy people were busy torturing themselves alongside the traffic:
And I had a motorcycle to ride:
Yes I know the road is all straight but it is still a great ride and now when I flash by after work in the dark early morning hours, I will have a better idea of what that white reflection is in my peripheral vision. Unless it's a Deputy Sheriff, lurking. 
All these pictures were taken between 2:30 am and three am yesterday, in the early stages of a vicious winter cold front, at great personal risk. Temperatures were hovering around 59 degrees Fahrenheit (14C) and the wind was howling out of the north causing the skin to tingle and the eyes to water. I started out on the more or less northwest side of the island Trumbo Point known in the bad old days as the Toxic Triangle. It got that nickname thanks to the power plant outflow from the Steam plant which is now struggling to become luxury three million dollar condos. The fresh clean waters of the toxic triangle were fairly calm in the 35 mile per hour gusts of wind out of the north:
Heading towards Duval on streets swept clear of humans by the freezing winds I spotted one of Paula's preferred lunch spots, B.O.'s. She agrees with me its an expensive place to get a sandwich but she is not deterred from her occasional treat. I used to work across the street and the smell of grilling and frying fish from Buddy Owen's open air restaurant used to give me pangs. Not so in the dead of night when all is cold and quiet:
Simonton Beach is a favorite hang out in the middle of the night, when I want a quick fix of fresh salt air. The beach closes at 11 pm but a quick stop in the early morning hours allows one to enjoy the sand and the pier without the incessant horde of residentially challenged that cluster on the beach in daylight hours. With north winds blowing through the harbor there was some modest wave action:
The wind was howling round the corner of the Pier House causing my motorcycle to shiver,which was inconvenient as I was using it to prop up my gorilla pod and camera. It took six different exposures to get one that was somewhat focused:
The cold front whistled across the Keys Friday morning, bringing a mass of rolling black clouds with it. When I got up at noon Friday it was a warm day, sunny and humid with the promise of the front to come. West winds gave way to northwest winds and a sudden surge of raindrops splattered my house and the temperature dropped from 79 degrees (27C) to less than 70 (21C) in the space of twenty minutes. Then the rain stopped, but only after I rode into Key West all bundled up in waterproofs and grinning madly at the wind blown adventure. For those without shelter the cold is a fact of life that has to be endured:
At the Conch Train Depot on Front Street I found a party tray left out by an absent minded entertainer.It was cold enough the cheese and carrots did not appear to be decomposing:
A while back, January 14th, Doug C in Ohio (see my Web list) ran a picture of a car in a blizzard with a Mile Marker Zero bumper sticker showing through the snow: 
It was nearing the end of my lunch break so I took Fleming Street east out of downtown. The bars were closing early many of them, as Key West drinkers tend to be wussies when it comes to cold weather, and the sidewalks tend to get rolled up early. So I put the gorilla pod in the middle of Fleming Street, as one does, and avoiding cars turning off Duval took a quick exposure:
Then a quick turn onto Simonton Street with another turn outbound on Olivia and I passed a couple of proper Conch cottages before I realised I had to stop and photograph at least one. This one was all buttoned up against the cold:
And so, back to work.
Wills suggests the lane may have been named for George Carey an English sailor known for his preference for silk top hats, perhaps a pleasure derived from operating a haberdasher's downtown. There was also apparently a female Carey called Alicia who was known for her ice cream in the late 19th century. In any event Carey Lane is a well tended dead end close to the main entrance to the cemetery. The city has been busy tending to the curbs and sidewalks in this area, as evidenced at the entrance to the lane:
The homes on the half block are pretty and well maintained and made a quite delightful, albeit brief stroll on a windy winter afternoon:
Carey Lane enjoys fewer grumpy signs than other parts of the city, but I did find one:
It was a beautiful winter's afternoon in Key West. The sun had finally made an appearance after a gray start to the day with heavy clouds. The east wind had picked up and the trees were rustling and shaking. Temperatures were perfect with no humidity at all and as I strolled I looked in the window and saw the awful god of television sending messages to his entranced acolytes gathered in a dark room. Further up the street there was a dude sitting on his steps reading the paper and I couldn't resist making a comment about the foolishness of being indoors on such an evening. I think he considered me intrusive so I went back to minding my own business:
The irony for me lay in the fact that the TV home had a splendid porch with comfortable wicker chairs, while the paper reader was scrunched up on his steps, lacking as he did all outdoor amenity. And on the subject of "none of my business" I had to ponder the weirdness of importing Spanish Moss to Key West. This stuff is to be found in abundance north of Lake Okeechobee in the pine forests Up North but in the sub tropics, 60 miles north of the Tropic of Cancer it seems you need to tie it to the tree to make it look as though it has taken root, as it were:
It may just have been the day, the perfect weather, the fact that I continue to be gainfully employed in these difficult times, I don't know; but I really liked Carey Lane.
And that main thoroughfare called Margaret Street wasn't looking at all bad in the brilliant sunshine. There I was in shorts and short sleeves and people in Oklahoma are buried under an ice storm. Oklahoma is definitely not OK at the moment, no matter what their license plates say.