Truman Waterfront

Decades ago the Base Closure and Realignment Commission decreed 33 acres of land owned by the Navy were surplus and very kindly they offered to give it to the city. Great gift was it not. Yes well except that threw the city into a total head spin. What to do with a massive, relatively speaking, gift of land.

Time passed the answer to the vexing conundrum was to do nothing at all and I fell into the trap of really enjoying the land that was surplus to everybody's requirements. It was scruffy and unwanted and unused. I visited often and enjoyed the open space. 

Finally plans were made and actions were planned and I figured that was that, no more open space to be enjoyed as marinas and facilities and expansions and all sorts of projects sprang into the minds of the planners. 

When it became obvious there were severe restrictions on public-private partnership possibilities all the money making land grabbing schemes faded away. Once again the US Navy, and in an odd way Al Qaeda came to the rescue. Imagine that. 

The Navy told the city in no uncertain terms the Navy Basin which was not deeded to the city in the land transfer was and still is a critical cog in the defense of this nation. In an era of mindless terrorism of the worst sort as we have seen, the Navy was not going to allow pleasure boaters to drift in and out of a city marina in their private and personal waters. That cement arm in the picture below shows the western edge of the Navy Basin and in a sense of the continental United States.

At that point all the eager developers hoping to make some money on the back of the city's land faded away and the reality that there was no cash cow to be milked at public expense became obvious. And that is why we have a commercial free open space to enjoy today. No restaurant, no marina no sports complexes, just glorious open space managed by city employees.

 Just beyond the fence the homes built to populate Truman Annex loom over the grass.

 It's quite nice isn't it?

They have also put in a circuit of exercise stations including this mysterious apparatus that looks like a  1950s  French toilet. Put your feet in the holders and squat. Very weird.

 Actually you do twist motions according to the helpful signage:

Check out the handicap spot next to the bench. I liked that and never knew it was there when I was in a wheelchair. Which is probably just as well considering how far my wife would have to push me to get here.

 A fine place to contemplate and not a bad spot t take pictures:

Bahama Village

I had planned a ramble through the tiny streets and lanes of early morning Bahama Village in my ongoing effort to defy the appalling sticky heat and push myself to walk Rusty in places not recently visited. With my new to me Lumix Panasonic FZ1000 camera I have found low light photography is more flexible than with the FZ300 which I have safely stored against any possible problem with what is now my main camera.

The Douglass Gym above resplendent in green and the old shattered home on Emma Street below never grow stale in my eyes.

Rusty found a No Trespassing sign irresistible of course and I found the juxtaposition equally inviting. I wonder what he would think if he could read?

 Signage is of course abundant and always optimistically threatening at some level:

Astonishingly Roosevelt Sands is still alive. Key West has a habit of naming things for living people and no matter how worthy they may be it is a practice that still, after all these years, I find jarring. Roosevelt Sands Junior is the one in the middle in this photograph from the State Library:

And there it is:

Bahama Village surprises me sometimes with the casual use of land in a town where there never seems to be enough.

Rusty camouflaged among the graffiti where his head is in the bottom right corner barely discernible: 

And before the sun came up my dog led me back to my car, ending this portion of the walk and demanding new horizons. Thanks Rusty.

Rusty And The Dawn

It was after a night off  that I woke up near 5:30 and we left the house immediately. 

 Dawn was creeping up the sky as I finished the twenty minute drive to my spot in the mangroves.

 We were so alone on the road there were no birds even, probably beaten down by the heat.

So I turned to still life to amuse myself while Himself rooted around .

 It was so hot humid and still the puddles of rainwater and high tide looked like the cliche mirror.

 I enjoyed looking at the world upside down.

 And at least one splash of color:

 Most of this is reflection:

 Then there was Rusty, a  mysterious shadow in the dark at the side of the road.

 He was hot too.

 A dark shade slipping along silently.

 The sun started to appear. 

 He was done and trotted round the corner to the car, ahead of me:

He stays at my side pacing me, helping me get back the use of my legs, testing me and encouraging me to keep walking, putting one stiff leg in front of the other. Then he stops and sits and looks back at me to get me going again. Just him and me in the silence of the early morning.

He forces me to walk and after all those weeks in bed unable to move its only by dint of his persuasion and encouragement constantly at my side that I've got my legs back. That and even more time in the gym later in the day.