It is really starting to cool down here now that the sun has gone down for the day. The weather guy is saying that it will be in the low 20's by morning. More than cool enough to freeze pretty much everything. So in preparation I took some time and drained the 3 tanks I have here on the trailer, the two grey water and one black water tank. I also turned off the water and unhooked the hose and drained it. Also pumped the lines nearly dry and then turned both of my space heaters on to keep the inside warm enough to keep it unfrozen.
    I grabbed the truck this afternoon and took a drive over to Chiefland just because I was bored. In the back of my mind was the possibility of having the oil in the truck changed while there, but once I reached the Wally World where I have had it done before, the clerk there wasn't having a very good day, so I just passed on that idea. I try to never buy anything from unhappy people, it just seems like you shouldn't start out with bad karma on anything.
   So I turned around and made a big loop back through Ocala where I had some Chinese food for lunch before heading back to the trailer.
   I'm just going to finish this up before turning everything off and settling down to reading my book some more. So with that in mind; here are yet more pictures from last weeks dance on St Croix. Would sure like to have some of that warm weather right now.

St. Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015

Day trip to Botanical Gardens.

Like pretty much everything on the island the botanical gardens were once part of a large sugar cane plantation. As such there are still a few of the original buildings from that era still standing including this one which was once the head slave master, or 'Bomba', house.

There are a lot of plants and flowers there that I haven't seen anywhere else including this vine like plant growing up one of the old walls.

Moving back you see what the whole vibrant shrub or vine looks like.

A little red puff ball.

Throughout my life I have had split leaf philodendrons as house plants, and always felt proud when one would put out a new leaf or two. So it is a little disconcerting to see one that is semi wild growing more than 50 feet up into a tree and doing just fine with out me around to look after it.

Rima and her new braids. The lady who originally did them came back two days before we were to leave and redid them for her so that they would look good for her trip home.

An old anvil outside of what was once the blacksmith shop.

My sister Cheryl and her partner Mary.

A Kapok tree. These trees provide a light weight water resistant material that was once used to make life jackets before foam ones were invented. My experience with them was that they worked fine as long as the material was contained in a water tight bag, but as soon as the kapok got wet it no longer held you up, but actually got so heavy it wouldn't float any more. No what you really want in a life jacket.

This plant just looked neat.

Cheryl and Mary again. Looking pretty cute.

One more.

A pleasant little wooden bridge over a small stream or 'gut' as they called them on the island.

These ruins were once part of the rum factory on this plantation. The walls are made of coral blocks that were sawed out of formations along the coast. The blocks were, and still are, held together using a paste of crushed shells, (limestone), sand and molasses. Believe it or not is seems to work pretty well.

Another tropical flower I don't know the name of.

Another building there in the gardens. This one is interesting because a portion of it has a group of fruit bats that roost in one of the rooms. It really stinks in there.

The last photo for today... a very nice hibiscus flower.

brk*

   Clear and very cold here today. It was sunny for pretty much the whole day, but the wind began to blow this after noon and the news is reporting that by morning the temperature will be somewhere in the mid to lower 20's. Kind of a bummer if you are one of the table farmers around here with crops in the ground. It certainly isn't going to do the citrus growers any good either, as some of their trees are already starting to put out blossoms.
    For me though it just meant throwing a light jacket on while out and about, and it might mean that the floor heaters run a little bit more tonight, especially early tomorrow morning. This cold spell is suppose to stay in the area for the rest of tonight and on through tomorrow night, before starting a slow warm up on Friday. By Saturday the daytime temperature is suppose to be back in the 70's and by Sunday, back in the 80's. Yeah!
   My next contra dance weekend starts on Friday night. This is the one in Gainsville and it is called 'Dancing With the Gods', since it is put on by the Gainsville Old time Dance Society. This year the main band with be Great Bear Trio with both Beth Malaro and Dana Peterson doing the calling. I am really looking forward to doing some good dancing again, and hope my sinuses are up to it.
   In the meantime; if time permits I need to go get the oil in the truck serviced tomorrow. It has been a long time since that was done, and while it isn't even close to the maximum number of miles I could let it go, I want to go get it changed anyway. I think getting it change with less than 5,000 miles on it is one of the reasons it has lasted for more than 207,000 miles so far.
   Otherwise I will just continue to read books, watch movies and goof off. It's a hard life, but as they say, somebody has to do it.

St. Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015

The eastern part of St. Croix, which happens to be the most eastern part of the United States Territories, is quite arid as most of the moisture is captured in the mountains along the west coast of the island. Rima and I caught a ride one afternoon with some friends of ours and after having a very pleasant lunch with them we all went out in search of a nice snorkeling beach. Even though I hadn't even brought my swim suit let along snorkel gear.

We found a pleasant little beach tucked in among some volcanic outcroppings and they all swam while I hung out and read some of my book and watched the water.

My girl friend Rima. She certainly looks good in whatever she wears. Also, I won't tell you her age.... but it's a lot older than she looks.

Our friends on this outing, Bob and Cindy.

brk*

   Woke up to heavy rain this morning. It started sometime around 4:00 in the morning and continued, off and on, for the full day and on into this evening. A couple of good things; there isn't anything to shovel and it is remarkably warm outside, at least right now, and the trailer is also nearly water tight this time around, with only a couple water drops occurring inside, and most of them were in the shower. Of course that may mean it is still leaking heavily, but just not making it all the way inside right now. I really don't want to think about it at this point.
    Needless to say, with all of the rain it was a pretty quiet day around here. I read an awful lot and took a 2 hour nap this afternoon. Tonight I worked on more photos and watched a movie here in the trailer. Tonight it was '3 Days to Kill', one of those Guy Night Out movies that I didn't see when it was in the theatres. A decent movie based on the genre, but that doesn't really recommend it very highly. I really wish at times that they could at least come up with a plot that isn't full of at least a dozen holes. Oh well.
   Looks like a few more hours of reading to do this evening, but first there are more pictures from my trip last week.

St. Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015

One of my favorite places on the island is the restaurant next door to Sugar Beach. About the only meals, with a few exceptions, are the dinners that George provides for us every night. They are all wonderful and I enjoy them all while there. But there is a need to eat lunch while there, so it is easy to go next door to 'Breez' next door and spend an hour eating a decent meal and sipping down a couple glasses of ice tea. The view isn't bad either.

A part of the grounds at one of the resorts we stay at.

A closer view of the braids my girlfriend Rima had put in the first day we were on the island.

It's Cindy's birthday and her and the other 3 musketeer's were waiting for lunch. I took a picture of them all last year too. It turned out better than this one, but better than nothing I guess. Clockwise from the left front; Cindy, Karen, Brenda and Charlotte.   

Another calabash tree on the grounds of Sugar Beach.

A boy and his dad.

Two of our musicians practicing one of their new tunes. David on the left and Keith on the right.

Rima had a chance to practice some of her singing pieces while down there. Her accomplice is Matt.

brk*

   Finally a nice warm day here in mid Florida. Woke up to a sunny, somewhat humid day this morning, it just kept getting better as the day advanced until the temperature finally got up into the mid 70's. I enjoyed a slow and easy morning and then got going this afternoon. Odd as it might sound the first thing on my list was to go indoors and enjoy a recent movie selection. There were several to choose from in the 'Boy's Night Out at the Movies' genre, but the earliest one to play today turned out to be 'Kingsmen', so that is what I ended up seeing. Mostly a spoof on all spy movies, including James Bond and other like movies, it was still quite entertaining even if the plot was as 'dumb' as some of those filmed back in the early 70's.
   Once done there I headed over to my favorite Mexican restaurant for some late lunch. On todays menu was what has become one of my all time favorites, a huge burrito made up of beef cheek meat, beans, rice and potato. After trying all of the different types, this one, as well as the one featuring goat meat, are my favorites, but all of them are really quite good.   
   I had hoped to get my trailer hitch into a welding shop this afternoon, but had forgotten that it was a holiday today. Something I tend to forget since retiring so many years ago. So I will try to see about getting it into the place tomorrow if they think they can fix it.
    So I went over to the grocery store instead and picked up some fresh fruit, bananas and pears, as well as a whole roasted chicken for dinner later on. Just finished that up.... it was yummy, and now need to finish up some paperwork before reading a new 'chicken' magazine I found. Here are some more photo's from last weeks contra dance week on St Croix.

St Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015

Part of the grounds at Colony Cove Resort where we were staying. George has 3 different condo resorts, right next to each other, that he has us all stay in.

This is the swimming pool for Colony Cove. Each of the resorts has one and I may of actually swam in one or two of them over the years. But mainly I like to swim in the ocean right over there just beyond the palm trees.

Looking up at the coconuts on one of the palm trees. The resort actually has guys that cut them down as they ripen so that they don't fall on your head at some time.

Over at Sugar Beach you have the remains of what was once a Dutch windmill. There were many of these on the island when it was being used to raise sugar cane, and all of them were used to power a sugar cane crusher to extract the cane syrup out of the sugar cane. The syrup was then boiled down until it thickened into a really dark brown sugar or molasses. The molasses was then used to make rum, the true money of the islands.

This is the fruiting stem on what I know as a 'Christmas Palm Tree'. Once the blossoms have come out and been pollinated they form into small round green fruits that then turn bight red as they ripen, there by giving them their everyday name.

Every year I try to capture the feeling of these two palms outside the Sugar Beach Office building... and every year I fail. But even this photo shows how beautiful they both are.

A quick trip into the town of Christiansburg one morning to meet up with my girlfriend Rima, my sister Cheryl and her partner Mary, as they came in from a morning of snorkeling off of Buck Island. This just shows some of the boats anchored in the harbor there.

That's the 3 amigos back from their snorkeling trip. Rima had gotten some of her hair braided by one of the local women the night before, and she was enjoying the new look and feel it gave her. I actually liked it too, though I hope she doesn't expect me to learn how to do that for her. I can't even do a regular braid yet.



Prowling the depths just off the dock in Christianstead are schools of large tarpon. Most are in the 3'-4' length, but I imagine there are a few 5 footers in there. Many of them are large enough that they even have their own remora fish that stick on them looking for scraps.

A closer view of my sweetie and her new look. I'm going to have to start calling her my Pirate-Viking women now..... if she doesn't mind that is.

Government House, the main office there on the island. It and a couple other nearby buildings including the fort, scale house, custom house and slave quarters and auction yard are still around and being used for various government functions.

I love chickens for some reason, I just love to watch them as they go about their chicken ways. On St. Croix many of them are semi wild in that they go where they want to and don't seem to be fed or locked up at night. There is a good flock over on the fort grounds and when Rima and I sat down about 10 of them came over to see if we had anything good to eat. This one, the rooster, really liked to strut around all the 'ladies'. I think of him as a true 'Cock of the walk'.

One last view.

brk*

   A pretty nice day outside today, even though it has remained colder than I would care for. It did finally warm up this afternoon to an almost balmy 57 degrees. With a sunny sky and no wind it felt warm enough to be out and about for a while. Just a nice walk into town and back again, it was nice and uneventful.
   So other than that it has been pretty quiet here. I spent most of the day reading my book, putting stuff away and working on photo's from St Croix. I'm now on my 19th Martha Grimes novel in the Richard Jury series. This is the only one that I haven't read before, so it is exciting to think that I don't know what the end of this one is going to be. I have read all the other ones 2 or 3 times before, but still find them good enough of a read that I imagine there will be at least one more reading of them sometime in the future.
   It is suppose to start warming up tomorrow and on Tuesday. I hope to be out and running around a bit more now that the new week will be starting. On my list is finding someone who can weld a piece of my trailer hitch back together again. It isn't absolutely necessary for me to safely tow the trailer, but it would be nice to have it fixed. There is also at least one new movie out there that I would like to go see, but that isn't real high on my list. More important is going and getting some fresh fruit and more English muffins for my breakfast.
    Here are a few more photo's from last weeks trip to St Croix. These are just some of the many flowers, trees and fruits that you can find on the island at some time during the year.

St Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015



This is a calabash tree on the grounds of Sugar Beach Resort where the contra dance was held. I find it interesting that the fruit grows right off the middle of a major branch. These gourds were used as bowls and other utensils in the past.

I have no idea what this fruit is or if it is edible or not. I just find it interesting to look at.

One of many pretty red flowering shrubs that grow on the island.

This is called 'Shooting Star Clerodendrum'.

Lot's and lots of pretty flowers that I have no names for.

Bougainvillea, this one is red. One trick question many people will ask is how many different colors this flower comes in.... usually while surrounded by many different colored specimens. But the question is a trick because there is only one color for the bougainvillea flower.... that is white. You can see it there in the bottom center of the photo. The different colors are actually the plants 'bracts', so it is very similar to the poinsettia plant in that respect.  

Another shot of a bougainvillea plant.

brk*