Sarasota Visit/Ringling Complex

Last week, Russel and I spent a few days in Sarasota visiting with our friends Misty and Bob who are in FL for a month from St. Louis.  They picked almost perfect weather for their stay.  While Russel worked and Bob nursed his foot and kept Doxie Greta company, Misty and I drove into town to the John and Mable Ringling Museum to tour the grounds, art museum, circus museum, miniature museum and the Ca’D’Zan, Venetian for House of John.  There was a lot of ground to cover on a cool, cloudy day (one of few cloudy days they’ve had in weeks), but the museum complex has volunteers that drive trams all over all the time.  Saved my life and miles of walking.

The Venetian Gothic Ca’D’Zan was designed and built by the Ringlings in the mid-1920’s as their winter home right next to Sarasota Bay.  Mable wanted a place that reminded her of Venice, so there are lots of gardens and tiles and fanciful architectural features, including a belvedere on top of the house.  I’ll try to group the pics in albums that make some sense, starting with these pics of the exterior.

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The interior was just as elaborate, if not more so.  Here’s the formal dining room set for an “intimate” dinner for eight, breakfast room and guest room.

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Here’s the main parlor view up to balcony and chandelier, Mable’s dressing room, skylight and view down to main parlor from balcony.

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These are all of John’s bedroom, including his gold clock, marble tub, dual beds (they were a set, so he kept them both, even though Mable had her own bedroom) and Misty.

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Here’s the two stoves in the kitchen.

Here are pics of the grounds, including banyan trees gifted to the Ringlings by Thomas Edison from his estate in Ft. Myers, together with statues of a bull with a lady chained on it and Julius Caesar.

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Here’s the royal palm alee, the secret garden behind which the Ringlings are buried, Misty, the sculpture garden between wings of the art museum and a stone lady.

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Here’s a bronze cast of the original marble David in Florence, Italy.

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I think that’s enough for this post.  I have more pics from Sarasota, but this will take forever to upload as it is.

Thanks for stopping by. Comments always welcome.

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Thus Ends Saga of Agave

Several of you asked me how "your plant" is doing. It's not doing at all. The stalk fell over about a week ago, after leaning for a couple of weeks. I drove by and it had been morphed into a mutant artichoke or strange looking giant green pinecone. They cut all the leaves off. Sure looks funny next to the aloe vera plants. Click on the pic and see it close up. I don't know if it will ever come back from this "hair cut," but will let you know. Some of you have said an agave plant dies after it blooms. I'll let you know.



Thanks for caring.

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Agave Plant, Last Time

The agave plant down the block from our house has a bad case of the leans. The homeowners have propped it up with boards and tied it (on the back) to another tree to keep it from falling over.

If I move around to the other side to take pic, it almost looks straight!

I think this will be the last pic unless it does something spectacular. Flowers have done about as much as they're going to and the lower ones are kind of dying. At least it was interesting watching this most unusual plant. You can click on a pic to enlarge it for more detail.

Thanks for stopping by. Will have workshop pics in a couple days and stamp club next Monday.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Agave Update, Etc.

I've been busy making samples and make and take kits for a workshop next Sunday, but I can't share those with you until after workshop. Don't want to ruin surprise! Until then, here's some new pics of the Agave plant just down the street. The first one is from May 17th, it's starting to show more branches for the flowers.

This second pic is from May 21st, looking like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree on top. As you can tell from the sky, it's been really gloomy down here, with tons of rain. I've been by a couple times since this pic, but it's been pouring! Still no flowers, though.

Speaking of pouring, there's a Drainage Retention Area (DRA) on the street I take to get downtown, a mile or so from our house. Ever since Fay last summer, we've been in a drought and the DRA has been just a big open field, no water in it all. I'd look at it after we'd get rain, but nada. Then we had a low pressure system in the Gulf, sending rain bands over Florida for a week. Record rain for May. Lots of flooding on Atlantic Coast side around Daytona. Here in Ocala, starting last week, it rained almost a foot, off and on for days. The DRA started to fill up, a bit at a time. First, some puddles in the grass on the bottom. Then more grass than puddles, then more puddles than grass, then this! A couple feet deep. Room for a few more feet, but looks like rain will be more normal this week. Our lawn has greened up and the drought is officially over.

Thanks for stopping by!

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((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
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Agave Plant

Just down the road from my house is this huge agave plant. We've lived here almost 4 years and this year is the first time it did this! Looks like a giant asparagus spear! Took this picture on May 3.

The giant spear started putting out little feelers a couple days ago and I took this picture last night. Will definitely be keeping my eye on it. I looked up the plant in a reference book at library and it said "spiny green plant, sharp tips, blooms occasionally." Yeah, like every few years.

Thanks for stopping by.

(-: ¸.·´* .·´*¨¨)) -:¦:- ***
((¸¸.·´*~Kathy.·´*)****¨¨))
-:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)