Happy National Poetry Day! Swampy and Zuber dip into the wonderful poetic pool of Don Blandings. Blandings wrote rivers of poetry but is best known for his ‘Vagabond’s House’ collection of poetry. To the point that he’s often referred to as Vagabond. He’s also well known for ‘Floridays’, his collection of prose and illustrations he produced from his home, at the time, in Fort Pierce.
Here’s a bit of Blanding Florida poetry from Floridays:
Soul of the Land
If I should leave this land and not return,
The colors of its tropic dawns would burn
Behind my eyelids like an opal’s flames,
And I would hear the music of the names
That Indians gave to rivers, lakes and streams
Like tom-toms pulsing. Sometimes in my dreams
I’d seek a certain secret jungle place
Where orchids, tangled in the jungle lace,
Are like bright swirls of vivid butterflies.
I’d hear the tropic night alive with cries
Of birds and prowling creatures of the dark.
I’d see jeweled lizards racing on the bark
Of ancient trees gray-veiled with Spanish moss.
I’d see the sun reflecting golden gloss
Of citrus groves and sense the rich perfume
That scents the silver of the moons that loom
Above this savage land. A thousand scenes
Would crowd my memory-book … the living greens
Of forest and the changing blues of seas.
A tapestry of treasured memories.
One picture more than all, would seem to hold
This land’s great soul inframed in tawny gold,
A picture that will ever haunt my eyes . . .
Wrought-iron trees against vast stained-glass skies.
Swampy’s Florida Postcard Thursday: Fishing Pier, Fort Myers Beach, 1962.
Here’s a fishing pier along Fort Myers Beach. I believe it’s still there and that I’ve walked on it. Please let me know if it still is or not. This one area of the state I get to least.
The postcard was mailed May 25th, 1962, 5pm, Alice R. to Mr. Ernest Gabriel, First National Bank, Boston Massachusetts. Alice starts off with “Hi, Gabe” and goes on about being out on this pier, heading off to St. Petersburg and still having two weeks off.
This postcard is part of the Swampy’s Florida collection.
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#Florida #Ocean #Floridabeach #BEach #Beaches #Pier #FloridaPier #Postcard #FloridaPostcard #Collectibles
Swampy says Happy Pizza Month! October celebrates the rounded meal and Zuber is indulging in quite a bit of the doughy, cheesy, tomato pasted discs.
One of Swampy’s recommendations for pizza in Florida is up in Jacksonville. Al’s pizza has five locations across Duval County. The pizza is of a more gourmet flavor. They make a bacon, lettuce and tomato pizza that tastes just like a sandwich!
Click here to learn more about Al’s Pizza and to plan a stop at one of their locations.
Where are some of your favorite pizza places?
#PizzaMonth
September was finished and so has the end of Chicken Month!
Zuber’s egg has hatched and a chick is born!
Thank you all for the name suggestions!
Introducing Penney the chick!
Thank you, Julie Pointer of Julianne’s Coastal Cottage in Mount Dora for this name!
Penney would be named for Penney Farms in Clay County. Store magnate, J.C. Penney, wanted to start a community for retired ministers as his father was. The Florida economic cash of 1926 and ’28 created a speed bump to Penney’s dreams. The Penney dreams were eventually realized and today the retirement community welcomes all retired ministers and families and others of the church.