POTD - Memorial Day

POTD - Memorial Day

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I decided a few days ago that my photo for my 365 project was going to be a flag.  The wind was blowing the other day and all the flags I saw were blowing in a fantastic fashion, but in my 365 project the photos have to be taken each day.  If I wanted a flag photo on Monday, I had to take the picture on Monday.  As luck would have it, there was no wind and no waving flags for me.  A car dealer by my house, however, has had these flags on their light posts for months now.  They looked great with the sun behind them and with no wind.  This was the perfect flag for Memorial Day. 

Enjoy!
Kristin

The Sago Palm

The Sago Palm, scientific name is Cycas Revoluta.

Often in life things are called one thing and are really another.  The tomato for example is a fruit of the tomato plant but is considered a vegetable when used in cooking.  The Sago Palm is not a palm at all and yet that's what someone a long time ago called it and the name stuck because of its palm-like features.

The Sago Palm has a palm like trunk and palm-like fronds but it's actually a Cycad.

They appeared on the earth during the Paleozoic Era from 350 to 250 million years ago, before the flowering plants appeared. They were dominant plants in the Mesozoic Era and coexisted with dinosaurs. For this reason these plants are sometimes referred to as “living fossils”, and the Mesozoic Era is referred to as the “Age of Cycads”.  quote from SagoPalmTree.net

Now that we've got that out of the way...these are some very cool plants!

New fronds are very soft and pliable and each individual leaflet on the frond is tightly curled up.  A close-up of the leaflet curls was the photo of the day last week (POTD - Sago Palm). 

Here are some of those fronds slowly opening up.
The last part of the scientific name revoluta "...was given to this species because of the revolute (to curl back) nature of the leaflets; the edges roll under the leaflet." source

That's the part that got me hook, line and sinker into this whole investigation of the plant - those little curls.  I guess it was even a hook to the horticulturalists that named it.

At the Mayo Clinic there were three Sago Palms in a row all in different stages of development.  A male cone has formed after the new set of leaves has already opened.  The middle one is in the beginning stages of a new set of leaves and the closest one on the right has fully opened, brand new leaves that are still spring green and soft as can be. 

Here is the male cone that has come up from the center of the Sago Palm.  These plants need to be about 15 - 20 years old before they bloom and I am guessing that the male cone, seen here, is considered the bloom.

It looks like a giant brand new pine cone.  Guess that's why they are a relative to the pine tree. The little nubs open up as it matures and pretty soon will release pollen. (This is a different cone from the one above - I was able to get closer to this one.) 

The above photo of the female bloom is from Jungle Music Palms and Cycads.
 

The female Sago Palm has a totally different look to it when it blooms.  It's like a frilly cabbage with red seeds hidden inside.  In order for Sago Palms to propagate they need to have a male and a female plant t.  Insects can spread the pollen, but they are also easily pollinated with a little bit of human interaction.

Sago Palms are one of the most propagated and sold cycad in the world.  The life span of these plants  can be hundreds to thousands of years.  Can you imagine having a thousand year old plant in your yard?  Goodness, I had no idea.  The Sago Palm that we had at our previous home was a female.  At the time I had no idea that there was any other way for that plant to grow.

I hope you enjoyed the information about the Sago Palm.  I gleaned most of my information from these three sites.  Rhapis Gardens, Jungle Music Palms and Cycads and SagoPalmTree.net.  All of the photos are from my collection with the exception of the last photo with its credit below. 

Hope you have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Granny Pack

POTD - Granny Pack

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I had dinner the other night at the Safe Harbor Seafood Market and Restaurant. Across the street was the Safe Harbor Seafood sign with this boat smack dab in the middle. I had a big laugh when I realized that the boats name was Granny Pack. Those fishermen certainly do have a sense of humor.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Crape Myrtle

POTD - Crape Myrtle

©2011 Kristin Corlett

The gorgeous blooms of the crape myrtle are out in abundance these days.  I noticed that last year about this time my photo of the day was also this deep pink colored bloom.  I really like that in this cluster of flowers the green orbs of new flowers are seen as well as the stamens from the flowers that have lost their petals.   I was hoping to get more photos of this tree but it really started raining on me.  I didn't want to wish the rain away because we haven't had any in quite awhile, but I was kind of bummed.  I could have spent another 30 minutes with this tree.

Have a great day!
Kristin

It's an envelope!

I'm not sure anyone could have guessed that instead of cleaning up my messy computer room, I went in there and thought up a craft project that absolutely needed to be started right now!  That's just the way it happens in my life.  Clean my house or start a craft project.  It's a toss up.

Remember those swap items I sent awhile back?  I received mine but haven't done much if anything with them yet...but I've been itching to do something.  Anything!

I wanted to start sewing things together and possibly making a journal, like they do in the Remains of the Day class.  My inspiration came about because I had some photos that I wanted to take to a friend on Thursday morning. 

I was thinking that it might be a little less intimidating to start on a small project, like one envelope.  As it turned out, I'm really glad that I was able to start and finish in a few hours.  It was a wonderful feeling! Unlike cleaning the computer room - that is going to take a few days.  Maybe I'll do that next week. 

I used some of my own stuff like security envelopes, a dictionary page, a free printable from Indie Fixx - Free Art Project and a few other things.  The fabric, sheet music, U card and map were all from the swap. 

I only sewed the whole enveloped closed tight just once, but realized that it surely added more character to it.  Thankfully I hadn't put the photos inside yet!  Once I ripped all the thread out from the unintentional closure and sewed the ribbon on to help keep the envelope intentionally closed I was done.

I presented it to my friend and she was just as excited about the envelope as she was with the photos.  In fact, it went over so well that I may just make a few more.

After I clean up my computer room.
or not.

Have a wonderful Memorial Weekend.
Thank you to our troops for keeping us safe.

Kristin

POTD - Welcome Home

POTD - Welcome Home

©2011 Kristin Corlett

A friend of mine has been trying to close on a condo for the past SEVEN months! It has been a discouraging process, that's for sure. Finally this morning, they closed and are new homeowners!!!

I was such a sneak - I put a giant red flocked wrapping paper heart on their door. It was a total surprise to them. It was so great - they thought the previous homeowners put the heart up for them! Nope :) It was me!!

Friday Fragments

It's Friday Fragments Day!!

It's Friday Fragments Day!

It's Friday Fragments Day!  

It's Friday Fragments Day!

Welcome to Friday Fragments!  This is the place where we're able to put little snippets of fun or interesting things together without having to stretch that idea into an entire blog post.

Mrs. 4444 is our lovely host and I am so grateful for her continued hosting of this fun carnival.  For more Friday Fragment finds, please head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time.  Thanks!

A friend of mine has been trying to close on a condo for the past SEVEN months!  It has been a discouraging process, that's for sure.   Finally this morning, they closed and are new homeowners!!!

I was such a sneak - I convinced the lawn guys to open the gate to their condo community and I put this giant red flocked wrapping paper heart on their door.   It was a total surprise to them.  It was so great - they thought the previous homeowners put the heart up for them!  Nope :) 

My husband started his drive to Michigan yesterday.  He packed up and headed out about 9am and within an hour he had picked up a hitchhiker.  He said that this guy was a gray haired guy about his age, going North, looking for work.  My husband drove with him a few hundred miles, bought him lunch when they stopped and then when he dropped him off, he gave him a hundred dollar bill.  I'm actually not terribly surprised he did this - it's totally within his nature - but I'm totally surprised that he did this!  He hasn't picked up a hitchhiker in years, but he told me fairly recently about a Savannah homeless man he met.  The guy was huddled in a doorway on one of those freezing cold winter nights we had down South -  He said he woke the guy up and pressed a 20 into his palm and told him to get a room and warm up.      My husband is the orneriest-golden-hearted man I know.  Most of the time his ornery side is showing, but he'll surprise ya!  Yes he will.

The Oprah Winfrey Show is over.  Completely over.  It was on my list of things to do for probably 10 years to go to Chicago and be in her audience.  It must not have been too high on my priority list because I never made any plans to go.  But it's just really odd to think that I won't ever be able to sit in that audience.

I found this buffet sign on Failblog.org

My Dad is 67 years old and on Monday he was admitted into the hospital for the very first time in his life.  When I spoke to him a few days before his scheduled knee replacement surgery, he was really nervous.  I think we all would be to some degree, but since he'd never been in a hospital, I can imagine that it would be nerve wracking for him.  This was yet another time when I wish that I could blink and get somewhere.  I so wish I could have been with him.  Thankfully he has Sue, his girlfriend of a dozen years.  She was with him when he came out of surgery.  I'm so very grateful for that.  He also had a lot of visitors over the past three days.    He's home now.  The biggest complaint he had about the hospital?  The food.  He hated it.  He absolutely hated it.

My sister sent me the cutest picture of my niece, Scarlett.  I about melted.

I just created a new folder in my gmail. It's called LOVE. I am incredibly fortunate that every so often I receive notes of gratitude and sometimes notes of love from friends and internet friends, too. I have decided that I want to save them...sort of a rainy day emotional fund. I can draw from it whenever,  by just reading the messages.

My sister had a very good idea. She said "When I was working my "city" job I made a point of keeping a folder of emails of gratitude and compliments from anyone I worked with and for. The sole purpose was for leverage when it came to raises."

This is the original arrow photo.
I used the photobucket effects tools to edit the photos. 

 Hope you enjoyed my Friday Fragments.  Please visit Mrs. 4444 to see read more and to hang out with pretty awesome fraggers.

Have a great weekend!
Kristin

POTD - Reaching Out

POTD - Reaching Out

©2011 Kristin Corlett

The Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile Alabama (blogged here) had a lot of beautiful cemetery stones and statues.  I think that I could have wandered around there for a week and not see everything.  This little boy statue was not depicted as an angel with wings, as so many statues are, but I'm sure the family thought of the little boy that they lost as an angel in heaven.  It's beautiful, sad, heartbreaking and lovely all wrapped up in a carved stone statue.

Kristin

Field of flowers

What?

I know, you're wondering what in the world is this?

It's a field full of flowers.

Come.  Come with me.

Oh, well, the flowers are kind of small.  You have make sure you're paying attention.

There were even a few cactus hanging out in the field. 

I've seen all of these little weed flowers before, but in my trek through the field, I was astonished how many different varieties of flowers there were. 

I think I actually planted something like this when I had a house and a yard.  They are really pretty.  Wish I had a macro lens. I could have gotten much closer to all of these flowers.

The whole reason for treking through the field was to get a photo of this Chrysler sign.  It used to be out behind a Chrysler Jeep dealer, but that business closed a few years back.  Now the building has new inhabitants and I started to wonder if maybe this sign was going to be taken down.  I'd hate to miss an opportunity to take a picture of it, just because I kept thinking it would always be there. 

The flowers in the field was the unexpected surprise in what I thought was going to be a two shot adventure.

Hope you have a great day!
Kristin

POTD - Irish Cow

POTD - Irish Cow

©2009 Kristin Corlett

I was day dreaming about Ireland today and kept thinking about these cows that we met.  Tom and I went for a little walk to the pasture where the cows started to gather around us.  When we got to the fence not a single cow was within 100 yards of us.  By the time we left all the cows were gathered as close as possible to us.  We were like magnets to them.  Resistance was futile!  They had to come say hello.

Enjoy!
Kristin

POTD - Sago Palm

POTD - Sago Palm

©2011 Kristin Corlett

The new fronds of the Sago Palm are so soft and curly. When they become fully open they are sharp as can be! I love the tight little curls. They remind me of fiddleheads. I'll write up a whole blog post about these palms this week.

Enjoy!
Kristin

My To Do list

I was just looking at my To Do list that I wrote out last night.

It's funny the things that end up on a list. 

Have dealership vacuum Scion
Kashi cereal - damn it
electrical tape
shower curtain - 20% off coupon
snake for drain
bulb for track light
send box tops to sister
send out photos
To Do image source


The new car had 3500 miles on it, as I mentioned the other day, so we assumed that someone was driving it as their car for awhile.  When I drove the car home from the dealership I kept hearing this sliding and rolling sound coming from the back.  I thought maybe there was a gift box, first aid kit or something that was placed in the back that I didn't notice.  Yesterday when I went out, I pulled out of the garage and that rain stick sound was still there.  I pulled over and started investigating.

Nope, no little box in the back of the car.  I started looking in all of the little compartments and couldn't find anything.  Then I looked in the wheel well where the spare tire is located and there I found the source.  Hundreds of lime green plastic beads.   It was like a mini carnival ride for them in there!

I'm going to have the dealership vacuum those beads out.  I could do it, but I think the tire actually needs to come out in order to get to all of the beads and I don't want to mess with the tire.



Kashi.  I have been out of my Kashi cereal for two weeks.  I keep forgetting to go down the cereal aisle and it's really beginning to make me mad.  My mornings are best when I start off with my Kashi and yogurt a few times a week.

The power cord to my Kindle 2 fell apart. The plastic coating around the wires has literally fallen off.  With as much as I love my Kindle, I can hardly believe that the plastic coating is literally falling off the power cord.  I pulled the cord out of the plastic bag that I keep it in and noticed that there were bare spots all along the cord.  I immediately blamed the cat for chewing on it.  Then I noticed that there wasn't a kitty tooth mark anywhere, not even on the bag.  I Googled the issue and sure enough!  It's a common problem at about the two year mark.  Crazy!  I apologized to Mocha for blaming her.

The electrical tape on my list is to repair the cord.  My Kindle was completely out of juice and I need it tomorrow, so there was no time to get Amazon.com to send me a new cord before I needed it.  I think the cord looks nice in black, don't you?


The shower curtain, drain snake and light bulb are all for one of the rental condos.  I had a 20% coupon but it expired over a month ago and they still accepted it.  Cool :) 

I didn't get the box tops out to my sister, but I'll get the card written tonight and do that.


I have had a photography sale pending for months now.  I finally got the photos ordered, delivered, and matted.  Now they have officially been mailed!  The woman who ordered the photos finally asked me about them today, too.   Funny how that works out.  I was sort of hoping she had forgotten about them so that it would be a surprise when they arrived.  Oh well :)


I even managed to cook the chicken I've had for a few days and we ate dinner at home for the first time in a week.  I think I should probably fast tomorrow, I've eaten so much off my regular eating plan.  I'm kidding, but not really! haha  Today was a good eating day, so I've almost redeemed myself.

Hope you've gotten everything on your list accomplished or came darn close. 
Kristin

POTD - Mayo Clinic Windows

POTD - Mayo Clinic Windows

©2011 Kristin Corlett

I love the blue and white skies that are reflected in the windows where I park several times each week.   When I pull into that spot at Mayo Clinic I see these windows reflecting the skies, whatever they may be that day. I want the photo of the day to be interesting, but I also want it to be snippets of every day.  Our lives are filled with beauty and the beautifully mundane. I hope you see the beauty in a reflection, a falling leaf, a sardine can or a dishtowel tossed on the counter.

Enjoy!
Kristin

Photo edited with the BigHugeLabs frame maker.

POTD - Kissing a Rock

POTD - Kissing a Rock

©2011 Kristin Corlett

At a local strip mall this particular flower bed was overflowing with these pretty blue bushes called Royal Cape (Plumbago capensis).  These flowers bloom nearly all summer and well into autumn here in Florida.  This variety was one of the few plants that I managed to keep alive when we lived in the Daytona Beach area.  My favorite part of this photo is that this particular bundle of flowers were the only ones kissing the giant rock.

Muhaaa!
Kristin

Errand day

My husband has been in desperate need of new clothes. He also needed a pair of steel toed shoes to use while he is working. He's leaving on Wednesday and I was nervous that we weren't going to be able to get his shirts before he left. Saturday, being a busy shopping day, I was just sure he wouldn't go to the men's store to buy some clothes.

Low and behold he was surprisingly agreeable!

He needed a whole new wardrobe, but I managed to get him to buy 10 lovely shirts that were large enough to cover his belly.  His mother is going to be so happy to see him next week and not pull down his shirt when she says hi!

Then we got him a pair of shoes for working.  His precious toes will be spared from falling Monkey Bars when he's installing them.

Then, since we weren't ready to have lunch quite yet, my husband asked me if I would mind looking at a few more cars.  We looked at the 2011 Hyundai Santa Fe - in case we wanted to just trade my 2005 Santa Fe for a new one.  We looked at a really cute Hyundai Elantra Touring.

Hyundai Elantra Touring  Source

We didn't drive this car, but I was completely smitten!  I like the look, the feel, the dashboard, the front seats, the back seats, the storage, everything but how low to the ground it was.  I'm so used to riding up high in my SUV.  This car was absolutely on the very short list.  I liked this a lot.

Now, at this point in our car hunt, we had maybe changed the objective.  Last week we were thinking that we wanted to trade in my 94,000 mile Santa Fe and get a little smaller SUV that got better gas mileage than my current car.   We paid cash for the Santa Fe when we bought it, so I was a little nervous giving up a car that cost us only insurance, gas and maintenance for a car that was going to have to be financed.    Then my husband mentioned that maybe what we should do is get an even smaller car, not an SUV class car and keep mine.  He traded in his car and truck for a truck earlier in the year and driving his giant truck (14mpg) everywhere was getting to be expensive. 

The Elantra Touring car was a really good car for our third car, but we both thought we could probably find something a little less expensive.


Next stop, Coggin Toyota Scion.

RAV 4    source

I had read that the Toyota RAV-4 was one of the smaller SUV types and that might be a good choice if we wanted to trade in the Santa Fe.  After taking a test drive, it just didn't feel right for us.  I can't describe it, but it was totally wrong for us.  I did like the side opening back though.  That was very cool.


Then we spotted this blue Scion xD.

Let me just say - this was the first vehicle that was in a color that I wanted!

Not Grey
Not Silver
Not Black
Not Red
Not White

Blue!!!
It's Blue!!!

Source

We checked the price and the sticker was under 20K.  We turned on the A/C and stood outside chatting while the boiling heat inside the car cooled off to a reasonable melting temperature before we got in.  My husband drove it and I fiddled with all of the storage places, worked all of the pockets, put my water bottle in all of the cup holders.  After we stopped I sat in the front seat, the back seat and the driver seat. I adjusted the mirrors, played with the radio and turned on the dome lights.

The car had been on their car lot since Jan of 2010.  It was well over a year old.  It had 3500 miles on it and a pretty big ding and scratch on the back bumper.  They offered us a pretty great price and after some more haggling, we got it for an even better price.  They were more than willing to get a 2010 off their lot.

We now have another car payment, but I honestly think that we will save a lot of money on gas if we drive this car on our road trips and around town.

Rarely do I drive cars that have been purchased expressly for Tom.  Rarely do I ride in Tom's cars.  They just aren't comfortable to me.  I think this car is going to completely different.  I think it's going to be our car and I'm excited.

I also got to keep my Santa Fe.


If anything should ever happen, I have a completely paid off car.

That's what my husband and I can do in a day in Jacksonville, Fl.  Usually we don't shop that much - today was a very expensive day!! 

Hope you enjoyed Sunday in my City. 
For more city tours, please head on over to Unknown Mami.




Hope you have a great weekend!!
Kristin


Our sales person at Coggin Toyota Scion was really fabulous.
His name is William Wilson.
10564 Philips Hwy, Jacksonville, FL 32256
(877) 361-0861

POTD - Reflection in the Puddle

POTD - Reflection in the Puddle

©2011 Kristin Corlett

It almost looks like a piece of glass, but it's not.  It was a dirty puddle in a parking lot underneath a tree.  It was about 12:30pm, so the sun was right overhead and the clouds were moving at a pretty good pace.  There was a slight wind, so the surface of the water kept changing.  This was my favorite photo in this series because I got a bit of the dry pavement in the frame as well as the sun, tree and clouds.

Enjoy!
Kristin

The way of the bull

I kept noticing this motorcycle guy sitting on the patio of the restaurant where we had lunch yesterday.  He seemed like quite a character and I wondered if I could possibly get his picture before I left.  As our group finished lunch and moved ourselves to the parking lot, I saw the motorcycle.  I was sure that's what the guy came riding in on, he just had to!

I wonder if he actually wore this helmet or if it's permanently a part of the bike.

Then it happened.  I stepped in gum.  I had chickened out and decided not to ask the motorcycle guy for a photo, but just wanted to quickly get a pic of the helmet and run back to my car.    But the gum stopped me.  I was still standing there, next to his bike with my shoe in my hand when he sat down.

I slipped the shoe back on and asked, "May I take a picture of you on the bike?"  He said sure, but I had to get a picture of the back, too.

When I went to the back of the bike he hollers out, "Do you see the most important part of the bike?"
I said yes and started to laugh (Or more a childish giggle!) and then he said,

"A bull without balls is just a steak."

...and with that he rode off.

I made a note to make sure I told the story!

Boys!
Kristin

POTD - Fruity

POTD - Fruity

©2011 Kristin Corlett

Fruity Cheerios. I was exposed to these a few weeks ago and even though I don't eat cereal as a rule, I had to buy a box.   It was a really bad idea.  I ate them every single morning until they were gone.  Sometimes I even had a bowl at night.  I'm not going to buy another box of these until I have enough people here to eat a bowl with me so we empty the box!

Enjoy!
Kristin