Sunken Gardens

Spring at Sunken Gardens

We spent a couple of hours at St. Petersburg's Sunken Gardens on Thursday. Beautiful, tropical and just a little shabby. The map isn't very useful, and plants could all use better identification. The kookaburras and parrots need better enclosures, and koi ponds seemed a little slimey.

This oasis in the middle of the city that deserves a good board of directors, thoughtful fundraising, attention to infrastructure and beautiful outdoor spaces. Naming at least some of the animals (birds, turtle, tortoise) would create a sense of community ownership.

Loved watching an egret hunt in the jungly underbrush, but my favorite resident was the alligator snapping turtle. Didn't get a good picture, but he was fun to see in the minnow filled pond.

Sunken Gardens

Extraordinary: the feeling that we were in 1920s Cuba -- all those palms, banana and banyan trees, the feeling that snakes could fall out of the air or slither up from the, well, sunken gardens.

Coffee Making 101

I got distracted making coffee this morning and walked away from the pot to work on my photos. Sounds coming from the kitchen were a little odd but I'm unused to the pot and didn't pay much attention, until I heard a gurgling from the general direction of the coffee maker.

Oh oh. The pot was sitting on the counter and I guess it's not the kind of process that shuts itself off unless the pot is on the plate. The tiled floor was covered with grounds and a river of coffee flowed in the grout between the tiles. The counter and refrigerator were splattered with dirty brown liquid.

Marilyn helped me clean up the worst of the mess, but I still had to clean the coffeemaker, which was covered with gritty coffee. Lesson learned.