Brambles English Tea Room

 Cups and mugs with English connections are in the window.

Walking the Dog

 

Two friends walking a dog across a wooden bridge in Baker Park.

Christmas Cow and Flamingo

 My favorite ice cream place in SWFL is Royal Scoop.

They have dressed up a cow and a flamingo for the Christmas season.  The cow has an ear tag identifying her as Anita Milkshake.

Tomaso Albertini

 This year's resident artist at Naples Art is Tomaso Albertini, a young Italian-born artist who usually works out of New York City. 

According to his website:  These works are a series of portraits that transform the human being into a new eco-human entity.  Figures of a modern hero who represent those people who care for and struggle daily to preserve the environment.

His portraits use cardboard, a symbol of consumerist New York, to create three-dimensional art.  He accomplishes a figure as if it were a sculpture and then paints on it as if it were a canvas. This unique technique introduces dynamics approaching sculpture.

Vasarely

 Naples Art's current show exhibits many works by the Hungarian-French artist Victor Vasarely, who is known today as a founder of the Op Art movement.  Vasarely had a strong interest in science before shifting to graphic arts.

This wall displayed the kind of works I have identified with Vasarely.

This work on a flat surface feels like it has three dimensions, as do many of his works.

A video of Vasarely talking about his works was shown.  

He spoke in French without subtitles and I don't speak French.

Baker Senior Center

 A big, new building for Naples' senior center opened a year ago.  

I recently attended an event at the senior center and got a tour.

It is very impressive.

The name on the senior center is "Baker," because of a leadership gift from Jay and Patty Baker, generous local philanthropists who have supported Naples nonprofits like the hospital, a museum, a park and now this senior center. 

Mooring Park Communities

 Naples has a big population of  affluent, aging retirees.  Moorings Park Communities operates three campuses of "life plan communities" -- previously called continuing care retirement communities.  They are proudly luxurious.  The newest, Moorings Park Grande Lake, is still under construction.

I recently attended a lecture at Moorings Park Grande Lake and took a photograph down one side of the property.  There is a similar number of units under construction out of the photograph on the left side.  I won't mention how expensive each unit is, but Google will give you the answer.