The Timbers

 

The Timbers is a family favorite seafood restaurant on Sanibel, Florida.

"We serve it fresh… or we don’t serve it at all."  A good motto for 48 years.

My family first went to Timbers in the 1980s.

Last week we went over to Sanibel to visit a friend who has had a condo there since the 1990s.

The food was as good as always.  Including the dessert!

No Diving!

 My pool is too shallow to permit diving.

But belly flops are permitted.

And cannonballs.

And pencil dives.

And flips.

Easter Brunch

 

Easter brunch was amazing.  Shrimp and crab legs with a tasty dip.  Omelettes.  Salads.  Oysters and escargots.  A carving station with beef, ham and lamb.  Salmon. Vegetables.  And more.  Much more.

My eyes are bigger than my stomach.

And of course the desserts were delicious.  I might have had slices of carrot cake and cheese cake. 

I felt guilty for being so glutinous while others are struggling.  I went home and made substantial donations to two different food insecurity organizations.   

Mally Khorasantchi

 

German-born artist Mally Khorasantchi has lived in Florida for more than 30 years.  She produces large-scale paintings that are influenced by this region's flora and fauna, from mangrove roots to honeycombs to palm fronds.

Artis Naples has a first floor gallery in which the work of a local artist is displayed for a year.  

For 2026, Ms. Khorasantchi has been chosen to exhibit her works.

They are appealing and encourage a viewer to spend time looking at the details.  I photographed the exhibition during the day when Artis Naples was pretty empty.  A few days ago I attended a concert (with the fabulous violinist Joshua Bell the featured soloist) and this gallery was so packed I couldn't get in.

Golf

I play golf five or six times per season (November through April).  I played recently.

 The plantings near the putting practice green are pretty.

As are the plantings near the first tee.

The clouds above the fourth hole were great.  (I only play nine holes these days.)

I carry my camera with me, just in case.  A gopher tortoise crossed the seventh fairway.

Osprey Family

 I do a lot of wildlife photography in Naples.  My community is an Audubon Certified Sanctuary, so we have lots of birds, alligators, gopher tortoises and other animals.

I have been watching an osprey nest.  I saw one chick about two weeks ago, and a second one maybe one week ago.  I have been hoping to get Mama, Papa and the two chicks in a single frame.

Yesterday was the day.  Mama and her two chicks were chirping loudly and hungrily.  Papa returned to the nest with lunch.  Got it!

Chihuly

Artis Naples and its art museum, Baker Museum, have four exquisite examples of glass works by Dale Chihuly and his studio.  I have shown some separately in the past.  Here they are in one post. 

The newest Chihuly installation is Red Reeds.  The 145 reed-like glass forms were installed in the Norris Garden outside Baker Museum, against the concert hall of Artis Naples, as part of an exhibition from the Chihuly studio in 2020-2021.  After the exhibition closed, noted Naples philanthropists Jay and Patty Baker collaborated with their friends Jeannette and Herbert Evert to buy the installation and donate it.

The ceiling of a third floor, 51 foot long, hallway between two galleries shows 1,028 brightly colored Chihuly blown glass works called Persians, lighted and above glass.   Persian Seaform Ceiling was installed in 2000.  Like so many other works here, they were bought and donated by Jay and Patty Baker.

Blue icicle is a three-story, thousand pound, 35 foot long Chihuly chandelier consisting of 377 blown glass pieces hung in the center of Baker Museum.  

Finally Chihuly's 19-1/2 foot tall, 2,000 pound, red chandelier hangs across the courtyard in a gallery off the lobby of Hayes Hall in Artis Naples.