Everyone is at the Beach

This is the time of year when the kids and grandkids visit Naples.

Naples Beach is pretty crowded.  And colorful.

Ann Hamilton: Phora

The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at Florida SouthWestern College recently showed 120 images of mouths taken from carved medieval figures in a Stockholm museum.

"Phora" means "voices."

Great art?  Probably not, though the artist -- Ann Hamilton -- has won numerous honors and has exhibited at important museums.  Still, it caught the eye.  The literature for the exhibition 

indicated that it was supposed to stimulate conversations about public speaking.

Arturo

I first visited Arturo Samaniego more than two years ago.  I was impressed by his realistic paintings.  These days Arturo is experimenting with abstract paintings.

Here, he stands in front of two recent abstracts with a realistic painting in the background.

Naples Art Association

A juried show was held in the Naples Art Association's Von Liebig Art Center.

This ceramic figure by Diane Lublinski grabbed me.  Her father was a woodworker; she uses his woodworking tools to make impressions.  She incorporates her mother's jewelry.  

Stars remind her of her family.  Shells, fish and coral reflect the artist's own love of the ocean.

Marcus Zotter

Marcus is an interesting young artist.  His gallery -- RootsStudioNaples -- is in his girl friend's hair salon, four doors off Naples' main street.  He likes to paint his portraits with people around, often at a bar like 7th Avenue Social.  In February I showed Marcus' mural on a construction wall.

Koreshan

An odd religious cult lived in Estero, Florida, from 1894 to 1961, with its heyday in the first two decades.  Followers of Cyrus Teed believed that the earth existed on the INSIDE of a hollow sphere.  They also demanded celibacy, a sure way to assure that the cult would die out. 

The State received the Koreshan State Historic Site in 1961 as a gift from the last Koreshans. 

I visited the day before a quilt show.  The organizers spread quilts around one of the buildings.

Gulls and Sandpipers

Gulls and sandpipers have a kaffee klatsch of their own on Naples Beach.

Pelicans

Pilings along Naples Beach offer a fine venue for a brown pelican kaffee klatsch.

Osprey

This osprey spends a lot of time at the Naples Pier.

Someone has to clean up the bait and fish parts left behind.

Happenings at and around the Naples Pier

While on my way and at Naples Pier for the regatta shown yesterday, I saw some other things.

Dads like to toss their kids.  I miss those days.

Wearing American flag clothes sent Abbie Hoffman to jail in the 1970s.  No more.

Cosmo's tattoo shows a woman imprisoned in a skull with gears and a clock above.

It represents a former love trapped in his mind as time marches on.

Give a snowy egret an occasional shrimp and he is your friend forever.

Sailing Regatta at Naples Pier

There is a sailing regatta off the Naples Pier every year.

I don't know anything about sailing, so I will let the pictures do the talking.

Murals at Happehatchee

Don't let a wall go undecorated.  Fish swim on the wall of one Happehatchee utility building and
a "Save the Florida Panther" painting decorates a tool shed.

Please visit Monday Mural to see other murals.

Happehatchee

Happehatchee was once a girl scout camp.  It is now a place for meditation, yoga, and other spiritual renewal activities.  Or, as the website says, "a place for peace and healing,"  mainly for women

It has a charming home-made feeling.

Julie is the director.  She discovered Happehatchee as a student at
Florida Gulf Coast University and never left.

There are many pathways through a Florida environment that feels wild and untamed,
though Happehatchee is just a stone's toss from one of the busiest state roads.

The Peace Pavilion.

Eagles

A family of eagles nests on the North Fort Myers property of Dick Pritchett Real Estate.

For four and a half years, Pritchett has focused a webcam on the eagle nest during breeding season.

Harriet (mother) and M15 (father) mated and produced two eggs this year.  One hatched and produced E9.  Five days ago E9 fell out of its nest, an "accidental fledging."  He survived.

Yesterday I went up there, to see how they are all doing.

One of the parents sat in a dead tree not far from the nest.  

I can't tell the difference between Harriet and M15, but there is a key here.

After a while, the two adult eagles flew off and returned to the nest.  One waited here.

  E9 sat at the top of another dead tree.  After a while, he flew to the nest.

Here is the arrival.

Pritchett Real Estate deserves a lot of credit for maintaining their webcam.  As they say, the best place to see the eagles is back home in front of your computer, but I wanted to see them for myself.

Old Naples Cottages

Wandering around Old Naples, I photographed a few of the "Old Florida" style cottages.

If these cottages are original and not reproductions, they are usually from the 1920s,

 though they have been renovated and expanded extensively.

Croquet

Intense concentration.

St. Patrick's Day -- Faces in the Crowd

"Still Living With My Parents."  I LOVED his shirt.
His parents won't think it is as charming when he is 30 and still living with them.

I like taking casual photographs of people, but many who saw my camera posed.  Oh well . . .