A Converted Church

North Salem is just across the New York state line from Ridgefield, Connecticut.

In the center of town there are three former churches that have been converted to residences.

This one is for sale.

A Historic Home from a Century Ago

Nope.  Built a little more than ten years ago.

Ridgefield, Connecticut

Happy Thanksgiving

What am I thankful for?  Many things, but two sweet, happy and
healthy granddaughters are near the very top of the list.

Hazel and her doll Ella dance to a song from "Frozen."

Willa can play with her castle for hours.

And a dance with the new music from Frozen 2.

Drown-proofing

Hazel is three months short of three years old.  Four afternoons a week she goes to a short class that emphasizes skills for young children to survive falling into the water.  She is very comfortable

 in the water, swimming under water, on her back, always with a big smile.

Happy Birthday, Susie

 

Yesterday was daughter Susie's birthday.  We will all be together starting today, both for a belated birthday and for Thanksgiving.  Birthdays at Susie's house always involve party hats.

Sequoia (left) and Lola always participate, too, as they did in this 2018 photo.

Quick Draw

On Saturday, 25 artists held a "Quick Draw" fund-raiser at the Naples Beach Hotel to help families through Legal Aid Service of Collier County.  Participating artists painted in the morning

 and at noon the works were auctioned off.

Ibis and Gators

One of the ibises at Everglades Wonder Gardens kept flapping his wings.

A half dozen bored alligators were in a cage at the Everglades Wonder Gardens.  I had to shoot through a chained link fence and was able to get three of them in focus.

Flamingo

A flamboyance of flamingos resides at Everglades Wonder Gardens.

There.  I got to write "flamboyance of flamingos" twice in one week.

Flamingos and Ibises

A small flamboyance of flamingos shares a little pond at the Everglades Wonder Garden 

with a big colony of ibises.

(I hardly ever get the chance to write "flamboyance of flamingos.")

Everglades Wonder Garden

Everglades Wonder Garden is a quaint, 83-year old roadside attraction.  It was operated until a few years ago by the founding family.  It is now owned by a nonprofit but with considerable support from the City of Bonita Springs.  Some photos of the denizens in the coming days.

Time for a New Roof

First the old one has to come off.

Arthrex

Arthrex is a dazzlingly successful private company that designs and produces medical devices, primarily for orthopedics.  Its global headquarters is in North Naples.  Its campus seems to have a permanent fleet of cranes constructing one building after another.

Arthrex pioneered the field of arthroscopy and develops more than 1,000 innovative products and procedures each year.  It has 4,750 employees globally, with about 3,000 in southwest Florida.

Barbara

Barbara's salt-and-pepper hair and gray-and-black top caught my attention.

Her career included time with a ready-to-wear clothing line, managing a clothing store,

doing the in-store displays for a furniture store, and staging houses for sale.

Ohio-born, Barbara has lived in many places, from Baltimore to Boston

to Tampa and now, for the last year, Naples.

Naples Bay

There are impressive boats wherever you look.  Ka-ching.

They say the two best days in the life of boaters are when they buy a boat and when the sell it.

Holocaust Museum

The Holocaust Museum in Naples moved into bigger quarters last week.

In the lobby, a wall-sized photomosaic of Anne Frank meets visitors.

It is made from 2,304 small individual images of the Holocaust.  The artist is Robert Silvers.

Coming closer, one sees an eye take form.

Even closer one can study the constituent, often disturbing images.

Fire Station No. 1

The City of Naples' newest fire station, emergency response center and fire department administration headquarters opened six months ago in downtown Naples, next to City Hall.
It was designed to withstand hurricanes.

Great White Egret and Roseate Spoonbill

Two handsome specimens foraged in a marsh beside the golf course.

I need to adjust my camera settings to get more feather detail.

Candy Stripes

Candy stripes at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday on the 16th fairway.

Swamp Buggy Races

How can I say I live in southwest Florida without going to the Swamp Buggy Races at

 Florida Sports Park at least once?  The Fall Classic was on Sunday.

  This is the 71st season.  There is a variety of swamp buggies, from modified Jeeps

 to big, professionally modified specialty vehicles.  

They race several laps around a track filled with a foot or two of water.  The Winter Classic is in January and the Spring Classic in March or April.

One tradition I missed is that the day's winner picks up the Swamp Buggy Queen and 

jumps with her into the water.  Guess I will have to return another time to see that.

Veterans Day

 

A monument in Naples' Cambier Park honors local soldiers who died in the

service of their country in 20th and 21st century wars.

A nearby monument honors those who served in the Vietnam War.

Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma blew through Naples on September 10, 2017 with 130 miles per hour winds.

The flag at Naples Sailing and Yacht Club took a battering throughout the day.  It was twisted into
 a knot and its colors were destroyed.  Today the flag has a position of honor in the club.

A Wood Stork

Just chilling in a marsh.

Tower Art Gallery

The Tower Art Gallery is a longstanding artist cooperative gallery on Sanibel Island.

Sometimes it is fun to run an unremarkable photograph through

the Waterlogue app to see how it looks as a watercolor.

Dolly's Produce Patch and Eatery

Dolly's is a simple but good lunch place.  Don't miss the pies.  I had pecan.