Dress

In the window of a women's clothing store in Bonita Springs.

 

Is this what women are wearing these days?  I don't get out much.

Love Stories -- Paintings

The 100 loaned portraits in the "Love Stories" exhibition all involve love in one form or another.

This beautifully painted 2001 painting by Andrew Tift shows Neil Kinnock and Glenys Kinnock at home.  The Kinnocks were both in leadership positions in the British Labour Party.  The artist stated that he hoped the portrait would resemble a celebrity-style spread from a glossy magazine, giving a sense of an intimate glimpse into the couple's private lives.

Lord Byron's portrait by Thomas Phillips was near one of Byron's lover, Lady Caroline Lamb.  After Byron and Lamb broke up, she characterized Byron as 'mad, bad and dangerous to know.'

An 1858 oil painting of Robert Browning, by Michele Gordigiani was a few steps away from one of his poet wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Love Stories -- Photographs

 Baker Museum at Artis Naples has an exhibit from London's National Portrait Gallery.

The portraits all illustrate "love" in its many forms.

"The wedding of Ringo Starr and Barbara Bach, 27 April 1981," a photograph by Terry O'Neill.

Three different images of Audrey Hepburn.

A museum guest studies the description of a photograph of British model Jean Shrimpton

 by photographer  (and her lover) David Bailey.  Shrimpton helped to launch the miniskirt.

Guests listen to a tour guide.

Scot

 I was showing Scot how iPhone's "Portrait" mode works.

Historic Punta Gorda Army Air Field

Back to Punta Gorda for another mural.

This is a 2021 mural "HISTORIC PUNTA GORDA ARMY AIR FIELD" by Keith Goodson.

Linked to Monday Mural.

LOVE YOU

 At a small local shop in Bonita Springs.

For Sale!

 A sign in the window:  $14,500.

I think there will be a long wait.

The Mother Load

 Sometime I have to go inside here.

Welcome to the World

 Two chicks in the osprey nest.

They Gotta Eat

 And sometimes they want to show off their prowess.

Habitat for Humanity

I spent some time Friday morning volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity site with a group from Greater Naples Leadership.  This development will have 120 townhouse homes by next year.  50 are completed so far and 60 are under construction.  

Habitat for Humanity of Naples is one of the four oldest in the country, celebrating 45 years this year.  Out of 1,000 Habitat chapters, it has been the top producing chapter the last two years, building 90 - 100 homes a year and more than 2300 since it started.

I was a caulker like this man.  Getting down is easy.  Getting up again on 76 year old knees is not.

The Naples Habitat chapter has shifted to townhouses from single family homes in order to make the best use of expensive land in Collier County.  The Naples chapter has a $27 million annual budget with $13 million coming from philanthropy.  The balance is from homeowners paying back their mortgages.

Affordable workforce housing is a huge need in Southwest Florida.  22 families apply for every family that can be chosen.

First City Council

Punta Gorda is a waterfront city on the Gulf of Mexico between Fort Myers and Sarasota.  It was incorporated in 1887.  Punta Gorda is a city of murals.  This one is at the City Hall Annex.  The mural depicts the first members of the City Council and is taken from an old photograph.

 This mural was first painted in 2001 by Charles Peck.  After the wall suffered significant deterioration over the years, it was torn down and rebuilt.  Peck came back and repainted the mural in 2016.  

Linked to Monday Mural.

Chris

 Chris is a carpenter.  He is originally from Glasgow but moved around Scotland a lot, spending most of his time in the Central Highlands.

He is also a photographer.  He showed me some excellent images on his phone of the Naples Pier being battered in Hurricane Ian.

Birds Again

Great egret.

 

Snowy egret.

A juvenile pelican.

An anhinga and fish.

A line-up.  Mostly white ibises.

A bald eagle being pestered by crows.

Tricolored heron coming in for a landing.

Swallow-tailed kite.  A reverse snowbird that is away in the winter and back for spring.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

It's a great day to be Irish.

I took a DNA test and it came back 94 percent Irish or other British Isles.

Faces in the Crowd

 

The wearing of the green at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

St. Patrick's Day Parade

 The Naples St. Patrick's Parade is a big one.  Politicians.  School marching bands.  Retired police, fire, state troopers, etc. Bagpipers and fife and drum corps.

New York City firefighters' display for the 343 colleagues who lost their lives on 9/11/2001.

Retired Notre Dame Football Coach Lou Holtz was the grand marshal.