Some Recent Birds . . .

A cormorant.

A great blue heron.

A tricolored heron.

A snowy egret/

An osprey.

A roseate spoonbill.

Ave Maria Catholic Church

 Ave Maria is a new Catholic town that is way the heck out there, east of Naples and south of Immokalee.

Ave Maria was created 17 years ago.  The central town square is built around this Catholic church.

Cattle

There are still parts of Florida that are big cattle or horse pastures.

But, as housing developments stretch further and further out from the cities, I wonder how much longer.

Immokalee, Florida.

Four Men in Immokalee

Alcohol might have been involved.

'60's Party

I went to a '60's party last night.

Steve was a host.

Barbara

Lynn Gay

John

John Barbara Laura and Jerry

Mike Mike and Jack (a different Jack, not me)

Nancee Barbara and Sophia

David

 David is a friend and neighbor.  He is north of 90 years old, but plays golf once or twice a week.

David owned and operated several gift shops along the New Jersey shore before moving to Southwest Florida 20 years ago.  His wife and he are passionate lovers of classical music, from opera to symphonies to piano.

Nurses Call the Shots

 Ain't that the truth!

In the Bay

 

Just a quiet morning.

A Small Outdoor Art Show

 The biggest outdoor art shows around here don't begin until January.  But, there was a nice, small show in Cambier Park on Saturday.

I enjoyed seeing Glory again.  She has always painted waves nicely.  Now she is branching out a bit.

Because it was a small show, people seemed to take the time to talk with the artists.

Guild Hall

 I attended an opening at Naples Art for an exhibition of works from Guild Hall, a Long Island museum. Because it was crowded, I decided to include people in the galleries in the photos.

In this last image, the man is studying the label for Childe Hassam's  Little Old Cottage, Egypt Lane, East Hampton, 1917.  In his later years Hassam lived on Egypt Lane, perhaps in this cottage.  In 1931 Hassam presided over the opening of a gallery at Guild Hall honoring Thomas Moran.

I was talking with an artist friend, who told me that this gorgeous blue wall color is called Yves Klein Blue.  When this woman walked past in a blue top, I asked her to stand in the picture. Thank you!

Chuck Close has often returned to the same photographs to paint over and over again with different techniques. One photo of contemporary music composer Phillip Glass was included in Close's black and white series in 1969, redone with water colors in 1977, redone with stamp pad and fingerprints in 1978, and, finally, the 1982 version (on the right), rendered in gray handmade paper.

Veterans Day

 

Thank you for your service.

Collier County Library

 

And fountain.

Naples Zoo

 Some new buildings.

Kizzie Hall

Kizzie Hall is the stage for the main productions at Sugden Theater.

A main reason for the recently completed $22 million renovation of Sugden Theater was to add balcony seating to Kizzie Hall.  That added 110 seats in the balcony, leading to a total of 452 seats.

 The lead donors are a generous philanthropic couple who have funded many Naples arts projects.  At the Sugden they decided not to put their own names on it.  Kizzie is one of their dogs. 

Sugden Theater

 Sugden Theater on Naples' Fifth Avenue South is the home of a professional quality community theater.  The theater has 35 paid staff and 700 volunteers who gave 70,000 volunteer hours last year.  They just re-opened after a $22 million renovation.  

Cole, the production stage manager, led a tour. 

There are multiple performance spaces.  I think this is the one dedicated to student performances.

The tension wire ceilings let stagehands move safely above amidst the lighting.

 Mike leads the student theater, does set design and also acts.

They make most of the costumes in this shop.

Dana started in the costume shop as an intern four years ago.  He worked elsewhere for a while and just began working full-time at the Sugden Theater two weeks ago.

Locally Owned Shops

I need to show some of the old one-story, locally owned shops on Fifth Avenue South before someone buys them and knocks them down.  Personally, I like their character.

Most have been replaced by much bigger places like these.  Many old-timers in Naples call this the Miamification of Fifth Avenue South.  Indeed, many of the new buildings are handsome.  I just liked it better when there was more of a mix of new and old, big and small.

Hope

 

On election day in America, I am hoping.  But also dreading.