Yellow and White

 

A very pretty house.  And I like the details on the gate.

Saint Michael

 

Saint Michael is a handsome Catholic church on Seagate, a street in Naples' Park Shore neighborhood.

I'm not Catholic, but I admire the architecture of well-designed churches, whether modern or classical.

And my favorite feature of Christian churches is stained glass.  Saint Michael has very fine stained glass.  Most of it is contemporary, but this more classical window is the one that I spent time admiring.

Too Big

 

An anhinga tried and it tried, but the fish was just too big for it.  

Eventually it dropped the fish and stared at it with regret.

Fountain

 

Collier County Library, Headquarters Branch.

Olga

 I recently got a new iPhone 13 Pro Max, which has improved camera functions, so I went to the Apple Store for a lesson.  Olga sat next to me.

Olga came to the United States with a two year old daughter 21 years ago.  

She is now a quite successful Naples realtor.

  When the lesson was over, she agreed to pose for me.

  There were no good backgrounds available in the Apple Store, so I photographed Olga using the camera's Portrait mode.  These three images are all the same, edited with the variations in Portrait mode that lets me blank out the background either to white or black.

Mel's Diner

 Mel's Diner is a handsome classical diner along US Route 41 in Bonita Springs.

I like it best at night after everyone has gone home.

This view is from the right side, near the rear.

And this is from halfway down the right side.

A couple of weeks ago a vehicle plowed through the building on the front left side, pushing in two windows, a wall, and shifting booths and tables.  It looks like there has been enough repair for the building to be used again, though the cosmetic work remains undone.

Vote!

 

This is a consequential election.  Don't fail to vote!

Naples Botanical Garden

 

A simple but colorful plot at Naples Botanical Garden.

Day of the Dead

Yesterday and today Naples Botanical Garden is hosting events celebrating "Day of the Dead" or "Día de Muertos," a Mexican holiday.  According to some cultures, on these days loved ones emerge from the afterlife to visit and reunite with their families on Earth. 

Alma (on the left) and her family celebrated many loved ones who are no longer physically present on Earth, but whose memories comfort the family members. 

Another family honored their departed just a bit further down the wall.

I don't have any Mexican or other Latin heritage, but on days like this, I wish I did.

Sofia was also at the Naples Botanical Garden, dressed for these special holidays.

The monthly theme for City Daily Photo participants on November 1 is "Happy."  Really?  On a day wrapped by Halloween on one side and Day of the Dead on the other?

I knew my odd habit of photographing license plates that amuse me would pay off sometime.

Click here to see other photographers' interpretations of "happy."

Halloween

 

Well, today is Halloween, but I haven't been out scouting for appropriate Halloween scenes to photograph.  Six years ago I was in Savannah on Halloween and saw four dinosaurs walking past. 

Ritz Carlton Beach Resort

 Ritz Carlton has two major properties in Naples.  Ritz Carlton Tiburon is a glamorous golf community that hosts both PGA Champions tournaments (for professional men 50 years and older) and the LPGA. 

 

This is the other one, the original Ritz Carlton, a beach resort that is a short distance from Gulf of Mexico beaches.  The beach resort just recently re-opened after a multi-year renovation that began in 2021.  

The renovation was originally planned to be completed in 2022, but the hotel took a direct hit from Hurricane Ian and remained closed much longer.

The Inn on Pelican Bay

 The Inn on Pelican Bay is at the southern edge of Pelican Bay, a 2,330 acre Naples community with about 6,500 residences.  Pelican Bay was developed in the early 1970s in a joint venture between Westinghouse and the Barron Collier companies.

 The Inn opened in 1993.  It is a 100 room, six story boutique hotel that is ranked by several ranking firms as the #1 hotel in Naples and the #1 hotel in Florida.  It is a short walk to the beaches.  Waterside Shops -- a high end shopping center -- is across the street.  Pickleball courts are next door.

Rembrandt at Naples Art Institute

Naples Art Institute is hosting Masterpieces in Black and White, an exhibition of etchings from the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam. 

 

Rembrandt began as a painter and added etching to his skills when he was 20.  He was largely self-taught as an etcher.  Many of his works are extremely small.

Naples Art provides magnifying glasses so visitors can see the details on these small etchings.  This is a 1636 etching called Self Portrait with Saskia.  Saskia was his wife and one of his favorite subjects.

It is amazing to me that Rembrandt had the ability to control his stylus so well when working on etchings this small.

Rembrandt etched, sketched and painted himself repeatedly.  This one is from 1642, the same year he delivered his masterpiece, The Night Watch, to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.  It is also the year that Saskia died.

This is one of Rembrandt's larger etchings, A Scholar in His Study, from 1652.

Pizza

Is this how you envision a pizza joint in Southwest Florida?

Fort Myers Beach

 

The 7-Eleven store in Fort Myers Beach has bold murals on two sides.  The murals were painted this in April 2026 by local artist Martha Cantu.

Linked to Monday Murals.

Town Hall

 

The Town Hall of Fort Myers Beach is colorful, with low value first floor intended to let flood waters from tropical storms flow through without damaging the high value operations up above.

Colorful

 

Up in Fort Myers Beach, builders are rushing to complete new buildings to replace structures destroyed four years ago by Hurricane Ian.  This builder seems to believe that pastel colors will help him sell them.

Before and After

Hickory Boulevard is a long road running along the Gulf of Mexico on a skinny peninsula in Bonita Springs on the way to Fort Myers Beach.  Hurricane Ian really slammed it in 2022.  Many properties were badly damaged or destroyed.  Yesterday I decided to see how it is doing now.

I was surprised to see that some of the small older buildings have been repaired, but even more have been replaced by tall new multi-story buildings.. 

All of the new buildings have garages or tear-away structures on the first floor, so when future hurricanes land, the raging ocean will pass through lower levels designed to take the hits.  Living areas are up above.

And, given the high cost of acquiring waterfront land, tearing down the old structures and building new ones strong enough to withstand hurricanes and comply with ever-tightening building codes, the new ones are much bigger and more expensive than the ones they replaced.

Halloween

 

It seems like the Halloween skeletons get bigger every year.

Fall Foliage

I left Connecticut for Florida before peak foliage.  My daughter tells me that this is the best year for fall color in Connecticut in a long time.  Pictures from Naples start tomorrow.

 

Scarecrows

 In Connecticut for just a few days before heading south.  

Ridgefield always has a scarecrow contest in October.  This year's contest was very good, as usual.

Ridgefield Pride sponsored a Dolly Parton scarecrow.

An electrical company had a good female electrician.

The Ridgefield Thrift Shop put a used tux on a scarecrow.

I don't know who did this one, but I like it.

A Cub Scout pack scored with this one.

The Statue of Liberty was an appropriate subject for the Chamber of Commerce.

Many of the Main Street merchants urge folks to Buy Local, and farmers want us to Pick Local.

The school at a local Methodist Church put together an excellent scarecrow.