Renaissance Faire

 

Just a bunch of portraits at Renaissance Faire.

I talked with Genesis for a while.  She is a hatmaker for performers at Renaissance Faires.  But, when a Faire is in Southwest Florida, she likes to spend time in the tent of a friend who shows a dozen or so eagles, falcons, and other big birds of prey, like the caracara below.

Mandala

Tibetan monks from the historic Gaden Shartse Monastery are touring the USA to showcase their culture and demonstrate their practices of meditation and paths to inner peace and compassion.  

They also demonstrate how they construct a sacred mandala from colored sand, and they raise funds to build more dormitory space for their monastery.

I watched them work on Thursday, after they had been working for four days.  Yesterday, to uphold the principle that all phenomena are transient, the monks were going to sweep up the mandala and place the sand in a nearby lake to purify the surrounding environment.

Panoz

 My friend Pat has long wanted a Panoz, a rare racing car manufactured in Atlanta.  He bought a 1998 Panoz at auction a few weeks ago.  It has only 8,000 miles.  Only 176 were made.

Pat tells me that his Panoz AIV (Aluminum Intensive Vehicle) roadster has a Ford drivetrain and lots of internal Ford parts, so in a way it is a unique, custom Ford Mustang.  It is a completely impractical vehicle.  Too low to get in easily.  Uncomfortable for a passenger.  But fun . . . for a while.

Surf

A boy practiced surfing at the edge of the Gulf of Mexico near the Naples Pier. 

Bonita Springs Elementary School

In Southwest Florida, a school built in 1921 is old enough to get on the National Register of Historic Places.   It is the only structure in Bonita Springs that has that historic designation.

But, the county's School Board thinks it is in bad shape and plans to tear it down.  Some members of he Bonita Springs City Council want to preserve it.  The school's fate will be decided in the coming months.

Sixth Street South

Pretty, isn't it?

Might Makes Right

 I watched an anhinga diving repeatedly.  

Eventually it surfaced and carried a good-sized fish ashore.

The anhinga started tossing the fish, lining it up to be swallowed.

Oh no!  A great blue heron caught wind that a fish had been landed.

The heron is much bigger and stronger.  It pushed the anhinga away and took over the meal.

Down the hatch.