A Mother's Day Gift.....Part 2

This week we celebrate the birth of our four baby wrens!   They appeared with no fanfare (not even a cheep!), so if we hadn't been anxiously awaiting the event and checking every day, we never would have known, except for the continuous trek of the parents on and off the porch to obtain food for the new arrivals!   They glide right under the door to the porch (due to a sizeable gap), with their tiny beaks displaying the 'catch' of the moment, another unwanted intruder to our pool area.   Since the pool is right outside the porch door they are using, we can watch their incessant journeys as we relax poolside.  We worried that they would be frightened by our daily presence, but they seem not to even notice us now, hopping right past us from the feeding ground among the lillies to the open mouths of their offspring!  Such a surprise and honor that the pair has chosen OUR porch as a safe haven for their little family!  We believe that they must know instinctively that we are their friends and trust us to protect them in their reproductive enterprise, the most important known to the animal (and plant) worlds!  Summer certainly has its rewards!

Florida Preservation and Historic Sites---the journey begins

How the National Register chooses its sites...

Go to www.nps.gov/nr to check for the National Register sites in your area or an area of interest in the United States.  Here you will find the complete information on applying for inclusion in the Register for your home or building.

An unexpected find....

One thing that makes our journey so memorable is the many unexpected 'finds' along the way....this old building was added to a North Florida National Register site for its preservation and as a point of interest---so few of these relics from the past exist that they must be restored and maintained so that future generations can see how our forefathers lived and the buildings they constructed for their living and livelihoods....

A Mother's Day Gift...Part 1

This aside documents another interest of mine, environmental protection and natural science..... The most astonishing event has occurred this past month right on my back porch!   First sightings were in early April when a pair of wrens (a friend tells me they are likely wrens because they are not afraid of people)---small brown birds who swooped with the greatest of ease through a gap at the bottom of the patio door---decided that they loved my Christmas cactus!  Even after it was removed for several days to distract them to a more suitable location for their nest, they reappeared a few days later and took up their journeys back and forth with bits of grass and moss and soon had re-constructed the nest we had removed!  It is the most beautifully crafted home---just the right size for the mother wren and her recently-appearing 4 white eggs with burnt-orange specks that exactly match the color of the brick on my house!   We take a peek every day or two to see how they're doing and anxiously await the birth!.....   To be continued..... 

Home in a Historic District

This home is an example of a building in a Historic District.   The National Register often designates an entire neighborhood, downtown district, business site or industrial area as a Historic District, which may contain many buildings or other objects within a specific area.   The area is often denoted as a geographic entity with boundaries listed as street names, highways or other points of reference.  This home lies in an old neighborhood and falls within the boundaries of several city streets.  Many older neighborhoods have escaped demolition due to historic designation and renewed interest in the area has led to many beneficial renovations---a boon to the city as a whole.

Florida's First Plantation

 The large plantation named for the Kingsley family located on a coastal island in NE Florida was originally developed in the late 1700's by an early settler with ties to George Washington.  The beautiful colonial plantation home faces a wetlands area and is surrounded by slaves' quarters.

Florida Preservation and Historic Sites---the journey begins

To tell this story, I have to go back several years to a conversation that I had with a friend (now my writing partner) in which we both lamented the fact that neither of us had the opportunity to use our advanced degrees in a useful and productive way....as a result of this conversation, my friend later proposed to me that we make use of our joint talents, hers in Historic Preservation and mine in English, education and writing, to create a new publication on National Register sites in Florida. We thus embarked on an exciting adventure---photographing and obtaining information on the Florida National Register sites....these included the Spanish fort in St. Augustine, the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, the winter homes of Edison, Ford and many US presidents, including the 'Little White House' in Key West and many other memorable sites. This is the story of how this wonderful adventure began....later posts will outline our journeys and the countless encounters along the way that made this journey so enjoyable!

Florida's Treasures on the National Register