Saturday, July 13, 2013

A Quiet Friday


After several days of running around, yesterday was blessedly quiet. My mom and I got up and took an early-morning walk, which is just about the only kind of walk you can comfortably take in Florida at this time of year. Then I made my way to my dad's house, where I'm staying with him and my stepmother for the remainder of my visit.

They've been working on remodeling an old Florida cracker house next door that they purchased and plan to use for guests. It's turned out really well, with restored hardwood floors and a pristine new bathroom and kitchen. We took a look at that, and I drove with them to South Tampa to pick up some reworked light fixtures that they had repaired at a specialty shop. This place is a family operation run by an older couple and their son (I believe), a talkative guy who clearly loves lighting. Isn't it funny what people become passionate about? One of the fixtures my dad and stepmother had repaired is a porch light with a sort of iridescent milk glass shade -- the repairman kept calling it "aurora borealis," and his mom called it "vaseline glass." Who knows what's correct, but we all agreed it's a great fixture and really adds to the restored house.

Otherwise I pretty much just read and wandered around the yard taking photos of skinks, fascinating-yet-disgusting lubber grasshoppers and other critters.

(Photo: A zebra longwing butterfly at my mom's house.)

8 comments:

Ms. Moon said...

Aren't skinks weird? Like snakes with legs.
I would LOVE to see pictures of the cracker house.

37paddington said...

I was going for pics of the restored house too. And isn't it divine to spend hours just reading and rambling around? Sounds like a stress free day.

ellen abbott said...

Cracker house?

Vaseline glass is a yellow green that seems like it would glow in the dark.

jo(e) said...

Ah, nice to have a quiet day. Love the photo.

Elizabeth said...

I prefer aurora borealis -- Vaseline glass sounds -- well -- like Vaseline.

Lynne said...

Beautiful butterfly, beautiful photo!

We have lots of skinks around our pool area because of the hot concrete. Bella likes to chase them, but alas, never catches them. A lizard chasing dog!

What are lubber grasshoppers??? Photo, please!

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous photo! I love quiet days with the freedom to do anything one wants. OK, I've never heard of a skink. What can I say, I'm from NJ and don't get out much...LOL I'll have to investigate this!

The Bug said...

What I'm getting from this is that you pretty much need to post a photo of each item you discuss in your post :)

It reminds me of the Daily Puppy website where the little blurb of the puppy talks about how she loves to play with her octopus, but then doesn't show us a picture of her playing with her octopus. Ha!

I don't feel that way about all your posts, but apparently Florida is this alien country to me...