Camera Critters

 

This squirrel was taunting my cat and trying to figure out a way to get into my squirrel proof bird feeder the other day. He had to settle for the seeds that were dropped to the ground by a hungry group of goldfinches. To see more Camera Critters from around the world, please visit Camera Critters.

Weekend Reflections

 

A water monitoring station in a small lake behind the Tallahassee Mall. To see more beautiful reflections from around the world, please visit Weekend Reflections.

SkyWatch Friday

 

Blue skies and a tiny moon behind the bat house located near the Tallahassee Mall. You can get a better look at the moon by clicking on the picture to enlarge it. To see more beautiful skies from around the world, please visit SkyWatch Friday.

The Tallahassee Mall

 

I have always liked the logo and colors used by the Tallahassee Mall. This sign is located at their rear entrance. Every time I go in this mall, it seems like more stores have closed. I hope to see it start recovering one day, because this is the closest one to my house.

Watery Wednesday

 

Trees growing in the lake behind the Tallahassee Mall. The water is a little muddy because it has rained so much lately and this lake collects the runoff from several parking lots. To see more beautiful watery pictures, please visit Watery Wednesday.

Rock Wall

 

I took this picture in the parking lot of the Tallahassee Mall. At first I wasn't sure what it was or why it was there. Then I saw the yellow GOARMY.COM sign on the back. The United States Army recruiters are located in the mall.

Tree Trunk

 

Does that look like a face to you in the trunk of this old dead tree? I think it does. In fact, it reminds me a little bit of those scary trees in the forest next to the yellow brick road in the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz". It is located in Myers Park.

I was tagged.....

Don and Krise over at Olympia Daily Photo tagged me last weekend and I am just now getting around to posting my answers. It always takes me forever to think up good answers to these kinds of questions and sometimes I can't think of enough, so some of the categories don't have all of the 8 answers required.

8 TV shows I watch on occasion:
Modern Family
Brothers and Sisters
Medium
All My Children (I've been watching this one since it started and they just had their 40th anniversary)
Grey's Anatomy
Private Practice
House Hunters
18 Kids and Counting

8 favorite places to eat and drink:
The Red Elephant
Sonny's BBQ
Barnaby's Pizza
Firehouse Subs
Red Lobster
Crystal River Seafood
Masa
Olive Garden

8 things I look forward to:
Spending time with my grandkids
Weekends
Visiting my sister in Baltimore
Retirement in 2 years
My son's wedding in March
Paying off the mortgage on my house
Birdwatching
Blogging

8 things I love about winter:
No mosquitoes
No daylight savings time
Christmas
No unbearably hot temperatures outside
Snuggling with my grandkids
Hot chocolate

8 things on my wishlist:
Good health for me and my family
A trip to London
A trip to Paris
More grandkids
Win the lottery
A new camera
My grown children to just get along with each other
Peace on earth

8 things I am passionate about:
My kids and grandkids
Planning for my retirement
Birds
God
FSU football
Traveling
Photography
Life

8 things I have learned from the past:
Do not hold a grudge
Always be honest with people because they appreciate it most of the time
Don't try to change someone
You really can't take it with you
Don't wish your life away
Listening is better than talking
Time really does heal most wounds
Trust God

8 things I want/need:
More patience
Less worry
Less grass to mow
More grandkids
A long vacation

8 people I want to tag:
I just can't choose, so if anyone reading this is so inclined then be my guest!

Fire Truck

 

I saw this fire truck parked in the Publix Supermarket parking lot the other day and didn't think anything of it until I noticed that it said Plaistow Fire Dept across the top. I decided to take a picture and then went home and looked up Plaistow and found out it is a city in New Hampshire. I'm not sure what their fire truck was doing in Tallahassee, but I thought it was interesting enough for a post on my blog. You can read about Plaistow here.

SkyWatch Friday

 

The beautiful blue winter sky behind a statue of Christ located at Tallahassee Memory Gardens, a local cemetery. To see more gorgeous skies from around the world, please visit SkyWatch Friday.

Odd Fellows

 

The Odd Fellows Lodge is located north of Tallahassee. You can read more about this organization here.

Watery Wednesday

 

Lake Jackson near Tallahassee on a very cold, windy winter day. I took this picture last week when it was still cold here. Today we might see 70 degrees! To see more beautiful watery pictures, please visit Watery Wednesday.

Palm Reader

 

This palm reader was running a special the day I took this picture. Twenty dollars for any reading sounds like a bargain! I had to take this shot from my car so you will have to click on the picture to enlarge it and read the signs. I didn't think the palm reader would like it too much if I got any closer.

The Florida Bar

 

An impressive building sitting on a hill just down the road from the Florida Capitol building is the headquarters for the Florida Bar. Dedicated on October 8, 1966, it was patterned after the architecture of colonial Williamsburg. I have always liked this building because of its columns. The Florida Bar also maintains branch offices in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa.

Old Fort Park

 

Built near the end of the Civil War during the fall of 1864 as part of a plan to fortify and protect Tallahassee from attacks from the west by the Union Army, this old earthwork fort is located on a hilltop in the Myers Park area. It was originally connected to similar works by trenches and rifle pits. It was named Fort Houstoun because it was located on the Houstoun plantation with vast open fields which at that time surrounded the approaches to the state capitol building and the southeastern section of the city. These fields are now residential and commercial areas. The physical labor to build the fort was done by enslaved African Americans obtained from plantations across Northern Florida. Many of them briefly became Confederate soldiers when their enlistment into a regiment of state troops was authorized by General Samuel Jones following the Battle of Natural Bridge. This area is now known as Old Fort Park. For more information on this historic site, please go here.

Myers Park

 

The walking trails in Myers Park near downtown Tallahassee. You can see the bridges better if you click on the picture and enlarge it.

SkyWatch Friday

 

The beautiful winter sky in Tallahassee behind a tree in Myers Park. To see more beautiful skies from around the world, please visit SkyWatch Friday.

Oysters

 

I've never tried this place, but I love their sign! After posting this picture, I have now been told by a couple of commenters that the food here is great. I intend to try it. They also have a website and you can check it out here.

Watery Wednesday

 

Chapman Pond is located in the Myers Park neighborhood of Tallahassee. I took this picture on a cold morning and the geese were not very friendly. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see a great egret back there on the other side of the pond. To see more beautiful watery pictures from around the world, please visit Watery Wednesday.

Governor Martin House

 

While looking for the Hernando de Soto encampment site which I posted about yesterday, I discovered this historic house which I had never heard about before. John W. Martin was a three term mayor of the city of Jacksonville before being elected Florida's 24th governor in 1924. He was the first candidate to solicit the women's vote by including the phrase "The Ladies are Especially Invited" on the bottom of his campaign ads. He built this house, called "Apalachee", in the 1930's after he left office and lived in it until 1941 when he sold it and moved back to Jacksonville. He died in 1958.

de Soto Encampment

 

The 1539 Spanish expedition led by explorer Hernando de Soto spent its first winter in the tiny village of Anhaica, which for many years was thought to be located near Tallahassee. In 1987, it was confirmed by state archaeologist Calvin Jones’ chance discovery of 16th century Spanish artifacts at this site. He led a team of amateurs and professionals in an excavation which recovered more than 40,000 artifacts. The evidence included links of chain mail armor, copper coins, the iron tip of a crossbow bolt, Spanish olive jar shards, and glass trade beads. They also found the jaw bone of a pig. Pigs were not native to the New World and historical documents confirm that the expedition brought swine. These finds provided physical evidence of the 1539-40 winter encampment, the first confirmed de Soto site in North America. From this location, the de Soto expedition traveled northward and westward making the first European contact with many native societies. To read more about de Soto's history in Tallahassee go here.

Look Out

 

This low hanging tree has its own warning sign. This could be a dangerous situation in the dark or if you are just not paying attention.

Weekend Reflections--Lewis House

 

The B.C. Lewis House is located in the Park Avenue Historic District near downtown Tallahassee and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. It was constructed around 1845 and purchased in 1850 by Benjamin Cheever Lewis, a pharmacist who later founded the forerunner of Lewis State Bank, which was one of Tallahassee’s most important financial institutions for many years. With assistance from a City of Tallahasssee Historic Preservation Grant, the Lewis House was rehabilitated as offices and the corner lot remains as a permanent green space. Kathy over at Emptynester pointed out the reflections in the windows and suggested I make this a Weekend Reflections post, so I am doing just that! To see more beautiful reflections from around the world, please visit Weekend Reflections.

SkyWatch Friday

 

The beautiful blue winter sky in Tallahassee taken on New Year's Day. To see more beautiful skies from around the world, please visit SkyWatch Friday.

Abandoned

 

This equipment has been sitting in this vacant lot for months. I'm not sure when it was used last.

Watery Wednesday

 

This pond sits behind my daughter's house and is only visible in the winter when the leaves fall off the trees. I took this picture just as the sun was going down. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see reflections in the water. Please visit Watery Wednesday to see more beautiful watery pictures from around the world.