I stayed home today because the cable repairman was due. My DVR has been acting up for two weeks and this is third scheduled visit.. Boxes have been swapped out, cable lines have been replaced and much pole climbing and testing has been done. Right now it is working but not sure if it will last.

My cable connection has been erratic in the past but today was only out for a few hours so I did spend much time here. Early morning it was with a cup of coffee with a switch to herbal tea for the rest of the day. This is my favorite mug. It has a drawing of a cat and a tiny mouse and reads "Chat et souris".. I have had this for years and it is a nice big comfortable cup so it is my photo for the day. I am still worn out from "Turkey Day" and beginning to want something more than leftovers.

Paris Countdown: 15 Days!!

This sits with some live oaks between my house and my neighbors. It's a quiet serene spot that seems to go with yesterday's prayer flags.

Paris Countdown: 16 Days!

Busy, busy day today.. Delicious meal with old friends and neighbors. Full of food, happy, content, and tired.. so my photo is of my old and tired prayer flags that are still waving in the breeze in my yard. Soon I'll need to replace them but for now I enjoy watching them the way they are.

Paris Countdown: 17 Days

One of the many colorful quilts hanging in the classroom at Queen Ann's Lace Quilt Store.
I am attracted to colorful quilts with black backgrounds. I think it's the contrast that I like.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it..

Paris Countdown: 18 Days

The Kissimmee Sculpture Experience has a new group of works on display.. This is in front of the Quilt shop. It is "Holding Fixture" by Bill Platt of Chuluota, Florida. Medium is Steel. Measures 24" X 36" and weighs 150 lbs.

I hope to get downtown this week to photograph more of these. I've noticed that there seem to be more color in this new batch.

Paris Countdown: 19 Days

This is another of the window displays at Disney's Polynesian Resorts. I liked his expression and colors.

Paris Countdown:20 days

This young lady is one of the delightful Disney window mannequins. I thought she was worth photographing. She was in the window with her entire family but for some reason I only captured her.. It must have been her exuberant expression.

Paris Countdown: 21 days

These are the strange looking seed pods on a plant that grows in my area. The flowers are large clusters of white and then develop into these ominous looking star pods. The plant is very invasive and sends down long tap roots that are difficult to remove. I researched it many years back and the closest plant I could find was belladonna. It didn't match exactly but may be a close relative. I cut it back and pull it out but it persistantly grows in any area that isn't mowed or kept clear.

Paris Countdown: 22 days

This should be the last of my red flowers. These are from two big bushes that are in my front yard. When I bought a plant about 20 years ago, the package said it was a miniature rose. It wasn't but it's turned out to be a delightful plant. Nothing fancy and if not contained, it spreads all over the place. It requires no fancy care and doesn't get black spot or any other rose diseases.

It roots easily from cuttings and that's why I have two. My lawn guys cut it back regularly and take the clippings home to make more. Most of my neighbors have plants that were started from my first one. It blooms all year round and has a simple old fashioned bloom that has a nice fragrance.

Paris Countdown:23 days

Here's another of the Red plants blooming in my yard this week. It's the hibiscus and comes in many other colors but this is the most common.

The Genus Hibiscus comprises of plants also commonly called hibiscus and less widely known as rosemallow The large genus of about 200–220 species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae (the mallow family, along with members like cocoa, cotton, okra, baobab and durian) native to warm, temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world. The genus includes both annual and perennial herbaceous plants, and woody shrubs and small trees.

Paris Countdown: 24 days

This is another red flower currently blooming in my yard. It's the Red Powderpuff (Calliandra haematocephala) and is a native of Brazil. A sprawling bush or shrub that can grow up to 10 feet tall and 10 feet wide.

Countdown to Paris: 25 days

I did a walk about the yard yesterday and there are still so many flowers blooming. Most of them are red at this time of year. This one is Turk's Cap [Malvaviscu drummondi]

Although Turk's cap blooms off and on throughout the year, it always seems to look its best in early winter when its brilliantly bright red flowers are most appreciated. Displayed against rich green leaves, the flowers resemble wilted hibiscus buds hanging from the bush. But these buds never open! The entire plant resembles the hibiscus to which it is closely related. The 2 in (5 cm) long tubular flowers appear to be constructed of crimson crepe paper that nods against the rich green foliage. The large oval leaves are about 8 in (20.3 cm) long. This shrub can grow to 10 ft (3 m) in height.

Sometimes it's good to look up.. This is just part of a huge chandelier at the BoardWalk resort at Walt Disney World. I've been spending quite a bit of time there these past two weeks but it's a place of much eye candy. Visual feasting.

These are two of the friendly Sandhill Cranes who regularly visit my yard. They mate for life and are great moochers.. We aren't allowed to feed them but I still sneak them something now and then.

They are fun to watch when the male dances for the female or when they find a small twig and pretend it's prey.

This is Endeavour's lift off into space last evening. They say it is the last scheduled night launch for the shuttle program which is scheduled to end soon. Many are hoping for an extension.

I took this from the tv and after lift off, went outside and looking east saw the full moon and a brilliant flare of light lifting into the night sky. I tried to photograph it but my poor little Sony digital just wasn't up to the challenge. I have two blobs of light and that's all but trust me, it was a beautiful sight.

Light



Went to the Polynesian Resort at DisneyWorld the other day to have lunch with my inherited daughter and her husband.. They live in north Florida and have annual passes to Disney.. Each time they visit they like to stay at different resorts on the property and eat at different restaurants. This time they picked the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. I had my camera and found the overhead light fixture interesting. This is it.

LOVE!!



This isn't technically, Kissimmee, but it's within a few miles. This is outside the
Wolfgang Puck Restaurant at Downtown Disney. I was there last weekend for their annual Festival of the Master's Art Show and I LOVE to eat here. In addition to great variety of food I enjoy the fanciful mosaic decor and artwork. Outside the mosaic walls are topped with words.. One of them is "LOVE".

London Time!



This is a photo of a clock that caught my eye in the antique store downtown.

Veteran's Day!

A local business fills their lawn with flags on Veteran's Day and Memorial Day.

This is a strange little sculpture made up of railroad spikes and is only indirectly related to the Quilt Shop. Our city has been displaying scultures by Florida artists around the downtown area for about a year now. This little "urchin" sculpture was part of the second group. I took the photo just outside the door of the quilt shop. I called them the next day because I had neglected to write down any information on this spikey little thing. My friend went outside and the pedestal was empty. All of the sculpture pedestals were. It was time to take them down and put up another round.

So.. I have no information on this work of art.. No artist, no name, no source, no nothing... but I have learned a valuable lesson. Write down any important information when the photo is taken.
So if you are the artist, or know who the artist is, contact me and I will edit this post and give proper credit for it.

As promised, here is Lacey, the quilt store cat. She's fat and sassy and very spoiled. She's groomed and brushed almost every day and fussed over by both staff and customers. Her unusual marmalade tortoise shell markings make for delightful looking cat. If you come to Kissimmee, be sure to stop in Queen Anns Lace quilt store and visit Lacey. Tell her Karen sent you.

I know that this is a rather boring photograph but it's just to set the scene for the next few days. This is Queen Ann's Lace quilt store and once was located on the busy Highway 192 just North of our downtown area. I worked there for many years and have closets and shelves full of fabric to prove it.

I enjoyed making quilts. Picking the fabrics, cutting it up and spending hours piecing them together was the best part. There's something zen about the sound of the sewing machine. It's when the mind wanders and ideas for the next quilt and the one after that seem to be born. What if I did that instead of this? What other colors would work? What if I turned these blocks in a differnt direction?

Now the store is downtown, with a new owner and except for one old friend, a new staff. One thing I like about this one is that they have a store cat. She's lovely and I think tomorrow I'll post her photo.

Here is his mate. They are at their post most mornings, perhaps scanning for smoke signals. She doesn't seem to be as beat up as he is. Life appears to have been much kinder to her.

I see this weary Indian Statue on the street in Downtown Kissimmee and I wonder what he is searching for. He has a polar bear draped over his shoulder. Is it alive or dead?

Too many questions.. no answers.

I took this photo Tuesday near my polling place. I had voted the week before but went looking for an election day photo op.. wanted long lines, interesting people occupying the time, perhaps some sitting in chairs or reading books. No lines, just signs stuck into the ground all around the front of the building and around the corner. On the corner is our odd Monument of the States. It's a strange thing that was here when I moved here 22 years ago. I don't think anything has been added in that time. It consists of stones and things set into the towering giant state by state. I think they are all represented here along with other places.

This is in many tourist books and I've had visiting friends ask to see it. The street is Monument Avenue and the street markers were all little mini posts in the shape of the monument.

Having it surrounded by political signs on Election Day just seems appropriate.

From the plaque in front of the monument:
Dedicated by U.S. Senator Claude Pepper in 1943, the 40 foot high Monument of States was designed by Dr. C.W. Bressler-Pettis. Built from stones furnished by tourists, governors, a prime minister and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the monument contains 1500 stones collected for 22 years, including meteors, stalagmites, petrified wood, teeth and bone, and represents every state in the US and 20 foreign countries.
Dr. Bressler-Pettis oversaw the design of each stage of construction and was the sculptor of the 562-pound concrete bald eagle that perches on the peak of the monument.

White Chairs

I'm still hanging around the antique store because there are just so many interesting items to see and photograph.



I thought this pile of white chairs made a nice transition from the white hats. I like old chairs. I like white chairs. I very much like this stack of white chairs..

Sticking with the Cow Town theme, here is a stack of cowboy hats. I thought they looked interesting piled up and all nice and shiny white. In the old Cowboy movies I watched as a child, the white hat was always worn by the Good Guy..

If you look carefully, there is a stack of black hats behind them.. It's a much shorter pile.. Hmmm, do the bad guys buy more hats or does the store just stock fewer of them?

Cow Town Symbols

One of our Kissimmee street lamps backlit by a rare cloudy sky. The boot symbolizes Kissimmee's Cow Town history. When driving the cattle, Kissimmee was a rest stop on the trip north. Cattle are still raised here in the county and in the midst of the suburban sprawl it's pleasant to find fields of grazing cattle.

I walked downtown yesterday and wanted to photograph this before it's gone. Lanier's Antique Store has some delightfully vintage Halloween decorations in the window and I just adore this old witch..

Theme Day! BOOKS! November 1st 2008

I went downtown to Lanier's Antique store and photographed some books.. These are the most interesting to me. Old flyers and magazines and even some sheet music. Stored in a basket in a side booth waiting for someone to buy them and take them home.

First Day of Daily Photo Blog!

I just discovered CityDailyPhoto thanks to a BookBoard friend. I was already subscribing to the guy who started it all, Eric, of
Paris Daily Photo.

What a great idea.. Here is my first although it isn't today's theme of "Books." This is one of Tomatoes on display at the local Thursday morning Farmer's market.