Words by which to live

The difference between Knowledge and Wisdom:

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.
Wisdom is not putting tomatoes in a fruit salad.

I will be showing you some pictures of this amazing garden that is just up the street from my Dad's house in New Port Richey, FL.

There is a man there, Jim Kovaleski, who is a magical green thumb gardener. He uses his techniques to work with nature to create the most gorgeous organic vegetable gardens you've ever laid your eyes on. His farm, which provides food for restaurants and citizens of New Port Richey, is called Freedom House Farm, and it is one of the most special places I've ever visited.

His tender care of all things living was really something to behold and I was thrilled to be able to spend a couple hours with him and his lovely Mother (who, incidentally, lives a block away, and her entire yard is also dedicated to growing these gorgeous foods for the community).

He will be giving a workshop in Portsmouth, NH this May (which is supposedly filled, but I'm going anyway!) about permaculture and how it fits into the world. Organic, local and sustainability are the basic tenets of his garden practices. The joy he gets from creating and caring for these gardens is utterly contagious! I was there easily 4 times during my short visit to my Dad's!

Here's a brief preview of the beauty of these amazing gardens:




If you're ever in that part of the world, look up Freedom House Farms. You won't be sorry.

Snorkeling at Norman Island

Most of the time when we go on vacation, we intend to do more than just lay there like big blobs on the beach. We have grand plans of going on a day trip here or there, to go snorkeling or fishing or visit another island. However, once we arrive at our vacational home base -wherever that may be - we have always just ended up blobbing on the beach. We swim, we will snorkel, but mostly it's the blobbing we do.

THIS time, we actually DID something!!! I'm so proud of us!

We totally blobbed on our first full day there - at a most glorious beach called Smuggler's Cove. There is white sand, a couple of reefs for snorkeling, and, most importantly, there are two VERY small beach bars that also serve food! What more could anyone need? Will post pictures of Smuggler's Cove tomorrow.

Today's post will be about the very nice snorkeling trip we took out to Norman Island. There were 4 other vacationers on the boat, along with the captain and a dive master. Two of the other people on the boat were also going to dive aside from snorkeling.

There were three stops in this day trip - one at a place called the Indians (big rocks that look like a headdress), one at these neat caves, and then the last stop in an area called Angelfish Reef. Here are some of the critters from the first location:





Here I am looking rather pleased! I do love the water!

The second stop had a series of three caves. Each had its own distinct set of animals. Really quite interesting. Here are the photos from the caves:





The last stop didn't really have anything notable other than this big barracuda!They are so menacing-looking with those big teeth!

After snorkeling on and off for a few hours, we then ventured over to a very famous restaurant/bar called Willy T's to have a nice lunch! It's built on a barge that looks like an old pirate ship. Very cool!

Ahhh, the good life!

Jost Van Dyke! God Bless You!

I checked out my sitemeter this morning and saw that someone had been referred to my blog via a website called Cruise News! What a surprise! Here I was innocently blogging about our upcoming vacation and *bing* some website picked up my blabbing about Tortola!

Today I'm going to talk about some of my fondest (or scariest) memories from our stay on Jost Van Dyke, because it's heavy on my mind today, and it's one of my most favorite place on Earth so far! Cannot wait for warmth -it's totally frigid outside today, a balmy 27 degrees...With the wind chill, it's even colder. Really quite nasty!

Of course, in the Caribbean are wonderous and interesting creatures. Snorkeling with schools of tarpon feeding on small silver fish was most memorable. We were in an area of Jost Van Dyke called White Bay (one of the top ten beaches in the world according to the Travel Channel!). One day my husband and I were there snorkeling over the tarpon, watching the feeding frenzy when, all of a sudden, **WHHOOOOSH**, something dove from above, VERY forcibly, literally only about one foot from my head. I SCREAMED!!!

It was a pelican! It was apparently diving in to get some of those little silvery fish for itself! Obviously not at ALL afraid of the human swimming just mere inches from its prey!

Here is a video of a couple pelicans diving - now imagine your head just a foot away, looking downward like you do when snorkeling, and suddenly this huge animal comes barreling down into the water with NO warning! It's mighty scary, I tell ya!

Needless to say, we high-tailed it out of the water to the safety of the shore IMMEDIATELY!

On shore are many other wonderous things! Like this gorgeous white sand beach. A mile long of this beautiful stuff!


The view from the hillside. Sunsets were unbelieveable.


The Soggy Dollar Bar - called this because most patrons have to swim in from their boats moored just past the beach! Therefore, their dollars are soggy! They have a clothesline to hang the soggy dollars so they can dry! This bar is world famous for their Pain Killers. A drink to rival all others. Deeee-lish!


My favorite - Ivan's Stress-Free Bar. You go on, write down what you make yourself for the time you're there, and then you settle up at the end of your stay. No bartender, no waiting, no STRESS, mon!! It's the coolest bar on the planet, if you ask me!


Ahhh, memories! Now I must return to reality. Off to bundle up and go out to get the dogs' food, treats, and their arthritis meds. Also going to the store to stock up on goodies for the house...Amazing how much food one goes through when one has breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks from home every single day!