Giving thanks🙏.

 On the last Thursday of November each year, Americans make a big hullabaloo about giving thanks.

 But it's something we Jamaicans were taught to do daily.

The thing I give thanks for none stop is good health.

I usually try to get some exercise  before going off to stuff myself😁.

Having a bicycle sure helps in that quest.😁

Anyway since I am unapologetic food lover, I head to Michelle's mom, Miss Norma, one of the greatest cooks on earth, on that American holiday.

Miss. Norms

But we don't do turkey as it looks too much like a creature that flies very high and nuh work pon Sunday, that we have at home.😁

That's mine😁

Michele birthday was the 22nd and her loving sister Melissa bought her a cake.

We had lots of fun as usual.

Yup, I got a stomach full and had lots of fun on America's Thanksgiving Day. 

So did DJ Shaddy, as he wrote the hilarious lyrics below and used AI to create this song about the day.

 It's on you tube at:

https://youtu.be/QMFQBtKuIVM?si=grq_PNg4db5wunBs

On Friday it was on to Sebring for more food and camaraderie with my best friend Sunshine and family 😁.

Sebring is a small, quiet city of around 11,000 people, where black bears roam at night. Yup they see them on their cameras but I have never seen one although I would love to. All I ever see are deers 😡

It's some 3 hours away in the northwest of Florida and on Friday morning before I got there it was 48 Degrees.  Luckily it warmed up before I arrived.

Houses are far apart in Sebring 

It's peaceful there.

Since I was in no hurry, I took a longer and more scenic route which I had discovered years before, while going to nearby Lake Placid to a caladium festival. :JOAN, MY VIEWS.: Caladiums galore https://share.google/d4UTWkhQucCSMI44O.

That area is a Trump red neck country and as if to remind me, there was a huge billboard with his picture on the road. Anyway that reminded me to keep within the speed limit as the last thing I need in life is to be stopped by a red neck police.

This route took me through area with campgrounds, fishing attractions and  huge ranches with thousands of cattle grazing peacefully.

It was nice to see them getting stung by the Trump economic policies they voted for as at least one third of the farms  had " for sale" signs out front.

Ribs by Cardiff.

It was a pleasant, quiet weekend with friends and although Cardiff is not a pork eater, he did ribs for me♥️.

That made the long journey even more than worthwhile.😋

Little Acts of Kindness

Litte things can really make a big impact in our lives.

Recently my friend Camille and I took an Amtrak train from Hollywood, Florida to Sebring, Florida to visit friends. When we got there, we noticed that a sign on the door of the station declared that it had been temporarily closed by the fire department. When we saw it, the sign did not make an impact us, as our friend was there waiting on us so we did not need a rest room, water or an air conditioned place in which to escape the close to  90 degree weather outside.

However, on our return journey two days later, when we arrived at the station and checked the status of our train, we were informed that it was running an hour late. (Smart people check these things before going to the airport, railway station etc. so I suppose we do not fall into the category of smart)!😖

When you have the boiling midday sun to contend with, an airconditioned waiting room and water are big deals!

A good idea

It was therefore a wonderfully welcome surprise when an African American man in a back truck, started to walk around asking if anyone wanted cold water or cold drinks. My friend Camille got two ice cold bottles of water and on asking how much it was, the smiling reply was "its free."

That's the reason for this title, for I personally had never experienced such an unsolicited act of generosity from a stranger since moving to the USA some six years ago.

At first, I thought he was an Amtrak employee who had come to relieve our misery as the train was late and the waiting room closed. However, it turned out that he was just a kind gentleman who saw many passengers waiting in the sun at the station and decided to help.

He left shortly afterwards, after ensuring that whoever needed a thirst quencher had been supplied.

Amtrak was a disappointment in general.  

I love travelling on trains but the one we took up to Sebring on the 28th of May, 2022,  had a cafeteria that didn't work and at least one ticket agent who didn't care whether the information he gave out was correct or not.

 I didn't know such workers existed, and unfortunately, he was the one I sought to get information about the cafeteria from!

Instructions at the dog bathing station

When we asked him if it was open yet, he said it had opened long ago!                                                                                                                                                                      It never opened during the entire, almost three-hour trip, because of 'technical problems' according to an announcement.                                                                                                                                                                  Unfortunately, we again encountered that lousy ticket agent on the return trip. For we saw his at the door of the train going north which arrived before ours, going south, was due. When we asked how long our train was delayed for, instead of saying he didn't know or checking with his headquarters, he told us 'it was running about "ten minutes late." 

When we checked the Amtrak one eighthundred number, we were informed it was delayed for over an hour!

Amtrak really needs to hire ticket agents on their trains who care about the type of information they give to passengers or others who are more like the agent in their office in Hollywood who was so pleasant and helpful.

Anyway, since the scenery in Florida is so boring, I don't see myself ever again taking their train to go anywhere else in the state.

Despite Amtrak, we had a great time in Sebring with friends.

I even got the opportunity to revisit Lake Placid, aka the town of murals. It is so called, as all available walls in the tiny town seem to have great murals painted on them.

I had first visited the town a few years ago to attend the annual Caladium festival with my Meet Up hiking group. Joan, my views: Caladiums galore (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

This time I went there with my hosts to bathe their dogs! 

Thats right, for at a farm store, there is a very convenient dog bathing facility which I found very unique.

I had never seen such a public facility in any other pet-loving town and was so impressed with it that I declared that if I were younger, I would set up some 24 hour stand alone stations like that in other cities!😏

So despite the lousy Amtrak experience , we all had a wonderful Memorial Weekend in Sebring in 2022.

I will admit though that although the train for the return trip was an hour late and the waiting room was closed so we had to sit outside, that trip was far more pleasant.

 To begin with, the cafeteria worked and there were agents calling out the upcoming stations and the time it would take to get to each, on this train. 

Nothing like that was done on the trip from Hollywood to Sebring. 

Amtrak Florida needs to not only overall its service, train its staff properly and have its waiting rooms available, but they also need to upgrade their stock. For I have travelled by train in other states, Canada and Europe and this was really the oldest, slowest and creakiest train that I have ever traveled on!

Thank heavens it couldn't spoil the weekend with friends for us though.

Christmas 2021

At an air show in Sebring

 I can't keep up with how time is flying, for I had no idea so much time had passed since my interesting and enjoyable Christmas visit to Sebring, covid and all.

Last Christmas, I was invited to spend the holidays with my best friend and her family, who had recently relocated from the crowded city to a rustic section of Sebring in Florida. This is some two hours away from where I live in Broward County.

 Also spending Christmas there, were her family from Costa Rica. I had met them all in Costa Rica, and it was certainly great to see them again.

This wasn't my first trip to Sebring, as I did visit that beautiful area some years ago to attend an air show. On another occasion, I visited nearby Lake Placid, which has an annual Caladium festival. (Joan, my views: Search results for lake placid (joan-myviews.blogspot.com)

However, where we were this time, was off the beaten track, where deer and bears roam but where there is no good wifi reception or cable tv to disturb the peace.

These bears were caught on a neighbor's camera in October

The bears there are black bears and according to the records, there has never been any report of these bears killing people in Florida. So, I was most anxious to see one up close and personal, especially after our host showed us a bear's footprint in his backyard. 

But to my disappointment, it was not to be. 

A bear's paw print

More frustrating was the fact that a neighbor sent us pictures of the bears that her outside camera had picked up in her backyard. ,

Damn.

The entire area is beautiful though, with lots of lakes and open spaces.

Anyway, back to Christmas.

 It sure is cold in that area, so on our first night as we sat on the patio, our host Cardiff, suggested that we test out his outdoor heater, as he had a lot of dried wood which had been cleared from the property before the house was built.

It was fun but we still had to bungle up in blankets as the only thing missing was snow. 😁

I have to admit that it did eventually warm up and we had a lot of fun, especially on Christmas Eve and Christmas day when it was time to open presents. 

The girls pose in their pj's

Then disaster struck for I picked up what I still insist was the flu. It kept me in bed for three days with a fever, stuffy nose and sore throat. Then my friend who had been nursing me, came down with similar symptoms plus body aches and stomach problems.  Anxiously, we tried to find somewhere to do a test for covid, but everywhere was closed for the holidays.

Since I returned home, she has been confirmed as suffering from covid and some two weeks later she has not recovered. To make matters worse, since then too, her daughter and son-in-law have tested positive as have her Costa Rican relatives, since their return home.

So yes, it was a great Christmas in that I spent it in a lovely, peaceful environment with good friends, (though not seeing any bears!)  And naturally there was lots of Christmas food plus exotic Costa Rican dishes, and I even got some Spanish practice too to boot.

What was not so great, is that the disgusting covid became an uninvited guest and is still lingering around.

Memories.

A Park at Old Sebring

Church at Old Sebring

She was happy to find a discarded Halloween pumpkin

At Lake Charlotte

Lake Charlotte in background

Trying to keep warm at Sebring

Lake Jackson

 

Caladiums galore

Wow, I had no idea what these flowers were called for we have them growing almost wild in Jamaica and place little value on them.

Section of a caladium farm outside Lake Placid.

However, with my Meet Up group led by Jennifer Weis, we had a wonderful day in Lake Placid, dubbed the caladium capital of the world, where they take this plant seriously as it provides quite and income for them.

Lake Placid is a pleasant little town with a population of just over 2000, situated in Highland County (I learnt yesterday that Florida has 67 counties. I had no idea it had so many). It is quite some distance away (over 130 miles)  from Broward County in which I live but was worth the trip which took us through scenic farm country and charming little towns.

To get there, we traveled through Palm Beach, Martin and sections of Okeechobee counties.

We didn't just go "flowers looking" though as we stopped on the way at the Hickory Hammock park area to make sure we got our usual Saturday morning exercise, a trek of almost 3 miles.

Hickory Hammock is I understand, sometimes a hunting area for those who want to shoot deer and wild boar and we saw lots of evidence of the presence of wild boar, although none in the flesh. But they clearly were around as our fearless leader pointed to the huge holes in the ground where they furrow to get their protein, worms and bugs. 

Hickory Hammock is a pleasant place to walk during the hot summer days in Florida, because of the shade provided by the huge oak trees of various ages and sizes. It is also very rustic and scenic in its own right with lots of palm, blueberries and other flora. (We were able to find a few ripe blueberries to nibble on).

Nine of us started on the hike but when we returned to our vehicles, we found a late comer waiting to accompany us to the caladium fair.

It was about a half an hour drive from Hickory Hammock to Lake Placid.

Lake Placid as I said earlier, is a pleasant little town but it is made even more attractive by the proliferation of beautifully painted murals on almost every street in the section where the festival was held.

A lovely mural on one of the buildings

This was the 24th annual Caladium festival and I was really overawed by the variety and sizes of the flowers, both those laid out for sale and those used for attractive decoration all around where the festival was held.

At the fair, you could buy both plants and bulbs and as festivals are, there were booths offering all sorts of craft, foods and other items for sale. There was even a booth giving out water which had a sign saying "Free water for the body. Jesus provides water for the soul".

I guess this might mean Lake Placid is a fairly religious area, I don't know. Just assuming. (But what does assuming mean?

Making an ass of you and me lol.) 

It was a nice day but being Florida, it was interrupted by a downpour of rain, but it did not last long.

We took refuge at a craft store which appeared to be run by the community and we actually saw some students working on their craft skills in a classroom there.

After a tasty and pleasant lunch during which it rained again, it was time for the long, tiring drive home.

But it was surely a day well spent.