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The last day of May leads to the first day of the hurricane season which is tomorrow, and the jack fruits are getting big... actually, enormous is a more accurate word for this year. Hopefully they will stay in good shape until they are ripe. Wish me luck...
The mango is native to the Indian subcontinent from where it spread all over the world. It is one of the most cultivated fruits of the tropical world and it is definitely my kind of fruit. This is the beginning of my yearly mango feast... and I am making rounds to survey the bounty. The usual problem is that the majority of the mango trees is unidentified and it is very difficult to put a name to the fruit with any certainty. But they are all good to me. I ate one from this tree today but can't guess its name. It's delicious.
To my surprise, this tree now bears two fruits. In my blog on November 11 of last year, I thought the flowers would soon turn into fruits, but it has taken that long. The fruits from this guanabana tree (Annona muricata) are called soursop due to their slightly acidic taste when ripe. This fruit tastes best when its flesh is sweetened with condensed milk or made into a chilled sorbet.
Dinner Key is a marina complex in Coconut Grove along the shore of Biscayne Bay. This was originally an island, but it was connected to the mainland in 1914 by filling in the open ocean water space. The name "dinner key" says that the island was a popular place to stop for dinner while traveling by boat between the mouth of the Miami River and Snapper Creek which is south of Miami. You can see in this photo a rare rusty boat among luxurious yachts across the marina. This looks like a shrimping boat... The fresh shrimp that live here are quite delicious, if you can catch them, that is. You can come here in the afternoon to buy fish... but hush... that's illegal for boat captains to sell their fish from this marina!
Look what I saw in this parking lot: a strange vehicle that could be from another world! This may be an UFO (unidentified flying object) disguised as an automobile that I wouldn't be surprised. I saw the owner/driver who gave me a big and proud smile when he walked away from this car. All I see is the name Chevrolet in the open engine hatch. There is no other markings of any sort other than that on the entire car's body. This man must either be a very powerful man or insane because he drives around in this car without any license plate or identification marks. I would like to see the face of the police officer when he encounters this car during his patrol around the neighborhood.
It is a fabulous day in Miami today. No rain! This is a view of the Sonesta Bayfront hotel in Coconut Grove, early in the morning... quite early, about 8AM. There is a large number of people out in the streets for exercise, jogging, walking and bicycle riding. This view is seen from the Peacock park next to the convention center at Biscayne bay's edge. You can see that Miami's royal poinciana trees are announcing the arrival of summer with their annual display of flowers. Do you know that we are only 5 days from the official hurricanes season? OMG!
If you have wondered what happened to my blog... I've kind of being caught between a rock and a hard place so things have been backed up... and the daily rain and thunderstorms have not helped much. But have no fear, things will find a way to even out their wrinkles, which includes this blog. Life goes on and I had to be in the Baptist hospital in Kendall Drive late tonight. This is one of their many, many bathrooms for the visitors to their emergency center. This is in such stark contrast to the other places that I have visited overseas in other countries. So clean, so free and so plentiful. That is one of the many perks that one can have to live and sometimes suffer in many other ways life in the US of America.
Miami has been under a daily dose of rain on and off non stop. But the sky clears up quite quickly and the blue sky returns to cheer you up momentarily, like today. Aren't those coconut trees magnificent? I found one nut that fell to the ground and would really like to get all the ones that are way up there. But alas, I can't climb that high! I wonder what Darwin would have said about why these trees grow so tall? My guess is that the nuts are safe to mature and ensure their lineage to last for generations. If they are not so tall, guys like me will cannibalize all their fruits of labor. Good for the Cocos nucifera.
I can set my clock to this tree. Every year in May, this tree shows off its beautiful sparkling unblemished snow white flowers. This year, the entire tree has only one flower. Beauty is rare indeed!
Next to US Memorial day which is celebrated on the last Monday of the month of May, Mother's day, observed on the second Sunday of May is the busiest day for cemeteries. It's the US Mother's day today. Many major street intersections of Miami have flower vendors and Caballero Rivero Woodlawn cemetery at SW 117th Avenue and 116th Street is experiencing a traffic jam. Fresh cut flowers are everywhere for the remembrance of the women who found their last resting places here. Do you know that Père Lachaise in the 20th arrondissement of the city of Paris, France, is reputed to be the world's most visited cemetery? That place attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the graves of those who have enhanced French life over the past 200 years. When was the last time you have been inside a cemetery? It's an experience not to miss in life.
It's Saturday on busy streets of Miami and what do you expect? Crazy guys like this one in his convertible hot rod. This guy was so far the worst that roams Miami's crazy street scenes that I've seen. Within minutes, he weaved through the four lanes of US-1, changing his cell phone from left to right to left to right hands while waving/shaking his other hand frantically. He must be either very mad or excited or both. You can bet I stayed as far away from him as possible. In this pose, he has the phone on his right hand across his face. Do you see his left hand? What is holding his steering wheel? Call the cops! Call highway patrol!
Tonight, I came to a Patriotic program performed by the third and fourth graders of the Florida Christian School in South Miami. The kids are 9 - 10 year old and they gave a flawless performance tonight that lasted a little bit over an hour. It is impressive to see how poised kids of this age can be. The musical numbers traced the history of America through the US civil war. They aced the obligatory performance of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." These kids do have talent. There was a bit of overdoing in the program with a sermon-like speech by the master of ceremony, but you should expect that from the name of the school. Time well spent and I came to watch 9 year-old Gabo perform. His speech was a perfect A+.
Dadeland Mall of South Miami is being renovated by addition of a two-story building to house new restaurants overlooking Kendall Drive here. The new lower level will house retailers. The largest Limited/Express store which occupied this space is now gone and the new development will begin operation in the spring of 2013. It is amazing to see large and expensive buildings go up and then mercilessly demolished only a couple of years later. The US of America is truly a society of quick changes and throw aways without much of a second thought.
Summer is not too far away for Miami, and it is already getting very hot. The rains of the past few days have spawned many mosquitoes. They are not too bad yet, but there is no doubt it will get worse. The royal poincianas are preparing to put out the seasonal display as you can see it in this magnificent old tree. A summertime prelude.
Here is William again showing off! You were introduced to William before. That was then, this is now. Now he is showing off the Audi R8 V10 Spyder 5.2 FSI Quattro, Audi’s mid-engine supercar with a fabric roof. Talking about a guy with a passion with cars and can afford them! In this car, the drive goes to all four wheels and Audi will debit your bank account £111,995 for the manual or £117,700 for the R-tronic automated manual. This car looks kind of ugly, if you asked me. Hhmmm... UK's 120K pounds! How many is that in US $? Too many!
I needed some exotic spices so I had to venture to this exotic place named Lucky. It is a Chinese grocery store on Bird Road and SW 84th Avenue. I hate to go to these places because I can never find what I want, and I can't ask because I can't speak the kind of language they speak here! And even if I can speak the right language, I don't know the name of the thing I need. So lost and so frustrated! So I gave up on my search for the unknown and unspeakable spices. Guess where I ended up getting food! To add insult to injury, I thought I know how to write the word "Lucky" in Chinese. When outside looking at the store front, I can't find the word "Lucky" I know here. What's wrong with me, I wonder!
Tired of fast food on weekends so I went to the Captain Tavern fish market today for a new taste. I found it in these strange looking fish that I never tried before. That is what I was looking for so Epinephelus drummondhayi it is for dinner tonight. Commonly called the calico grouper, kitty mitchell and speckled hind, these fish are the strawberry groupers. Their natural habitats are open seas, shallow seas, subtidal aquatic beds, coral reefs and they are found in Bermuda and the US ocean waters. The name speckled hind speaks well of the spots that cover their reddish-brown entire bodies.
Still fresh in my mind about what I said in my blog yesterday, may be I shouldn't have had these for dinner, but I did. They really do not taste like grouper, but rather like snapper. I would classify them as fat snappers. I think these fish may be on the endangered species list, and do hope that they are legal. Too late!
Look at this very attractive cone of this Cycas micronesica. This is the time of cone production for this species of cycad which is found in Micronesia , the Marianas Group and the western Caroline Islands. As it is often the case, many things that look and feel beautiful can be deadly, and this can be deadly. The seeds of this cone are commonly thought, through a neurotoxin contained within them, to be linked with the human degenerative Lytico-Bodig disease, which is similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease.)
Cycad seeds are a big part of the Chamorro lifestyle. The seeds from this species were ground to make a flour called "fadang", and the flour was then used to make tortillas and dumplings. Knowing the seeds are very toxic, the flour was cleaned several times before preparation for food. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of these islands also ate bats that, unbeknownst to them, fed on these seeds and the toxins were accumulated in the fat tissue with increased potency! Once the research came out, the practice of eating these seeds ceased in Guam in the 1960s! I am not sure whether eating bats continued
The moral of this? Don't eat things that look pretty or don't eat things that eat things that look pretty!
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Do you sometimes wonder why Miami has so many royal poinciana trees? That is because they propagate so easily naturally. Their long seed pods disperse seeds all around and after the first rains (and we had lots of rain lately) the seeds germinate like this. Left untouched, these baby trees grow up very fast to become mature trees in just a few short years. The royal poincianas are just beginning to flower and o do I love it!
You have seen this tree before here. It's the really tropical Spindle palm (Hyophorbe verschaffeltii) that can't stand cold weather... just like me... I show you this tree again so you can see that it is used for the commemoration of a departed person. It is a practice often seen in parks and arboretum. When I die, please don't do that because when the tree dies, which it will, I would have to die a second time. Not a good deal!
Finally the rain stopped and the sky is getting a bit bluer.. Look at the grass, these are happy fellows for having received copious amount of rain water for a week.
It's still raining! Good for the ducks... not for me! Forecast says this is the end of the rain... so hopefully they are right!
It has been raining all week this week... Drip... drip... drip...very depressing. And I am blue because three of my computers crashed! So you thought I gave up on you? Not a chance! This tree seems to love being wet and it looks better in the rain than when it's hot under the sun... so here it is, your Bursera simarupa, commonly known as the gumbo-limbo and Copperwood. It is a tree species in the family Burseraceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas from the southern Florida through Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil and Venezuela. A gumbo in rainy days.
April-May means that the frangipani is in bloom. Its scientific name is Plumeria rubra with common names: Frangipani and Temple Tree (because it can usually be seen at temple sites in Asia.) I really like the scent of these flowers which is there all the time. You pick a flower, and the scent is right there... very unlike the elusive scent from its relative, the Alstonia scholaris. Yes, both are in the same family of Apocynaceae. You can guess judging from the similarity in the structure of their leaves and the form of their flowers. But I value the scent of A. scholaris far better... simply because it is much harder to come by.
Here is the same man that haunts this area of South Miami. Still homeless and all alone. How sad!
Here is a small party of South Miami's rogue green and vocal wild parrots. Tonight, they decided to pay a vocal visit to the local burger King joint across from the Datran center. They were very loud and jolly. I was very mindful not to be directly under their flight paths so they cannot drop anything on me. Didn't know they can park themselves on a wall like this. True lizard-like they are.
This is the bird eye's view of glorious Miami Beach from a Cessna. The water body to the left is Biscayne Bay and to the right is of course the big blue Atlantic ocean.
The big green space is the La Gorce Golf court. Its tip is at 63rd street of Miami Beach. Along the famous Collins Avenue running the North-South axis of Miami Beach, you can see the Blue and Green Diamond towers condo at the lower corner of the photo. They are on the south side of the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort and the Grand Beach hotel. Don't you wish you were here?
On the way to Miami Beach via the Venetian Causeway (NE 15th Street) you drive on a narrow causeway traversing several man-made Venetian islands. The islands and non-bridge portions of the causeway were created by materials which came from the dredging of the bay. The homes on these islands are truly dream homes. The Venetian causeway takes you to the heart of Miami Beach and it is my favorite drive to get there, on a day like today.
This is the scene of a tennis lesson. The teacher/coach is in the process of collecting all the stray tennis balls for the next round of practice. He has literally a ton of brand new tennis balls contained in a basket with wheel that he carries around. The balls are served to the young tennis star wannabe one at a time in a breakneck rate. The balls fly and land everywhere like what you see here... then the cycle repeats. They don't call this sport for nothing. I get tired just looking at this session. Not for me! Then I got a few drops of water from the dark rain cloud you see overhead, but the rain lasted only a few minutes today. TGIF!
In Miami, orchids grow easily, but this species of Oncidium is the easiest to grow. It grows on anything and blooms every year without any requirements whatsoever. All you need is to have a few bulbs to start. They don't even need to have any roots on them. Throw them anywhere that has sun shine, and that's it. Come back in a year or two and you have something like in this photo. This is tog's O. sphacelatum under his tall palm tree. If you look closely, you can see the beautiful flowers of a vine coming down from above. Not to be left out, let me remind you that I showed you my own O. sphacelatum on March 14th, 2007. I think mine is better and that you will agree to that assertion.
Exactly 2 years ago yesterday, I showed you a photo of this precise spot where Sgt. Pepper's Café was doing business. No more! It's gone now and replaced by this new restaurant venture... deadly indeed! A new Cuban cuisine place, El Sitio, is now here. I think this is the second (Wrong! This is the third... It's name is El Sitio III, there is another one in Miami Beach, on Washington Avenue, between 5th and 11th streets) and smaller site for this restaurant namesake. There is another larger El Sitio in Coconut Grove. You may recognize the Golden tree "Tabebuia Chrysantha" in this shot. Two years ago, there were two of them. Take a close look at this tree for the amazing shape of its trunk.
I was visiting at the Montgomery Botanical Center and we were invaded by a large group of kids. They are 10 - 12 year old kids from the nearby elite Gulliver Academy and their field trip here is to learn about nature. Unbeknownst to them, they were in luck because they stumbled on a visiting professor from no less than Harvard U. They got an earful of natural things... palm trees, cycads, seeds and how things grow and protected and treasured. We had a fun morning with these kids and their questions were not for the faint of heart.
I was driving on a busy commuting morning today and I was very nervous watching the guy in the car behind me. He was very animatedly yelling on his cell phone and he was just about to hit me in my rear end... or gave me the clear impression that he would do that very soon. Driving in Miami is so stressful. Every driver is on the cell phone. I think they should pass the law to heavily fine these nut cases and the county budget will surely be in the black.
I finally gave in, actually, crumbled in and went inside the Yogurt bar today. As I told you I really want to taste the coconut flavor, so I did. But I also tasted its cousin, the MANGO! That's the yellow swirl on top of the white coconut. Guilt took over and I only got a tiny little serving, sprinkled with only specs of nuts and shreds of coconut. Delicious! But, look at the spoon, it says Yogurtland! Is this the same franchise, or are they competitors? What's going on here? One would expect the spoon to say Yogurt Bar too, don't you agree?
Florida International University (FIU) is an American public research university in Greater Miami, Florida, in the United States, with its main campus in University Park in Miami-Dade County. Here I am, early on a Saturday morning in its Ernest R. Graham University Center. This large building has many commercial business, including a bookstore to cater to the needs of the students. What you see is the university's emblem featuring "Roary The Panther" which is the school's mascot. FIU's official colors are Blue and Gold. I like Orange and Green better, of course that's my alma mater UM's colors. Go Canes!
It's Friday, again. Except it's the 13th, so it can be a very bad day. I stayed away from black cats, ladders and persons named Jason and Krueger so I am still OK. Here at Miami Dade College, the students have a vote going on. I am not sure what is the issue that requires a vote count, but that must be important. As everyone knows, making a decision is hard work that consumes a lot of energy... so the all knowing, all powerful leaders are thoughtful and free cotton candy is given to reclaim all the glucose that the students used up when they voted. I must report here that some of the students in line have not voted! Should I point them out?
This is today's view of Brickell Avenue/Miami downtown sky line as seen from Biscayne Bay. The tall bridge is the Rickenbacker Causeway leading eastward to Key Biscayne's cape Florida to the right. Tall sailboats go under the bridge to head toward Miami Beach, then Fisher island and escape to the Atlantic ocean. If you zoom in, you can see the eastern half of the old draw bridge. I used to curse the tall sailboats because they were the reason we poor motorists got stuck in the hot Miami sun to go to Key Biscayne when the draw bridge was raised... Do you see the dolphins in this photo? This must be their mating time... and this must be the place they prefer.
Back to Banjong Orchids... just to show you the new clay pots that he is using as hanging containers for sale with the orchids. These are very large and you would need to hang very large specimens on them. The roots have plenty of room to roam and these pots will outlast the red wood baskets that were the preference of years passed. I think that the various elaborate designs of the holes are silly because the orchids will eventually cover the entire pot that will vanish from view very quickly. Would I tell Banjong that? Nah! He'll kick me out of his place... or worse, he will never give me any free orchids again! Beautiful designs, especially the different hole shapes! Best of the best! Kiss.. kiss...
This is the brand new Baptist hospital that began operation very recently. In its relentless expansion, this newest addition was located on Kendall drive, all the way to the western end abutting Krome avenue which is SW 177th Avenue. I will get in there one of these days just to look around. It sure looks huge from afar.
Miami has a lot of local people who make a living gathering produce in trucks and resell fruits, vegetable and sometimes refreshments at impromptu stops. This seller was setting shop at the far West end of Kendall drive where vast farm land is still farm land. The large corn field in the background looks very tempting. I wonder if the local crows will help themselves before harvest time arrives.
I paid a visit to my pal Banjong at his orchid business down on Krome Avenue and 216th street in the deep South Miami Dade today. As usual, his orchids are in bloom profusely everywhere. I love his personal vanda and ascocenda hybrids that he and his wife cultured from seeds that are fragrant. In this shot, you can see the new clay pots that he designed as epiphyte orchid containers. The vandas love these for their home.
If you have a few millions US dollars and would like to own a thriving orchid business, this place is for sale.
It's a hot Saturday afternoon preluding a fast approaching summer in Miami. I took a long ride to the farm land area along a North-South narrow road that is Krome Avenue (Southwest 177th Avenue) that runs through the heart of South Dade farms. All kinds of produce are grown right here and many fresh fruits and vegetable businesses are open for business along this road. I am thirsty for a fresh coconut (which is my favorite summer drink) so I stopped here because of the big sign that says "Coco Frio." Unfortunately, the coconut that man chopped open for me was not "frio" in any shape and form. So again, I got a disappointed small, bland, warm two dollar drink from a sub par old nut! What is the matter with business these days?
Another beautiful day for sailing. This is Biscayne Bay. The island that is the horizon is Key Biscayne. You can see the golden coupole of the Miami Seaquarium just under the boom of the main sail. Cape Florida is to the far right beyond which is the big Atlantic ocean and the powerful Western boundary current, the Gulf Stream is just a stone throw away.
This jackfruit tree is very productive. It again is bearing new fruits, not as many as last year, but there are quite a few that look in very good shape at this time. Hopefully they will not begin to rot like they did last year, and I will be able to get one or two to show you how to deal with the heavy sap contained within.
Art students of Miami Dade College's Kendall campus are very active. You can see them outdoors every day drawing, sketching, coloring. Today must be a mid term exam and they use every concrete blank spaces they find as canvas for their creations using color chalks. Instructors walk among them with note pads to jot down remarks and notes. I'd give the green blond Dracula with sharp fangs an A+.
I was invited to go sailing in Biscayne Bay today... So I said why not? I'm easy! We came off from Coconut Grove with no particular place to go with a 23 foot sail boat skippered by two of my able sailor friends. Of course, they abused me big time and told me to pull this line, push that rod, tag this way, tag that way, pull more, release some etc... and I followed their orders without fail. Today's afternoon was hot, plenty of sunshine and calm sea with only a slight breeze but this is a good racing sail boat so we had no problems moving about. We were very lucky to spot a school of dolphins and approached them. Dolphins are very playful, and they stayed with our boat until we decided that it's time to say good bye.
I tried very hard but could not get any shots better than this. There is no good way to know where and when they would surface but you can see at least four fins from the dolphins breaking the ocean surface. This view is SouthWest, looking back toward Coconut Grove. The two buildings with triangular shaped tops are the twin towers of the ritzy Ritz-Carlton luxurious hotel in the Grove. The Rickenbacker Causeway bridge is behind us. If you want to know where on earth this spot is, put 25.731833,-80.193667 in the search box of this URL. All and all, I had a sun tanned afternoon. No, not sun tanned, sun burned because I do not like to be greased up with lotion.
This is a museum caliber statue of Abe Lincoln. It was at its home in Miami for a long time, not my home, mind you! No longer. Abe has been relocated to a museum in New York where it really does belong together with other valuable artifacts of the US civil war.
Hey, look! This is my new Ferrari. I just got it special delivered this morning. It's brand new, a 2012 Ferrari California. You may know about all the noise of the US $656 Millions Mega Millions lottery jackpot, right? Well, you should not believe all the news from the paparazzi about where the winning tickets were sold. What do they know? It is reported that a winning ticket was purchased at a 7-11 store in Milford, Maryland; a second one was sold in Kansas; and the third one was sold in Red Bud, Illinois. Bunk! The real winning ticket was sold in a 7-11 store in Miami, and I bought that ticket for US $1.00. If you want positive proof, I can tell you that the winning numbers are: 2, 4, 23, 38, 46, and Megaball 23; and I have it right here in my pocket.
So, with my new mega bucks and their associated power, I special ordered this car and demanded it to ship to arrive this morning, just in time for the first day of April. By the way, Happy April's 1st! Want a test drive?
