Go Canes!

The University of Miami Hurricanes football team is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and one of the preeminent programs in all of college football. For those of you who may not know, college football is HUGE busine$$ in the US. The University of Miami has won five national championships (1983, 1987, 1989, 1991 and 2001) since 1983, making it the 2nd most winning college football program of the past quarter century. As you can see, we have not done very well since 2001, but that is a long story. It is then small wonder that everyone in town loves the Canes. To express that love, the university bus shuttles are appropriately named "Hurry Canes." They are used locally to shuttle students to and from immediate neighborhood to the main campus in Coral Gables.

On the fleet of these shuttle buses in this photo, you can see the fierce looking creature in a fighting mood, which is the proud Miami Hurricanes football team's mascot: the great Ibis of Florida. If you look closely, Sebastian (Yup! That's his name) is spelling out the letters C A N E S. Its arch enemy is the Florida Gators, the University of Florida football team. Our Ibis Sebastian eats gator meat for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Go Canes!

Breaking Ground

As it is usually the case, team workers have one guy working and several others just "supervising." Here is a heavy machine digging into the hard concrete ground at a new construction site. Heavy equipment like these demand a lot of skill to operate. The orange and white stripes construction cone looks just like the icon on my computer identifying my beloved VLC program that plays all the movies on my laptop.

Scarlet blooms

Under the royal poinciana tree, on a lazy Tuesday afternoon.

Doctors Hospital

Right next to the University of Miami is Doctors Hospital. It is a 281-bed acute care facility that has provided high-quality medical care since 1949. Doctors Hospital is recognized for its services in orthopedics, neurosurgery, sports medicine, general surgery, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery and women's health. Its nationally recognized Sports Medicine program serves professional sport teams such as the Florida Marlins (baseball,) and the Miami Heat (basketball,) as well as collegiate teams from the University of Miami and Florida International University. The Miami neuroscience team at Doctors Hospital developed the first Gamma Knife program in the state of Florida. Since 1993, it has been a leader in neurological patient care serving patients from the United States and abroad. This is its emergency entrance, across from the School of Communications of UM.

Birthday Wish

This is not a photo of Miami, but a Birthday card that I made for
Shane Bernier. Shane is 7 year old and very sick. Read his web site and please help me help Shane get on the Guiness Book of Records by sending him your Birthday card to:

Shane Bernier
PO Box 484
Lancaster, Ontario
K0C 1N0
Canada

Shane's BD is May 30th.

Purple Beauty

Jacaranda is a genus of 49 species of flowering plants in the family Bignoniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Jacaranda Mimosifolia (nurseries often label this tree Jacaranda Acutifolia which is a synonym) is the species most often seen in Florida are native to the Amazon River Basin countries of Brazil, Argentina and Peru. The spectacular Jacaranda is enjoyed as an ornamental in many near-frostless areas all over the world.

Here is a Jacaranda in full bloom. I should have taken this photo two days ago when it was at its peak. After two days of sprinkle on and off, many of the flowers are on the ground but the tree still looks spectacular; and this photo really does not do it justice. There are things you must see in person to fully appreciate their beauty. This is one of it. Miami is getting some very welcome rains these days, and today is how should I say it? Rainy!

Wide Turns

I caught this huge truck making its way out of the parking lot of a grocery store. It's very early in the morning and the beer supply has been delivered! These professional people work very hard and efficiently. I wonder how these mega trucks drive, especially in dense traffic. I always stay clear of them when in my car.

Work in Progress

This is the same building in construction as seen on the March 02 blog. Quite a bit of progress has been made and the six floors are being fitted with windows. Office for rent signs are now up as rental activities are picking up steam.

Early Flames

The early royal poinciana blooms have started to show. Summer cannot be far off. Here is a shot from the roof of an office building very early in the morning, before the parking lot is full. Judging from the number of gas guzzlers that Americans love, it is no wonder they are crying foul now because gas price is inching upward toward the US $4 per gallon. The tradition of heavy driving during the summer will start soon, and gas companies are laughing all the way to the bank.

UM Student Dormitories

Across from lake Osceola are the student dormitories. They are from left to right: the Pentland, McDonald, Rosberough and Walsh towers. The Cobb fountain, one of the many at various locations in this campus, is seen in action.

UM Lake Osceola

This photo is taken from the heart of the main campus of the University of Miami, my alma mater. This is one of my many favorite spots in this campus. On the left is lake Osceola where the students traditionally burn a symbolic boat during the rally for the home coming football game in November. The white buildings at a distance on the left are part of the music school. Seen on the right are the outdoor tables, chairs and swingers for meals served by the Rathskeller, a popular hangout for students. Lining the lake on this side are ancient sapodilla (Manilkara Zapota L. in the family of Sapotaceae) trees, known as chewing-gum trees. For decades, I have never seen any fruits on these trees and don't know why that is. You may not know this, but chewing gum originally was made from a thick juice called “chicle” that comes from the sapodilla tree. Zigzag cuts are made along the tree trunk so that the thick white juice inside drips out and are collected in small bags. The juice is later boiled with corn syrup, glycerin, sugar and flavoring. It is then dried, rolled and cut into bite-size pieces.

University of Miami

The University of Miami Libraries rank among the top research libraries in North America. Located in the main campus in Coral Gables is the Otto G. Richter Library which is the University of Miami's main library. It houses collections that serve the arts, architecture, humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. It is a depository for federal and state government publications. Rare books, maps, manuscript collections, and the University Archives are housed in the Special Collections Division and in the Cuban Heritage Collection. Otto G. Richter Library's collections are stored in a six-story high tower that unfortunately is hidden from view behind the row of tall palm trees on the left. Students conduct research and study mainly inside the three story high wing seen on the right side.

Other libraries are distributed among several large campuses specialized for Music, Atmospheric Sciences, Business, Architecture, Law, and several more for Medicine.

Baby Bear

Here is a break from photos of building, plants, flowers of Miami... This is Bear, a brand new puppy resident of Miami. He is 5 month old, getting accustomed to the climate of Miami and being toilet trained. He'll love it here.

Monster House

Here is a brand new house being built in Miami. This has all the earmarks of a "monster house" in the works. "Mansions" like this appear more and more often here. I can't tell how many rooms it will have, but I can say there will be plenty of them.

As you can see, the blue sky has returned to Miami.

Ylang-Ylang

Although difficult to spot on the tree because of their greenish colors, the flowers of the Ylang-Ylang (Cananga Odorata) perfume-tree show well in this photo. This is a fast growing tree that was decimated by hurricane Wilma two years ago. It was cut back to a stump but has now completely recovered, and is constantly in bloom. The flowers are large, greenish yellow (rarely pink), curly like a starfish, and yields a highly fragrant essential oil. The scent is overpowering as I stand close by to take the photos.

This is the flower that world famous Coco Channel used in her Channel No. 5 perfume in 1923. The essential oil of Ylang-Ylang is also used in aromatherapy.

The name Ylang-Ylang is derived from Tagalog, either from the word ilang, meaning "wilderness", alluding to its natural habitat, or the word ilang-ilan, meaning "rare", suggestive of its exceptionally delicate scent. The plant is native to the Philippines and Indonesia and is commonly grown in Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.

Miami Waves

No, I am still in Miami, and not in Hawaii (I wish!) On the way back to Miami, I chose to avoid traffic on US1 and went through the Grove instead. I never did notice that there is a surf shop here but I do see real surf boards displayed in the store's window! Surfing in Miami? Where do they go to get the waves? The ocean around here is flat as a pancake, unless a hurricane shows up. This is a very brave shop owner.

Eat me!

This is a follow up of a previous blog (April 10th) about the jackfruit (Artocarpus Heterophyllus.) This is the full fruiting season of this tree in Miami and I am lucky to stumble on this particular one. It is rare to find a tree so loaded with fruits. This may win the Guiness book of records if it is being kept somewhere. The jackfruit, as many other fruits, can be used for cooking when green and eaten as a fruit when ripened.

This fruit has heavy and sticky latex that is a real nuisance. The latex easily sticks to any surface and it is not easy to remove. If it gets to your shirt, your shirt is a goner! Do not cut the fruit until you have drained as much latex as possible. One way to do that is to drive a large stick to where the stem is, stick it in the ground in your neighbor's yard and let the latex drain through the stick. When cut open, the interior consists of large "bulbs" of yellow and vaguely banana-flavored but very strongly scented thick flesh. That is the part that is eaten. The detached bulbs are seen in the inserts of the photo. Each bulb encloses a large thumb size, smooth, slippery, oval, light brown seed covered by a thin membrane. There may be 100 to up to 500 seeds in a single large fruit. When fully ripe, the unopened jackfruit emits a strong disagreeable odor while the pulp of the opened fruit smells of strong mix of pineapple and banana, but distinctively "jackfruit." Once the taste is acquired, this fruit is delicious. I like it.

The seeds are eaten boiled or roasted. Good to eat, but this is worse than baked beans for after effects. Trust me, don't eat it.

Dying Species?

Here is something that is not seen very often in Miami: a mobile ice cream truck. These are usually run by independent vendors making a living taking sweet treats to kids. I am not sure how they can compete with national franchises that not only monopolize the market, but always create inventive ways to squeeze minuscule mobile vendors like this to death. Now, most high schools do not allow trucks like this one come close to their grounds because they have lucrative contracts pushing other national products.

Remember Mothers

The celebration of Mother's Day can be traced back to Greece in the 1600's, and later in 1872 in the US. In 1907, Mother's Day was first celebrated in a small, private way by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, to commemorate the anniversary of her mother's death two years earlier on May 9, 1905. That started the national tradition of all Mothers being honored throughout the US on Mother's Day in May. Mother's Day is today, May 13th. Flowers, phone calls, family reunion and treats for Mothers in restaurants are traditional gifts for Mothers; and Mothers do not have to do any work today if they don't feel like it. Breakfasts served in bed on Mother's Day is the way small kids say they love their Moms.

Departed Mothers of course are not forgotten so visits are heavy at local cemeteries. There was a big traffic jam at this cemetery where I came to bring flowers and pay respect to one Mother; and to reflect on all Mothers resting here.

Smoke Filled

The blue sky has disappeared from Miami the past few days. You may remember seeing, and some of the comments noticed the perpetual blue sky in my photo blogs. No more these days. America is "on fire" and Florida is doing its share. The drought is so severe this year that wild fires are raging in a lot of different places in the US (one of which is the "paradise" Catalina island in California.)

In Florida, there is a big fire way up at the Florida-Georgia border at Lake City, about 300 miles North of Miami. The fire has scorched more than 180,000 acres and the haze takes over the Miami sky. The sky has looked like this for the past few days, pathetic! The poor lone bird perched on the wire on the left must think the same way. When the sky turns blue again, I will let you know.