Skip to main content

Northlandia Leftovers - Part 5

Here I offer a glimpse of Holly Days, a pre-Christmas parade and fun shopping in Emerald City.  I had planned to stay in the Cabin in the Woods but the Wombie and Holly (no relation to Holly Days, or maybe there is!)  twisted my arm to join them in a cocktail at Beer Bellies then watch the parade.  And so I did.  





I have to confess a cardinal error in these camera shots above and below.  Confirming my willingness to confess to stupid photographer mistakes, I thus explain why these are not properly focused.  The last shots I had taken were down at the Bay taking barge shots.  I was in Manual mode.  In these pictures I failed to put it on Auto, which I usually do for these types of pictures.  Because of my ignorance, these are blurry.  No excuse.  And yes, I did have a couple beers before I went to the parade.




Outside Emerald City about 10 miles or so near Joy is a large ranch home, pasture and Butler building, everything looks new, that is home to these draft horses.  It is called Willow Creek Belgian Farm.  These guys were pulling wagon loads of parade spectators.  Big old draft horses, burley and gnarly and full of horsepower.  Back in my G-Burg days, little Michael and I went to Farm King one cold winter day and saw a team of Percherons and I thought they were the neatest things.  The Belgian are smaller but still pretty great hulking beasts.



Comments

  1. That was a fun night.We were supporting the community one beer at a time.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...