Monthly Archives: October 2011

Thrill St. Pete

Posted by Lesley on October 30, 2011 1 comments

It may not be Halloween yet, but the zombies were out last night.  Over 350 lined the St. Pete pier to dance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  In full make-up, Halloween costumes, and ragged clothes, the zombies came to life at exactly 10 p.m.  Thrill St. Pete was part of a global effort to achieve the world’s largest simultaneous Thriller dance.  Thrill the World is an annual fundraiser/tribute to Jackson that started in 2006 with only 62 zombies.  In 2009 when Jackson died, 22,923 zombies danced across 32 countries.

Michael Jackson fan or not, it’s amazing and just plain cool that one person can inspire people around the globe to stop everything and dance.  It was so much fun to watch.  The zombies were all really into it – men, women and children just letting loose – and the crowd absolutely loved it.

Snow White was by far the fairest zombie…The other zombies were much more scary…And of course, Michael…

Grocery Groupon

Posted by Lesley on October 28, 2011 None comments

I just tweeted this, but since my last post was about Groupons, I had to pass this one on too…

Suncoast Organics – Online Deal

$26 for a Custom Organic-Produce Package with Sarasota-Area Delivery Included from SunCoast Organics ($52.99 Value)

Groupons!

Posted by Lesley on October 26, 2011 None comments

Do you know what a Groupon is?  I didn’t get the concept at first, but now that I do, I’m hooked.  They’re coupons for absolutely anything and everything, and they’re awesome.  The deals are sold in large quantities or groups: group + coupon = Groupon.  My sister got me a spa Groupon for my birthday.  I gifted an Old Navy Groupon to my niece for back-to-school.  And now there are get-away Groupons!  But the real reason I’m talking about them is that there are a few things-to-do-in-Sarasota Groupons happening right now:

This one I’ve done and highly recommend: Half Off the Sarasota Medieval Fair  It’s not held on the Ringling grounds anymore, but let’s face it, we were spoiled.  The raucous fun that comes with hurling tomatoes and gnawing on over-sized turkey legs should have never taken place in such a pristine locale.  It’s at the Sarasota Fairgrounds this year November 12-13 and 19-20.

This one I’ve never even heard of, so please leave a comment if you get in on the Groupon and do this.  51% Off Sarasota Gondola Ride from Phillippi Creek Oyster Bar.

Remember these are Groupons; the deals will expire within the next day…but there will be more.  Follow me on Twitter to get the updates – @LettuceShare.

Sunset is for the Birds

Posted by Lesley on October 23, 2011 None comments

Last Sunday, I started my day on Siesta Key Beach.  Today, I ended my day there.  Every once in a while John and I like to feel like tourists, and Sundays at sunset always offer a great opportunity for that.  A drum circle forms on the public section of the beach, so unlike my last trip, there were people everywhere.  But regardless of the sunrise, sunset, drums, dancers, it always seems to be the birds that get my attention lately.

That last picture just doesn’t do the experience justice.  A flock of hundreds was right over our heads, and the birds were vocal.  The chaos of all those chirps together translated into extremely loud screeching.  As I was snapping a picture, my neck and eyes faced up in amazement, John the germaphobe was hunched over shielding his head and face.  It’s supposedly lucky to have a bird s@$# on you, but he deemed us the luckiest people on earth to have that many birds fly over our heads and not s@$# on us.  Finally, the universe gave us one.  :)

2011 Buddy Walk

Posted by Lesley on October 22, 2011 None comments

The Buddy Walk was the best yet!  The weather couldn’t have been nicer, and there were so many walkers that they ran out of t-shirts.  With 1,200 ordered and 100 leftover from last year, that is good news.  And this year’s Grand Marshal?

Queen Ella

The girl who started it all, Queen Ella Quaid, and oh how she embraced her role!  It’s unlike her to enjoy such attention, but she cruised the crowd like a true royal.  A crown suits her.

Team Ella Bella Buddies

But even a queen can’t escape a bored little brother…Great girl, great cause, great day.

What the Buddy Walk Gave to My Garden

Posted by Lesley on October 21, 2011 None comments

Tomorrow marks the Manasota BUDS 10th Annual Buddy Walk, a charity and event I’ve supported since their inception.  Like anyone else, I have my reasons to support this particular cause; their names are Ella and Stacy.  Ella was born with Down syndrome, and Stacy is her amazing mom and one of the founders of Manasota BUDS.  They are also my niece and sister.

Family is the root of why I never miss a Buddy Walk, but an ancillary and quite selfish reason has emerged over the past two years – Mariposa, my favorite nursery, donates to the silent auction.  It’s definitely true when people say there’s no selfless deed.  I’ll be circling that silent auction table like a shark tomorrow.

Prior to last year’s Buddy Walk, I had several butterfly plants scattered throughout the garden and even had plenty of butterfly visitors.  But then I won the butterfly garden package from Mariposa.  Now, I have a real butterfly garden; I just didn’t know the difference.  You think you see a lot of butterflies until you start seeing three, four different types daily.

The package included a cassia tree, milkweed, porter weed, button sage, pentas, and passionvine.  The combination is pure magic.  Sulphur butterflies should have been listed along with the plants as an auction item.  There were caterpillars on the tree and butterflies circling within days.

We get pop-ins, like the White Peacock and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and more than just Sulphurs are regulars.  The Gulf Fritillary is the Norm of our garden right now, constantly sipping at either the porter weed or button sage.

Sleepy Orange on the Cassia Tree

White Peacock Butterfly

Gulf Fritillary on White Button Sage

It’s a small one, but it’s a dream fulfilled.  When I started to really get into gardening, the goal quickly became butterflies.  I got lucky with a few plants; my Mexican sunflowers attracted tons of Swallowtails, and anyone can plant a milkweed to get Monarchs, but it really just depended on the day if I’d see a butterfly or not…not anymore.  Thanks BUDS!

For more information on Manasota BUDS, visit www.manasotabuds.org.  To register for the Buddy Walk or to make a donation, click here.

I normally sleep through this stuff.

Posted by Lesley on October 16, 2011 2 comments

As a former waitress, I’m a night person that rarely goes to bed before midnight.  Accordingly, I’m not the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed type.  I may get to work at nine but don’t really function until ten.  Still my reputation has been somewhat exaggerated over the years.  When my mother missed my call at 8:30 in the morning about six-months ago and she didn’t reach me when she tried back, that alone warranted a call to my sister to see if I was okay.  Seeing as I’m now an adult who holds a day-job, I found this a tad much.  But when I complained to my sister about our mother’s clear overreaction, all she said was, “Well, it was weird that you called so early.”  Geesh, you just can’t shake a reputation with your family, so here’s the proof that the police should not be called if I’m awake before noon.  Due to guests, stress, life, whatnot, I was asleep by 10:30 last night which had me up at 6:30 this morning.  It’s quite the mixed bag when you wake up before dawn… A wolf spider in the bathroom wasn’t exactly encouraging.  Through one squinted eye, had I not heard rumors about it from John’s sister already, I would’ve sleepily assumed this massive spider was a leftover dream fragment.  It was almost the size of my hand, had spikes and was missing a leg.  I’ve never been scared of spiders, but there was no way I was messing with this one…so it was tap, tap, tap with my finger and the sweetest little whisper, john, john... Thirty seconds and a little mumbling later, the bathroom was sans spider and it was off to the beach……much better and most definitely worth getting up in the dark for…at least every once in a while.  That early, the canopy of umbrellas and labyrinth of towels haven’t been established yet, and human foot prints haven’t obliterated the triangle trails of webbed feet in the sand.  The birds outnumber the people fifty to one…  …and it was really nice.

Apple Bouquet

Posted by Lesley on October 9, 2011 None comments

We celebrated my sister’s birthday tonight; and about an hour before dinner, I was feeling inspired.  Over the summer, I saw a magazine article that featured a watermelon centerpiece.  The melon was cut in half and again on the bottom, so it stood straight up.  Gerber daisies were stuck into the pink flesh.  The fluid and sugar in the watermelon feed the daisies to keep the arrangement fresh.

Ubermommy’s gift was Linda Watson’s book, Wildly Affordable Organic.  But when there’s a chance to bring flowers, I do.  So what better vase to accompany that particular book than an organic apple?  I thought it might require some fiddling or possibly carving but not so if you have a skewer on hand.  Poke some holes, and the stems will slide right in.  Then pop it in the fridge until you need it.  Easy, quick, fun, quirky – to all my friends, there are apple bouquets in your future.

Heartbreak Part Two

Posted by Lesley on October 6, 2011 4 comments

I keep thinking about the term chicken keeping.  I’ve seen it and heard it over and over again.  Our local pro-chicken movement is called CLUCK – Citizens Lobbying for Urban Chicken Keeping.  There’s a website, www.chickenkeeping.com.  It’s a common term for having chickens.  You keep them, as if it’s that easy like how we keep photos and sweaters.  The term chicken keeping doesn’t imply how truly difficult a task this actually is.  Keeping chickens happy is easy, but simply keeping them is not.  This was the scene we woke up to this morning:Oreo was snatched by a hawk because for about an hour we forgot about her in the yard.  We thought it was only by our error that she was taken.  We were obviously wrong.  We had also thought that if we put a lock on the door so tricky and tight that Cooper and I both struggled with it, a raccoon or possum would never get into it.  We were wrong again.  We never even considered this form of attack, and now I don’t know what to do.

Even Sammi had won me over…and I’ll admit it, there was a point where I wanted to trade her for another chick.  But we didn’t, and then she started flying up to sit with me in my patio chair.  It was way too cute to not warm up to her.  And Snookie was a lovey from the beginning.  She was so mild that I could pet her, and she’d just stand there.  So what now?  Do I risk more heartbreak in the name of free-range organic eggs, or do I just take a hammer and bust that coop to the ground?  I’m torn.

I’m not a farmer with hundreds of chickens running around.  These are pets we’re losing.  I just had to call Cooper and tell him the news before he saw it on Facebook via my Lettuce Share feed.  On the other hand, there’s a lot of fun and happiness that comes with keeping chickens.

But our options are limited as far as where we can physically keep them – it is urban chicken keeping we’re talking about here.  They start to smell in the house.  They fly around and land on your furniture.  It’s not really an option to keep two chickens in our house for extended periods of time.

Although the guy around the corner lets his chicken sleep in his house.  At the end of each day, Noodle hops up onto the handlebars of his bike and goes to bed.  He lays newspaper underneath the bike to catch her poop.  But let me add this, that guy is single.  Right.

A chicken or chickens simply don’t fit into the dynamic of our family when we’re under our roof, but we do love to have them otherwise.  So what to do now; take a chance; build a steel coop?  I just don’t know this time around.  All I know is that just like Oreo, we’ll all be missing Sammi and Snookie.  This was their last night with us…they took my seat.  And one more thing…as I was feeling sad outside, two rain lilies caught my eye – one open, one about to open. Rain lilies bloom in the beginning of summer after a rain storm.  It’s the end of summer, and we haven’t had so much as a sprinkle.  I’m taking it as an apology/memorial for our girls courtesy of Mother Nature.

Two Chickens Is Better Than One

Posted by Lesley on October 2, 2011 1 comments

It’s been two weeks since our feathered Guido friends moved in, and the experience has been a complete breeze in comparison to the first go around with Oreo.  Life has a way of working out, and we were definitely meant to have two chickens.

Oreo was needy in retrospect, constantly seeking us out inside the house and always following outside close under foot.  These two take care of each other.  They squawk only when separated or scooped.  The easiest way to pick them up is to scoop them up with the palm of your hand so their feet hang between your fingers, and Sammi is really the only one who squawks.  Snookie’s the real sweetheart.

She wasn’t the healthiest chick at first, and she still doesn’t fly quite as much as Sammi, but oh, is she sweet!  She’s reminded me how much I loved birds as a little girl.  We had two birds – a yellow parakeet named Sunny and a macaw named Mr. Magoo.  The latter was a talker, “Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello…,” got the idea?  I didn’t mind though.  I could put a peanut between my teeth, and Magoo would grab it with his beak.  It was a solid stupid pet trick for a 10 year-old and nice to have in my back pocket.Snookie doesn’t peck the way Oreo did, and here’s the real deal on that…the feeling that you’re about to be pecked is as bad if not worse than actually being pecked.  Sammi’s a pecker and a skittish one at that.  The slightest movement in her direction incites ducking, flapping, squawking, and just general dramatics.  I’m not a huge fan, but Snookie likes her him???  TBD…If she does turn out to be a he, we have a deal with the breeder that we can keep trading roosters in for chicks until we have two hens.  But as far as I can tell, two of any gender is still better than one.  It’s apparent now what the breeder meant when she said, “I pick the chickens up in clumps.”  They’re never more than an inch apart.