Tag: florida

I like to play a game called “Before My Time.” The game involves a lot of imagination and at least a little knowledge.

Dead fish on the shore gets attention — national media devotes coverage, gubernatorial candidates jab and dodge, business owners fret and tourists fear. But when the dead fish are clear and the red tide dissipates, so does concern for the health of our waters.

Oct. 1 arrived and I threw open a window to bring in fresh air. Ah, autumn, I thought.

We should protect the wild. And pay for our pollution. These are the opinions of a majority of Floridians, based on a University of South Florida statewide survey on conservation and environmental policy.

Question authority. We said so four years ago, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service moved to reduce the protected status for manatees.

We have our origin stories. And many of us who’ve moved from place to place have our arrival stories, the recollections of when we arrived to arrange our lives in a new or unfamiliar location. Some people might remember the year they settled in a new home or a new community. Others might also recall…

The idea of creating community gardens on AMI is taking root in Holmes Beach and I dig the enthusiasm. The Holmes Beach Parks and Beautification Committee is revisiting the concept of creating a community garden in Veterans Park at city hall, 5801 Marina Drive. The Islander reported Nov. 4 that committee members reached consensus to…

My three treasure chests line a wall in my living room. They’re wooden, stand about 6 feet tall and have five shelves each. And they’re filled with all types of jewels. The value of my treasure is immeasurable, priceless, even though the insurance payout on any loss might amount to less than $100. My treasure…

“Why can’t we pet him?” my nephew John asked. The man who’s now 22 was then an 8-year-old boy, standing at a railing around Snooty the manatee’s pool at a Bradenton aquarium. John would return year after year, visiting Anna Maria Island from Grayslake, Illinois, for family vacations and he came to understand why a…

The objectives are stated in bold, capital letters and numbered, so there’s no mistaking their importance. OBJECTIVE 1: PROTECT, RESTORE AND ENHANCE THE DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF NATIVE FISH. OBJECTIVE 2: PROTECT, RESTORE AND ENHANCE THE DIVERSITY AND ABUNDANCE OF NATIVE SHELLFISH. OBJECTIVE 3: MONITOR AND PROTECT THREATENED, ENDANGERED AND VULNERABLE WILDLIFE. Consider these objectives…

Tacked to my office bulletin board is a gift certificate to a beachside restaurant. The sticky note attached reads: “Use for Florida anniversary.” The anniversary — marking the day my wife and I moved from Chicago to Anna Maria Island — arrives Sept. 2. Weeks earlier in 2005 I landed an editing job at a…

I pulled the blanket up to my chin and watched the shadows on the bedroom wall as the seconds ticked toward midnight. It’s been years since I’ve been too frightened to close my eyes and fall asleep, but the screaming at the end of episode five of “Midnight Mass” spooked me. If we still gathered…

Many in America observe July 4 customs — picnics, parades and fireworks orchestrated to the “1812 Overture.” And some keep a July 5 tradition. They walk a section of beach or circle a parking lot at a boat ramp to collect litter. The cleanups may be organized by a city or a nonprofit in some…

“Life’s a beach” is one motto on Anna Maria Island. So is “get ’er done,” a saying I’d not heard until I went to work for The Islander about 15 years ago. A lot of folks I know are more in the “get ’er done” mindset these days. They’re righting a struggling business or organization…

My family celebrates rainbows in June. We fly rainbow flags. We wear rainbow-themed T-shirts. And we go looking for rainbows. We’re just over the moon for rainbows in June. So I found myself wishing for rain the day after Memorial Day and every day since. Rainbows inspire pride, dreams, imagination, curiosity and artistry. To quote…

On Mom’s holiday, we picnicked in a field of wildflowers at Myakka River State Park. On Dad’s day June 20, we’ll fire up the grill in the park. She said: Pâte, please. He prefers barbecued brisket with a side of steak. So Father’s Day will involve turning up the heat on our grill for his…

Love doesn’t keep them together. But sex does. Yes, lovebugs are at it again, coupling in the air and on window screens, patio furniture and especially vehicles. The bugs — a march fly now common to the southeastern United States and Central America — show up in large numbers in late April and May and…

Spring just arrived March 20 but for weeks I’ve been sweeping away signs of the season. Tree pollen — yellow, powdery and sticky — is layered so thick on my patio that it looks like splotches of oil paint. The live oak flowers on the ground in my backyard are piled so thick they look…

Birds do it. Birds fall in love, so goes the popular song by Cole Porter and so says the poem by Geoffrey Chaucer that proceeded “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” by about 550 years. Chaucer wrote “Parlement of Foules” — “Parliament of Fowls” — in 1382 to honor the anniversary of King Richard…

The 2021 legislative session could involve a smoking hot debate. State Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, will ask colleagues in the Legislature to pass a bill authorizing local governments to ban smoking at public beaches and parks. State law preempts regulation of smoking to the state but, in Senate Bill 334, Gruters proposes that “counties and…

Helicopter parent? Not my mom. Free-range parent? Not my mom either. I grew up with a lot of nurture and also abundant freedom to better my nature. So maybe you could say I grew more like a whale calve than a loggerhead hatchling. Loggerheads are totally free-range. They mate. The male swims. The female nests…

“We’re surrounded by water.” A former public works boss on Anna Maria Island would offer the remark, responding to inquiries about flooded roads, parking lots and buildings. Without question, the island is surrounded by water, but we can plan and adjust to be more resilient and need to create a stronger community to deal with…

Scientists identified a new whale species in the Gulf of Mexico. The animal now known as Rice’s whale was formerly known as the Bryde’s whale. The name change doesn’t change the species status — the whale remains endangered. News of the new species broke this winter, with publication of an article in the Marina Mammal…

“We remember.” Across the country, religious groups and community organizations, artists and activists, neighbors remembering neighbors, families mourning family are creating COVID-19 memorials. Some memorials display wooden crosses, some contain paper butterflies, others incorporate videos and photographs. White flags surround a church in Greenwich, Connecticut. American flags fill a lawn in Grafton, Massachusetts. Green ribbons…

Chipped beef on toast served with a side of Tater Tots, black coffee and tomato juice. I placed that breakfast order at a local cafe March 15, 2020. How can I remember the date for such a breakfast? Because that meal with my wife and parents was the last time I dined inside a restaurant.…

My family tree? A crabapple, which blossomed with bright purplish flowers and blanketed the backyard with tiny, wormy fruit. The tree stood at my childhood home when we moved into the house in 1971 and remained standing until 1982, the year I graduated high school. A blight of some kind forced my parents to take…

Vroom, vroom Shhh, don’t tell Speedy. Speedy is my sparkling blue 2011 Ford Fiesta that I determined years ago I’d drive forever. Yet another car has caught my eye, or rather another type of car has caught my eye. I’m proud to say Speedy is no gas-guzzler, as she gets about 37-40 miles to the…

This month, you’ll read and hear a lot about hurricane readiness. Be prepared with enough supplies to last seven days. Be prepared to evacuate. Be prepared to shelter with a hotelier, family, friends with a hot tub. Be prepared to weather the peculiarities of those with whom you may be confined. Be prepared to drink…

I once savored a $120 tomato. I was eating lunch in my kitchen, not dining at a restaurant with Michelin stars. I calculated the $120 cost based on the yield from an effort to grow a container vegetable garden in Anna Maria. One tomato was salvaged before the nematodes invaded the yard and destroyed an…