Spring is Springing

Up north, there are stirrings under the snow. Can crocus blossoms be far behind? Here, in Florida, the changes are more subtle, because plants and trees bloom in sequence all year around. Even in January, the hibiscus sport some blooms, although not, perhaps, as extravagant in number as later in the year. Live oaks and palms, of course, look just about the same January through December.

We have very few plants that are deciduous, losing leaves and flowers when the chilly weather and shorter days combine to say, “It’s winter; look dead.” Two of those deciduous plants are the bald cypress and the frangipani, (otherwise known as plumeria) which is naked from about December to March or April.

(The kind of frangipani grown in Hawaii is evergreen and ever-blooming. The flowers are the basis for the lei presented to arriving visitors. We in Florida couldn’t reliably make leis with our frangipani.)

And, apparently, we can’t count on our frangipani to start leafing out in mid-March or in April as usually happens. In the past couple of days, I have noticed that leaves are starting to sprout right now.

Plumeria or Frangipani

Some snowbird friends of ours will be thrown off by this early sprouting; they used to say that it was time to head north when the frangipani began to do its springtime thing. Now, they will have to rely on a more certain date to join the I-75 and I-95 parade of RV’s and passenger cars and vans heading north. That date certain is April 1. There’s still time after that to find all the paperwork needed to prepare income tax returns.

P.S. Sales of my book Goat Water Is Not What You Think about our adventures on the Caribbean island of Montserrat and the build-up to the volcano which destroyed our house are going well. I am pleased by the response.

Buy a copy at:

www.Hawthornepub.com.

www.amazon.com.

Or www.Barnes&Noble.com.

Florida News of the Weird

News of the Weird

Floridians do the darnedest things. Are people that crazy in Ohio or Wyoming? I wonder. The newspaper provides a few chuckles a week, showing the misguided creativity of some of Florida’s citizens. One might say, too, that cruelty knows no limits.

Here are some examples:

1. A husband and wife arranged to have a date at a Florida movie theater. During the previews the husband texted their three-year-old daughter in her day care. A retired policeman sitting behind them didn’t like this one bit and asked the husband to desist. An altercation ensued, during which the husband tossed some popcorn at the policeman.

Or I guess it was the husband who did the tossing. Some witnesses aren’t sure.

In any case, the policeman apparently became enraged, pulled his gun and fired away, killing the husband and wounding the wife in the hand.

2. A very thirsty man walked into a convenience store desiring a six-pack of beer. He didn’t have any money so he offered to trade the three-foot alligator he’d just caught for the brew. He had the gator in a big cooler. The clerk was not amused.

3. Baptism parties can be dangerous, as one Floridian found out. There was some kind of fight when partycrashers realized there weren’t enough food, drink and utensils to go around. They had heard about the party on social media and just showed up. The man who was killed tried to be a good citizen and break up the melee and got in the way of a bullet. Doesn’t everybody pull a gun when party food is insufficient?

4. Police are scratching their heads over this one; A paraplegic man stole a used car from a dealership in central Florida, but was later caught gassing up at a service station. A sales person at the dealership told police he had helped the man into the car, whereupon the thief locked the doors, started the car and gave it the gas by pressing the accelerator pedal with a folding cane. Turns out the paraplegic was driving with a suspended license.

5. A woman ran over her husband in their driveway. She said she didn’t see him lying there and thought he must have been intoxicated. He died at a hospital.

(My book Goat Water Is Not What You Think is available from Hawthornepub.com. Sales are going very well, and I'm happy.)