Sun, Sand, and Surf ( or how we spent Sunday)

The little beach along the St. Johns River where the archeology students go to cool down (a short walk from the Kingsley Plantation).







Blaze and DH played in the water for a short time, but I don't swim in river water. It maybe a silly irrational fear, but I had a couple bad experiences with rivers as a child and I don't like swimming in them unless they are so clean that I can see the bottom. The St. Johns also made me a bit nervous because there was so much motorboat traffic that it felt a bit like I was letting my child play in the road.



So, we moved our swimming outing to Little Talbot Island and the Atlantic Ocean.











Little Talbot Island State Park was a great place to go and it really wasn't crowded at all, even though it was a holiday weekend.

What has been found at Kingsley so far this year

I was asked the other day, what the archeologists had found this year at Kingsley Plantation, but Blaze and I had arrived there Friday, just as the students were getting ready to leave for the weekend, so I wasn't able to take pictures of any of their finds. Since then I have found an example of their most exciting find on the website of another plantation.

The students have uncovered two of these hand charms, so far, which is proof, along with the animal burials they have found in past years, of African religious practices.


This particular charm is from Hilderbrand House in Memphis, Tennessee.


This is a hoe that the students uncovered at Kingsley Plantation:



They have also found the flintlock part of a flintlock gun and many old nails.

One group of students has been working out in the wood, trying to find the location of a house that predates the Kingsley house.



* The first picture and the hoe picture were taken by one of the students and posted on Facebook.

Horrible Histories

We have a couple of the books in this series, but I only learned recently that they had been made into a t.v. show and that several of the sketches are available on YouTube. Blaze's best friend and I watch about 10 of these short segments the other day, from all different time periods, and thought they were all funny.

A Few of the Kingsley Plantation Creatures

I did not get any pictures of the creatures that the students complained about most. Horseflies, which have never been a problem before this year, have taken the place of mosquitoes as the number one problem while they're digging.
There were plenty of other insects to look at, though. This grasshopper was in the middle of one of the sandy hiking trails.



These are not small ants. I was watching them at first from the second floor window of the house we were staying in.




This gopher tortoise lived next to the house.




It's only the first few seconds of this video that I found particularly fascinating. I had never seen an armadillo expose it's belly and roll around in the mud like this before.

Inside the Kingsley House

The Park Service has been making a lot of improvements to Kingsley Plantation. There are new sign posts and interpretive displays. The renovations to the house are complete enough that, for the first time, Blaze and I were able to walk around inside (DH had been inside once before).

We were lucky enough Sunday, to be walking up to the back of the house, just as a photography group finished their guided tour of the interior, so DH asked if we could go in and take pictures too.



I think I've mentioned before what an ingenious lay-out this house has. The windows on each corner of the house are there to catch the lovely breezes off of the St. Johns River, to cool the house, even before air conditioning was invented.





The very ornate chairs in the dining room are said to have belonged to Zephaniah Kingsley, but the dishes were donated by the Gibbs family (later owners of the Plantation).





If you would like to learn more about the Kingsley Plantation, posts from the last two field schools can be found by clicking on the "Kingsley" tag at the bottom of this post.

The Riverside Arts Market, Jacksonville (Again, but with all new stuff)

We had enjoyed the Riverside Arts Market in Jacksonville so much the last time we went that we went again this past Saturday and were very glad we did. There were all new entertainers and new local produce available in the farmers market section.



















The most exciting performance was the fire juggler. Blaze was chosen to help with a little pre-show audience attracting. The juggler would throw a ball or a juggling pin to Blaze and when Blaze caught it, the audience would clap wildly to attract more people.

It's Kingsley Time Again

This is the last day of the second week of the U.F. archeology field school at Kingsley Plantation for this year and Blaze and I are on the way out the door to spend the weekend there. I'm sure to bring back lots of pictures, but for now, I'll leave you with this picture of DH that one of his students posted on facebook.

Nellie Bly

After Reading Around the World in 80 Days and seeing it as a stage play, this seemed like the direction to take in our history lessons. This week we have been learning about reporter Nellie Bly and her trip around the World in only 72 days.

Our reading has consisted of these three library books:







The first two books are picture books that can easily be read in one sitting, but the last book is a chapter book.

We also watched this video. The acting is way over the top, but it does have some useful information about Nellie Bly.
AJ's Time Travelers Interview Nellie Bly

The New Bamboo Hut

These floral fireworks are bursting open in celebration of the completion of this year's little bamboo garden hut.





Kentucky Wonder Green Beans and Morning Glories have sprouted along the back wall of the hut.

Porthole Mirror

As I have mentioned before, Blaze's room is very, very small. To make optimal use of the space, I have placed the chest-of-drawers up against the back of the footboard of the bed. Over the weekend, I put together a mirror that looks like a porthole to hang on the back of the footboard. This makes the chest-of-drawers seem more like a dresser with a mirror.

I have no idea what this round metal thing is supposed to be. I bought it for $2 at Skycraft.



I glued some flat round wooden disks, evenly spaced, around the metal ring, and then spray painted the whole thing with metallic gold paint.



I made grooves on each wooden disk with an X-acto knife, to make them look more like screws.
Then I glued a mirror to the metal ring and a piece of wire, for hanging, to the back of the mirror. The mirror was the largest size of plain round mirror that they sold at the craft store. I used lots of glue and didn't worry about being messy, since the back of the mirror won't show and my main concern was ensuring that the mirror wouldn't fall.

Heartless: The Backstory of the Tin Woodsman from the Wizard of Oz

I just saw this for the first time this morning and thought other children's literature enthusiasts might enjoy this. It is the story of how a real man became the tin woodsman, as written by L. Frank Baum in The Wizard of Oz.

Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man from Brandon McCormick on Vimeo.

A short break

I'm going to be taking a blogging break for the next few days. Homeschooling, the elementary school play, the gardening, crafts, cooking, and bamboo building continue, but I'm not going to have time to write. It is time for some serious apartment purging. Twice a year the university sends people through all of the family housing apartments to inspect their cleanliness. The next inspection is coming up next week, so it is time to get Blaze's toys and my projects back under control.

Corner View: Statues

This week's Corner View theme is "statues and fountains", so I would like to present the statue of Albert and Alberta, the University of Florida mascots. I would guess that this is the most popular statue in Gainesville. About a week ago, when graduation was going on, people were lined up, waiting to have a turn to be photographed with these happy looking gators.







To see the other Corner View participants, visit the sidebar on the blog Spain Daily. Since Jane from Spain Daily is still traveling the world this week, our guest host is Joyce from A Perfect Beginning.

Bamboo

All I wanted for Mother's Day was some more bamboo, so I could continue my building project out in the garden.



I have felt like "death-warmed-over" for the past day and a half, since I already had a bad cold when I stayed out working in the garden too long yesterday without a hat. The resulting sunburn and dehydration have made me feel so much worse, and I am now finding it hard to speak. The bamboo cutting mission couldn't be delayed until another day,though, because DH leaves for archeology field school in the morning and will be gone for most of the next 6 weeks (we need him to get into the locked area where the bamboo grows).



Blaze was willing to help by trimming the little branches from the bamboo, as long as he didn't have to walk in the tall weeds. On our previous trip to get bamboo, Blaze had ended up covered with chigger bites when he was sitting in the tall weeds. He never said anything about being bit, so the next day when I noticed his stomach was covered with raised, red bumps, I thought he was coming down with something and we ended up at the doctor's office.



I've continued to work on the trellis and I've also started building I little bamboo shelter, where we'll be able to sit in the shade.



Many plants were affected by the unusually cold temperatures this past winter. The bamboo this year is not a strong as it's been in past years and I'm blaming that on the weather. The banana trees really suffered, as well. There used to be a grove of bananas in the center of the student gardens, but they were all plowed down, when it was believed that they had all been killed by the cold. The roots and stalks of the dead plants were all thrown into a pile together, at the edge of the woods, and now each chunk is growing a new banana tree. I have transplanted two of the new little trees into our garden and they are growing very quickly.