MAY; SEASONS CHANGE AGAIN!

 MAY; SEASONS CHANGE AGAIN!

 Well, here spring is not the only season change, May starts our "down time". Things get a little quieter, a little slower, and a lot hotter! I still have four markets a week for May, but that's instead of 5 or 6. The snowbirds have all gone home, so traffic is much slower at the markets now, which is why most of them run October through April.

All your snowbird neighbors have gone north too, so neighborhoods are much quieter. No more coming home from work to neighborhood bar-b-ques, bonfires, and get-togethers. The traffic has died down, and local restaurants and shops have normal capacity- it's not a ghost town, but you can get a table without a two hour wait.

The plants are growing and fruiting again! The orange and lemon/lime trees have tiny baby fruits, and the kumquat has flowers. I am already getting figs and barbados cherries, as well as chocolate mint, garlic chives and two kinds of tomatoes! My starfruit tree has really grown, and so did the moringa! Remember that one big pineapple I had last year? Now that has three pineapple plants growing!(no fruit yet) Everything else is doing well, they just need time to mature.

At this time of year the gulf waters are starting to warm up, but are still a little cool- the canals on the other hand are really getting warm. This means a lot of the wildlife will come into the canals to get warm. We saw a HUGE manatee this past week in the canal! He had to be 8-10 feet long and so big! the picture doesn't do him justice, but if you look you can see he had almost his whole head out of the water!

So this time of year is bitter-sweet, some great things end, some great things start! Now I will have plenty of time to spend creating all those ideas that have been rolling around my head for two years, in my… wait for it…..

BRAND NEW, TOTALLY COMPLETED, AND SET UP WORK SHOP AND OFFICE!!!

 

manatee

new workshopnew officeAnd as I took items out of storage to set up the new shop, I came across some things that made me realize- as I close out April- I had a couple more anniversaries, or milestones! This year on April 28th I have been officially in business, and doing shows for 22 years! And an even bigger milestone- this year marks 40 years that I have been polishing stones! Placing everything just where I want it made me realize, this is my fifth real workshop.How time does fly! I can only imagine what great things await me! I do know I am going to totally enjoy working in here this summer!

Finally- May reminds us how much we appreciate MOM! Without her, you are not possible! Seriously, though, do something that really is all about mom for Mother's Day- maybe even just TELLING her how much she is loved. We all need mom, no matter how old we get. So HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! to all the moms out there!

I hope we all transition well from spring to summer, whatever changes that means we go through- and I'll meet you on the other side of the heat wave in June!

Take care everyone, and remember;

TREASURE THE REAL GEMS IN LIFE!

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