Will the Lesson Be Learned?

Ghosts of vacations past.  What do these all have in common?

Beach, Sanibel Island, Florida.

Shells on a Sanibel beach.

 Boats in a Punta Gorda, Florida marina.

Causeway, Punta Gorda

Shopping area, Sarasota, Florida.

Bayshore Boulevard, Tampa, Florida.  I don't think this is the place where the now viral photo of water sucked out of Tampa Bay was taken but it gives you a good view of the bay.

Tampa, taken from Bayshore Boulevard.

Historic home, Savannah, Georgia.

Ravenel Bridge at sunset, looking at Charleston, South Carolina.

College of Charleston, Charleston, South Carolina.

Sanibel.  Punta Gorda.  Sarasota.  Savannah.  Charleston.

What do they have in common?  The photos were taken between 2013 and 2020, before Hurricane Ian (or tropical storm Ian) hit.  Perhaps we should call it "the before time".  True, these cities have been hit by hurricanes and tropical storms before.  But Ian was what some are calling a "generational storm".

Of these localities, perhaps Sanibel/Captiva Island was hit the worst.  The island is cut off except by air or water, and its residents are lacking power and water.  I spent part of yesterday looking at satellite images of Sanibel, trying to see landmarks I remembered from my two visits there.

But let's not mourn what was.

Let's not waste another moment without working on what is.

The storms are getting worse.  More frequent.

How many more "I've never seen anything like this before?" must we hear before we wake up to what is happening?

Climate change isn't a political position to take.  This isn't a political post.

Climate change  It is reality.  We ignore it at our peril, and the peril of our children and grandchildren.

Art (and Sky) #AtoZChallenge #SkywatchFriday

Today is the first day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, when hundreds of bloggers start April 1 with a post whose topic begins with "A".  Every day, except Sunday, we will blog - tomorrow, "B", Sunday off  (although I'll have a non A to Z post on Sundays), Monday, "C", Tuesday, "D", and so on.  Many A to Z's have a theme for the month of April.

I hope you like what I chose. "From Florida to Vermont With Stops In Between".  My theme is not one giving information about travel or tourism. I am simply sharing pictures I hope you like.

If you are new, or returning from last year's A to Z, or a regular reader, welcome!

I normally feature sky photos on Fridays, music on Mondays (sometimes Sundays, too), and participate in a "Wordless Wednesday" (although it's never wordless).  Therefore, on some days, like today, I will be participating in more than one meme.  Besides Blogging from A to Z, I join Yogi and other sky watching bloggers for #SkywatchFriday.

I blogged this when I announced my theme:  "Now, in our most perilous of times, it is so easy to become depressed.  We must fight that urge.  It's so hard to believe in hope, but hope is what is going to keep us going.  It took me a while to find my theme for 2022.  I changed it several times."

I did a little more mind changing in the past three week and decided I will not take a straight line from Florida to Vermont.  I am going to hop around from place to place and not restrict myself to the East Coast. 

Besides the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I am also joining Yogi at Skywatch Friday for his every Friday meme.

So let's start with a sky picture taken yesterday where I live in New York State.   Then, a quick trip to Florida.

Now, art I found in Florida. These pictures were taken in January 2020, the last major trip spouse and I took before the pandemic closed in.

Sarasota, Florida (on the West Coast of Florida) has a yearly outdoor exhibition called The Fence.  This is a traveling photographic public art exhibition, free to the public.  I've seen it twice, in 2019 and 2020.

I was taken by this exhibition of cats.

Punta Gorda, further south on the West Coast of Florida, is justly proud of its mural and other artwork.  Some of these are along the Peace River, such as this manatee mural. 

One panel of a historic mural at the old Charlotte County Courthouse called "The Life and Times of George Brown".  George Brown was an African-American entrepreneur and you can read more about him here.  

The other part of the mural.

This building used to house The Blue Turtle Tavern and Raw Bar; I understand the business has been sold and has a new name.

I didn't come to Punta Gorda to study their murals, and if I get to return, I now know just how many murals this city features.

Not all of Punta Gorda's art is murals.  On a walk near a hotel on the Retta Esplanade, the lights were hidden in casts of various sea creatures.

A butterfly bench.

It's time to leave Florida so here's a statue called The Spirit of Punta Gorda.

On the way to Vermont, which will be my location for tomorrow, I captured gloomy skies and a line up of Canada Geese.

Join me again tomorrow, when I travel to Vermont.

Spirit of Punta Gorda #SkywatchFriday #blogboost

The weather for sunset wasn't promising, but I had learned my lesson last week, and we went to a park in Punta Gorda, Florida just in case.  Am I glad we did.

There, in a park, we found a statue erected after Punta Gorda survived Hurricane Charley.  It's called "The Spirit to Punta Gorda".

This statue was created in 2005 by artist Peggy McTeague and friends, who welded various pieces of metal, including I-beams from destroyed hurricane trailers.  At the base (you will have trouble seeing it in my photos) there is a sundial, with a shadow at 4:27pm marking the time Hurricane Charley hit the city.

Approaching the statue, which is one upright palm and one bowed down palm separated by a sundial.

I think this one was my favorite.

Here you can see both metal palm trees, with real ones in the near distance.

Just think - Punta Gorda ("Fat Point" in Spanish) remained unbowed despite being hit by a Category four hurricane in August of 2004.


Join Yogi and other skywatchers each Friday for #SkywatchFriday.

Day 17 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost