We were fortunate enough to drive through the Everglades on Tuesday. It was so gorgeous, it inspired me to do a few paintings, but not until we go back through so I can take photos. The last time I had driven through the glades, it was very dry. There wasn't much visible standing water. The grass and trees were brown and sad looking. This time however, was the exact opposite. Florida has had a lot of rain in the last few months so the glades are lush, green and full of water! Right up to the road in some places. Beautiful.


Just out of the glades is the Homestead, Florida City area. It was so much fun to see actual food being grown in the farm fields, not just corn and beans as far as the eye can see. It's a rural farming area with, from what I could tell, about a million plant nurseries, vegetable stands and with out surprise, homes for sale. Cheap. The plant nurseries themselves made we want to have a yard to landscape and the price of housing may even make that possible, some day.

Upon entering the Florida Keys the vegetation changes to a low scrubby bush call the mangrove. I think it's the plant that made the keys possible in the first place. It grows in the salt water and catches the sand and silt that float by with the tides, creating islands.

I absolutely love the color of the water in the Keys, or should I say, colors!? It seems to change from pale turquoise one minute to green to deep blue the next.

The resort we're at has a dock for each site. We've been feeding the snapper fish in the afternoon and just staring down at the brilliant green canal for hours like it was a giant aquarium in the dentists office, minus the anxiety of potential oral drilling.

The jury is still out however, on whether or not the Keys will be our new home. When one is on vacation it is easy to overlook the negatives and fall in love with the mystique and energy of such a charming place. When thinking of making a home in such a place, the negatives show themselves like a flashing neon sign. HOMELESS VAGRANT! DRUNK SLEEPING ONE OFF UNDER A BUSH! GARBAGE IN THE STREET, EVERYWHERE! IGUANAS FALLING FROM THE TREES! DRY ROT! Not to mention that fact that everything costs an arm and a leg but most jobs don't pay much more than minimum wage, even for skilled laborers and artists.

But then again, as I sit here on the water in the warm sunshine and feel the cool ocean breeze, I think, "wages? I don't need no stinking wages!"