12/14/08 (Sunday): I'm supposed to be addressing Christmas cards right now. Wiley's at home doing laundry and I'm sitting at Books A Million, using their WiFi, drinking hot cocoa and feeling a little guilty about it all! So I'll make this a quick blog.



We had a thoroughly good time helping prepare for a stage Camellia Christmas at Maclay Gardens.



First Wiley and I and one of the rangers clipped camellias from bushes all over the gardens.



Camellias bruise very easily, so we had to put them in padded trays in a single layer.



Some volunteers from the local senior center helped put the camellias in vials of water. We had to put a little hot glue on the back of each blossom to keep it attached to the stem.



It was great fun to chat with these ladies. They were long-time Tallahassee residents and they were as interested in our nomadic lifestyle as I was in their knowledge of the local culture.



Some of the camellias went in a garland of vines over the front door of the house. That's Ranger Dave on the ladder.



Volunteers from the local gardening clubs made arrangements of greenery, camellias, berries, etc. (also cut on the grounds) for Maclay House and the Visitor Center.



Yet more volunteers filled Publix deli containers with sand and candles for luminarias to line the brick walks of the gardens.


My friend, Lucie, came for a visit and graciously volunteered to help with our preparations. (I hope your twisted arm is feeling better now, Lucie).



We finished up just in time, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and then the gates opened and the visitors poured in!





Lucie and I were stationed at the Lakeside Pavilion. Santa and Mrs. Claus were there along with some choir groups. What a lovely (if chilly) way to spend an evening. Thanks, Lucie!




We were supposed to be off for the three days after Camellia Christmas, but they needed someone to work as a docent in the house on Saturday and Sunday. The house is only open for Camellia Christmas and the weekend following Camellia Christmas. Then it opens again from January 1 through April 30 (the season that the Maclays lived there). Since I won't be here when it opens again, I volunteered. I crammed a lot of information from the Docent Handbook and I think I did a creditable job showing the house to a good many folks.

It's an awesome responsibility to be the only person in attendance in a house full of priceless antiques.



The table this arrangement sits on is a refrectory table from Europe. It's over 300 years old. The vase is an antique. The drapes are also antique textiles (linen). Even the lamps are probably valuable. It was great fun!



Lucie and I did have one day off together to catch up with one another. We drove into downtown Tallahassee and went to the museum of Florida history. It was an awesome museum! She also took us to a wonderful restaurant that specialized in buffalo meat (but it did have other selections). It was great to be able to spend some time together.

After we said "goodbye" to Lucie, Wiley and I put in some more hours helping with clean-up. We had to get rid of all the greenery and flowers in Maclay House so it could be closed back up. We were really ready for our next days off! We went kayaking on the Wacissa River.



The Wacissa is a beautiful, very clear, spring-fed river. It's skirted by swamps full of cypress trees.



We saw lots and lots of birds.




It was a relaxing way to spend the day.



That's it for another day, folks! I probably won't blog again until after Christmas. We're leaving here on 12/23 and will start at Gold Head Branch State Park on January 2. We'll be staying with Wiley's folks in Winter Park. I hope everyone has a joyous Christmas.

12/13/08 (Saturday): This is a test blog to see if I can notify Tom and Julie when I post. If it works, I'll be happy to add anyone else to the list. Tom and Julie--please let me know if you received this post!

12/3/08 (Wednesday): We're just back from a Thanksgiving visit with Wiley's family in Winter Park. We enjoyed dinner (with no clean-up required!) at Holiday House. It's nice to be back fairly close to family. Today it was back to work. Wiley was putting pine straw down in some of the beds and I was typing a spreadsheet with some information the manager needs for a phone conference next week. It's quite cool here--high in the 60's today--and went down in the 20's last night!

I've promised several times to posts some pics from our kayaking trip on the Wakulla River.














There were very few flowers in bloom. This was a very strange looking moth or butterfly.














There were turtles everywhere!

















A lot of manatees had also come into the river (which is spring fed and relatively warm) from the Gulf of Mexico. Some of them were so close you could have touched them! They're REALLY big, and I was half afraid one was going to come up under the kayak and topple me!









We also enjoyed a drive up the coast a ways to Panacea. This was Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from the restaurant where we had dinner.















I spent the last week before Thanksgiving decorating the Visitor Center and entrance gate station. I turned these unlikely looking dried seed pods



















into these ornaments for the tree with a little gold paint, red berries and ribbon. They look really nice on the Visitor Center tree!



















Then (along with my co-worker, Donna), we turned the entrance station into a gingerbread house. Some of the decorations were leftover from last year, some we made ourselves.



















I particularly enjoyed making the candy wreath. The candy canes are real, but I made the gum drops out of play doh and glitter glue! What fun!!




















I've got to go home and start some dinner. Catch you next time!