2026 January: Arts & Garden Club & More

 

Sweet Savannah's Ice Cream - Yum!

Since the Celtic Festival ended, we have been extremely busy with a variety of activities / events going on in Marathon. This past week, we have had rain and windy conditions with temperatures dropping down into the 50s. We threw a blanket on the bed and even ran the heat on the boat! The palm fronds in the pictures below tell the wind story as they are all pointing in the same direction!

12 January 2026 - Monday

Most of the Celtic Festival from the weekend was just a blurred memory, but Clark had one last job to address this morning. The "castle" entrances were left until today to be removed. Everything had to be off the fields so they could once again be used for other activities, but the gates could wait. So, Clark grabbed his backpack filled with tools to meet a couple of guys over at the park to take down the last reminders of this year's big event. 

Two of them were put up and two of them had to come down. They are made of a wooden frame with a painted canvas castle "wall", lots of staples and some screws. It is a process to put them together and take them apart.  With this task completed Clark's festival obligations are done until next January!

This afternoon the library had a traveling musician that we saw last year and went to see again - Sean Gaskell plays a handmade 22-string instrument that originates from Africa.

The instrument is unique. It is played with both hands - two thumbs and two index fingers combine to make the chords. 

In between songs he gives the history of how he discovered this instrument and changed from playing the clarinet to the Kora instrument. The one shown below was handmade in 2018. I asked him about traveling with the instrument, and he said he leaves this one on the east coast. He has another one that he uses in Washington state where he calls home. The first Kora was made in Africa circa 1720.

The library has a series of performers coming in this season free of charge. We bought a CD to support Sean.

The next show of interest to us is "Hungrytown" whom we enjoyed immensely last season.

13 January 2026 - Tuesday

This morning I ran off to the library for art class. The instruction was on how to layer watercolors to build a landscape. I failed! I am fine with a pencil or acrylic paints but I am totally ready to give up on watercolors. I threw my efforts in the trash as I walked out the door!

In the afternoon, however, the library offered a crafts session with poured paint. This was a new experience for me, and I really enjoyed it. 

The instructor showed us the "Ready to Pour" paint she bought at Michael's. The picture below shows what she managed to buy with $150 - not much product. 

So, she showed us the products from Home Depot to use to make our own pourable paint. Unfortunately, she struggled to remember the ratio of each product to the others. 1 to 1 to  1 maybe?!

We were given an aluminum tray, a wax paper liner, a metal frame to rest on the tray, and a canvas for our creation.

Ready to create!

We then selected our colors and poured paint into a plastic cup - lots of white followed by whatever colors we liked. I chose shades of blue and turquoise with a touch of silver.

We then poured the paint over our frameworks to create our masterpieces!

My finished painting

Another person's color choices

Depending on the colors chosen, the artworks came out very different from each other. The person next to me had chosen very bland colors. The instructor suggested she get some darker paint to add to the picture and then use a straw to blow on it to move the paint and blend it in with the already poured paint. This gave the resultant picture some texture as well as spruced up the color.

The paint takes at least a week to dry, so we stacked our artwork in the corner of the art room to come back to at the next class in two weeks.

For once Clark did not have guitar practice today. It got moved to Thursday this week. Instead he was on the boat working on our autopilot problem. We have the new autopilot pump sitting in a box in the salon (living room basically) while he figures out what hydraulic connection parts he needs and how to assemble them into hoses for the unit - a real "head scratcher"!

14 January 2026 - Wednesday

Today was laundry day as is every Wednesday. I have the same reserved slot each week to get the job done. Clark and I agreed that after the laundry was done and he had eaten lunch, we would go together via bike to the supermarket in search of bagels and some other items we needed. We picked up various things we needed from Publix but they had no Killer Dave Bagels. We decided we would go to Winn Dixie after leaving Publix to see if they had any in stock. 

When we left Publix, I wasn't thinking about bagels so much as watching where Clark went and trying not to get killed by one of the drivers in the parking lot. We got almost to the marina gate when I remembered we had forgotten to go to Winn Dixie! I told Clark our error.  We decided to go to the boat, put away what we had bought, and then go back out to WD! Of course we got there and they too had no KD bagels! It was not quite a wasted trip, however, as I remembered that I also needed wraps. I had no idea where to find them in Winn Dixie, so we went back to Publix, grabbed them, and headed "home". At least we got a lot of exercise on our bikes - about 4 miles instead of 2!

Later in the day, Clark went up to the Club House area and called me to say there was a Chamber of Commerce "shindig" going on with food that had been brought in for the event. By the time I got myself together and off the boat, there was no food left other than ice cream. I grabbed some of that, hung around for a while, and then headed back to the boat to make dinner for the two of us.

I later learned that the food was meant for the participants of the CofC meeting, but they did not discourage the boaters from sampling the goods.

15 January 2026 - Thursday

We started off today as we do with every Thursday with a pump out of our waste holding tank. After that, Clark had his guitar practice postponed from Tuesday while I decided to partake of the bi-weekly offering of rock painting. It's free so why not!

I did some online research to get ideas for my rock painting artistry. I found a bunch of gnome and mushroom suggestions, so I decided to use those ideas for my rocks. 

The weather today was a mix of wind and rain, so I walked up early for the 11:00 start time. It is normally held by the bar at the pool, so I hung out there. About 10 minutes before 11:00, it started to pour, and I thought about the leader of this project, Grace, coming out to set up - she would be soaked.

Next thing I see a text that the painting has moved into the club house, and so now I am the one to get soaked as I change to the new location. However, at 11:00, the rain stopped long enough for me to move inside! 

Here comes the weather!

Grace was not busy at the front desk, so the two of us painted rocks for slightly longer than the one-hour scheduled. I managed to complete 3 rocks.

Grace had stickers to put on the rocks for anyone who finds one of my masterpieces in the future.

The front that come in with the clouds brought some rain, but it also brought with it a significant drop in temperatures. We went from the 70s down to low 60s and into the 50s overnight.  Given the weather, it was a perfect day for me to dust and vacuum the boat especially with Clark gone. That kept me busy until he returned later in the afternoon. 

The skies went from cloudy ..

to complete fog cover ..

to a sunny day -- all within about ten minutes!

16 January 2026 - Friday

Today did not turn out as planned. The art group I meet with in parks around Marathon was supposed to gather at Safe Harbor Marathon Marina this morning at 10:00. On a nice day it is a very doable bike ride of no more than 2 miles. However, on a cold, windy day, it would be a miserable trip. Well, even those folks with cars decided that they did not want to sit outside today. I had to laugh as the main organizer of these gatherings texted, "Bitterly cold ...". That felt pretty extreme for temps in the 60s!

I had given up on the art session when, at 10:00, I got a text. "Meeting at the library! Now!" I decided to pass and kicked back with my current war novel starring Viking marauders! I guess I am a bit bloodthirsty in my book choices. 

Clark went to the church to practice songs with our friend John. He was gone a very long time as they worked through a lot of details on the songs including figuring out timing, etc. for one they were not familiar with. Between boats and guitars Clark is constantly busy!

17 January 2026 - Saturday

Clark and I decided to spend the day together for a change. Usually I am off to arts, crafts, etc. while he is busy with boat work or guitar. We had an agenda for the day. First we would stop by the Garden Club Show to see what they had to offer, then go to Walgreens for vitamins and Publix (to look for KD bagels). After that we would head east beyond the Marathon airport to visit the Dollar Tree and Bealls. 

Figuring how to dress was a bit of a problem. Being in the outer basin at the marina, it is always colder due to a lot more wind. We sometimes find ourselves in long pants and a jacket while folks at the marina pool are in bikinis. That is not an uncommon event. 

The weather today looked quite ominous in the morning, we decided on shorts, because long pants are a pain on the bike, and layers up top. We carried backpacks for whatever things we might buy along the way.

I specifically wanted to go to the Garden Show because I knew some folks from my art groups would be at the show selling their handcrafted wares. We found a place to stash our bikes and then went to see my friends Pat and Libby at their booths.

My friend, Pat, with her handcrafted and designed jewelry...

Her booth was next to Libby's where she was selling epoxy creations as well as handcrafted greeting cards. 

We walked around and checked out other booths as well. Outside we found a variety of bottles with lights inside,

more handmade jewelry, 

a collection of crazy frogs,

a variety of crosses,

artwork including some "poured paint" options, 

and, of course, a lot of plants!

The hanging air plants shown below are growing in coconut shells!

Also outside, we found "the Pretzel Bar" - a food truck that was also at the Celtic Festival. The variety of flavors was interesting to see.

I wandered over to check out "Juanita's Orchids", which were stunning.

Surprisingly, afterwards, I found Clark going row to row through a number of herbs and plants. 

I thought I would have to drag him away. Meanwhile, I noticed a butterfly busily flying from plant to plant. The vendor informed me that the butterfly was busily laying her eggs in the Milkweed plants.

She was a beauty and very very busy laying her eggs all over the plants there.

When we finally left there, we went inside to see the rummage sale portion of the event.

They were doing a good business

although no one seemed to be pouring over the Christmas table.

They had a table of hardcover books categorized by type - cookbooks, travel, etc. I found that impressive.

Naturally, they had a bake sale table. (I later heard that this table brought in several hundred dollars all by itself!

Having seen all there was to see, we took a quick look in the gift shop and then made our way to our bicycles which we had left hidden in the vegetation. Plants, plants and more plants! I had no idea that the Garden Club was surrounded by a "jungle"!

We left the garden club show at 11:00 and headed over to our next stops. Fortunately, we found KD bagels at Publix this morning. Yay! Now Clark has something quick to eat for breakfast!

Our next stop for the day was unplanned. As we biked past "Specialty Hardware", Clark asked if I wanted to stop in. I replied, "That might be fun". Those turned out to be "famous last words" as once Clark got in the store, it was hard to get him out again! 

By the time he finally did walk out of that store, it was 12:30 and I had to find food for lunch. 

While I waited outside for Clark to exit the store, I checked out the food places nearby. I was feeling a little light-headed and needed something quickly. Next door was a place selling hot dogs - hard no, and next to that was a Cuban restaurant - harder no. Across the street, I could see Driftwood Pizza, checked out the menu, and decided we should go there. 

Almost $50 later we walked out with two wraps, a bottle of water, and 3 cookies. 

I have wanted to go to the Dollar Tree store since I went to a Library Craft session a couple of weeks ago to look at what the Dollar Tree had on hand as art supplies I might want. Sadly, I did not find anything of interest. The one thing I did want I did not find!

Next I wanted to go to Bealls to check out their discounted clothing. Clark wanted to go to the NAPA auto store over the Vaca Cut bridge. We decided to divide and conquer. I bought some clothes and he came back with a coolant pressure testing unit that he has to return when finished using it. 

With our shopping done, we decided to head back to the boat on the shadier side of the highway. We had shed all our extra layers of shirts and jackets and were down to t-shirts at this point and still looking for the cooler side of the street. I suggested to Clark that since we were this far east, we should stop by Sweet Savannah's on the way buy for some ice cream. 

Cupcakes were  also an option, but we came for the "good" stuff.

By the time we got back to the boat, I had biked about 7 miles and Clark, having gone over the bridge to NAPA, had biked about 8 miles. We found some leftovers in the fridge for dinner and then relaxed for the rest of the evening. With Clark and I going our separate ways so often, it was lovely to spend a full day together.