Sweetness

The subtle changes in some of the plant life around the yard suggest that spring is on it's way. Splendid news for those of you in northern climates still feeling the bite of winter's chill. Our Mulberry tree is budding and leaving out. The little "hairy" things next to the leaves are the the Mulberries coming in. Every year we can expect berries the size of a grown man's thumb and amazingly sweet to eat. I guess we should only come to expect this from a year-round fertilized tree. It sits in the drainage area of our septic tank. So you could say it's the fruits of our loins! (ok, that was bad, I admit)

Author's Edit: A little more information about ripe Mulberries: [from http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/mulberry.html]
Origin: The red or American mulberry is native to eastern United States from Massachusetts to Kansas and down to the Gulf coast. Red mulberries are hardy to sub-zero temperatures. They have been planted only to a limited extent in America, mostly on the Pacific Coast. The mulberry makes a good town tree which will grow well in a tub.
Fruit: Botanically the fruit is not a berry but a collective fruit, in appearance like a swollen loganberry. When the flowers are pollinated, they and their fleshy bases begin to swell. Ultimately they become completely altered in texture and color, becoming succulent, fat and full of juice. In appearance, each tiny swollen flower roughly resembles the individual drupe of a blackberry. The color of the fruit does not identify the mulberry species. White mulberries, for example, can produce white, lavender or black fruit. White mulberry fruits are generally very sweet but often lacking in needed tartness. Red mulberry fruits are usually deep red, almost black, and in the best clones have a flavor that almost equals that of the black mulberry. Black mulberry fruits are large and juicy, with a good balance of sweetness and tartness that makes them the best flavored species of mulberry. Mulberries ripen over an extended period of time unlike many other fruits which seem to come all at once.

Moving Pictures

After deliberating more about the decision to move to Finland or New Zealand, I'm not sure we came to any rushing decisions, but I don't feel like we're as stuck as we were. As much as we do love Finalnd and want to be with family there, we have come just as far with our passion to move to NZ. I think we've both come to a place where we believe it would be best for us right now to go to New Zealand even if only for a couple of years. We've worked so hard towards that goal to just shut it off. Not to mention the thousands we've spent so far trying to get ourselves and our cats ready for importation. I feel we're ready for teleportation - wish the rest were that easy. Who knows really what we'll feel tomorrow, but we know that Finland will still be there for us in a couple of years. At least, that's where we stand right now. All that is really left for us to do is sell the house so we can begin selling off our things! Know anybody looking for a house?

On another note: I'm proud of myself, I sat down today with a pencil and piece of paper and sketched from still-life. First time in 7 or more years.

Homesick.

We sent our house guest away Saturday. My brother-in-law, Tomi, who was staying with us for a month left to head back to Finland. The house is again calm and still, and a void is present. Even though he was staying with us, sleeping on our front room, in our space, he wasn't as much of a bother as other guests we have had. It was wonderful to have him around. He is more of a brother to me than my own brothers, more of a friend to me than many of my friends. Now we miss him and are also feeling the pull of being homesick for Finland.

Voicing It Out.

Taking a break from my usual entry about the move, I want only to vent today. Sorry to burdeon you with this, but I feel I need to get it off my chest, and I'm sure I'm not gaining any new readers for it, but I just can't hold it all in right now. Perhaps the stress of the move is getting to me. I have to say that the privatization of health care was the worst step this country has ever taken. Western medicine is KILLING me. I had to pay a lab to take an x-ray $180 smackers right? Then, I go back to my general practitioner who tells me its negative, and pay him for the visit. Then I get ANOTHER bill in the mail, for a Dr I NEVER EVEN MET, who charges me to READ the x-ray. I'm waiting for another bill from the courier service who had to transport the x-ray around town, ...and he'll probably expect a TIP!

There I said it, it's off my chest. I hope whoever "else" is looking at this or whatever search engine "they" are using see this entry and feel the weight of the stress and anxiety of the 45 million citizens in this country without healthcare. I, as one of them, have a voice, and I'm expressing my frustration. Hear me.

Trust.

This is a photo from roughly the area we may be settling in, Lake Taupo, New Zealand. Image courtesy of: http://www.laketauponz.com

Waves of overwhelmedness pound me lately. So many unanswered questions, so many things in the air, so much going on and everything depends on timing. We're uprooting and unbalancing our entire lives. We won't know stability again for a year! I know that even if I had known how difficult this would be, I would still want to embrace the move, but I just wish, from a financial standpoint, we were in a better place. It's an amazing challenge to pick up and move and I feel certainly blessed to be able to have the freedom to do so, even more blessed to be doing it with someone I love, but it makes it all that much more stressful be in a position where we are dependant on the sale of our house to afford the freedom to move. Timing becomes critical. The real estate market here has slowed tremendously and it's becoming a more balanced market. The days of 1 and 2 day listings and sales are over. Houses are sitting for months now without a contract and it seems everywhere I look I see another house up for sale. So, do we sell the car now, should we wait? What about the dishes, the sofa, our personal items, how much do we want to pare down? What if the house doesn't sell for six months, do we lower the price? Already on an abbreviated income because I work independently, once Tanjariitta gives notice, my income will be all that there is for a while, will business be good enough to support it?

I know these things are only just details, and that in the grand scheme of things, the details of the physical world do not define or control us. I have the faith to believe that everything is set to be the way it is supposed to be and all that happens, happens for a reason. I know one lesson I have learned from all of this is that the things we surround ourselves with are only things. I will not be needing so many things again in this lifetime. I also have a stronger bond of faith, trusting that whatever will be, will be. "Keep your head above water." "Keep your eyes on the prize." "Whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve." Montras I live by. ... "Just trust."

We certainly picked an adventure for ourselves and someday I will look back on this with smiles. I know that this is worth it, but there is more grey in my beard these days!

Feeling Like A Tourist

Having guests stay with us from out of town, we're getting out a bit more often. Doing so, I feel more like a tourist here. I guess it's a good way to see Sarasota in this light, the next time I come back here, I WILL be a tourist. This set of photos includes the Ca Da Zan (House of John), a landmark of the Circus and hotel tycoon John Ringling, and of course another sunset.

When I first moved to Sarasota, I quickly dubbed this place "the land of a thousand sunsets." It's really true, every night there is another postcard sunset begging to be taken in by romantics like me. That statement had a double meaning for me, I intended my stay in this town to be no longer than 1,000 days, roughly the duration of my college career here. that works out to 2.7 years. It has now been 10 years. Should I redub the statement then to "the land of 3,650 sunsets?" I have been blessed to be here three times as long as I intended!

More Stuff

Everyday brings more stuff. More to do, more to see, more, more, more. The process of uprooting isn't an easy one. It was difficult to finally make the decision, now I'm seeing how difficult it is to perform the physical tasks of doing it. We've barely scratched the surface of "to do's." The list is so long...

The photo is of part of a sculpture here on the Sarasota bayfront. It's called "High Voltage" by Christine Desiree. It's a large white box with two open ends. Inside are strung thousands of tine pieces of bent metal, all hung so that when the wind blows, they all clink together and make a wonderful harmony of sound. I could stand and listen to it for days on end.

Below are more photos of the model from the last post.

Above: City Scene

Above: Night time at the Circus

Above: A trolley whizzes by

Model Weekend

Photo: Sunset from Longboat Key

Amidst all of the hustle of getting ready to pack up the camp and move on out, we have entertained a fair variety of family, coming down to escape the sharp bitterness of winter. My brother-in-law has been staying with us for several weeks, my sister and her husband as well as my mom and dad stayed with us for a weekend. As my brother-in-law, Tomi, left for Miami to visit a friend for a weekend, the other set of houseguests promptly arrived. It was a wonderful weekend and worked out perfectly. Not having a very large house, my sister, Sandy and brother-in-law, Mike, stayed at my mother-in-law's place a couple of miles away, my parents stayed in their van conversion in the driveway and at night, the house was ours. Not bad for a two bedroom home.


Photo: Family portrait under the Banyan Tree, From left, my dad Jerry, mom, Joanne, brother-in-law, Mike, sister, Sandy, me and my wife Tanjariitta.

We visited the recently renovated John & Mabel Ringling Museum of Art on Sunday. I haven't been there in about 10 years and it was amazing. If you're ever in Sarasota, and have the opportunity, I recommend it highly. One of the aspects that tickled my fancy the most was the scale model of the circus on display. It was the finest piece of craftsmanship I have ever seen. It's a display of the circus in its hey-day of the 1930's. From the workers unloading the steam locomotive, to high-wire acts, every scene dipicted shows the same level of craftsmanship.

Here are some details about the exhibit: "The model represents the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1919-38. To assure its historic accuracy, Howard Tibbals (creator of the model) collected almost one million photographs and measured historic wagons, train cars, and other circus equipment to construct his model at a scale of ¾ inch to a foot. While Howard has never counted all of the pieces, he estimates they number in the hundreds of thousands. The model covers 3,800 square feet, and to walk around it is approximately 450 feet, or the length of 1.5 football fields."


Photo: Tibbals' Creation. It took Howard Tibbals 50 years to complete the exhibit.

I'll have more photos in the coming days. For now, enjoy.