drawing a crowd. . .

"Snake Shares His Apple" colored pencil on cotton rag, 11" x 14" 

 matted & framed

a drawing by: art winstanley

"Salvage Hand" colored pencil on cotton rag, 11" x 14" matted & framed

a drawing by: art winstanley 

memorial day

General Order 11 (Sec. 1) - Grand Army of the Republic
"The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but Posts and comrades will, in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit."

Formerly known as "Decoration Day", the day was originally set aside to honor fallen Union soldiers of the
American Civil War.

Shortly after the end of that war, freed slaves disinterred the remains of Union soldiers from a mass grave at the site of a Confederate prison camp in Charleston, South Carolina .
They properly re-buried the soldiers in individual graves, built a fence around them and declared the site an official Union Graveyard.
They returned to the site on May 30, 1868 together with surviving Union soldiers to decorate the graves with flowers and celebrate with patriotic singing and a picnic.
After WWI, Decoration Day was expanded to honor the fallen of all American wars.
Though the alternative name,"Memorial Day" was first floated in the late 1800s it didn't become common until after WWII and later, in 1967, it was made official by Federal Law.

Although there is no nationally prescribed ceremony to observe Memorial Day, as it states in the General Order above, ". . .Posts and comrades will, in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.", towns and cities across the country have developed their own ways of paying respect.

Here again is a bit of Key West's Memorial Day observance at the U.S.S Maine site in our historic cemetery.

the mango tango

Before I started writing this post, the only things I knew about mangoes were that they're juicy, tasty little things, you can't only eat just one and when you do eat them, you need a bowl of water beside you to rinse off your hands.
(they're very juicy fruits)

Mango trees grow all over Key West. On my street alone, there are six mango trees and right about now they're all starting to bear fruit.

So I took  a few pictures and looked the little buggers up. 

The mango is known as the "king of fruit".

Native to South Asia, where they have thrived for over 4,00 years the mango is the national fruit of India, Pakistan and the Philippines where it plays something of a sacred role.

It is a symbol of love and some believe that the Mango tree can

grant wishes.

Legend has it that Buddha often found "tranquility and repose" while meditating in a mango grove.

 I don't have a clue how it happened, but in the 1830's, mangos found their way to Florida.
(and my taste-buds are so glad they did).

But, I don't pick mangoes, I wait for them to fall down to me.
Still there are a lot of dudes around town with very long poles that have a sort of retracting basket on the business end. They can reach way up and pull down as many mangoes as the want, any time they want them.

But here's my thing. . .
The dudes are reaching up, balancing those very very long poles, trying to get a grip on a mango. The pole sways right, the guy side-steps a little to the left. The pole sways left and the guy side-steps a little to the right; It's like a dance between man and his desire for fruit.

It's "the mango tango".

a raining day in paradise

It rained like holy hell for most of today.

It slowed me down a bit;

Gave me time to sort a few things out.

I enjoyed it.