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Saturday, April 13, 2013

A little Florida History


I posted last week on our third trip with friends to The Freezer Tiki Bar in Homosassa...and as usual our tour guides, Jan & Larry, did another fine job introducing us to some local history.

We stopped at Monkey Island!  Yes, this is a small island and, yes, they have monkey's on the island.  You can read about the history of this place here.  Of course, I wanted to try and get a picture of a monkey or two, as we could see them moving around, but not sure you can actually see one of them at the top right in this next picture.  If not, go to the link above or use your imagination!


It was a beautiful evening and just so much fun to see this tourist attraction.  We did walk around and saw some, what looked like,  blue crab in holding tanks.  Yes, there are restaurants all around the Homosassa area so a great place for foodies!

We also stopped at another attraction, The Yule Sugar Mill ruins.  We've driven by this site several times on our way to and from The Freezer so I asked hubby to pull over so I could take pics.  Since I was sitting in the far back of the SUV, Larry was gracious enough to jump out and take some really good pics for me!  Thanks again, Larry!  You did a great job!








This is the Yule Sugar Mill ruins.
















































I love historical sites and reading or hearing about the history that surrounds them.  This sugar mill is quite interesting and I found a site that gives good info on the background on when and how this mill was built (1851).  Check this site if you're at all interested some Florida history!

So now that my little history lesson is over with, it's back to art work!  I'm now starting another small hand project for night time TV watching, called Kantha quilting!  A Kantha quilt is a simple quilt made without any batting and using applique and finished all by hand quilting.  It generally was made using leftover fabrics from clothes or other fabrics no longer being used.

For those who subscribe to Design Matters TV, I'm sure you'll remember when Linda Kemshall did her video on the design process for her Kantha pillow top.  I was really intrigued with this style of quilting and wanted to have a project to work on by hand when my patchwork piece was finished.
 I didn't bring very many sheer fabrics with me, but found some Dupioni silk pieces in my stash so I started to build my top!  Pics tomorrow...I actually started to hand quilt it last night.  I'm also working during the day on Zachery's background for his new home!  Susan and I are meeting Sunday a.m. for a treat at Panera's then off to JoAnn's.  I may need a small piece or pieces of fabric for the 'hill' Zachery is sitting on.  So far my colors are yellow sky, red trees and blue treat trunks!  It is reflective of Dr. Seuss, right!!

Bob is off in a golf tournament today and I'm sure enjoying the beautiful Florida weather...80's this past week and should be continuing until we leave!

1 comment:

  1. Florida is so rich in history. So often we snowbirds stay in our own little enclaves and don't get to know about the area.
    Having friends who have lived here for years has really opened my eyes to all that exists in our slice of Paradise.

    ReplyDelete

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