I saw mermaids in Florida

 I finally got to visit a place in Florida I've been wanting to visit for some time.  It's away from the crowds of Disney World, where you can enjoy Florida the way it used to be in a simpler, older, slower, more natural setting.  I visited Weeki Wachee, the home of the world famous mermaids in Spring Hill, Florida about an hour North of Tampa.  The mermaids were so amazing and  graceful swimming underwater.  It was all I thought it to be.  Just thinking about the year of mermaid training in order to be beautiful Weeki Wachee mermaids to breathe and swim like a graceful mermaid in a cool natural spring setting surrounded by turtles or fish or manatee in the spring.  During the show, held the mermaid theatre, the mermaids open their mouths to sing, and even eat and drink a coke underwater.  I don't know about you, when I'm underwater, I gotta keep my mouth shut or I'm gonna get waterlogged and sink. But not mermaids.  I'm still wondering how can anyone eat and drink while underwater?  To me, see that was an absolutely amazing feat on top of the unique water show. 

 If you want to see something different in a natural spring water setting, visit the mermaids yourself. Here are a few photos I took. Here is the website to Florida State Parks. - click on the Weeki Wachee Springs Park.  Personally, it was well worth the trip and quite unique to see.  Enjoy.

 

Let me tell you while watching this underwater show in person the colors underwater were very bright and vivid. My camera photos didn't do justice to the underwater colors of the mermaid's costumes nor their flowing hair. They were lovely tail-finned underwater ballerinas and the water was absolutely crystal clear.  

  View this video, Part 1 of 6 one of the mermaid shows at Weeki Wachee.




My next adventure is to lazily float down the Suwannee River in Florida along the Suwannee Wilderness River Trail in a houseboat.

Virginity

Today's the day of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in England.  Did you know Kate is supposed to be a virgin in order to marry William?  My guess is in order to not have any surprises about the bloodline and parents of any children born of Kate, it's necessary she be a virgin.  I don't know of any medical tests to prove virginity, but maybe there is an examination to prove a woman's hymen hasn't been broken. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.  And by the way, sex involves more than intercourse. So, I was just thinking and wondering about virginity.

A royal prince for a lovely princess

Photo credit: jdurham from morguefile.com

The aroma of love is in the air

Photo credit: darnok from morguefile.com

Protecting and guarding your virginity status until marriage in today's culture is not important as it was a few short decades ago.  Virginity used to be something a young woman held onto proudly until her wedding day, reserving her wedding bed as sacred and shared only with her husband. I would think this would make any man proud to know he was his wife's one and only. But now days, from both sides, being virgins is not expected, spoken of, nor barely considered.  What's changed over the past couple decades?  I will tell you what I think has changed.  Marriage isn't taken as seriously as it once was, and sex has become a recreation rather than being a sacred act of sharing your body with your spouse.  I also think fast times, easy travel, the internet, cellphones, movies, living together, has all precipitated us in moving away from "until death do us part" and these are just a few things which have influenced changes in importance and focus away from being a virgin. Today, it's sex without long term commitment. When you get the urge, you do it without any second thought.  If the sexual act produces a pregnancy, then that unwanted pregnancy can easily be terminated without any emotional attachment. End that life. Virginity is dying, it doesn't matter any more about chastity or saving something meant to be spectacularly special between two people for a lifetime. Just a few decades ago, that was the norm, but today it's practically history, and to know someone with their virginity in tact until marriage is a rare occurrence and rare find. For the class of a few who choose to wait in keeping their virginity until marriage, I have to say is a very .  Still, royal families regard virginity as an important mandatory for marriage, or for this one, and the bloodline of the future king or queen of England.  I hope the young royal newlyweds have a beautiful, sweet life together as husband and wife and have the satisfying pleasure knowing they waited each for the other.

Here's a link to 11 benefits to wait to have sex until after you're married. I especially like the numbers 7 through 11 the most.  

The dance of life- two people coming together as one

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Lady Banks and blooms

Lady Banks

It's Spring time around here, and if I overlook the pollen that's giving me fits, it's so colorful viewing the array of flowering bushes and trees. Here are some photos I've taken.

 Wisteria

Flowering Crab Tree

Knockout roses

There are many more blooms coloring the landscape like azaleas, tulip trees, and much more, but I just wanted to share these colorful photos I took while out and about.  Spring has surely sprung. So beautiful! I thank God for His seasons of robust and delightful blooms and aromas.

Fat Girl

To everyone else on earth, it was another day.  But yesterday was the day Fat Girl was put to rest. I had to make the decision to end her misery. It was not an easy decision. I remember the day Fat Girl came on the scene. She came into the world rounder and fatter than any newly born pot belly pig I'd seen, so it was a no-brainer her name had to be Fat Girl.  She was round and quite the good, close daughter to her mother, Elgie.  She learned very well the motherly traits and had a litter of her own. She was strong, and could stand her ground. She could fight the male pigs if they got in her way. They learned not to mess with her.  She was docile and quiet and loved to eat like any healthy pig.  We had an understanding all along. She could take care of herself and I saw to it she had what she needed, and she lived a very peaceful life and was very much a part of the country landscape since 1995.

I remember a few years ago I borrowed a little baby goat for a day to see if I'd like to add a goat to my little farm menagerie, and how other animals would get along with it. After a while I couldn't find Fat Girl.  I looked and looked and later found her in the woods busily building a nest of leaves and twigs. There was no way she was pregnant at the time, so I could only think her motherly instinct clicked in and she was making a nice nest for the little baby goat.  She kept with it and didn't abandon that nest for days even thought I decided to return the goat that same day.

Fat Girl

This photo does not do Fat Girl any justice at all. She was having a bad hair day. Fat Girl was getting old and it was impossible to cut her toenails.  But she loved to have her belly rubbed and to be rubbed all over with oil making her pretty. She never gave me one second of trouble.  Only those who loved their pets can truly understand. I know God does, and I did what I did because I loved her, one of God's creations that I'd had the fortunate opportunity to care for and love for sixteen years. The tears haven't stopped yet.  She was Fat Girl.

I don't think I'm gonna stop missing her.

Sex and spiders

Sex and spiders. Who would have linked the two together?  It's been found that the venom from a spider can help men have better erections.  Check out some of the postings on this subject.
One of the toxins in the venom of the Brazilian wondering spider (also known as the banana spider) has been found to cause lengthy, and I mean time span length,  penis erections, or a condition called priapism.  Hummmm.....now this is interesting. Venom toxin has an effect on a man's erection. I'd like to know how this finding was discovered.   I can see pharmaceutical companies buying lots of these spiders to study venom so they can alter the chemistry and design a substitute venom so it can be patented as a erectile dysfunction drug.  Sure enough, it will come with side effects, unlike the real stuff. Remember why Viagra was taken off the market? It was the nasty side effects.

A 'banana'

Photo credit: messa from morguefile.com

I'm sorry, I can't think of a better image to go with this posting other than a banana.

But just in case you want a more traditional medical method, here are some tips on how to safely purchase the real little blue pill online.  The best to you

Greater love

I'm mindful of the men and women working at the damaged nuclear reactors in Japan. They are to be commended and honored for putting their well being on the line for the sake of their countrymen and families. They are real heroes.  I can't say enough about this, for it is a real act of love. Love is placing the well being of others ahead of your own. Love is acting with regard for others rather than your own safety and well being. Love is sacrifice. Love is unselfishness. Love is able to do without thinking about what you will get from it. Wow. That's what Jesus did when He hung on the cross. Without love, none of us could live a minute.

Love is the greatest gift to give or receive without question.

Love is the greatest

Photo credit: mzacha from morguefile.com

John 15:13  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Hobbel pobbel and monkey bread

I don't ever tire being treated to scrupulous meals. Hobbel pobbel is a new breakfast dish for me and let me tell you, I eagerly volunteer to be the guinea pig and try a culinary dish Bonnie's improving upon in the kitchen and then give her my honest, unbiased tasting opinion of it. She entertained a few guests Saturday morning and made a breakfast fitting for a king.  And lucky me, the next day I had the best kind of leftovers because she added cheese to the remaining hobbel pobbel from the morning before, and told me it's better the day after.  She didn't have to tell me that, my well-functioning taste buds were already bursting for joy inside my mouth.  I have to admit  hobbel pobbel is fantastic with cheese.  And, thinking that couldn't be topped, Bonnie outdid that! She brought out her monkey bread with cream cheese inside. She's told me she's already made notes to improve by 'zesting up' the monkey bread adding orange zest and cinnamon. (See her cookbooks for these recipes).  Bonnie mentioned this recipe is actually a healthy recipe. Try either one and impress someone for breakfast or brunch.  She served the monkey bread up in an oblong dish, the perfect presentation for another wonderful meal at Bonnie's '5-star' table. 

I again told her I would rather pay to eat at her table and refuse a free cruise, unless she packed up enough meals I could take to eat on the cruise rather eat what was served on a cruise ship.  Read  how I longed to be eating at Bonnie's while I was dining on a cruise ship to Mexico.

http://tiny.cc/3eycd- here's more on hobbel pobbel. (I like saying it as much as I like eating it.)
And a hobbel pobbel recipe here.

That's it for now.

Update March4, 2011- Bonnie called and said she's making Zesty Monkey Bread this Sunday.  I will make sure to give my unbiased taste test results along with photos. So check  back later and I think I might include recipes.