April 29th
A Day at the Beach

Our friend Gregory Volk had to leave far too early. Julie and I did a long and detailed survey of the William Bartram Project for him with all the associates present to ask questions and look at the web site. Meanwhile Dana went for a vigorous horse ride. After this and a brief lunch Gregory reviewed the photos from part one of the Bartram trip while Vincent La France made a portrait of Dana and I. Then it was already time for him to go. It is my sincere hope that he enjoyed the material and has a clear understanding of the project.

Julie, Dana and I then embarked on a brief expedition to Canaveral National Seashore beach. On our way there we got a good look at an armadillo on the side of the road. He was not shy until Julie "pished" him. Then he crested headlong through the bush.

The waves were giant and the winds high on the beach. While Dana and Julie lay on a blanket I scoured the sand for shells, oddities and junk. There was a lot to be had. I tried my luck at fishing but the surf was way too strong and my line quickly fouled with Sargasso seaweed.

We met David at JB' s Fisk Camp for dinner. Since he is Kosher he could not enjoy alligator, shrimp, oysters and anything but grouper which was quite delicious after all. I had a spicy rock shrimp which was great but quite a chore to open.

On our return we finished the artist presentation with Dana, Corrine and Bronwen each showing interesting material. People were exhausted so it was fortunate for Dana that she went first when the audience was freshest. We all struggled through the last presentation since it was so late and we had to listen to soothing voices in a dark room.

May 1st
On the Open Water

My old buddy Nitin and his friend Andre drove down from St. Petersburg with their nice boat for some early fishing in Mosquito Lagoon. We joined them just past 8:00 although we were exhausted. From the boat landing we had to move slowly out to the main channel. We saw both manatee and dolphin nearby. Once out we found the water to be surprisingly low on the flats even though it was high tide the water was often only 2 or 3 feet high. In the distance we could see the smoke from vast brush fire still... the horizon. It seemed immense.

Using shrimp as lures we tried to hook something. In the end I caught two catfish but everyone else got skunked. Still it was nice to see Nitin and nice to be out on the open water.

We returned in time to say goodbye to Julie and hand off our massive bag to her. She had busied herself meeting with all the associate artists. While she claimed to have had a great time, it must have been a lot of work. She was wonderfully generous and encouraging, and fun to have around. The young artists very appreciated.

While Dana did her last spectacular ride I taught the associates how to play croquet with a little set we purchased on line. They did pretty well. Vincent won the first game and Filip the second.

Later that night David and I presented our opera. I had not heard it for over a year. We showed a 6-minute clip of the production after an extensive presentation and we listened to most of the opera. It was dark and grim but people seemed responsive. Both David and I are somehow mystified as to why it has not been produced.

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