Pictures? Why not?

My orchid just finished blooming for the first time in 2 years. I wish it would bloom more regularly, but then it probably wishes it were fertilized once in a while.

Sometime a couple years back I searched in vain for pictures of Royal Poinciana trees. They grow all over Miami and bloom beautifully, but this is the first time in a long while that I got home during the blooming season. This one's on the University of Miami campus. To get the idea of full bloom, image the orange-red blooms covering the whole canopy like a blanket.

Also on campus, ibises! Which makes sense--the school's mascot is an ibis. Quoth the UM website: "Folklore maintains that the Ibis, a symbol of knowledge found in the Everglades and Egypt, is the last sign of wildlife to take shelter before a hurricane and the first to reappear after the storm."

One more...The hippest looking beer I know is Brother Thelonious Belgian Abbey Ale. The better half just ran across a web reference to it (on Cafe Aman), so at the local liquor emporium we picked up a bottle. Proceeds go to the T. Monk Insitute of Jazz. Drink and support music education? Alright, I will!