Drive You Mild

Books at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens gift shop

More bee-friendly plants at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

The bees really liked these flowers at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (and Clarissa really liked the color)

Relaxing view of koi pond at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Zen contemplation-pond at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Koi pond at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Clarissa’s engagement ring (the wedding is on 05/05/2013)

Maple-glazed sweetbread, with bourbon glaze, orange pecan salad, and maraschino cherries, from “Edison: food+drink lab” in Tampa.

Getting ready to start an aquaponics project

Proof my yard is like this on purpose… ;)

My humble abode

Ok, so I wasn’t exactly “roughing it”…

Maya, looking quite ominous in her box…

Maya, trying to catch the other cat…

One of the hens, wandering around the yard.

Invasive, but pretty

Maya’s favorite spot to sleep

I thought they were going to swarm, but these ladies were kind enough to stick around for a while longer… and I got lots of tasty honey from them.

I normally let nature do its thing… but when I came across this little fella’, I decided to make an exception… It’s an invasive plant called Tropical Soda Apple. I uprooted it and turned it into compost.

An eye-catching display of Winterberries in front of the North Carolina Arboretum.

I’m going to get some of these for my yard!

Clarissa, posing for a shot, during our trip back down the mountain.

Katie, one of the farm dogs, sitting next to me on the swing out back. She slept on the back deck for the entire time we stayed there. So cute.

This was our cabin for the handful of days we spent relaxing in the hot-tub or in front of the fireplace.

We spent a long weekend on vacation in North Carolina at Briar Rose Farm.

It was a beautiful area.

One of the rare times when the cats are actually getting along…

We got about 22lbs of honey out of the hive. Awesome.

Too bad it almost all got given away as gifts…

Next year, I’m keeping it all to myself!

Maya, staying warm with our her electric blanket

Huh? What? Where’d she go?

“I canz use ‘magination now? Vroom-Vroom! Beeeep!”

Found this “Spider” made out of railroad spikes at a landscaping place in Land O Lakes… It’s cool, but — at $350 — far too pricey.