We might not have leaves changing color here on the Emerald Coast, but we definitely have Autumn Colors of our own.

This simple photo was not re-touched or accented in any way, and was in fact taken on my little iPhone!

I love taking photographs here on the Coast.  The Island offers all kinds of beautiful views, and I have enjoyed so many different ones this year.  It is nearly December, and I won't be able to return to my beautiful Paradise until March, and I will miss all the beauty that is here.

The wind on the water, the sea birds and dolphins and rays and the waves and sand have provided me with so much beauty since I purchased the condo in May.  The variety is endless.  I will be leaving for China in just over a week, and am sure I will find some beautiful views and unusual things to photograph there, but I also believe I will never tire of taking pictures here on the Island.

While I intend to take many pictures over the next few months, I also would like to take a photography course before I return to the Island in May.  You see, I believe that an artist not only creates beautiful things, but also sees beauty through eyes that force him/her to want to share their vision with everyone else.

This simple little picture has me so captivated with all its shading and color that I think I will have it reproduced on canvas.  I can't wait to see China and Thailand and find treasures in the beauty of the landscapes and people there. 

I finished the first week of my Ease Into 5K today, but I am going to repeat the first week before moving on.  The case of whooping cough I had this summer has made stamina a bit more difficult for me.  I am hoping that by backtracking a week, I can help to build back into a greater amount of lung capacity and strength.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I am feeling really terrific now since I have lost 23 pounds.  I got myself outfitted today with a good pair of running shoes and an outfit to go with them.  My bright yellow top makes me very visible, and I have just discovered the wonders of a sports bra!  I wish I had tried one of those a long time ago...really keeps things in place! 

Tomorrow is Sunday and I will be leaving here on Wednesday, so I am trying to squeeze all I can into my last few days here.  Tuesday night we will be attending a Mannheim Steamroller Christmas Concert in Pensacola. I fell in love with the group over 30 years ago, and am glad they are still producing such magnificent music!  We will be going to dinner at a Restaurant in Pensacola called Jaco's which has excellent reviews.  I will, of course be watching very closely what I eat...don't want to blow the diet now!  So, dinner and a great concert will end my season here on the Gulf Coast, but I will be back in the Spring, ready for another beautiful time on the beautiful Island I call home.

GOD BLESS - Peace, Love and Joy

Art and Artists

This beautiful Murano glass pendant was designed by local artist "Dr. Meow", Doretha Jones.  Dr. Jones is an emergency veterinary doctor who has found her passion in making the most extraordinary jewelry I have ever seen.

This tiny jellyfish is housed completely in a glass teardrop.  Look at the tiny beautiful tentacles, the detail is absolutely amazing.  Dr. Meow's passion is evident in every piece of her work.

I had the opportunity to spend about and hour and a half with Dr. Meow this evening.  She is an ebullient and energetic woman who has thousands of beautiful ideas waiting to burst from her brain onto the walls where she displays her amazing work.  She does lovely lampwork beading, wire weaving and wire knitting, interweaving extraordinary pieces of glass and stone into her work.  I have never seen any glass work jewelry more beautifully crafted.

Dr. Meow is a true artist.  Oh, many people can be taught to "craft" and create pretty things.  Painting, glasswork and many other arts can be taught.  But a true "artist" has that creative spark which burns within and doesn't need prompting.  They are bubbling with new ideas to improve their craft at all times. 

Dr. Meow travels to learn new techniques in her pursuit of crafting beautiful glass and metal jewelry. 

I have recently made acquaintance of another local artist here on the Emerald Coast, Lisa Fretina.  Lisa paints.  She paints a huge variety of subjects and is excellent at what she does.   She also teaches others, sharing her knowledge and experience to assist other would be artists to progress.  Lisa is another energetic, bubbly person whose ideas spill out onto canvas in colorful and magical paintings!

The Emerald Coast seems to bring out the best in all the artists who live here.  From Dr. Meow and Lisa to Alan Hoelzle the photographer who seems to capture each and every mood here on the Emerald Coast.  Isn't that a positively glorious photo?  Amazing.

As I said before, anyone can be taught to paint pictures, take pictures and create jewelry, but only a true ARTIST has that special spark that makes their body of work stand out from the crowd! 

I am privileged to know some of those people and their work, and I hope some of you will check it out!  It will lift your spirits.

GOD BLESS - Peace, Love and Joy

Back In Town! Okaloosa That Is!

Yep, I am back on the Island again.  That beautiful, 2 1/2 mile treasure called Okaloosa Island on the Emerald Coast of Florida. 

Had a pleasant five and a half hour drive from Macon today in great weather and arrived to gorgeous weather here on the Island.  What a lovely evening we had  watching people play on the beach, frolic in the crystal green water and search for ghost crabs after dark.

There is just no other place like it in the world!  We had a lovely and delicious lunch at Mulhollows Bistro 215 in Fort Walton Beach on our arrival.  Their food is just superb and the atmosphere and service wonderful.  We just love to visit there often and will be back there again before we leave for Macon on Tuesday.

There is a peace that settles on me every time I come home to Okaloosa.  I hate having to leave and can hardly wait for the day when I can finally retire full time to this beautiful and peaceful haven.  But, for now I am going to enjoy my time here and soak up all the glorious sun, surf and sand that I can before returning to Georgia.  Ah Okaloosa, land of my dreams!

Emerald Dreams

                                                                

                                                                                

As I sat upon the sugar sand facing the emerald waters crashing upon the shore, I felt as if I were in another world, far, far away from the troublesome news I had heard on the television that morning.  I inhaled deeply, drawing in the warm, salty air from the spray drifting across the shore filling my lungs with its refreshing aroma.

            “You okay honey?” My husband had been watching me as I shed my sandals and crossed the powdery, white sand to sit quietly on the shore and wipe a tear from my cheek.

            “I am actually wonderful,” I replied.  “I become a different person when I am here.  You know that.  Here I am not a sixty-five-year-old grandmother, but an Okaloosa Girl.”

            “Yep,” he chuckled.  “I can see it in your eyes.”

I first saw the Emerald Coast two years ago when my husband was assigned temporary duty there to repair some C-130’s.  He is an aircraft mechanic at Robins Air Logistics Center, and we have been in Middle Georgia for sixteen years now.  The closest “ocean” is about three hours from here at Tybee Island.  I have been there several times.  It is nice, but it is not Okaloosa.

I can’t tell you exactly what it is about Okaloosa that captured my spirit, but since the first time I topped the bridge on the Choctawhatchee Bay and spied that emerald green water, I was captivated.  We spent a month there, and before we left, I had a tag on the front of my car that read “Okaloosa Girl.”   When I returned home, my daughter asked why I had not had “Okaloosa Lady” or “Okaloosa Woman” instead of “Okaloosa Girl.”  It was then I told her that it was because when I was there I felt like a girl, carefree and happy and full of life.

I have always loved the water, having grown up on a small creek, the Mattawoman, which emptied into the Potomac River.  We spent many hours fishing, swimming and skiing on that water.  I was sixteen years old before I saw the Atlantic Ocean in Ocean City, Maryland.  Much like when I crossed the bridge to Okaloosa, I was captivated by its size and beauty.  I knew then and there that I was meant to be near this great body of water.

I am a Pisces, and although I don’t really follow Astrological predictions, I do think there must be something to the fact that my sign is a fish.  I feel like I belong in the water.  I am happiest when I am near it or in it or on it.  I can go to the shore and lay all the problems of day-to-day life at the edge of the sea and walk away feeling refreshed and clean. 

The ocean has always made me think about the Creator.  It is always there.  It hides tremendous power under the surface that can go from mirror flat to raging heights in a matter of minutes.  There is so much mystery beneath the surface.  I am at peace at the edge of the shore as the waves pound relentlessly against the sand.

My dream of living out the rest of my days looking at the beautiful waters with the dolphins playing offshore, is about to become a reality.  It is only because of the generosity of Lucy, a dear friend who left me the money for a sizeable down payment, that we will actually be able to retire here.  I knew this particular condo was meant to be mine when I stepped out on the balcony at one o’clock in the afternoon on the day we looked at it for the first time.  Usually you only see the dolphins close to the shore early in the morning when they are feeding.  This day, the water was in a calm state, nearly glassy and of course emerald green.  Just as I stepped out onto the balcony an entire pod of dolphins, at least a dozen, came swimming by to play directly in front of the balcony.  It was an amazing site, with baby dolphins and their parents jumping and splashing only a few yards off the sand.  It was an affirmation for me that I had made the right choice.  This was to be my new home.

This is Okaloosa Island, at Ft. Walton Beach.  It is a two and one half mile sugary white sand peninsula sticking out into the emerald green waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  It is quiet, peaceful and full of life.  There are not only the dolphins I love, but, soaring pelicans floating along just inches off the water in search of breakfast, occasionally rising and then diving rapidly into the water to claim their prize.  There are tiny ghost crabs that only come out after dark, their shells a ghostly white that helps them hide in the powdery sand.  Gobs of giggling children with flashlights “hunt” them for capture and squeal loudly over their tiny treasures when they finally succeed.  Sometimes there are so many flashlights on the shore it seems as if the stars have fallen from the sky to light the edge of the surf.  Then there are all those lovely sea birds that fish each morning along the shore, squealing and squawking their pleasure at the new day.  Schools of thousands of small fish swarm close to shore each morning their splashing sounds audible from my balcony.

I am retired.  My sweetheart still has about seven years before he can retire. In the meantime, when we don’t have it rented, we will be slipping away to this paradise we will eventually call home to renew our spirits and fill our lungs with its sweetness.