April 07th, 2017

 We all see the world differently.  We have different likes and dislikes. We have different opinions, different ideas and different favourite flavours of ice cream.  And this is a good thing. What a boring world it would be if we all exactly alike.

But I sometimes have to laugh at myself and how differently I am seeing the world than even I realize.  Last Sunday, Tim and I went to Historic Spanish Point which is a living history museum near us.   I dig museums in a really big way, any museum, but living history museums in particular so I was excited to go.  I read all of the signs, listened to all of the tour information and enjoyed every minute of our time there.  But days later, when I looked at the photographs, I was surprised at what I chose to capture.

The above photo is probably the most traditional photo I took.  This is the pergola in the restored formal sunken garden on the site of what, at one time, was the winter home of Mrs. Potter Palmer.    It really is lovely there.   Apparently Mrs. Potter Palmer was seriously into gardening because before her death in 1918, she created or caused to be created (I can't imagine that she was actually out there digging in the dirt herself) quite a number of gardens on the estate.

Bertha, that is, Mrs. Potter Palmer, was a very wealthy woman with vision.  So much so that in 1910 she recognized an undeveloped paradise in Florida and before her death she had acquired more than 80,000 acres of land which ultimately became Sarasota County.

  Fortunately she was also a fan of preserving history because there were a number of other charming even older buildings on the museum site. As lovely as Mary's chapel is, these are the only photos I took:

Before Mrs. P Palmer "discovered" the area, a homesteader named John Webb brought his wife Eliza and their 5 children to the area.  He named the area Spanish Point and then settled onto ten acres and worked the land.  They shipped their citrus and other crops from their packing house from their dock which I've managed to capture in photographs as:

I'm certain  that those two photographs really illustrates who they were and how they lived.  NOT!  I have no idea what runs through my mind sometimes.  How did those two photographs end up being the only two I took there? 

There were other buildings.  For instance, the Guptill House.  Frank and Lizzie Guptill built boats and  took in boarders in their lovely home which looked out over the water, until Mrs. Palmer bought their land as well.  She did keep the house and renamed it Hill Cottage. This is the photo I took of that historic home:

Of course, as is the usual way, most history books neglect to mention the people that lived here before the Webbs, Guptill's and Potter Palmer's arrived.  But not Spanish Point.  They are quick to tell of the prehistoric past.  There is evidence of ancient people living in the area dating from 3000 BC to 1000 AD!  Very cool stuff!  Oh yeah, great photo from then too. Here you go:

Oh that's perfectly clear. No it's not. The photo was taken on top of a Shell Midden, that is an ancient rubbish pile that is so tall it actually looks like a hill.  It's the layers within the Midden that reveals to the archaeologists the lives of the people who lived before. Which makes me wonder who future archaeologists will think of us. Hmmmmmm.

Interestingly, to me anyway, is that ancient era ended at about 1000 AD and then it seems that no one else lived in the area until the mid-1800's. So for a very long time, the area was pristine, untouched and unsullied. And then homesteaders grew fruit trees, families took in boarders and Potter Palmers planted gardens. I took a few other garden photos:

There was also a butterfly garden that was breathtaking; the colour, the fragrance, the many, many birds and butterflies were just amazing. And I actually took a lot of photos there. Not one damned butterfly appears in a single photograph. So I'm over it.

Well I surprised myself I guess. And I had a good laugh.  I think the next time we go somewhere, I should be more deliberate in my photo subject choices as opposed to the instinctual and random method I clearly am now employing.

Surprise yourself this weekend!  I hope you give you a chuckle. And then tell me all about it.

'Til next week then, have fun and be safe!