Last Days of the White Street Garden

I took these photos a few weeks ago at the corner of White Street and Willis, the former home of the Fair Share Garden or Lions Share Garden.  If I had known that it would be the my last trip to the garden I would have taken more pictures and brought home my Soapwort plant that was still managing to survive.  The garden was lush with wild flowers  and a healthy feeding ground for many birds and insects.  I will never understand why people feel the need to destroy something so beautiful so that they can replace it with a vacant lot.  They even took down the tire swing that the neighborhood kids used to use and the little 'sun' ball on the gnomon for the sundial.  The land was taken over by Daytona State College in a land swap with the Daytona Beach Lions Club.  Unlike many other progressive Colleges and Universities, Daytona State College does not have a garden on it's campus. I was lucky enough to be educated at the University of Washington where daily I enjoyed the large herbal garden on campus.

Beautiful wasn't it? 

This is how Daytona State College left it, utterly flattened.  There are also birds nesting about the mural.  I wonder where they go for their food now?

The flattened the large palm tree that was there even before we planted the garden.  The palm washome to mocking birds and was surrounded by bromeliads. 

Garden ghosts?  Orbs everywhere in this photo looking out towards where the tire swing used to be.

Still signs of life.  A few crash test Aloes survived the trauma.

Not surprisingly, a few irrepressible beach sunflowers.  No doubt those will be found throughout the neighborhood for years to come. 

A timid bloomer.  Not quite all the plants were plowed under.  I hope it makes lots of new seeds to spread around.

Photos of Alexander Springs, Ocala National Forest

My family took me to Alexander Springs for a Mother's Day hike. Alexander Springs is located in Ocala National Forest in Central Florida, about an hour west of Daytona Beach. This particular spring is really wonderful for small children, because much of the swimming area is very shallow. Even my 2 year old was able to walk all the way across one part of the swimming area with her dad. Most of my pictures from the trip, however, are from the wonderful hiking trail. I hope you like them.

Shampoo Bar Giveaway

Brenna at EtsyFix.com is hosting a giveaway for one of my shampoo bars. You can enter to win in one shampoo bar choice by commenting and clicking at her A Little Etsy Love Blog. Don't you love the collage she made for the giveaway with my product photos?

If you haven't heard I have a not of new Vegan Aloe shampoo bars for 2012. The newest 'flavor' is the Lemongrass-Lavender Aloe Shampoo Bar.



I hope you find something you like!

XO,
Cory
http://aquarianbath.com

Spring Time in the Garden

April is a wonderful month in Central Florida- warm, but not too hot. It was a great day to take some photos in the garden with my new camera. It's a HP Photosmart R827 and I am pretty happy with the close up flower shots.

This is a "vick's" plant from Maggie's Herb Farm in St. Augustine. It can be used in a steam for sinus congestion, but I like it best as a low maintenance house plant.



Lavender is not so easy to grow in Central Florida. I was lucky to get a cutting from a friend who had a good variety for our climate. I have also had success propagating it by making cuttings at the end of the summer.



This is an heirloom variety of lettuce that is starting to flower. The lettuce was delicious. Seeds were a swap from garden blogger Ink and Penstemon.



These are cucumber flowers in my garden. This is the first year I've tried growing them.



First year of fruit on my Blue Berry bushes! Yay!

Cool Animal Planet Film: Mermaids the Body Found

My husband sent me a link to this cool Animal Planet Film that aired in Japan. It hasn't been shown in the US. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. I just want to suggest you enjoy watching it with an open mind. ; ) Hope you like it. I've always been a water baby and studied marine biology and science in school, so I really loved it.