Flagler College

Went for a tour of Flagler College.

Learned quite a few different aspects of the architecture. 

The who's who towards the end of the eighteen hundreds

The college started out as the Hotel Ponce de Leon, built by Henry Flagler.

Louis Comfort Tiffany contributed the leaded glass windows.

The hotel opened January 12, 1888.

Guests paid $4,000 for an entire season's stay.

Thomas Edison wired the hotel for electricity. He also created this clock, that is right twice a day, because it is embedded in the largest slab of white marble in the northern hemisphere and no one can remove the clock for repair without damaging the marble! 

Four hundred rooms with 80% of them having fireplaces.

Designed by the same men that designed the New York Public Library.

There were magnificent paintings behind the black velvet rope!

Eleven rock crystal chandeliers.

Painted canvases by George Maynard and Virgilio Tojetti.

Built with poured concrete and coquina and wired for electricity three years before the white house!!

He married three wives, one died of Tuberculosis, her care giver, the second wife, sent to an insane asylum and the last wife won the lotto when Flagler died. It was her great-nephew that saved the hotel from demolition with the money she had inherited.  

Edison used these dragon heads to illuminate the courtyard. The dragons had red glass balls in their mouths.  

Every detail had a reason. The fountain was a sundial with the twelve frogs around the base. 

Two towers holding eight thousand gallons of fresh, running, water for the guests.

The rotunda is three stories tall. There are two thousand doors and one thousand windows.

It took Henry Flagler and his buddy, John D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil, two years to construct with three hundred to four hundred men working all of the time twenty four hours a day. 

The first, poured in place, concrete building in the United States. 

I feel as if I am writing a book report for school! The college student, who showed us around, would be surprised at what I could remember from his tour presentation. 

 

The Sun Is Shining

On the way to the beach we always pass
 this nature walk in the Mangroves.

We parked the truck and decided to check it out,
 hoping to see some wildlife.

It was a short trot down a boardwalk under the bridge.

We found tiled plaques of the wildlife
in the marsh!
 

The colors were saturated. Even in the bright sun I was able to get photos of the tiles, the glaze was so rich. 

They were made by the students at the
Florida School For The Deaf and Blind.

The best time to take photos are in the early morning and late afternoon. The sun bleaches the color right out! But the depth of these ceramic paintings held their light.

Just duck under the bridge and walk down into the marsh.

The canopies of Spanish Moss hang low over the roads.

I just had to show you these pictures, even thou they are over exposed, because the sun is shining!

 

Magic Beach Motel

We have a new/old beach that we are going to, these days. We would go to this beach, ten to fifteen years ago, when we lived on this side of town.

Across Porpoise Point, you can see the "ancient city" sky line. 

Steve sits and waits for the Porpoises to swim by and wave their dorsal fins at him!

 St. Augustine light house on Anastasia Island.

Where the ocean comes in and meets the Mantanza River, on the other side is Anastasia Island.

My favorite "square body" is on the beach today! It is an approximately, mid 1980s Chevrolet. I love the camper on the back. Florida vintage.  

 

This is Florida "vintage" at it's finest. Pink Flamingos made out of ceramic pottery. 

Unfortunately, this little motel is scheduled to be torn down.

Magic Beach Motel! Let's hope someone saves the pottery Flamingos and the neon "rabbits out of a hat" sign! 

It was a beautiful day with the sun sparkling on the water and a balmy seventy degrees with wind, out of the northeast at nine miles an hour. We sat along side our truck, to block the wind and were quite comfortable. 

Upon Closer Inspection

Red Cedar in the marsh. 

 

Across the Black Needle Rush.

Reflection as the tide goes out.

Knot in the wood.

The skeleton of remains.

Lowly the Spanish Moss weeps. 

Vegetation in the brackish marsh, along the tributaries, off the Atlantic ocean. 

Upon closer look with my camera lens.

Second Day In December

Good Morning! Kept my head on the pillow. The beauty of being snowed in!

Finally got up to see how much snow dropped overnight. 

There were a dozen or so Chickadees in the Burning Bush.

Every window was a framed snow photo.

I will let you in on a snow problem, the plow truck will not go into four wheel drive. Oh well, fire in the fireplace and baking cookies on this very snowy day.

A cozy morning, down, in the holler.

Signature color in the all white, winter terrain.

Christmas is coming!!