Feb 21 - now it's flying

While I was in the TSKW office printing some stuff, Bree, a volunteer at The Studios, came in with this.
Diane who was working in the office was thrilled to receive it, turning to tell me it's a really rare thing to see a banana flower. Wow. All I wanted to do was print out some images and here I was having an encounter with a hardly ever seen banana flower.

It turns out it's the flower from a banana tree and they only last a day. It was explained to me that the big red part is like the petals of a tulip, and the interior thingys are like the stamens in a tulip. Except here they will form bananas. The red petal part also doesn't sit upright but is actually inverted on the tree as it drops down to shelter the part-that-will-get-pollinated into what we all recognize as
a bunch, or, a hand, of bananas.

I left the office with my copies and went down the stairs, looking at the foot of the stairs
and the foot prints in the cement at the very bottom of the stairs.

I turned the corner to see this Conch Cruiser(!)
It's painted with housepaint I am told.

So.

Hi.

I'm feeling guilty.

I can't even tell you what I did today except sit, slack-jawed, taking in the sunlight and the warm temperatures. What's happening is I feel the looming end of my artist-in-residence experience and my inevitable return to my place-of-residence.

I keep checking in:
Q. what's the weather like
A. snowy/still snowing/rainy but it'll be icy
And then as I skyped with a friend I showed her the street here with the waving palms, and the beautiful flowers and she showed me snow-capped fences and roofs, bare, gray trees and the deep dark green of the pines.

My only colourful flowers back home were my potted amaryllis plants. One was about to bloom when I left. Surely it is spent now. The other was in full bloom so it's over too. I'll have to buy some african violets or something. Maybe I'll start some seeds. All I know is I am going to have to say goodbye to this place and tonight that seems next to impossible. So, lucky for me it's still over a week away.