For those who know the long, involved tale,
It’s hard to believe 20 years has passed since little Taylor arrived!
I’m very fortunate to have been there and welcome him into the world.
At the time, never could I ever have imagined what was to happen a short time later.
Many lives were altered due to someone whose focus was destruction of so much.
Including Taylor, Jacob and Amber.
Their safety was most important. No matter what.
Amber has had a tough road, but better times seem to be happening as she nears 28 years old.
We can only hope that life has been far easier for Taylor and Jacob despite all that happened at such a young age.
Each year I mark Taylor and Jacob’s birthday with a small, short animated tribute.
Here is this years with the hope of the happiest day for Taylor marking his twentieth birthday!

Happy Birthday, Taylor!!!

History of Brevard County Vol. 1 by Jerrell H. Schoffner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This first volume of the History of Brevard County is as excellent as one would suspect when written and composed by Jerrell Schofner. I think it can be said that if Schofner writes a history, that history can be considered the definitive history of the subject. This is as thorough as any of his works are. Maybe a bit too much. There is a bit too much history of how all of Florida developed with population. I think he could have just focused on the central east coast and kept a better focus of the subject matter. Otherwise, the writing is spot on and spells out everything from politics to trains to citrus production. There are few humorous parts. Schofner is, as always, straight history. Though, there are some signs of his political bent in his writings of the rise of the “progressive” early 20th century. It is the early 20th century that this volume ends. My next stop is volume 2 of the definitive history of Brevard County.

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I joined the Thursday morning hiking group of the Florida Cracker Chapter of the Florida Trail Association for, what turned out to be, a strenuous 6 mile hike through San Felasco State Park. There are many more photos at the Swampy’s Florida site. You can see those by clicking here.

Along the way I got some sketchin’ done, too. Not as much as usual. Below are a couple of the slight scribblings I made along the way.

While hiking it’s always good to be prepared for emergencies by carrying a well stocked Pez container!

We found ourselves in an empty bed of a cypress swamp.

This should be under at least some water. Below is a lonely cypress knee.

Did this illustration of a fishing alligator catching a bass between Friday, December 2nd, and Saturday, December 3rd. Began the illustration at the First Friday event in Downtown Lakeland in front of The General Store. Finished it while at the Pioneer Florida Museum and Village in Dade City the next day. I wasn’t sure what I was going to illustrate at first and then my author friend, Bob Bass, stopped by with his new book about fishing bass and I knew what to draw.

I first sketched out the drawing in pencil on watercolor paper. Then i went over that with ballpoint pen.

Next I added the watercolor. As I painted i was thinking I wish I had slid the gator a bit farther back. The two do look a bit too close.

Finally, I went over the illustration with a dark grey Pitt brush marker. Now it goes off to the printer to make prints of.

Drew caricatures at a birthday party Saturday in Tampa.

Here are a couple photos from the event.

Coming back from overseas, I brought back the infamous Kinder Eggs, made in Italy. It’s been fun opening some of them and finding the toys inside. Terisa Glover surprised me Sunday when she passed along these Kinder toys she acquired via EBay. These figurines are just terrific and very clever, as Kinder always is!

For those who know The Rest of the Story – Here’s my annual tribute for Jacob’s birthday. Now off to get the annual banana split!

Above is the prepped version of the illustration for watercolor. This is an illustration for the Pine Castle Pioneer Days. It’ll be used for the poster, sign and other collateral materials.

This is the watercolored version.

Here is the finished version.

It was park day last Sunday, October 2nd. It was also the 121st birthday of Groucho Marx. A trip to Homeland Heritage Park and Mosaic Peace River Park was in store. Had a great time with Terisa Glover and Sparky as we traversed the area of Homeland, Florida. More photos of the trip will show up at Swampy’s Florida.

It was from the boardwalk at Peace River Park that I drew the sketch above. Below is video of part of the sketch.

Above is a photo of the natural wonder you can take in at Peace River Park.

Here’s a church, which is part of the Homeland Heritage Park.

I later ran over to the week old opened Marshall Hampton Reserve near Lake Hancock in Lakeland. There’s a photo of that soon to appear on the Swampy’s Florida site. My non-Swampy photos didn’t turn out well. Very wild there. Posted as open to foot and equine travelers and apparently to bikers, who nearly ran me down.