Mermaid Dreams Can Come True

I absolutely love the story of Nadya Vessey, an Australian woman who lost both her legs as a child only to become a mermaid in her later life (the original story can be found here). It's not only inspiring, but it reminds me of a very fond dream I had as a child, lol.

When I was a kid (7 or 8, I think) I traveled to Weeki Wachee Springs (It was a privately owned amusement park at the time) and my first dream job was born. I wanted to be a Weeki Wachee Springs mermaid *grin* (actually, I'm not sure which came first, Blue Angel pilot or mermaid... but, I digress.)

Needless to say not much came of it except a lingering ability to swim with my legs together, but for a couple years there my favorite response to adults asking me what I wanted to be when I grew up was a mermaid (oh the faces they made, lol). Maybe it was that dream that makes me love this story so much, but then again, who wouldn't like it?

Bulow, Princess Place & Crazy Critters

I had me some fun the other day. I traveled over to Bulow Creek State Park (once Bulow Plantation, where the once thriving sugarcane plantation and mill stood until the Second Seminole War) & The Princess Place Preserve (once Estate) which had an interesting changing of hands from husband to wife to new husband who happened to be an exiled Russian Prince and later after his death from the 'Princess' to new owners and then Flager County and the State of Florida bought it and turned it into a Preserve. The ruins of the sugar mill were interesting, the 'Palace' a beautiful elaboration of traditional cracker house design, the first in-ground concrete pool looked quite tempting ever though not open to the public, but over all it was the Crazy Critters that I had fun with. First the appearance of the not native breed, but definitely Florida born armadillo. Then this little crab followed by a rather shy gopher turtle, then three deer (all does)that were surprisingly still while it took me eight frames to remember that, yes, I have a digital zoom as well as manual and they waited till I had exactly one shot closer up before they bolted. After that I saw another rather more intrepid gopher turtle who decided to not only let me take his photo (totally guessing on that, I have no idea how to tell gender with turtles) before deciding the car was rather too big a turtle to take on as we left. Samples of my favorite pictures from the day are below, I had some fun with shadows and angles at Bulow. (btw, the wood building you see in several of these photos is the Stables at Princess Place and the first few were taken on the drive out)