Holiday Cheer

 

December 5, 2021

Holiday Cheer

The holiday season is a big deal in Key West and somehow it seems especially so this year as people are going out again, in spite of the rising numbers of the latest Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus. They all seem to be in a pretty good mood as well. I know Kathy has been busy for more than a week, about 40 hours of total work in putting up our annual holiday light display. Our deal is that she puts it up and I take it down, that way we don’t kill each other by trying to do it together, it works pretty well.

She has been especially inspired this year as she added a number of large elements to the display including a large inflatable llama and a big light up Polar Bear which we placed on the roof. Once again we did not enter the lights contest as we were discouraged by the voting procedure that allows for frankly, cheating by padding vote totals that we just find distasteful. 

She does it to bring joy and happiness to those driving by and that it certainly does. Already countless trolleys and trains full of people have been going by the house on a nightly basis, whopping and hollering and often calling out to us by name if they know us. There has been more traffic this year than any previous and I heard that every available train and trolley was sold out.

That could be the reason for the proliferation of rented golf carts that have been driving by every night. It has been an explosion of golf carts full of people going by as well this year, which has added to both the traffic and frivolity of the nightly parade.

The entire island gets caught up in the holiday spirit with the Key West Seaport being the best decorated city-owned property. It is a beautiful Christmas wonderland and is the highlight of the official city décor. Once again this year they had Santa Claus available one evening to take photos with pets with photographer extraordinaire Rob O’Neal on hand to take the photos.

I took Jack down to get what would turn out to be his final photo with Santa. He really enjoys going down and seeing the other dogs and sniffing about in a new place, the photo itself is not his favorite, but he tolerated it well enough and overall it was good to get him out. He even saw his vet Lisa from All Animal Clinic in a non-scary setting which was cool.

While not exactly a holiday party, the annual fundraising gala for the Florida Keys SPCA , POSH, was held at the Audubon House and I wanted to go down and take some photos of the festivities. I love gatherings at that location, it is an absolutely beautiful place and this year they featured live music from the Miami-based fushion band Suenalo.

The party was awesome with great music, food and drinks and a great crowd of people all supporting animals, which is a great cause. It is also a rare Key West occasion to see people dressed up and looking fabulous.  It was a huge success and a really fun evening.

The holidays are in full swing on the island of Key West and sometimes it feels like our house is holiday central with the constant flow of trains, trolleys, bike tours, golf carts, walkers and those in cars coming by to see our lights each night. We get to see friends, some of whom it feels like ages since we have last seen, all without having to leave the house or yard.

Night Garden

November 26, 2021

Night Garden

There was one additional thing that I wanted to do in Miami before driving back to Miami and that was to attend the Night Garden at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens. This annual light show and immersive show of beautiful light décor, special effects and interactive activities returned this year after taking last year off due to Covid. In the three years since it started, I had not had an opportunity to visit and it was something that I have wanted to do.

Just visiting Fairchild is pretty cool in itself, and I had never been at night so this was something that I was really looking forward to. It has been a few years since I even visited the garden and returning for this special event seemed like a good chance. The gardens have been open to the public since 1938 and feature an extensive collection of rare tropical plants; including palms, cycads, flowering trees, and vines.

The collection at Fairchild Gardens includes rare palms, cycads, orchids, and bromeliads. The collections also include different varieties of ginger. Fairchild has the largest collection of tropical bamboo in the world, with 125 species of bamboo.  The Michaux Bahamas Collection includes native woody plants and flora from botanical expeditions to the Bahamian islands. The Montgomery Palmetum consists of the most documented palm collections with species from all over the world.   Fairchild features some of the world's most exotic tropical fruits, such as Durian from the Amazon, Borneo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. 

Fairchild Gardens’ Tropical Flowering Trees collection displays over 740 species of flowering trees from all over the world. The most famous tropical flowering tree in Fairchild Gardens is the cannonball tree.  The tree was planted in 1938 and is known for its fragrance.  It is one of the only cannonball trees in the United States.   

Fairchild is also home to the only rainforest in the continental United States.  Fairchild Garden's two-acre rainforest features waterfalls and cascades throughout the rainforest. The rainforest is composed of plants collected from the amazon.  Also, a misting system was created to emulate an authentic rainforest. 

The Night Garden event is a 45-minute walk through twenty display areas over the 83 acres of the garden that features all sorts of cool lighting, special effects including a talking tree and colorful holiday lighting that illuminates the plants in a cool and unique fashion.

Night Garden opens in mid-November and runs through January 2^nd and is visited by literally thousands each year. It sells out most nights and I was fortunate enough to plan ahead and book my ticket to coincide with my drive home from the book fair. The grounds are filled with 125,000 lights and other cool effects including a cool bubble area and one with fake snow.

The images do not begin to capture how cool the experience is and I am somewhat displeased by how they turned out. Shooting holiday lights at night has always been a weakness in my photography but at least the Night Garden gave me plenty of opportunity to practice, 

I know this is something that I want to add to my annual holiday list of things to do. I can’t wait to bring Kathy back to see it and I am certain that there will be cool things that I did not catch on my initial visit. It is so massive and somewhat overwhelming, but well worth the price of admission.

https://fairchildgarden.org/

https://www.thenightgarden.com/