Early morning light from our new porch
Last year we gave the Big Cypress
Gallery management over to our
daughter, Jackie. We moved to our
home in Naples, but found ourselves
bored. We were too far from the
Big Cypress Gallery to be involved
and too far away from Venice, where
our other gallery & darkroom are
located, to be involved. Clyde was in
a no-man's land. We decided to sell
our home in Naples and build in the
mobile home park where we had, in
2000, purchased a place to stay when
we went up to Venice to work.
We had a two story modular home built.
We made it has environmentally friendly
as we could: white roof, solar panels,
hurricane proof windows, seer 16 A/C, and
LED lights through out.
The living space is 940 sq feet. We wanted
to tone down our "stuff" and try and simplify...
940 sq feet is a good way to do it! It has taken
quite a while to go through all of our "stuff",
but I think we've pretty much got it in control.
Gave all the "stuff" away to Jackie, grand kids,
employees and then whatever was left - if it
was decent - was given to Goodwill.
I am no longer 50 miles from the nearest
grocery store and I am amazed at the convenience
of being to dash to the store and spontaneously
get something!
We are also two blocks from the Rails to Trails
bike route that goes from Venice to Sarasota;
1 mile to the beach; 1 mile to the gallery/darkroom;
1 mile to the grocery store; 2 miles to the library &
art center; 2 blocks to the Venice Little Theatre;
and 4 blocks to the sweet little village of down town
Venice. Not to mention the greatest asset: we are
near Jackie & Neal and the grand kids.
IT'S WONDERFUL!
Tearing down the old mobile home
Pilings put in
Concrete being poured
Placing the modular home onto the
pilings. The whole community turned
out to watch this...surely was fascinating
to watch them do it!
Clyde talking with construction crew
The final house...
Clyde on the front porch overlooking
Roberts Bay
We live so close to the Rails to Trails bike
route that we often head out on our bikes
to go grocery shopping. On this particular
trip we enjoyed the car show the high
school was having.
As we rode past the high school on our
way to the grocery store we saw that there
was a car show. The high school band was
in charge of it and earning money for the
band...decided to enjoy it. FUN!
It was a great show and so much
fun to reminisce about times past...
Niki with groceries
Resting along the bike trail
Beautiful sunset...a wonderful end to
a great day!
