Outdoor Wednesday: A Walk Between Raindrops...

Today is Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer hosted by Susan, one of the sweetest people in Blogdom. Today's pictures are a little different. You see Mr. Magpie and I were cameraless one day in St. Augustine, and he kindly loaned me his Blackberry to capture some shots I wanted to share. So please join me today as I join Susan and her friends and take you on a little stroll in St. Augustine after a summer shower.

Be careful to tiptoe around the puddles...



They remind me of the poem by ee cummings where he says the world is "puddle-wonderful"...



This is a row of favorite shops where we've strolled before and have seen the various flags waving...



Well, if you click on the pictures...



You can see the Union Jack reflected in the puddle (for my British friends including Kathy, Lindsay, Jessica, and others!)...



And again at this B&B (we were occupied by the British just before, during, and shortly after the American Revolution as agreed upon by a treaty between Spain and Great Britain)...







Hungry? I see some citrus hanging over the convent wall...



Yep, there it is...



And it's a tad too green to eat...



And don't even think about those green bananas...



Oh, you can't see them? Let's lean in closer...



Look, here's a good shot of them...



If you're really hungry, there's a little French pastry shop around the corner that's been serving pastries and other goodies for over 40 years (Claudie and FiFi, this shot's for you! It's pink, and it's French!)...



I love to stalk this window. It belongs to one of my favorite shops with clothes and accessories perfect for our climate...











Don't know if you noticed it in the pictures, but after raining for three solid weeks, these people were prepared with towels on the sills just in case these antique windows decided to leak...



But these fish don't seem to mind the rainy weather one bit...







And these silly frogs don't seem to mind the rain, either...



And while we didn't need towels on the sills, we were prepared with a boat at our retreat....



Remember, it wasn't raining when Noah built the ark...



And Michelle and David, our friends and favorite pirates, are ready, too. See the ship's sail with the Jolly Roger attached, moored just over their garden wall...



Let's peep through their garden gate to get a better look at this vessel...



Would you look at all of those shiny objects in the form of pirate plunder: colorful seating, statues, and gates with stained glass arches...



And there is the vessel herself...



Just waiting to help their grandchildren escape on fanciful voyages to splendorous kingdoms...



Uh oh! We've been spotted by the guard...



Better take one last look and be gone...



Some other locals took a hint from the sea and had a ship's carpenter finish their restored lookouts...



These sailors, though, are clearly not pirates judging from the design carved onto the end of every fourth lookout...



And speaking of pirates, the Spanish of St. Augustine were attacked at one point by the famed English privateer, Sir Francis Drake. Sir Francis was rewarded by Queen Elizabeth I for pilfering shiny objects from the Spanish for her. Seems that Elizabeth was a bit of a magpie herself. ;-)



During his raids in the 1500's, Sir Francis managed to sack St. Augustine, though he failed to capture it. Not far from our flower beds (that look like they have been sacked from the rains)...



Some archaelogists went digging about...



And found the charred remains of a building and artifacts from the sacking that took place then...



I wonder what tales the dirt beneath these flowers could tell, particularly the dirt beneath the purple queen???



And if you peep behind the shrimp plants in this garden...



There's the site of a well dating to the early 1600's (about the time that my ancestors moved in up the coast at Jamestown around 1616). Near the well, there was an apparent house fire around 1670. Another possible sacking, perchance???



Once the Spanish discovered coquina on Anastasia Island, they built the walls of their homes and the walls of the fort from this native material which readily withstood attacks from enemy ships and angry Indians...



During the daylight hours of a seige, the Spanish would be bombarded by cannonballs which would bounce off the coquina walls of the fort instead of penetrating the walls. It was as if the walls were elastic...



Then at night, the Spanish soldiers would sneak out of the fort, gather the cannonballs, and shoot them back at their attackers...



Pretty clever...



Do you spy something on top of that coquina wall???



It's grey and striped and doesn't look like a coquina block...



Look! It's wiggling...



And jiggling...



Aye, it's a pirate cat! And a handsome lad he is [you, are too, Mr. Magpie, and thanks for the assist in holding the pirate still!]...



Thanks for your time, Pippy...



We'll catch you another day when you're not so busy scouting for sea mice...



In the mean time, in between time, let's take time to smell the roses...



And smile at the daisies...



And curtsy to the purple queen and her split-leaf guards...



And blow a kiss to the passion flowers...



You know how indignant they become when you merely wave...



And honk at a balcony goose...



And tiptoe around a wayward palm frond in the gutter...



And splash in a fountain...



And bid good day to the Stone Rabbit's little terra cotta cousin, Pepe!



Until we see our own little wet walkway and goat cart filled with flowers (I wonder if Barbara the Purple Goat Lady would loan me a goat to match?)...



Ever notice how happy flowers are to see you?



Or better yet, the rain?



These just seem to be smiling...



Or chatting...




And I do declare, this one just winked...



And I'm winking back! ;-)

Thank you so much for visiting me today at my blog, and I look forward to visiting you, too! Please join Susan and her friends for more Outdoor Wednesday posts as they have lots of wonderful things to share. You can get there by clicking here. See you there! :-)



Happy Outdoor Wednesday!

Warmly,


Mrs. Magpie (Sheila) and her new neighbor and friend Pippy... just cattin' around and wondering what Debbie and Baby Kitty are doing! ;-)