Hiding Out in Horse Country Miami.. Peacocks and Snow Birds...

I bet you've been wondering where I've been . . .

  . . . I've been on vacation back home in South Florida

Down in deep in South Miami... where even in black & white it's overload exotic . . .

Sunset and evening star brings new meanings to Tennyson. 

Actually I'm waiting for the sun to come up to watch the sunrise out here in Horse Country in South Miami Dade County with the chickens and parrots ...and possibly a stray peacock. The picture taken above was in Pinecrest the other day just before sunset as a peacock got into position to watch the sun descend into the sky and end another beautiful day in Miami. He's an iconic relic left over from the Rare Bird Farm that used to be next door to this property. No, not the Parrot Jungle, the original Miami Rare Bird Farm. 

That's a tourist park that was built in some one's back yard. This too is Miami...

Horse country is an area past the expressway, but before the Everglades. Big, huge lots with everything from 40,000 square foot mansions to little run down old 3 bedroom ranch houses overgrown by some of the most beautiful bougainvillea you have ever seen... next to farms selling "live animals" (think on that a bit...) where people raise horses, breed fish, parrots and grow any kind of tropical plant your heart ever desired. It's a living breathing neighborhood where you get wide open vistas of the sky and real estate soars amid the horse fountains and poinciana trees ready to burst forth in a few months in scarlet red. 

Everywhere you go there are horses.... fountains.... signs.... horses, beautiful black stallions being broken in behind the fences or brown and white ponies coming to peek at passerby out on an afternoon walk.

Cuban cowboys or maybe Colombian... no one asks too many questions out here..

There's the iconic, eclectic fish shop that makes the top of the list from the New Times every year..

On the outside it's verdant, green, tropical with never enough palms...

Inside it looks as my brother said grave plots in Key West waiting to be filled...

See what he meant.... he wasn't making this up...

Check the Fish Farm out... it's worth a ride out for a visit to buy some fish for your tank..

http://tropicalfishmiami.com/

We walked around yesterday staring at the Cichlids and Koi.. 

They've been there for 40 years. Obviously, to a weather person that meant lots of questions about what they do in a cold spell or a hurricane. In a cold spell they keep the water running in the tanks and the fish are quite fine. In a hurricane they take down the netting, secure loose objects and let the fish swim around in the tanks... no problem... That's what they said!

Temperature here is cold at night even for a Miami girl living in North Carolina usually. I kept my leggings on with a short skirt and went out on the town in Kendall. That means, my brother and I went to the Barnes and Noble and I read through books on local history for a column I write for the Miami Community Newspapers.

http://www.communitynewspapers.com/kendall-gazette/look-back-tropical-park/

Yup... I'm alive and well out on Bird Road these days. Hanging out, staring at the Cuban restaurants, Bird Bowl and smiling. Watching horses wander by and the sunrise out my bedroom window. Warm days, cool to balmy nights depending on any given 24 hour period. Far away from hurricane season and even further away geographically from my winter coat and boots. Just a short drive down the highway to the Keys and wandering up and down Sunset Drive with my son while he talks on real estate values and the best neighborhoods to live in.

There he is... a fifth generation Floridian with his nephew at Bayside where we had a family reunion and did what all Miami kids love to do... act like tourists ;)

So...now you know where I've been.

There's talk that there is bad weather due to roll into the East Coast in a week or so. Hmnnn. 

Shhhh.... I'm on vacation in paradise...watching palm fronds fritter & listening to the wind in Australian pine trees...and feeling the sunshine on my skin and a tropical breeze. Look carefully at the wrought iron horses on the gate.....  I'm not making this up..

I gotta get going. Got places to go and things to see today. There's a fruit stand down the block calling my name and Commodore Munroe is whispering sailing songs in my brain as I look forward to an evening in Coconut Grove at the Barnacle. 

http://www.thebarnacle.org/our_history.aspx

See...beginning and ending with peacocks ;)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1484115471868101/

Truth is it's winter up north... in five days we go from not a lot of snow to "oh my goodness" so hop on a bus gus... or get leaving on a jet plane...may I say AMTRAK??? Time to head south and enjoy Miami Beautiful... from the bottom to the top. Key West, Key Largo, Homestead, Kendall, Coral Gables, Road Section, Miami and Miami Beach... whatcha waiting for?

Besos Bobbi