photos and descriptions of what makes our world a pleasure
emphasis on Florida and the Tampa Bay area but also far beyond

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Tampa’s Phap Vien Minh Dang Quang and the Jade Buddha

March 10, 2010
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Every week/weekend in Tampa Bay has a lot of activities, but this weekend has more than most that fit my tastes. One you don’t want to miss is the enormous Jade Buddha for Universal Peace at the Vietnamese Buddhist temple in Town and Country (that area of Tampa on the west end of Hillsborough Avenue).

All [...]

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Mount Dora, Florida

February 25, 2010
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OVERLOOKING LAKE DORA FROM LAKESIDE INN
Mount Dora is a small town in central Florida on the edge of Lake Dora. As you can see in the map below, Lake Dora is just one of dozens of lakes, large and small, scattered throughout this area adjoining the Ocala National Forest.
 
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This past weekend was my [...]

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Vietnamese New Years at St. Petersburg’s Phat Phap Buddhist Temple

February 16, 2010
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Two of the most popular posts at Inkwatu over the few years of its existence are Wat Mongkolratanaram — Palm River Thai Temple and Songkran at Tampa’s Wat Mongkolratanaram and memories of Thailand. Wat Mongkolratanaram is a Thai Buddhist temple, but there are many other Buddhist traditions represented in the Tampa Bay area, many distinguished [...]

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The New St. Pete Dali Museum and politics

February 9, 2010
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New Dali museum under construction
The new Dali Museum
The new Dali Museum being constructed right next to Mahaffey Theater looks exciting. I hadn’t driven down that way until just recently and what I saw took me by surprise. I’m not sure if this is the front or the back of the new museum–that fits with the [...]

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Behind the scenes at the Arbors Records Invitational Jazz Party

January 24, 2010
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Gary Baldassari, Incorporated Magi audio engineer, instructing Full Sail interns on microphones
Teachers and students
 
The tagline for Inkwatu is “Delights, near and far.” Less poetically put, that simply means that this blog is about things that I find delightful: people, places, things, food…and also the good I see some people do. One such instance is the [...]

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Gulfport Trolley Day

January 17, 2010
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Gulfport Hideaway Apartments
 
A good friend recently bought a home in Gulfport, Florida. Attached to this home, in which she will be resident, are four apartments. She calls her complex the Gulfport Hideaway Apartments.
 
Her target clientele are seasonal visitors from abroad. She wanted to confirm that her visitors would not need a rental car, even to [...]

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Who’s your favorite Scrooge?

December 21, 2009
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I know, I know: regardless of your specific religion, the winter holidays are all about sweetness and light. BUT…if it weren’t for Charles Dickens’s unforgettable Ebenezer Scrooge, would there be a Grinch? A Scrooge McDuck? Or, Bill Murray’s wonderful character, Frank Cross, in the 1988 film, Scrooged? Could there even be “sweetness [...]

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Adam’s Nursery & Water Gardens

December 12, 2009
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all pictures in this post taken at Adam’s Nursery & Water Gardens

multiple waterfalls greet newcomers
Who do you call if suddenly you find yourself the owner of a professionally constructed koi pond? That’s the question a friend of mine recently faced after she bought a home in Gulfport, Florida.

interconnecting ponds
In her new backyard was a lined [...]

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Sunday Morning in the Dog Park

November 21, 2009
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Daisy

Grady

Last weekend, I visited my son and his fiancé up in Atlanta. Sunday morning, their two dogs (Daisy and Grady–both pictured above) and my son and I went to a nearby dog park for some fresh air and fun.
 
Anyone who thinks dogs are not sentient beings fully capable of emotions including mischief, joy, anxiety, [...]

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2009 St. Petersburg International Folk Fair photos

November 14, 2009
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PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH FUNNEL CAKE
SPIFFS (the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society — www.spiffs.org/) “is the only independent multiethnic organization of its kind in the United States. It was founded in 1975 as an umbrella organization of ethnic groups who joined together to present a festival during the US Bicentennial Celebration.”
In addition to their annual [...]

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Thai Orchids at St. Petersburg International Folk Fair 2009

November 6, 2009
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Click on any picture in this post for larger image.
SPIFFS (www.spiffs.org/), the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society, is one of the beloved institutions of St. Pete. I’m honored to be their official photographer this year while their regular photographer is in the hospital.

This year, the fair has been moved from the spring to the [...]

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TC Choy’s

September 26, 2009
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A FEW KITCHEN SPECIALS: (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) SALT & PEPPER SHRIMP, FRIED TOFU STUFFED WITH SHRIMP PASTE, CHINESE BROCCOLI IN OYSTER SAUCE, EGGPLANT STUFFED WITH SHRIMP PASTE

I’m proud to announce that the September 2009 issue of Asia Trend Magazine carries my first article and photos as one of their contributing food writers. Asia Trend [...]

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Cassadaga, Florida

September 19, 2009
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The best non-fiction book I have read this year is The Power of Coincidence: How Life Shows Us What We Need to Know, by David Richo. I don’t say that lightly, because I read a lot of books. It’s so good, in fact, that I’ve already begun rereading it.

THE CASSADAGA HOTEL
(note the spirit orb that [...]

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