Every fair in the country has rides, food and colorful characters. But the Florida Strawberry Festival remains unique. Its daily slate of top-notch concerts is a big draw that few of its counterparts can match. The Plant City locale makes it convenient to everyone in Central Florida. ...more

February 17, 2009

Brian Pattie didn't want to chat inside the hauler, away from the garage noise. ...more

February 10, 2009

Well, we had a few really cold days there last week. Even my leather jacket got a workout, and that's a rarity. Naturally, this all happened days after my brother and his wife left to go back to Virginia. They complained about how hot it was here in Florida. If only they could have stayed a few more days. While I was in Boca Raton, I took somewhere in the neighborhood of 260 photographs with my digital camera. It's a nice Fujifilm camera that I got last year. I don't claim to know what I'm doing with a camera...I have no idea about things like shutter speed or F Stops, but I'm fairly OK at composing a photo. And when you take 260 photos, you're bound to get at least a few good shots. So I was in Wal-Mart at the Kodak kiosk, getting some photos printed, and everything went just fine. Until I got to the counter, that is. The clerk at the photo lab took one look at a photo of my niece, Bella, and said, "Sir, you can't have these. These were taken by a professional photographer." ...more

January 7, 2008

The plants connected with Christmas have fascinating and sometimes obscure stories to explain why. They tend to come from a mix of pagan and Christian traditions. ...more

December 17, 2007

GO FISHING is a daily look at the area fishing scene through the eyes of local charter boat captains and fishing guides. Today: Ray Markham. ...more

November 14, 2007