Call Me Ms. Cellaneous

This post is just miscellaneous ramblings to catch up on some of what's been going on around here.

I've rolled out a fundraising campaign called "Pies for People (and Pets Too!) to raise money specifically for Superstorm Sandy disaster relief.  I am selling vegan key lime pies for $30 a pie, and donating 100% of that $30, yes the ENTIRE amount, to The American Red Cross Superstorm Sandy Relief and The HSUS Superstorm Sandy Relief efforts. I will raise $1000, and $500 will go to each charity.  So far I have sold 11 pies.  I will not stop until I hit goal.  If you are local and would like to buy a pie, give me a call at (305) 872-2015 to place your order.  If you are not local, and would still like to buy, you can donate your pie to the St. Mary's Soup Kitchen on Flagler Avenue in Key West.  In fact, 7 pies have already been donated by people to St. Mary's, and I will have more to deliver this week as well.

This week past the Superboats were back in town for the annual Offshore Powerboat Races. We headed down 2 of the 3 days, and spent most all of Sunday at the Key West Harbor watching the races.  It was a wonderful sunny day and the boating conditions made for very good racing.

It was a beautiful day for the races.
It's an adrenaline rush even just watching! 

Here's some Extreme boats tied up before the final race.

After the races we headed over to Help Yourself on Fleming Street for a fantastic early dinner.  We each had different wraps, and shared some Indian Summer Salad. The food is so good at Help Yourself, we are very fortunate to have them as a solid part of the Keys community.  Usually after the powerboat races food is an issue. Since expanding their cafe and opening their organic grocer this year, they've expanded the cafe hours, til 6pm on Sunday. Bliss.

On Saturday we attended the annual Save-A-Turtle banquet.  It was at the Marathon Yacht Club this year.  Vegan food received consideration this year; there was a vegan pasta choice on the buffet, plus the salad was vegan.  Yours truly did the dessert... a massive chocolate cake filled with ganache, and topped with my best vanilla not-buttercream icing.  I made little turtles to decorate the cake too. When among turtle people, you just cannot have enough turtles representing!

The banquet also offered a recap of this year's turtle nesting and hatch activity in the Keys.  It was not a good year for Keys turtles. We had stormy weather in July that devastated many nests.  I know on Long Beach after those storms, the turtles never really seemed to come back to us.  We had no hatches on our beach this year.  It's very disheartening, and I hope that the whole great beach walking crew comes back for next year.  When there's no turtle hatches, you're simply a glorified beach cleaner, and I'm using the word glorified to be kind.  We go out there in rain, wind, heat and any other weather, every day looking for turtles.  And, picking up trash.  So, when there's no turtles, we're just out there under the searing heat lugging bags of garbage, armloads of carelessly discarded lures, lines and other fishing paraphernalia that can harm wildlife, plus all the other crap that washes up.  For freshman turtle walkers, it can be discouraging.

I blogged extensively about Wyland's visit to the Keys to do the mural restorations and my experiences with various events associated with his work and visit.  Well, I also went back to the Marathon wall to study it since I couldn't go for the dedication.  It is beautiful.  Here are some pictures of the Marathon wall.

Looking up the wall.
It is magnificent!

Close up of the goliath grouper Wyland added.
WOW!

I haven't been up to Key Largo yet (that's so far away in Key's travel!) but I will be in Key West to take photos of the finished wall there very soon.  I'm such a fan of Wyland, and was introduced to his work through the other happy vegan, who has been a fan for decades.

Here the weather has officially kicked summer and we have welcomed fall.  Triple digit heat indexes are gone, and we have had a few days of no humidity.  My doors and windows are open from time to time, and there's that crisp taste in the air that those of us who live here identify with fall... while visitors just don't feel it. That's ok because it's all good.  I expect we'll be about 76-77 degrees today.  I plan to be out there running, but don't say that above a whisper in case my plans tank, ok?

That's about it for now. Oh, if you haven't "liked" us on Facebook you, check us out.  I put posts up fairly often, and will be using that forum to post short notice cancellations as well come high season.  Have a great afternoon everyone!