15 April 2024
Another stunning day! The temp was 62°F when I started my morning walk along Riverland Road. This weather is why people move to Florida. In August, it’ll be the weather everyone moves out of the state.
Along the walk this morning I saw a muscadine vine (Vitis rotundifolia). The vines are not uncommon in the neighborhood but I’ve never seen them bloom or set fruit. When I used to take students to Archbold Biological Station near Lake Placid (Florida, not New York) none of those vines bloomed or set fruit either. I don’t know why they don’t bloom or produce fruit in southern Florida.
The reason I bring this up is Jimmie and I were talking yesterday and we remembered eating muscadines from her yard as kids. Then we got off on the topic of scuppernongs. They are a variety of muscadines and tend to produce larger fruit than muscadines. The fruit is also a yellowish, green color whereas the muscadine is purple when ripe. In my memory, I think scuppernongs were also a little sweeter. I fondly remember eating both as a kid. I think the first scuppernongs I ate were brought over by Uncle Ray and Aunt Minrose.
Years ago when I taught at Itawamba Junior College in Fulton, Mississippi, Effie Kemp and I drove to the Mississippi Delta and visited a winery. We found the wines produced there had won some international awards. The basis of almost all southern wines is the muscadine. All of the wineries I’ve visited in Florida produce wines based on muscadines.
Yesterday I had lunch with Daryl and Bill. I taught with Daryl for many years and they’ve been trying to get me to visit their new digs at The Vi. I finally made it. They went all out for lunch with bagels, salmon, cream cheese, waffles, and just about every other breakfast/brunch item you can name. It was good to see them again after almost a year. Their place is on the 19th floor and overlooks the Turnberry Isle Golf Course and you can see the Atlantic from their windows. They seem to really enjoy their life at The Vi.
This morning I managed to do 1.45 miles on the walk, did my home PT exercises and my yoga stretches and did my laps in the pool. I feel pretty good for the day. The only shadow is a visit to the dentist at 1:30. For the life of me, I don’t understand why we pay good money to be tortured by a dental technician.
It’ll probably be the last visit I make to this dentist. For some reason, they stopped taking my insurance. There was no warning. They just started billing me for the procedures. Strangely, they seem to accept partial payments from the insurance company and bill me for the rest. I still don’t understand their explanation.
Stay tuned!
