The Friendship Oak Gulfport, Mississippi

Friendship Oak

There is a grand old oak tree in Long Beach Mississippi.
It stands on the front lawn of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Park campus, overlooking the Gilf of Mexico.
The campus is graced with many live oaks but this is the mother tree, the largest of them all.

She is older than the United States having sprouted from the earth in approximately 1487.
Before Christopher Columbus.
Before Ponce deLeon.
Before the lost colony of Roanoke Island.
Before any European explorers had walked the land.
She has witnessed our development as a nation, our growth, our progress, our wars and our mistakes.

The Friendship Oak was last  officially measured in 2011 standing 59 feet high with a trunk diameter of 5 feet 9 inches. The circumference of the trunk is 19 feet 9 1/2 inches. It's foliage spreads out 155 feet providing 16,000 square feet of shelter.

It was a great experience to sit in the shade of the tree.  To put my hand on its trunk and feel a part of something so precious. The friendship oak has limbs that have stretched so far out to the side that their weight has pulled them back to the ground where they rest and then continue.
If you are near Long Beach Mississippi I recommend that you come and sit for a while. Breathe the air filtered by it's leaves and enjoy the shade.
It's good for your soul.

Friendship Oak
University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Park Campus
730 East Beach Blvd
Long Beach,
Mississippi

Solomon's Castle

Solomon's Castle. A shining tribute to one mans imagination.

There is a castle in the center of Florida.
It has a moat and turrets and unique stained glass windows.
There is a lighthouse in the moat and a bridge, through a ship that is a restaurant.
Did I mention that the castle is in a swamp?

The 3 story 12000 square foot shining structure is the creation of one man, Howard Solomon, an internationally recognized artist and sculptor.

Mr. Solomon hadn't intended to be the butt of a joke by buying swamp land in the middle of Florida.

He bought the lush woodland during a dry spell. When he came back with his family to build his home Howard discovered that there wasn't enough high ground to construct the sprawling home that he had envisioned so he built a levee to control the water in Black Creek then
started with a small footprint and went vertical.

Stained glass windows in the castle walls.

Howard Solomon invented his house using home grown skills and other peoples junk.  Unfettered by conventional building styles and materials he created a unique and whimsical place to live.

Approaching the castle is quite an experience. It's gleaming 3 stories can be blinding on a sunny day. The exterior walls of the Medieval style castle are covered in shiny silver metal that used to be offset printing plates discarded by a local newspaper.

Dragon window of reclaimed stained glass.

What looks like riveted steel from a distance is actually those aluminum plates attached with roofing nails. There are stained glass windows on every side and each wall of the castle has windows depicting a specific theme.
There are 9 planet windows arranged in order of their distance from the sun, there are 12 zodiac windows.
We saw windows representing nursery rhymes and ones that depicted the 4 virtues:
wisdom
truth
knowledge
generosity.

Throughout our tour of the home and gallery the guide was happy to point out the quirky materials used by Mr. Solomon in the construction of the house and also the design of his artwork.

One of the dozens of train cars designed by Howard Solomon

Referring to Howard as the "Savior of Salvage" the Rembrandt of Reclamation" and the DaVinci of Debris" our tour guide pointed out aluminum cans, oil drums, bicycle gears, coat hangers, and sea shells used in unique ways.

The beginning of the tour lead us through 3 gallery rooms. Mr Solomon demonstrates a love of the ridiculous in the punny way he names his art pieces.
Guarding the gate of the castle are 2 suits of armor. One is painted black, the other white. They are Knight and Day.

Jeb the Bushman

A not quite life sized statue of and elephant is called Jeb the Bushman. It is constructed of oil drums and has clam shells for toenails.
A sculpture of a race car has a V-8 engine. Yes it really does.
There is artwork large and small. Some are freestanding and life size, some so tiny that dozens fit on a small shelf. Chess boards, trains, animals, and carousels made of wood glass and metal. The variety is astounding. I don't think the man ever slept.

The stained glass windows are beautiful seen from  indoors with the sunlight behind them.
The castle has 5 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. It even boasts and elevator that runs of a car battery.
Our tour took us through the house and back outdoors to the moat where the Boat in the Moat, a 60 foot replica of a Spanish Galleon, serves as a restaurant that seats 250 people.
Near the boat is a lighthouse.
Made of balsa wood.
Because its a light house.

At the end of the tour you are invited to stay for a meal and to walk around the grounds and gardens.
If you decide to explore you will come across a replica of the Alamo complete with a Come and Take It cannon and bowling ball cannon balls. You will pass sheds full of future building materials and you may be lucky enough to be visited by a castle cat.

A replica of the Alamo on the castle grounds

Solomon's Castle is located in the south central community of Ona in Hardee County. We drove through miles of farm country roads past orange groves, swamp land and cattle ranches following tiny hand lettered road signs that pointed the way to Solomon's Castle.
Take your sense of humor and a love of the absurd and ridiculous with you or don't bother to go.

Howard Solomon died in 2016 at the age of 81. His family is preserving his legacy and plan to keep  Solomon's Castle open to the public.

Solomon's castle
44533 Solomon Rd
Ona, Florida
33865
open 11-4 Tuesday-Sunday
closed July through September

Castle cat

Bottle Tree Garden

We found a bottle tree.

Actually we found a garden of them shining in the afternoon sun while we were driving back to Ocala from Homosassa Springs State Park.

It was one of those "turn the car around we have to take a closer look at that" moments.

The artists call it a Bottle Tree Park. When completed it will be open to the public so that family and friends can stroll among the sculptures.

We have seen bottle trees before.
We have even chuckled and poked fun at the excellent recycling of all of those wine bottles.

These blue bottles shining in the sun had us expressing ourselves differently.
No redneck lawn ornaments here. This is art.

There were bottle tree garden gates, bottle tree bicycles and framed bottle tree sculptures that reminded us of primitive paintings.

The predominant color was blue, but there were also pale green and clear bottles represented.

We also learned that bottle trees have a long and colorful history dating back to the African Congo in the 9th century A.D.

Folklore would have us believe that spirits can inhabit bottles and that once trapped inside they cannot find their way out. Empty bottles left outside the home capture spirits that are then destroyed in the daylight hours by the heat of the sun through the glass.

I'm all for getting rid of ill humors and other nasty things so a bottle tree may be in our future.

Cubby's Art Studio is home to the Bottle Tree Park.
Cubby's is a stained glass studio that also offers classes in glass fusing. When we return to this part of Florida I would love to participate in one of the Saturday fusing classes.

Cubby's Art Studio
1065 N Paul Drive
Inverness, Florida
34450
(352) 341-0003

- Bonnie, from my iPad

Location:Inverness, Florida