Gamble Plantation; we're under attack

The Gamble Plantation house is just down the road (about 10 miles) from Little Manatee River State Park. On Thursday we decided to drive over and take a look.

We arrived too late for the morning tours, and too early for the afternoon tours.  So after buying our tickets we wandered around the grounds.

This was on one of the lawns.  We think that the long branch is for turning the sugar cane press that it's mounted on, and the big bowls are for cooking sugar cane juice.

I really like the big old trees and the Spanish moss!  During the tour of the house, we learned that this type of tree was not here at the time the house was occupied. At that time, all of this area was stripped to the sandy ground as a fire break. I like it the way it is now.

These plants were growing along the edge of a small water ditch at the back edge of the property.  Their leaves are enormous, as wide as five feet!

As we waited on the front porch for our tour, we met a very nice Florida couple who gave us some insight into places to go and see.

The Ranger-led tour was very good. He gave us good information about the history and the construction of the house. At $6 each, it's a good value.

On our way home we stopped at a Publix store. It has been interesting to explore the different grocery chains as we have traveled across the country.  It looks like Publix may be our Florida store.  

I discovered two great things about the chain. Craig doesn't like bread that has been enclosed in plastic. I found that if I asked, I could buy an unbaked baguette from the bakery, and take it home so we can have a fresh-baked bread for dinner.  The other great thing is that their customer service desk sells rolls of quarters.  These things may be trivial to the rest of the world, but to foodies like us that have to use laundromats, these are big deals! It doesn't take much to make me happy.  :-)

We're being attacked: our Alfa is under attack from a female cardinal. She sees her reflection in the windows of the rig, and keeps banging into the windows trying to drive off "the other bird."

I taped newspapers onto the windows to discourage her. I left them quite loose, hoping the movement of the wind blown papers would also discourage her. This evening she started flying up at the bathroom window. I guess I'll have to cover that too!  

Isn't nature fun?  Hope she appreciates the comics pages!