Chris Gostling
Monday Blogger

What a great morning it is….blue skies and wispy clouds again, beautiful! I will miss this when I return to England a week today. Although there will be signs of Spring in the air with the previously bare trees, branches wooden and stark showing signs of green tips appearing along the branches and one bud bursting into flowers in an attempt to be the first…….I love this time of year, the warm sunshine takes the place of the cold wintry days of February or in the case of this year, large amounts of snow, and I have missed it all being here in the sunshine.

There has been a lot going on this week, yesterday was Mothers Day in England although you do not celebrate it here until May. We also put the clocks forward here although we do that in two weeks time in England, so for now, there is only 4 hours difference instead of 5. I think that I might put the clocks forward ten minutes each day back home, that way losing an hour will not come as such a shock! Other differences include World Book Day in England is March 1^st, although this year it was postponed because of the snow. I love Book Day, children get excited to dress up as their favourite characters from a book and each child gets a token to swap for a World Book Day free of charge. There is usually a choice of 10 books, all by favourite authors, if there are tokens left, I get them for books for the Little Free Library Project. And here in the US WBD is in April.

The beach was closed last week on three occasions when the surf and rip currents were dangerous, it was an amazing sight. The waves were huge and rolled in like huge snowdrifts bringing the water in on the beach nearer and nearer to the people, one large unexpected wave came in right over a man who was sunbathing, it soaked him, he looked shaken as he left the beach soaking wet.

The lifeguards are amazing, the whistle was going constantly as people ignored signs and swam nearer and nearer to the pier and getting pulled further and further away from the place where they started out, it is very dangerous as the waves knock with force against the pier and often take the swimmers with them. Trainee Lifeguards took this opportunity to go to the end of the pier and jump off practicing life-saving, it was scary to watch them. We watched the lifeguards help three children to safety as they panicked and were taken further out to sea with waves.

Thanks to Shawn for this photo

I took a trip to see the new Box Gallery this week, it is lovely. A huge space with a  huge amount of fabulous paints and sculptures and books and car doors and pajeros, very creative and colourful, always a pleasure to see Rolando Chung who runs the gallery and see what is happening in the art world. His old Gallery on Lucerne is now owned by a young couple who appear to be creating another Gallery and refreshment area, looks gorgeous,  can’t wait to see it open.

This Wednesday at The Leisure Offices at 501 Lake Avenue volunteers are needed to make Easter Bonnets for the children to participate in The Easter Bonnet Parade at the Easter event in Bryant Park on March 31^st, that will be 1 – 4. Volunteers will also be needed for handing out flowers for the children to add their own touches to the Bonnets.That is a fun event that is always enjoyed by the children from Lake Worth. I only wish I was here for it…..

   Last year I took part in a project at St.Andrews Church where Jill Karlin undertook the task of creating another beautiful tile wall. We worked every day and got as many of the congregation to take part – people would drop by and complete a tile of their choice, it is beautiful and stands in the children’s play area garden at the back of the church. If you get an opportunity, go and see it, you will not be disappointed. People commissioned tiles for families and friends which are placed around the outside of the wall, such a lovely way to remember loved ones. Talking of gardens, the area behind the cultural centre is also worth visiting, not everyone knows that it is there but the new Martin Luther King mural is fabulous, a truly beautiful piece of work. And in the garden itself is a huge set of qwerty keyboard keys which at first I thought were seating, please take a look when you are next in the area, it really is quite lovely.

And International Women’s Day saw many events take place around the world. In my town of there were lots of events but the one I loved the best was at the local airport where planes with all female crews took off at regular intervals, I like the idea very much, what a long way us women have come!

Have a great week….

editors note:  some of the original photos did not come through so a bit of research was done.