Holiday nights at Selby Gardens are stunning

 

https://www.yoursun.com/holiday-nights-at-selby-gardens-are-stunning

Staff Report Nov 18, 2020

Lights in Bloom delights children of all ages at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.  PHOTO PROVIDED BY MARIE SELBY BOTANICAL GARDENS.

SARASOTA — Marie Selby Botanical Gardens brings “Lights in Bloom: An Open-air Holiday Light Show” to the community.

More than two million lights illuminate the gardens, and walkways are transformed into sensory light tunnels. Stroll through magical gardens filled with beautifully lit flowers, radiant rainforest butterflies, dragonflies and more.

“Lights in Bloom: An Open-air Light Show” has become a tradition for residents and visitors to celebrate the holiday season in Sarasota.

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Your safety is important to us. COVID-19 protocols are in place. Here is what you can expect:

• Masks are required for entry.

• Access each evening is limited. Selby Gardens will monitor the number of visitors to ensure appropriate social distancing and safety for all.

• Santa will not be visiting this year and interactive games will not be available. Instead, they will be offering a special, free photo opportunity for you and your guests.

• Food and beverages will be available for purchase at a variety of locations throughout the Gardens, including the Selby House Cafe.

• A trolley will be available from 5:30 to 10 p.m. from the Sarasota Friendship Center (1888 Brother Geenen Way).

For full details on our COVID-19 protocols, visit the website.

• If you have any questions, contact special events@selby.org.

General admission ticket holder check-in at 6 p.m. – Do not arrive prior to this time.

Limited number of General Admission tickets available each day.

General admission tickets may be purchased online (recommended) or on-site on day of (if any remain) beginning at 6 p.m.

Early Entry Tickets:

Members: $30

Non-members: $35

Children ages 5-17: $15

4 and under: free

Four Night Pass

Members: $80

Non-members: $100

Children ages 5-17: $30

4 and under: free

Early Entry ticket holders receive early access to on-site parking on a first come-first served basis and a 5 p.m. entry to Lights in Bloom.

Early Entry check-in opens at 5 p.m.

Early Entry tickets can be purchased online only with a limited number available each day

Four Night Pass holders receive early access to on-site parking on a first come-first served basis and a 5 p.m. entry to Lights in Bloom.

Visit the Downtown Sarasota Campus

The former Sarasota home of William and Marie Selby, Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota 15-acre campus is an urban, bayfront oasis showing a living collection of rare and beautiful tropical plants. It is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. Through the Living Museum operating model, Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus also creates and hosts rotating exhibitions of horticultural and garden displays some tied to works by well-known artists.

Historic Spanish Point Campus

Selby Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus is a 30-acre museum site on Little Sarasota Bay in Osprey that focuses on both local history and plant life. While strolling the picturesque HSP campus—one of the largest waterfront preserves showcasing native Florida plants in the state—visitors can explore ancient peoples, pioneer history, the Palmer Legacy, and native plants.

Membership

Being a member of Selby Gardens is an ideal way to visit 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries as often as you’d like. Members receive access to both the Downtown Sarasota and Historic Spanish Point campus as well as benefit from opportunities to connect with Selby Gardens on a deeper level. Become a member today.

Selby Gardens is a nonprofit organization sustained by the generosity of patrons. Gifts directly support the Gardens’ operations, collections and plant displays, engaging educational programs for children and adults, and conservation work to protect the bayfront sanctuaries at both the Downtown Sarasota campus and the Historic Spanish Point campus.

Sarasota-Manatee EcoFlora Project

Using your smartphone or a camera, snap a picture of a plant in Sarasota or Manatee County and upload it to iNaturalist. Each month, we will feature a new EcoQuest Challenge to focus on different species and keep things exciting.

Classes

Learn a new skill, expand your current skills or join your friends for a fun day in the peaceful oasis of Selby Gardens as you take a class. Taught by experienced instructors, classes range from painting and watercolor, to mind-body connections, yoga and more.

For more information call 941-366-5731 or contact info@selby.org.

Open daily 10 a.m. — 5 p.m.Closed Christmas Day

The Museum of Botany & the Arts is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Downtown campus: 1534 Mound St., in Sarasota.

Historic Spanish Point Campus, 337 North Tamiami Trail. in Osprey.

Selby Gardens is in Phase Two reopening operations.

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate

REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964

West Villages Realty LLC

19503 S West Villages Pkwy

Stes A2 (by Appt)

Venice, Florida 34293

Office: 941-460-3179

Good weekend for smoked mullet

https://www.yoursun.com/englewood/good-weekend-for-smoked-mullet/articl

• Staff Report
 
• Nov 13, 2020

The Smoked Mullet Band, of course, will play the first Mullet Fest 2020 this Saturday at the Charlotte Fairgrounds.

 ENGLEWOOD — There will be live music, lots of food and beverages, a cast-net tossing contest, and even a mullet hair competition.

But make no mistake about it: The highlight of Saturday’s Mullet Fest 2020 will be the smoked mullet competition.

Drawing on the traditional Florida lifestyle, which involved a lot of inshore mullet fishing, cooking and eating, Brandon and Kori Hancock have planned the inaugural Mullet Fest 2020 around the competition, which is Saturday at the Charlotte County Fairgrounds.

The Hancocks, owners of Hancock Grills, a locally based manufacturer of custom wood grills and accessories, will donate proceeds to the Lemon Bay Conservancy, a local nonprofit dedicated to protecting and restoring natural areas that nurture fish and other sea life.

The entry fee for the mullet competition is either 15 smoked mullet or $75. First place wins $100 and a trophy with bragging rights. Second place gets $75 and a trophy, and third place takes $50 and a trophy. More details are available online at englewoodmulletfest.com.

The musical lineup features, of course, the Smoked Mullet Band, which has more than 30 years experience playing country music in Southwest Florida, and headliners Pure Country.

In light of the coronavirus, the Hancocks’ aim is simple: “Our mission is to bring the community ‘safely’ together and support the local fishery and artists. This is a chance to give back to the community.”

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate

REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964

West Villages Realty LLC

19503 S West Villages Pkwy

Stes A2 (by Appt)

Venice, Florida 34293

Office: 941-460-3179

MainStreet gets OK for first concert since March

 https://www.yoursun.com/venice/mainstreet-gets-ok-for-first-concert-since-march/

The Cry’n Shames provide music for revelers at the Myakka River United Way event at Snook Haven in October 2018. They will perform back in Venice this month as MainStreet gets its first concert since March.

• SUN PHOTO BY AUDREY BLACKWELL

VENICE — The Venice MainStreet Friday Night Concert series resumes in Centennial Park on Nov. 13 after an eight-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.

If all goes well, Assistant City Manager Len Bramble said, the city could consider adding more, perhaps larger, special events and residents might get “a semblance of holiday seasons past.”

“We love our special events,” he said.

And if it doesn’t — worst-case scenario, someone gets sick from exposure at the concert — “it would have a disastrous effect on the continuation of special events right now,” he said.

“The success of future events is all in the hands of those who attend,” Bramble said.

Maybe not entirely. He acknowledged that the COVID-19 numbers “aren’t real favorable right now.”

Almost all of the special events in the city from March onward fell victim to a moratorium imposed by an executive order issued in March and renewed in July by City Manager Ed Lavallee.

But he announced at a recent City Council meeting that discussions with Venice MainStreet were underway to create a “re-entry program” for special events.

It’s taking the form of a three-concert series, said Nick Sperry, VMS Events and Partnership coordinator.

The concert next week features popular local band the Cry’n Shames.  Another concert is scheduled for Nov. 27, he said, and a special one on Dec. 11 for the holidays before a break until January.

Although that’s VMS’ usual schedule, much else is different, starting with the need for people to register to attend even though admission is free.

Sperry said that there’s a limited number of tickets but didn’t disclose how many. Bramble said the city’s cap is about 150 but it may be a little flexible depending on the response.

“I believe it’s going to fill up,” Sperry said.

There may be a pent-up demand for entertainment. He said he went from scheduling “54 events a year to nothing.”

The same thing happened with his own performance schedule as a musician,he said, with gigs just starting to come back.

Concert attendees will be required to wear a mask, he said, and stay in squares marked off about 10 feet apart for groups up to six people.

The concert space will have a “soft” perimeter, according to Bramble, who said VMS is also required to provide signs and sanitation stations as part of its COVID-19 plan.

VMS will be following these precautions until the city lifts them, Sperry said.

“We really hope that people are respectful,” Bramble said. “All it takes is one or two bad apples to spoil it for everybody....We don’t want that to happen.”

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate

REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964

West Villages Realty LLC

19503 S West Villages Pkwy

Stes A2 (by Appt)

Venice, Florida 34293

Office: 941-460-3179

Manatee Awareness Month!

 

https://www.naturesacademy.org/florida-feature/florida-feature-manatee-awareness-month/

Florida Feature Manatees November is Manatee Awareness Month and the goal of this special time is to raise public awareness of the threats facing these gentle and beloved marine mammals. Throughout the winter months, manatees are usually found along shallow, coastal waterways in search of warm-water areas for refuge. Often, manatees will be found near springs that stay 72 degrees year-round, or around industrial structures that give off heat.

Florida Feature Manatees Manatee Awareness Month is best spent showing your appreciation and love for manatees. If you are lucky enough to live near waters that manatees inhabit, you can aid their cause by educating people about these creatures and the appropriate ways to interact with them. Most people that interact with manatees do not wish to cause them harm. Help them to avoid touching any wild manatees, from giving them fresh water from hoses, and from teaching them to frequent docks or busy waterways by feeding them lettuce. Locals and tourists can support manatees by following posted speed zones when boating, by donating to causes that support manatee conservation, by observing them from afar and always respecting their space.

For more information about Manatee Awareness Month and how to get involved, visit the Defenders for Wildlife website!

Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate

REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964

West Villages Realty LLC

19503 S West Villages Pkwy

Stes A2 (by Appt)

Venice, Florida 34293

Office: 941-460-3179