Coral Castle - Miami Florida

It was late afternoon in south Miami , and the sun, already sinking into the western sky, was bathing everything around us a pink light.

The guide stood on a block of carved coral, and in a grandiose manner, he waved his arms in order to encompass the extraordinary structure that surrounded us.

“This is Coral Castle ”, he shouted,
ensuring that the restless Japanese tourists at the back were taking it all in, “and it dates back to 1936”.

There were suitably impressed gasps from the collection of rubber-neckers as we dwelled on the possibility of anything in Miami being so old.  I tried my best to look impressed, but my thoughts flew from the stone walls, back to England and the ruins of castles that dated back to 1066.

Cowdray Castle in West Sussex was one that I had lived close to for three years and somewhere in the back of my mind
I had the dates 1520-29 which was the time it took to build. Doubtless there were teams of stone masons, workhorses, heavy wagons and a great deal of manpower. Meantime, the man who had built Coral Castle had taken twenty eight years to create this relatively small edifice. So what took him so long? The answer to that question is that he did it by himself – single handedly, and he
did it for love.

Edward Leedskalnin was born in Riga , Latvia in 1887 and by the age of 26 he was head over heels in love with sixteen year old Agnes Scuffs the only girl (...)

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We Know That You Are There

While standing in a gateway looking at this lovely farm
I feel the sunshine warm my face, the breezes brush my arm
I look up to the mountains where the grasses grow so fair
At first I cannot see you, but I know that you are there.
 
A sheepdog runs up to me, puts his nose into my palm
I rub his ears and pat his coat, he doesn't mean me harm.
But it's not me he's looking for, for me he doesn't care,
He lifts his head and sniffs the wind, he knows that you are there.
 
The river trickles over stones and fills the pools so deep
Maybe the trout are hiding there, so still, are they asleep?
A shadow passes overhead, it gives the fish a scare,
They know that you're not far away, they know that you are there.
 
The wind that moves the willow trees, and causes leaves to fly
Can whirl the dust into the air and send clouds scudding by.
At times the clouds will hide the sun, sometimes we will despair
But we know that the clouds will pass, and we know you'll be there.
 
We may not hear the voice we love, or see your face so dear
But if we look around us, then we'll know that you are near
For  you are part of all our lives, and you know that we care
We do not have to say goodbye, we know that you are there.