Tickled Pink

Before she left for the season, Stephanie asked if I would photograph her garden, to try and capture that sense of adventure and mystery, as if seen through her pint-sized grandchildren’s eyes.

Though my visits were not exactly on my knees, one may visualize my peeking around corners, and peering through wild openings along the curvy garden path, as I stalked unicorns in my quest for a worthy photograph. On this particular afternoon, my sights were set on the full moon, soon to rise, at just the right spot, on the horizon, over a cut in the mangroves as the high tide came rolling in.

Which never really happened…darn clouds. It’s not a perfect world.

What I saw instead was an amazing bloom. It was like a pink ginger blossom, and upon a second, closer look, it revealed itself as a pineapple, that just so happened to be pink.

From 1880 - 1906 the Florida Keys were home to a booming pineapple growing and export business.  Plantation Key is actually named after a pineapple plantation. The end came when Flagler’s railroad and railroad car ferries opened up access to the Cuban pineapple market, with it’s cheaper cost of labor.

It's only fitting this pink pineapple plant grows in the part of the Ocean Reef affectionately referred to as “Fantasy Island”, aka Sunrise Cay, a unique tropical land mass, once dreamt about, and now fully developed, all made possible by construction of the “Bridge to Nowhere”, whose span stretches over red mangroves and fish filled creeks.

It was here, one early morning during the winter of 2015, when my walking buddy Amy spotted a Florida panther at the Sunrise Cay end of the bridge.  It is amazing how an endangered, wild creature could traverse hardwood hammocks, mangrove forests, the river of grass and salt water creeks, from mainland Cracker Florida and the Everglades wilderness to North Key Largo, only to find itself in an enclave of wealth and pink pineapples. Though Amy was walking alone on that particular morning, I have no reason to doubt this Alabama gal and her “woodsy” trained eye, who knew with absolutely certainty what she had witnessed.

Just suppose, in a place where pineapples can be pink, maybe next time she’ll see a pink panther?