Friends and Cheese Curds

Arnold and Ismini visited last week. It had been much too long since we had all been together. We talked and laughed. We hiked at the Lower Suwannee Refuge, strolled all around Cedar Key, had Edie's fantastic crab bisque for brunch at Kona Joe's, walked Jake the noble Golden Retriever through Cemetery Point Park each day, and best of all...made cheese curd!

Random Ferments

In 2010 we started a blog about Cheese and Random Ferments to record new cheese discoveries after The Summer of a Thousand Cheeses went to press. We have found that many other discoveries are fermenting in our heads along with cheese. So we changed the name of the blog to simply Random Ferments. All the posts from the original are merged into this one and along with cheese stories you will find us fermenting other puzzles and stories.

Rest in Peace Sheriff Joe

When we moved to Gainesville we lucked into having great next-door neighbors. The day we signed for the house I would have much rather been in Rochester with my Rooney cousins. My Aunt Pauline had died and we closed for the house on the day of her funeral. I called the florist recommended by the hotel where we were staying, Crevasse's, ordered flowers and told my story. It turned out that I was talking to my new next-door neighbor, Peggy, and we have been friends ever since.

She and her daughter, and her retired Dad lived there. He had served longer than anyone else ever has as our Sheriff. He was a flower enthusiast. My yard and several other neighbors' yards are filled with the day lilies, shrubs and trees he shared. It is so nice to have good neighbors.

He died this week at 96 and the funeral was a Gainesville event. The church was standing room only. The procession of officers cars leading us from the church to the cemetery was too long to count. He lived long and will be well remembered.