The Landings-Eagle Extra May 2023

Eagle Extra

941.312.0665 | ISSUE 1 VOLUME 1 | MAY 2023

Day Tripping: Local Fun and Free

By Betty Greenspan

Liberties Artist Studios (creativeliberties. net) and The Bazaar on Apricot and Lime (bazaaronapricotandlime.com).

After exploring the downtown area of Sarasota last month, the focus will now be on interesting north and east locations. Traveling east on Fruitville Road you’ll notice some cute bungalows housing restaurants and art galleries from Orange to Washington Blvd.

A stop at the Visitor’s Information Center, 1945 Fruitville Rd is a good place to pick up the newest visitor’s guide and other interesting booklets and maps as well as discount coupons. Trust me, you won’t believe what they have on display.

In the Rosemary District, the Artisan Cheese Company, my favorite cheese shop, offers grab and go items, gifts, and wine. There is a cheese influence lunch menu and an amazing selection of cheeses with great homemade sourdough bread. “Cheese Louise” the owner originally from England and Scotland will educate you about cheese. Ask about girl’s night out and occasional cheese classes on Thursday evenings.

An assortment of restaurants and small boutiques and shops dot surrounding streets. The Station 400 Cafe on Lemon Avenue is a great place for breakfast or lunch. It’s housed in an old train depot built in Kentland, Indiana dating back to 1852 and at some point, was moved to Sarasota. There are creative dishes served in a lovely garden setting with a covered outdoor patio. “I’ll take the lemon curd pancakes please.”

Continuing east on Fruitville Road, make a left on Lime and travel north for several blocks and you’ll find a funky place for art known as the Gas Light District. It incorporates The Creative

There are indoor and outdoor art galleries and a market with a restaurant. It’s home to over 60 local artists filled with something for everyone. From art, collectibles, clothing, jewelry, gifts, and food. It’s open yearround Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. There are occasional evening happenings so be sure to check their calendar. You’ll find live music from noon to 3pm as well as weekly classes.

The Pinecraft area near Beneva, Webber and Bahia Vista is a curious place, overlooked by some people. It’s home to the Amish community with famous restaurants, ice cream shops, farm stands and gift shops. Think Yoders! Tiny homes and bungalows as well as mobile homes line many of the surrounding streets.

Frequently you will see residents from the area walking downtown and at the beach riding bikes, dressed in country attire, men often with beards and women with head coverings. Doing some research, I learned interesting facts about the Amish and Mennonite population. In the Pinecraft area most of the residents are from Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. During the winter month special buses travel back and forth to Sarasota.

Amish and Mennonite farmers first arrived in Sarasota during the 1920s to grow celery, a common Amish crop. They found the soil was not right for growing large celery crops, but loving the area decided to stay. Some do live here year-round, but most are winter visitors. The Amish and Mennonite faiths are very similar. The differences lie mainly in the outward practice of those beliefs. But foundational to both groups is their core commitment to faith, family, and community.

For those who really want to learn more, join a tour led by a guide with personal connections to the local Amish and Mennonite communities. Learning about their roots in Florida, traditional customs, and beliefs, you’ll

also have the chance to shop for handmade gifts and sample famous pie at an Amish cafe. Interesting fact, there is a reality TV show on TLC called “Return To Amish”. Check it out for a glimpse of this other world. The series takes place right here in Sarasota and has been on the air since 2014! Who knew??

Being a lover of ice cream, I had to stop at the Pinecraft Ice Cream Parlor offering so many flavors it was difficult to choose. Do go and check it out yourself. Quite delicious!!

Beach exploration next month!

The Landoliers Perform 27th Spring Concert

The Landoliers began rehearsals in midOctober 2022, under the direction of Suzanne Stearns, in preparation for their annual performance on April 16 th , which consisted of medleys and show tunes.

This year, the traditional March concert was delayed due to high Covid rates in the fall and winter months. A special feature this year, were the multiple solos by Joan Campbell, Peter and Marie McHugh, Bob Harris, Bob Fernander, Norman Olshansky, Pat Shrope, Masako Carlson, and Barbara Rothman, who is also the accompanist for the chorus. Nate Richards also added a special French Horn solo.

The Landoliers chorus was founded in 1996. Lenora Jost took over as director in the early 2000s. Her experience studying music allowed her to expand the group’s repertoire and conduct four-part harmonies. She was incredibly passionate about the Landoliers success and recalls putting ads in the paper

encouraging residents of all skill levels to join.

Lenora’s favorite performance was Camelot because the show always brings back great memories. Even though most of the group was not musically trained, “they worked so hard and sounded great.” Lenora admits she gets chills from listening to the songs they performed then and now.

Lenora retired from the Landoliers in 2017 and turned over her talented baton to Suzanne Stearns. She continues to be a singer in the group.

Suzanne Stearns, an accomplished professional singer and voice coach, was hired to replace Lenora as director of the chorus. She holds her bachelor’s and master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and has won several national vocal awards including first place winner of the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera auditions.

She has been a leading singer in the MGM’s Hallelujah Hollywood show in Las Vegas and

has entertained on the Royal Viking Cruise Line with her husband, Metropolitan Opera singer, Jason Stearns.

Suzanne also had an exciting career with the Army Band’s Army Chorale at Ft. Myer, Virginia where she was the choreographer and stage director for the 13-member group performing for presidents, ambassadors, officer’s conventions, and many other functions. Along with the stage direction of this prestigious group, she was also a performer and soloist.

She retired from the Army after a 20-year career and has performed many leading roles such as Fiordiligi in Cosi Fan Tutte, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Hemwige in Die Walkurie, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and many more.

If you are interested in joining the Landoliers for their 2023-2024 season, or want more information, contact Norman Olshansky at nfpconsultingresources@gmail.com.

Lenora Jost served as director of Landoliers thru 2017. Even the overflow crowd room was packed for 2023 concert.

The Landoliers perform in 2023 under the direction of Suzanne Stearns.

Getting to Know the Artists in The Landings

By Marie-Louise McHugh

If you have had a chance to attend The Landings Boulevard Driveway Band performances on Monday late afternoons, you are likely already familiar with Michael Cohen. He is the guitar player and occasional singer, too.

While organizing The Landings Art show earlier this year, Michael asked to be included as a photographer. The more I heard about him the more curious I became about this multi- talented artist.

I recently visited him at the home he shares with his wife Jayne Wallace here at The Landings. His fine art photography work is impressive. His background as a graphic designer permeates throughout all his work, from black and white to color images. His play with light and shadows, as well as composition, remind me of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s and Brassai’s work (both well-known photographers active in Paris in the early to mid-20th Century).

When Michael was 15 years old, he moved from Atlanta, GA to Sarasota. At that time, he already started showing his photographs at the Sarasota Art Center. After graduating from the University of Florida in Art and Advertising, he moved to New York City and New Jersey. There he worked in marketing and with various well-known studio-artists.

Michael started exploring what light does around old buildings in the city. Other aspects of his work from this period are black and white surrealistic images. This is also when he became involved with R&B, Blues and Soul music as a guitar, bass, and keyboard player. This evolved into creating the classic rock “Hard Bargain Band” with which he played and performed for 13 years in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Michael also received national and international attention with his “Tom Petty Tribute Band”.

After living for three years on Lido Beach, Michael and Jayne moved to The Landings two years ago. They are now full-time residents. Michael still works in graphic design and photo restoration. You can find out more about his work on his website: michaelcohenimages.com.

Back to music, playing on Monday evenings at The Landings is just a fun thing for Michael to participate in. He performs more formally with his band “Kat Crosby and the Rhythm Gators”. I was fortunate to catch one of their performances last month at Fogartyville. What a great concert this was! The band plays regularly in Bradenton and Tampa. For more information about their performances, you can follow the band on Facebook.

Michael Cohen and some of his photographs

Michael’s book of photographs

Michael in his studio

The Kat Crosby Rhythm Gators performing at Fogartyville. Michael on bass on the far right.

The Landings’ Iconic Banyan Trees

What does The Landings have in common with the Ringling Museum, Selby Gardens, and the Thomas Edison Estate in Fort Myers? What is in common are the large and impressive stands of banyan trees!

The first banyan trees (ficus bengalensis) were brought to Hawaii from India in 1873. Thomas Edison planted the first banyan tree in the continental U.S. in Ft. Myers in 1925. A key issue in the post WW I period was an urgent need to secure reliable sources of rubber for the military and auto industry.

In 1925, Edison partnered with Henry Ford, his neighbor, and their friend Harvey Firestone to create a new company, Botanic Research Co., to find a rubber tree or plant that could grow quickly in the continental US and provide a source of natural rubber. Thousands of plants were evaluated but the search was ultimately unsuccessful. One of the plants they evaluated was a banyan which

was shipped to Edison from India as a 4 ft. sapling in a butter tub. This tree was planted in the Edison Estate in 1925 and is now the largest banyan in the continental U.S.

The iconic banyan trees at the Ringling were a gift from Harvey Firestone to John and Mable Ringling for the garden of their new Florida Estate in 1927.

The banyan trees at Marie Selby were planted in 1939 as large trees. Where they came from is a mystery but there is speculation that they came from the Edison Estate, which would be a likely source.

The origin of the banyan trees in The Landings is also a mystery. But Bertha Palmer, whose winter home was in Spanish Point, had two sons, Honoré and Potter, who purchased the property now known as The Landings in 1912 and built a large home at the end of Peregrine Point Drive which they named Immokalee, Seminole for “My

By Hans Hawrysz

Home’. After Bertha Palmer’s death, Potter moved to Bertha’s home and Honoré became the owner of the property. Given that the banyans are located close to what was the entrance to Immokalee, there is speculation that they were planted by Grace Palmer, Honoré’s wife. There is some evidence that Grace was friends with Mabel Ringling.

This suggests that Landings banyans are a direct descendant of the first banyan that

Banyan Grove

was planted by Thomas Edison in Ft. Myers! More sleuthing will be required to solidify this hypothesis.

The banyan tree, Ficus Bengalensis, which is native to SE Asia is the national tree of India and is sacred and represents the Divine Creator Brahma. “Banyan” is a Sanskrit word which refers both to the tree and to a merchant because Banyans have historically been used as a shaded marketplace where people can converse, relax, or do business.

It is also believed that Buddha achieved enlightenment while meditating under a banyan tree.

The banyan is one of almost 750 species of fig tree, each of which is pollinated only by its own species of tiny wasps that breed only inside the figs of their partner trees.

The seeds of banyan trees are dispersed by fruit-eating birds. The seeds are small, and most banyans grow in forests, so a plant that germinates from a seed that lands on the ground is very unlikely to survive.

As a result, banyans have adapted so that many of the seeds land on branches and stems

of trees. When they germinate, they start life as epiphytes, like orchids and bromeliads, that thrive up in the trees close to the sun. But banyans then grow roots down toward the ground that may envelop all or part of the host tree. This is known as a “strangler” habit, which banyans share with several other tropical Ficus trees. There are many Ficus trees of various species in The Landings.

In the rainforest, Ficus trees oftentimes host more flora and fauna than some entire ecosystems. Banyans are the world’s biggest trees in terms of the area they cover. The biggest one alive is in India covers almost 5 acres and can shelter 20,000 people. Within North America, the banyan tree is present only in Florida.

Be sure to visit this natural wonder in The Landings. As you walk around The Landings, look up at the trees carefully and you will see many young banyans growing in palms and other trees. A good example of a banyan covering a tree is at the corner Peregrine Point Drive and Peregrine Point Lane. As you exit the north gate, you will see

a banyan growing out of stump along the fence. There are many, many other instances in The Landings and all are very likely to be descendants of the original colony in Ft. Myers. Banyan fruit

Banyan tree at North Gate

The Photo Shop: Post-Production Editing Techniques

By Bob Manteiga

As cameras get more sophisticated, so do the editing tools that we use to enhance our photo images. Today, with Artificial Intelligence taking over our world, images can now be created, transformed, and erased at the click of a button right on our desk top computer screen.

Earlier this year we published a column on pre- and post-production editing, so I won’t bore you by repeating what I said before. Instead, I decided to select four photographs by four different Landings photographers and let them explain the post-production editing techniques that went into the creation of their images.

The photo of Tshombe Selby and his mother was taken by Ann Parsons. Tshombe is a tenor, currently engaged in the ensemble of the Metropolitan Opera Co. in New York City. Here is what Ann has to say about how she went about creating this stunning image:

“In Post-Production I take the image (I only shoot in RAW) into Lightroom where I check the White Balance,

adjust Exposure, Contrast, Shadows, Whites, Blacks, and ofttimes Texture, Clarity, and Color Grading. I then have a solid foundation with which to work.

The image is then transferred to Adobe Photoshop. It’s important to have it in 16bit. I remove any lint, dust, and do a healing clean up of the image and background. Next is skin – smooth skin tones, sculpt using frequency separation, clean eye whites, brighten iris, darken lash line. Hair – heal flyaways, smudge hair strands. Clothing, shoes etc. –smooth fabric, clean shoes. To finish, I pull out detail, smart liquefy all layers, save file as PSD or TIFF. Then the image returns to Lightroom and, in Profile, I decide which texture to use. I then export as a .jpg.”

The photo of Kevin Lechlitner, playing tennis on Narragansett Beach, was taken by Bob Manteiga in 2008 and 2015. How can a photograph be taken twice and seven years apart? If you haven’t already guessed, the image is a composite of two different photographs, both taken with the same camera, but different lenses. I shoot all my photos in both .jpg and RAW. The first photo of Narragansett Beach

Photograph by Ann Parsons.

Photo by Robert Manteiga

was taken with a Canon 15-85 lens. The RAW image is opened initially in Adobe Camera Raw or Capture 1, then transferred to Photoshop where it undergoes many of the same processes as Ann describes in her narrative. The only difference is that, after transferring the image to Photoshop, I add a gradient, selecting the colors I wish to use from the color selection chart. The second image is a photo of Kevin playing tennis here at The Landings, taken with a Canon 75-200 zoom lens. Using a variety of masking and layering techniques (a selection of hard and soft brushes), I remove the background, isolating two separate images…the image of Kevin and his shadow, and the image of the tennis ball. I then place both images on my new background. Using the tools available to me in Photoshop, I adjust the light to make the image look like it belongs there.

The photo of the flowers was taken by Norm Olshansky with an I Phone 13. Using the editing functions available to him on his

phone, he enhanced the original image by adjusting Exposure, Brilliance, Highlights, Shadows, Contrast, Brightness, Black Point, Saturation, Tint, Sharpness, and Definition. The newer I Phones and Androids, like the I Phone 13 and 14 and Samsung 22 and 23, have fairly sophisticated editing tools, allowing you to do post-production editing right on your phone.

The before-and-after photos of the two women were taken by Rick Waller. Picture 1 is straight out of the camera. Picture 2 was enhanced using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to glamorize the women as is often done in magazine shots. Faces are sculpted, pores reduced, skin glow added, eyes and teeth brightened, and a “bloodless” face lift performed.

The Photo Shop is closing its doors for the season. We hope to see you back in the Fall, either through this venue or a similar format through which we can highlight the work of our many talented Landings photographers.

Photo by Rick Waller

Photo by Rick Waller

Photo by Norm Olshansky.

Spectacular Roseate Spoonbills Sightings!

By Paige Packman, LRC Social Chair

Photos by Michael Cohen

We were small but mighty, as our Landings flotilla of five kayaks headed north to explore Sarasota’s Bird Island for the second time this season. April 15th may be Tax Day for most of you, but for we kayakers it was a spectacle of nature, a chance to observe seabirds anxiously guarding their nests. while juveniles tried their wings in flight.

During peak nesting months (December through May), we get to see seabirds roosting, building nests, incubating eggs, and raising chicks. We spotted a vast array of birds, including great blue herons, snowy

egrets, anhinga, pelicans, topped off by our favorite, the spectacular roseate spoonbill. They are an odd looking, pink wading bird who uses its spoon-shaped beak to sift snacks of small fish, crustaceans, and mollusks from shallow mangroves, giving it their distinctive rose hue.

To more adventures to come! We want to give a huge shout out to kayak leader John McFetridge for taking us on many fun-filled excursions this year, showing us special places of natural beauty right here in our backyard!

Happiness is…Butter

Yes, you read that right. Isn’t everything better with butter?

As another snowbird season comes to an end, it’s time to bring on the slower summer pace that’s smooth as butter. The gang at Abel’s Ice Cream is all in.

Stop by in May for butter-filled featured flavors like Butterfinger (You won’t want anyone touching your…Vanilla ice cream loaded with crushed Butterfinger® candy bars!), Butter Pecan (Awesome Butter Pecan ice cream loaded with lightly salted,

roasted pecans), and Butterscotch Bomb (Butterscotch ice cream loaded with a thick ribbon of butterscotch and exploding with brownies, heath bars, cookies and peanut butter cups.)

And if you’re not feeling all that buttery love, no worries. At Abel’s Ice Cream, they believe that great ice cream should be enjoyed by everyone, which is why they offer a range of fl avors that are perfect for any palate. So whether you’re a chocolate lover or a fan of fruity fl avors, they have something for everyone.

Visit Abel’s today and taste the difference for yourself. With their commitment to quality and flavor, we’re sure that Abel’s Ice Cream will be your new favorite treat all year round!

Abel’s is located at 1886 Stickney Point Road, Sarasota in the South Bridge Plaza. Open Sunday through Thursday from Noon9:30 pm, and Friday and Saturday from Noon-10 pm. Learn more at www.abelsicecream.com or connect with them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Five Landings kayakers led by John McFetridge recently explored Sarasota’s Bird Island.

Group of spoonbills

Group of anhinga lead kayakers

Group of egrets

Blue heron patiently waits.

Pelicans take flight over group of egrets. Group of spoonbills