The World According to Bella

A Celebrating Type of Day 
Mrs. S thought I should blog about my eventful morning at downtown Fernandina Beach.  I was "pumped" for the Farmer's Market since we read their rules were changed. And I quote from the paper... "All well behaved dogs on a leash are welcome."
Most of the booths at the market were selling food though not a one was giving out free samples. It was beginning to be a boring trip until I came to...  

Taylor's Treats. Now here was a booth that caught my attention. I wasn't greedy like the dog ahead of us. We watched him get up on its hind legs, pounce on the table trying to get treats out of the jar. The owner was struggling trying to get control of his leashed dog. 
I was patient waiting for my turn. I wanted Mrs. S in the worst way to buy this very same dish set up (pictured below). You could customize it with color and shapes choice. But I heard Mrs. S mumble something about $60.00 being an excessive price. So I figured  I was probably not getting a new water/food dish. But Taylor was giving out free samples.

Our next stop was the pier. Replicas of two of Columbus's ships, the  Nina and Pinta, were on display. You could actually board the ships and look around.

But sadly well behaved leashed pets were not allowed. So we had to look at the ships docked from far away. I liked watching the pelicans circling the water. 

I was a bit cheered up when one of Columbus's men wanted to get his picture taken with me. We both gave the camera our best smiles.  

A bowl of water outside the Welcome Center was just what I needed on a warm day. 

 

Just in case you need a reminder, Mrs. S wanted me to tell you that today is Billy Collins's birthday, one of her favorite poets.

Billy Collins wrote his first poem at the age of seven when he was driving with his parents and looked out the river and saw a sailboat on the East River.
He continued to write poems even after he became an English professor. He wrote a couple of books before his breakthrough in 1988, when he published The Apple That Astonished Paris. He gained a following throughout the next decade, and by 1999, The New York Times called him "the most popular poet in America," pointing out that three of his four books were in the top 16 best-sellers on Amazon.com, competing with Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, and songwriters like Jewel and Jim Morrison.
His books include The Art of Drowning (1995), Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001), Horoscopes for the Dead (2011) and most  recent Aimless Love. I liked the cover of the poem book.

Collins is a Distinguished Professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York and is the Senior Distinguished Fellow of the Winter Park Institute, Florida. Collins was recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and selected as the New York State Poet for 2004-2006.

Mrs. S said I could pick a favorite poem to share with you.

A DOG ON HIS MASTER

As young as I look,

I am growing older faster than he,

seven to one

is the ratio they tend to say.

Whatever the number,

I will pass him one day

and take the lead

the way I do on our walks in the woods.

And if this ever manages

to cross his mind,

it would be the sweetest

shadow I have ever cast on snow or grass.

(from Ballistics: Poems, Random House, 2010)