I apologize, readers; I am running way behind. This happens every season. The events of the cooler months gallop past me. I keep up for a while, but then, one little stumble — one lost afternoon when cousin Greg shows up with his wife, best friend and best friend’s wife and… well, the work I had scheduled falls behind.

Of course, this time of year, with winter blizzards and frozen floods raking the “temperate” zone, all my mid-latitude friends and family will turn up on the gangplank. So now the end of the season is looming and I’m panicked — there is so much I haven’t seen or done!

Fortunately, both the downtown theatres have another play — I haven’t even mentioned them lately. We’ll be getting to that soon.

Meanwhile, one of the most active places in town:

TSKW – Part 1
The Actual studios at The Studios of Key West

I’m curled up on a shaded wooden bench in the breezy sculpture garden of The Studios of Key West. A grey cat has consented to my presence.

Inside the landmark Armory Building, a workshop has just concluded. Lauren McAloon, facilities coordinator, is quietly, efficiently moving chairs around. Folding up the workshop tables and moving the flowers to the side. She is preparing the room for the regular Wednesday evening figure drawing session. The figure drawing session will be next week’s subculture tour.

This week I wandered through the second floor artist studios — the actual studios that give the organization its name. Director Eric Holowacz has his office up there on the south side of the building, overlooking the sculpture garden. He is looking forward to the upcoming transformation Rick Worth has planned for the office. It includes a picket fence wainscoting, a tree and some grass so the office will have the ambience of the out-of-doors. The window by his desk overlooks the sculpture garden where I am sitting with my laptop.

Lauren McAloon in her studio

In the northwest corner, McAloon shares a tiny light-filled studio with 15-year-old Jean Azard, recipient of the Budding Artist Scholarship Fund award. Manifestations of McAloon’s unusual perception of her surroundings hint at sculptures to come.

Perhaps this balmy, low humidity 74-degree sunny day under a brilliant blue sky with soft white puffy clouds makes everything seem peaceful and glorious, but the studios, strewn with tools, project parts and starts, and reference materials have a fresh, expansive feeling in spite of their small size and visual clutter.

Marc Caren was pondering recently finished work when I encountered him. Caren has been in Key West two decades and has a recognizable body of oil paintings that feature perfect drawing, and sophisticated painting techniques. The lively surface textures make his work a rich viewing experience. The colors in recent paintings are more vivid and warmer in tone than his early work.

“I had a studio on the south side of the building,” said Caren, “but the sun was always changing, creating glares and shadows. Now I have a north light studio and it’s always like this,” he said gesturing toward the soft reflected glow saturating the room.

Downstairs, Elena Devers mans the entry while quietly wreaking PR order from a chaos of materials. Always calm and always efficient, Devers is the sunny face of TSKW.

Studio residents currently include, in addition to McAloon and Caren:

writer Mark Hedden, and artists Debra Yates, Letty Nowak Peter Vey, Marky Pierson, Andy Thurber, Guillermo Orozco and Sherry Sweet Tewell.

The Studios of Key West is at the corner of Southard Street and White Street in Key West and also at: www.tskw.org.

Bonnie Hirshman bicycles to Salute for Subculture Tour #4

This  beachside shack at Higgs Beach that once was a hot dog stand is now a lively, sandy, friendly hangout run by the folks who brought you Blue Heaven, the Bahama village restaurant known for its feral chickens, among other attributes.

It has two patios so you can pretty much choose to be in the sun or in the shade or in the wind or out of the wind.  There’s also an inside with a bar if all that outdoorsy stuff is not your thing.  Big plus for bloggers — it’s a wifi hot spot.

A glass of wine and some great antipasti and you’ve got an excellent way to waste an afternoon.

The beach path skirting the patio is populated with sand-covered kids, bicycles, parents with strollers, older couples holding hands and, well, it’s a real variety.

Just across the path is the perfect sandy beach with volleyball going on during most daylight hours.

The restaurant has changed hands multiple times and almost qualifies as a “kiss of death” location– one of those places perhaps built on an indian burial ground or some other magic spot where success just isn’t possible.  Each incremental ownership improved the site, however, and now Salute seems to be thriving at the beach.

The neighborhood includes tennis courts, the Astro City playground, the dog park, the AIDS Memorial, White Street Pier, and the Garden Club.

Newcomers may wonder why the playground is called Astro City.  The climbing gym and springy ride-’em things were originally rocket themed, presumably from the Cape Canaveral ’60s era when Florida was the birthplace of Western Hemisphere space travel.

Higgs Beach is actually a county property, which has come out in the controversy over the homeless population that hangs out nearby.  Twenty years ago, it was a heavenly beach with sloping shores for toddlers to play in and a smooth sandy sea bottom good for windsurfing and Hobe catting.

The wooden pier at one time curved out offshore almost in line with the Garden Club’s West Martello Tower. In the 1970s and ’80s it was surfaced just out to the bend, then the bare pilings curved on, each a seat for cormorant, pelican or sea gull.

A huge and ancient Australian pine -- a tradition on Florida beaches.

The dock itself was(and is) a popular sunbathing handout, with steps down into the water.  Jumping off the pier into the water and slopping back up the steps was something you could do all day.

Snorkeling along the pier was rich, too.  I saw my first moray there one sunburned afternoon.

The click of dominoes was the sound track for the big round pavilions, when I first arrived in 1976,  The local latinos gathered there to match dots and pass the time.  The pavilions are shady and surprising cool, and if there is a breeze, you’ll feel it. Picnic tables were the fashion, but my memory also sees card tables and chairs brought from home.

Unfortunately, now, any comfortable accessories have been removed to deter homeless encampments.  In addition, the sea water tests poorly for pollution. According to CitizenJane.net, Higgs Beach was closed 91 days in 2006, second only to South Beach — the other sandy bottom beach (alas, most of our beaches are rocks, mud and clay.)  This means families don’t bring the kids down like they used to and picnics are rare.

The little concrete picnic huts used to be quite a social center.  Grills were matched with each one and locals spent evenings lazing under the huge and ancient Australian pines; kids splashed and ran and played on the swings that were right by the water and the merry-go-round near the huts.  Additional trips across the street to the jazzier Astro City spiced up the long summer evenings for the little ones — and I have to say, plenty of adults enjoyed the swings, too.

In recent years, a flock of homeless have tiptoed into one corner and make the picnic huts a shelter from their own down-’n'-out storms. They generally stay to themselves and rarely intrude on the restaurant or the volley ball or the bike path.

The unsavory nature of their presence, however, has enlivened local discussions. It IS a public beach and the public includes all sorts, but the social environment can be polluted and then the whole area could change.

Nevertheless, the glass is more than half full, Higgs Beach is a delightful spot.  The sunshine and ocean, palm trees, sea gulls, the scent of coconut oil and, near the restaurant, good food — that’s all good, very good.  A glass of chardonney, a tomato and mozzarella salad and fresh pisano bread with goat cheese makes the world look perfect.

Did I mention it’s dog- friendly and there’s ample parking?

Reen Stanhouse with nearly finished cat and rooster for the Gato Pocket Park conch house.

Iron artist Reen Stanhouse just got her studio up and running again after the 2005 hurricane season.  She crafts neo-art nouveau metal gates, stair rails and other architectural and sculptural items from music stands to elevator doors.  The concrete block studio at the “Magic Ranch” on Ramrod Key is perfect for processes that involve welding and pounding heavy objects.

After Hurricane Wilma’s storm surge, the insurance inspector looked at her numerous pieces of large, complex machinery rusted into expensive scrap from salt water flooding and queried “but I don’t see a water line.”  “That’s because you’re looking down,” Stanhouse responded.  The water line was seven feet up.

Still woodsy, the surrounding forest was thinned seriously by the summer of storms.  The Magic Ranch lost 5 mango trees, 11 royal palms, 40 pines, and all the ferns, Stanhouse reports.

Now the studio has been rewired with the electrical work up high and plans for a pulley system so the new equipment can be raised to the roof in storms.

And she’s back in business.  The studio, a former stable, has five rooms — and a project laid out in each one.  Doors open out to the trees and breeze in every room.  The walls are freshly painted bright, clean white and the Buena Vista Social Club is blaring from a sound system.

Stanhouse and Steve Schuman examine a welding point.

A drawing table in the “drawing room,” complete with an oriental carpet,  is covered with sketches on brown paper for a large gate spanning a driveway with an overhead title frame (Casa Karma) worked in a Tibetan eternity knot motif with zen grasses and design elements.

Propped everywhere are pieces half finished or waiting for the next stage of work — the final assembly or the power coating or the finish detailing.

Leaning against the wall near the drawing table is the sample piece for the recently installed elevator doors in the new Freeman Justice Center in Key West. The aluminum doors were computer etched in a design begun by Terry Thommes and completed by Stanhouse after Thommes death.  Stanhouse augmented Thommes’ mangrove concept with finely drawn keys images: an osprey nest, palms, a conch, a grouper, a turtle, a barracuda, a frangipani blossom, a roseate spoonbill, dragonflies, seagrapes (with grapes), and banana leaves.

Large drawings in the final size, are ready for a fountain project laid out on a plywood and saw-horse table in the yard.

Around the studio, rusted and sometimes antique steel artifacts are nestled among big trees and viny plants on the two-acre lot.

More projects — the Louie’s Back Yard After Deck gate, some Ocean Reef designs — wait for attention among the compressors, bins full of who knows what, wheeled carts with laser cutters, motors, monster clamps and snips, gloves, welder’s helmets, industrial boots, painting materials, anvils, and shop vacs. Plus the ride-on mower, the pressure washer and the lawn mower.

Stanhouse surveys a fountain project ready for assembly with studio visitor Steve Schuman.

Stanhouse was finishing up a cat and a rooster for the Gato pocket park conch house display that was dedicated last week.  She is also doing an 8-foot cigar with an elaborate cigar band based on historic designs used in Key West cigar factories.

I’m back at Sippin’ Internet cafe, 430 Eaton Street, for my Wednesday On The Road interlude that explores subcultures.

Outside, three magenta and turquoise cafe tables host a six-pack of northern tourists.  They are debating whether there are more Ohioans or New Yorkers down here.  Four of them are from New York — five if you count the toy poodle. They swear they hear a lot of New York accents.

Personally, I see so many people from Ohio here in the winters, I always ask them who is taking care of Ohio while everyone is in Florida?

Inside, multiple languages mingle with the music (see last On The Road). Two twenty-something guys with headsets are watching a soccer game on a laptop; an anonymous novelist invents a new world in a corner and several people tap away at the computer stations.   A well-dressed local realtor and her client just finished their scones and left.  A quiet legal conference between lawyers is going on near me.  I am trying not to eavesdrop.  A skinny young gal with bumper stickers all over her laptop just plugged in from the sofa.

This Wednesday, March 4, I will be at Salute on Higgs Beach, 4 to 5 p.m., for Subculture Tour #4. Come by and I’ll put your picture in the blog.

Wait til you see #3, which will be up Wednesday afternoon!  The photo here is a hint of #3.  Anyone guess what it is?  Correct guess gets their photo in the blog.