Renningers Antique and Collector’s Extravaganza!

February 19, 2013February 19, 2013 by KTgreen

Local Places, Local Faces

Okay, you might not consider Mount Dora a local place but if I can drive there in two hours and do not spend the night, I’ve decided that it’s local. Because it’s my blog and I can do that!

Renningers Antique and Collector’s Extravaganza is held three times a year. One three day weekend in November, January and February. And it is a BLAST! It is the biggest and coolest old-stuff-junk-buying-fun you could ever have in Florida. Michelle and I have been attending one event each season for the past five years and I went with other friends many times before we teamed up. This year new-be Kathryn joined us with the intent of furnishing her new townhouse. So here is our day in pictures!

Renninger's extravaganza — Kathryn roots through the junk house to find this treasure. First buy of the day!

There will be many future posts with these lovelies updated and featured!

Farmers’ Markets

February 12, 2013 by KTgreen

Local Places, Local Faces

On Fridays, the Citrus Chronicle lists “Farmers’ Markets”. Since I consider a farmers’ market to have produce and I love fresh vegetables and fruit, I was eager to check out the six places listed. Terry and I haven’t made it to all of them yet but here’s a little report about the ones we have hit.

First we went to the Beverly Hills Arts, Crafts and Farmers Market which is on the tirst and third Friday of each month at Lake Beverly Park. To be fair, it was cold, but there were about five vendors there, and none of them sold produce.

The next day we cruised up to Dunnellon’s First Saturday Village Market. This was a lot better. But it was mostly just booths set up with vendors selling stuff–like a community garage sale. Once again, no produce. But I was very excited to discover Grumbles and spent most of the day just admiring all the healthy plants, beautiful pots, and pavers. Dunnellon also has several thrift and antique stores which we browsed through and we had yummy Cuban sandwiches at Penn Station.

This past weekend we went to Market Day with Art and Treasures on the grounds of Heritage Village in Crystal River held the second Saturday of every month. We finally found a booth that was selling produce. We bought strawberries, corn, red and orange peppers, green beans and tomatoes. There were several other booths selling miscellaneous items like art, jewelry, and plants and one sold cookies. Heritage Village also has several cool little shops which we browsed through.

We still have the Inverness Farmer’s Market which is every Saturday at the Inverness Government Center parking lot. The Floral City Market Day on the second Saturday monthly and Herry’s Market Day which is the last Saturday of the month at Hospice Thrift Shoppe. Our search continues for the perfect Farmers’ Market!

The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum

February 16, 2013February 5, 2013 by KTgreen

Do you know how many German POW camps were in Florida in 1945? Both Terry and I were surprised to find out that there were 26 prisoner of war camps in the state with 10,000 German soldiers. And how did we discover this interesting fact? By visiting the rotating exhibit at the Old Courthouse Heritage Museum in Inverness on a recent chilly but sunny morning.

Terry and I were checking out a local event that turned out to be a bust. Arrrrrgggh! Since we were already out in our shiny car, we zipped over to Inverness to see what we could see and ended up at the old courthouse.

Probably everyone that’s lived on the Nature Coast for any length of time knows that in 1961 Elvis Presley filmed “Follow that Dream” in the area. There’s even a street in Inglis named after the movie and the courthouse scene was filmed at the original courthouse in Inverness.

Along with checking out the Elvis memorabilia, we visited four galleries in the courthouse. In the Gallery of Pre-History we were entertained by a talking Native American mannequin that was accompanied by a film. He was quite red–even his toenails. He admonished us for destroying his land and wiping his people out. But then ended his show on a happy note since the state is now making progress in restoration.

A second gallery gives the history of the local area from the 1800s to the present.

We found the third gallery to be the most interesting with their current rotating exhibit, Humanity Beyond the Barbed Wire: Hitler’s Soldiers in the Sunshine State which is on loan from the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg through March. Guess I never thought about where the US sent POWs. Which also made me think about the heat, humidity, bugs, and disease that they must have had to deal with in 1945. But an older gentleman that was also visiting this gallery advised me that he wished he had been in Florida during the war rather than having the Germans dropping bombs on his head every night. Good point.

The museum store is the fourth gallery and carried many books about the Nature Coast and Florida.

The courthouse was beautifully restored in 2000 and is right in the middle of downtown Inverness. Besides the courthouse, there are several restaurants and shops plus the Withlacoochee State Trail is right around the corner. If you’re in Inverness for a meeting or just for fun, stop by the The Old Courthouse Heritage Museum and check out their collections.