Trees, toasts and treasured stories were the order of the day Jan. 19, as the ladies of the Longboat Keys Garden Club planted a new Geiger tree at Bicentennial Park at Town Hall.

The Longboat Key Garden Club is celebrating Arbor Day at 11 a.m., Thursday, Jan. 19 at Bicentennial Park on Longboat Key. A butterfly friendly tree will be planted. Please bring favorite tree story or joke and be part of the celebration. Chairpersons for the event are Virginia Sanders and Jean White.

As the plane makes its descent into the Sarasota-Bradenton Airport, a long bridge with a yellow superstructure appears in the gulf waters below. Seemingly it goes on without end. “That’s the Sunshine Skyway Bridge,” I say excitedly to my wife, which is about 45 minutes by car from LBK. After a nine-month absence, we are returning there for the winter and I can’t wait to walk on Whitney Beach.

Longboat Key residents Terrie DuCray and Dr. Patrice Greene hosted a candidate meet and greet for Longboat Key Town Commission District 3 candidate Ray Rajewski last night. More than 60 Longboat Key residents gathered at DuCray’s home to meet with Rajewski, ask him about their concerns for Longboat Key’s future and to learn more about his position on current issues.

One day this past January, without planning it, I birded the whole day. Because of fog I didn’t get out until 10 a.m. On Whitney Beach there’s a white and black raptor flying under pebbly clouds. What is this mystery bird? It’s an osprey whose color is actually dark chocolate brown and white but looks black in dim light. Flap, flap, flap, glide; the raptor steadily wings its way down the beach. Higher and going in the opposite direction is another osprey. Trains on different tracks. Hey guys, you know each other?

The following was written by Florida resident Paul Peterzell during a recent visit to Longboat Key

The Longboat Key Education Center, a not-for-profit continuing education center in the Centre Shops of Longboat Key, is busy preparing for a stellar season chock full of adult enrichment to keep the mind active and the spirit young.

The richness of birding is in the details of what is seen and in the observer’s subjective reaction to it. The passages below, derived from my notes, discuss those experiences on Whitney Beach and part of Anna Maria Island during five days last March.

Longboat Key 2012 turtle shirts are on sale now. T-shirts are available for a $15 donation, and proceeds from the sale benefit the Longboat Key Turtle Watch group. T-shirts are available at the UPS Store at the Centre Shops of Longboat Key and the Longboat Key Chamber of Commerce. The Longboat Key Turtle Watch group [...]

Longboat Key Garden Club member Barbara Kerwin organized a trip for members to the Asolo Theatre Thursday, Dec. 15 for a backstage tour of Sarasota Ballet. From tutu storage to costume design, practice rooms and the Asolo’s Mertz Theatre, the ladies of Longboat Key’s Garden Club learned all about the day-to-day workings of Sarasota’s professional ballet company.