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Picture the following scenario: You have just attended Mass one Sunday in November at Holy Cross Catholic Church, and as you are leaving you see two women greet each other. Nothing unusual there.

In March, 2008, photography enthusiast and long-time Vero Beach resident Donna Green packed up her Canon 5D full frame digital single lens reflex camera, her 28mm wide angle and 300mm telephoto lenses and headed west.

Mike Mersky, Head of Saint Edward’s School, favors nonfiction, “because for me, reality is more exciting than fiction.” Specifically, he is an avid reader of history and biographies.

Hawk’s Nest Golf Club reaches a significant milestone this fall with its silver anniversary. Its members certainly have a great deal to celebrate beyond the club’s longevity.

Here in Florida, we inhabit a geographic cul-de-sac, a continental appendage that my second-grade teacher taught us to draw as an upside-down turkey, with Lake Okeechobee providing a Cyclopian eye. Perhaps the least changed in our ecological novelty of a state are our swamps, the vines and mosses eternally being born, dank with black water and rotted leaves and ripe with the scent of living creatures, including the legions of microscopic things chomping away at something.

“I have this son …” These four little words led to a journey that would one day bring a jazz version of The Nutcracker Ballet to the children’s stage at Vero Beach. The words were spoken by Joanie Schnell in 2001 to Linda Downey, Education Director at Riverside Children’s Theatre (RCT). The son is Adam Schnell, choreographer and librettist of The Nutcracker: In Swingtime! – now in its second year of production.

Rob Cobun is not an impulsive guy. He systematically plans and carefully researches before he acts. And so it was only natural that he painstakingly thought out all aspects of his new Vero Beach restaurant, including the concept, name, menu, décor, and even placement of the tables and booths.

“You’re having twins!” Jenny Schoenfeld stared at the ultrasound technician. Surely she had made a mistake. She hadn’t.

Since most Early American houses were small and snug, the kitchen was an integral part of the living and dining areas. The kitchen fireplace was the center of the house and provided heat for warmth as well as cooking. Then, as the population gained wealth and acquired help, homes grew in size and kitchens were relegated to the back of the house where the owner rarely ventured.

It was early morning, the time when the night, as described by Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges, “lingers on in the eyes of the blind.” The light from the sun was creeping west across the Atlantic, ribboning the sky in mauve and deep violet. Cloud shapes became visible and the hammock, still damp from its nighttime condensation, smelled dank and full of promise like any forest floor.

They’re beautiful; they’re also bad. These aggressive predators flaunt their colorful zebra-stripes and long, showy pectoral fins while wreaking havoc on the reef community by devouring juvenile fish, shrimp and crabs. The “they” are lionfish.

A surprising number of mom-and-pop employers bring their pets to work, believing they add warmth and interest to the establishment while soothing the nerves of customers and staff. The size and temperaments of work-place pets range from diminutive and docile to thigh-high and bounding.

Although it has been 33 years since National Grandparents Day was proclaimed as falling on the first Sunday after Labor Day, this year’s date on September 11 will probably pass with minimal fanfare like all the others. The role of grandparents has never been well studied.

When Jim Seitz joined some friends for dinner 35 years ago, he had no idea of what that evening of fine food and wines would lead to.

When K.C. Barkley and her husband Von first saw the 1960’s ranch-style house in Riomar they agreed it had plenty of potential.

As far as Mimi Bowen was concerned the John’s Island house she and her husband John settled into was perfect – except for one not-so-insignificant thing.

Nearly 420 acres of grapefruit groves stretched to the horizon when Canadian Galen Weston and his wife Hilary first set eyes on the property we know today as Windsor.

Jamie Ford is clear about his debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – it’s a love story. Also clear to his readers in Vero Beach, whom he recently addressed, is that Ford is just the type of guy to write a good love story. He’s sensitive and sentimental, and he understands the emotional quality that goes into the genre. “I get it,” he says.

Soaring temperatures, high humidity, endless sunny days and tropical nights – that’s Vero Beach in the summer. Time to dress down, load up with sunscreen, and be thankful we live in a time when air conditioning is standard.