Not Blogging

I'm a little behind on the blogging, but I have a good excuse! See you next week!

Night Walk, Morning Walk

I've been organizing my photos. It's a chore, but it also prompts many happy memories.

This magnificent gentleman bear probably weighed 400 pounds. He walked down the road for nearly a mile. We followed his tracks in the morning, while he had the night all to himself. We never knew he was there - except in theory, because bears live in the   forest - thanks to the bear-proof trash can at the cabin where we sometimes stay.

I doubt he gave us a thought, but we think of him often and wish him a wild, free, peaceful life.

Monday Outdoors

Live oak

It's so nice not to be chained to a desk anymore. My work allows me way more flexibility than most people have, and I try to make the most of it.

This is Washington Oaks State Park, about an hour from here.

Cottage with interpretive displays inside

Like many places in Florida, it has layers of history. There's a Native American midden there, a combination trash pile and living area -- which sounds weird but makes sense, given the landscape.

The Native Americans piled up the shells of the snails and clams they ate, and when the pile got big enough (a few generations later, perhaps), the chief and other important people lived on top of it, catching whatever breeze there was and avoiding wet ground and most of the mosquitos.

Over many lifetimes, these mounds got huge. Some are 50 or more feet high, and some are just a few feet high but several acres in size. Many of them were hauled away to make roadbeds (ah, progress) so we will never know which one was the largest, or what it might have contained. Only a few have been found to contain human remains, but so many were destroyed, we'll really never know for sure.

Very interesting footsteps to follow in, certainly. This midden provides what passes for a nice overlook in ultra-flat Florida.

View of the Matanzas River

That's one layer of history. Atop that there's Spanish and English ownership, early statehood land grants, a sale to developers for a plan that failed because of the Great Depression, and a purchase by a super-rich husband for his also-a-millionaire wife as a wedding gift. What a romantic life story this place has!

Mala Compra Trail

Tidal marsh along the trail

What's especially nice is that this couple loved it enough to keep it largely natural, and to see that it went into conservation when they passed on. The gardens are maintained, and the rest of the property hasn't really been touched since the 1880s. And what a beautiful place it is.

In the rose garden

North American millipede

Golden ear mushroom

There is an ocean side, also, with a large grouping of coquina rocks interrupting a wide expanse of sand. That gives us Floridians something we hardly ever get to see: tide pools!

The coquina shoreline, rare in Florida

Barnacles and tiny shells, clinging to the rocks at low tide

Tide pool fish (very small)

So, a little hiking, a little exploring, a little dabbling in the ocean -- all in one place. And all on a Monday, as well!

(Hey, guess what? I got these pictures processed, too. Yay for me!)    

A Picture Explosion

I take photos and I like it.

It's fun to stop and observe, or to be suddenly overwhelmed with a particular view or a perfect angle, and then try and capture the shot.

I used to put lots of photos on Facebook, and many of my friends have remarked about enjoying my pictures. Then I would upload them to cloud storage, delete them from my computer and from the cameras, and consider that batch done.

Recently, however, I've fallen way, way, way behind at the electronic organizing and storing process.

Kayak Guy and I took a long vacation trip last August, a combination of visiting family and old friends and an extended honeymoon exploration of places we knew no one. We drove 6,000 miles in 32 days, camping and staying with friends (with a few B&B stays for variety). I'm proud to say that we stayed on schedule perfectly, standing up none of our friends and skipping none of our destinations.

(Yes, we had a fabulous time! Yes, it was also absolutely too ambitious an itinerary. We will do better next time. And by "better" I mean "less.")

But I still haven't gone through those photos yet! You can perhaps imagine what a month of photos looks like, all in a clump in my computer and cameras. Piled on top of those -- virtually -- are photos of various other adventures since then. Not to mention the photos that weren't organized before we left.

Perhaps you can imagine the psychic weight of all those unorganized photos, as well.

Any advice for me? I could sure use some!

Overheard at the Beach

This post could also be called "The Picture I Didn't Take."

As part of a project I'm involved in, I went to the beach yesterday.  My friends and I were just walking and observing in our clothes, with neither the relaxed attitude nor the abbreviated attire of the other beach-goers, most of whom were clearly there for the day.

While we were walking, we saw 4 women and a little girl coming toward us. Each of the women was wearing what I can only describe as a string bikini plus one other article of clothing. One had on the bikini top and a pair of yoga pants. Another was wearing the bikini plus a pair of beach shoes. There were a lot of tattoos in evidence, and each woman weighed over 250 pounds.  As you can imagine, there was a lot of swinging and jiggling going on. It was definitely a case of TMI.

What made me want to take a photograph was the contrast of these heavy women laboring along the sand, while the little girl skipped along in front of them in her blonde curls and cute little one-piece suit. She might have been 5 or 6 years old. It was just a great visual.

But I didn't want to be rude and scramble for the camera to take a surreptitious photo, and I wasn't quite ready to be bold enough to ask permission - so I let the moment go by.

Just as we passed them, I heard one say, "And you know, I still have to deal with your sister's probation issue."

That made me even more sorry I didn't take the picture.