No deer... oh dear!

I was walking down this lovely dirt road called old Beach Road which, according to the historical marker, looks the same as when it was constructed in 1880. It leads to an old sugar plantation and what was once a large and functioning sugar mill. What a surprise when on the road not 15 yards ahead of me a deer appeared out of the woods on the left. She stopped and looked at me, I reached for my camera, and of course in a blink of the eye she was gone! I lowered my camera and lo and behold another deer came right behind the first. Being slow on the camera, I missed her too! Drat! I sprinted (well, imagine what a 60+ person looks like sprinting and call it what you will) ahead to see if I could capture them in the woods. Nope! Then my camera's batteries died and so photos of the sugar mill ruins will have to wait for another day. Drat again! Maybe when I return I'll have another deer day... one with actual photos. Shareable photo or not... I do have a mental picture and it was quite surprise and a thrill. 

New bird on the beach...

If birds of a feather flock together, this guy was certainly odd man out! (I told a friend I must be getting old if seeing a new kind of bird is my thrill for the day!) During my beach walk, I noticed a bird with a large wingspan flying with his head at a strange angle to the ground and thought, huh? Then he landed right beside me and I was even more surprised. I had never seen a bird like it before. He had a large head, a very colorful beak with a band of red on it, yet the bird was surprisingly small considering his wingspan. He stood alone for a brief moment then went to join a group of gulls where he really did look like an oddball. After being ignored by them for a few seconds he flew away. I haven't seen another one since. Couldn't wait to get home to my bird book to find out that I had seen a Black Skimmer! Joy! 

Gnarly dude!

During my nature walk I came upon a tree that surely defined the word gnarly. Well, gnarly as us old folk know it, meaning knotty as pertaining to a tree with knotty protuberances; bent, twisted, distorted. Apparently back in the '70s surfer dudes started referring to waves as gnarly and in slang parlance gnarly has come to mean something that is extreme... whether good or bad. 

Well, this tree certainly is extreme... extremely gnarly. I took a photo of it and realized that the photo doesn't in any way capture the size of this big ol' gnarly dude, so I took off my cap reached above my head and plunked the cap on one of the gnarls (knots) on the left side of the trunk. The cap is about 6 feet off the ground to give you size reference. I smiled as I retrieved my headgear and walked away from a truly gnarly dude standing in the forest!

Old black water...

I wandered through enchanted forests, easy estuaries and found myself at a black water swamp! Again a tune popped into my head, this time an old Doobie Brothers hit. "Old black water, keep on rollin, Mississippi moon won't you keep on shinin on me... " 

Looking at this murky black water though, I was hoping it wouldn't start rolling. Didn't want to see any gators, snakes, or any other critter rolling out onto the shore near me. Interesting to look at but I decided to keep my feet rollin along. Better, I thought, to avoid a chance encounter with any unwanted Florida wildlife. Yikes!

Easy estuary

From enchanted forest to the peace and quiet of an estuary. What a sight it was to emerge from the dense forest and be greeted by gentle waters flowing through marsh grasses. I kept my eyes open for any signs of alligator but enjoyed many relaxing moments in the warm sun by the calm waters. Ah-h-h, this is bliss!

The enchanted forest

My nature walk took me through what can easily be called an enchanted forest. Looking off into the distance it was easy to imagine what the early settlers must have felt at the daunting foreverness of this expanse. My mind can almost catch a glimpse of early native Americans who hunted and fished and lived in this area. Earlier in my walk I felt somewhat alone, but gosh, I had my cell phone, my bottled water, a protein bar and the car was just 3 miles away. What a wimp!

It truly casts a spell when one realizes the early footsteps that trod here were absolutely alone, far from a comfortable place to sleep, perhaps far from the next meal and not a glimmer of imagination for such things as TVs, RVs, or even a grocery store. What strong stock we come from. I'm not sure I could live as they did... I'm also pretty sure they wouldn't be too comfortable if a time machine plunked them down in the world today either. For now I'll just let my imagination take me through this forest to a different world... that's the best I can do.

A tribute to Sunny

One of the reasons I started this blog stemmed from my Grateful Log which, if you read the sidebar, you will see I began at an emotionally tough time in my life. Finding things to be grateful for took some work in those days, and then it became easy. Unfortunately, once again it is a daunting task because I have lost my sweet kitty cat, Sunny, to crf - chronic renal failure. I know I am grateful that I was blessed to have such a gentle and sweet cat be part of my life for 12 years. I am grateful that giving him daily subcutaneous fluids for the past 9 months turned us into real buddies. The grateful list is indeed long and full of sweet memories, and it makes me cry. I promised him I wouldn't let him suffer and I held true to my promise. He was purring as he died in my arms and for that I am both grateful and so very sad. Rest well sweet Sunny. I will miss you beyond all imagining.