Florida

Seeing as I’m in Gainesville (the Florida one) for the next who-knows-how-many weeks, I have been exploring the local scene. Now that bars and restaurants are all closed, the local scene is mostly what I see on my daily walks through the neighborhood.

It *is* Florida, so the flowers are all out, the temps are hitting highs in the mid 80s, and my walks are earlier in the day to avoid the heat and humidity. So if you’re still wearing puffy coats, looking at rain out your window, or just feeling like you’re a bit trapped in self-isolation, enjoy some flowers today.

Don’t bother asking me what kind of flowers these are, I am really, really bad on remembering names of people, let alone flowers!

As this pandemic gets crazier and, at times, overwhelming, it helps me to see the beauty around me. Flowers blooming, birds singing, blue skies, they all remind me that the world goes on with or without me. I find that comforting.

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Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.

Rachel Carson

Florida, as it turns out, has barrier islands, too, and that’s where I’m exploring this week. My first beach walk was fantastic – all kinds of downed trees and branches, the remnants of hurricanes that have hit this coast steadily over the years.

There are some seriously twisted shapes on this beach and I need to come back here with my good camera and play around.

This is my favorite one so far. It looks like a witch might look if a witch was a tree.

Stay tuned for more… The Coastal Images Tour has just started and all sorts of good things are bound to happen.

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When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument. 
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver
(one of my favorite poets, who passed away this week)

I don’t know why, but I’ve always loved the idea of manatees. I even picked Save the Manatees for my trailer’s Florida license plate. I tried to see some last winter, but the unseasonable cold had chased them out to the Gulf and my niece and I came up empty in Crystal River. When friends camping two hours south said they’d kayaked with manatees this last week, I realized I might have a shot. I was heading south anyways to meet up with some RVing buds and the park with the manatees was literally on the way home. I practiced folding and unfolding my new Oru Kayak and then loaded it into the car, along with paddle, PFD (with whistle attached), and booties.

I woke up at 5:30AM today (thanks, end of daylight savings time) and checked the weather forecast. Rain? What??? I was so bummed. I ate breakfast, packed up, and checked out of the hotel, and decided to head for Blue Spring State Park anyways. It rained on me when I stopped at the ATM, and it was still spitting as I paid the $4 fee at the park entrance. I drove down to the boat dock and sat in the car looking at the clouds scudding overhead. And then I thought, I’m already here, I’m gonna go for it. If I get wet, well, it’s 77F so I’m not going to freeze.

I unloaded the kayak and origami’d it into kayak shape, then carried it down to the sandy beach and launched it. I should have christened it, as it was the first time it’s been in water other than the pool back in Gainesville, but I don’t have a good name yet so I skipped that part. It did feel good as I paddled around and got used to how it handled. And, oh, wow, is it easier to paddle than my almost-ex-inflatable kayak! After the kayak check, I headed over to the manatee spot.

Look, there are manatees! Mama manatee and baby manatee!

Three manatees in a row! Same mama and baby with a friend!

Manatees resting on the sandy bottom!

I would have had a photo of the one who surfaced about a foot away from me but I didn’t want to scare it away so I just stayed really still. Also, manatees are BIG and I didn’t want that one to flip turn and maybe hit my kayak.

It was SO COOL to float among the manatees. They are graceful and calm and it was like a little moving meditation thing to have them swim by me. For about 15 minutes, it was just me and them on/in the water and it was magical. One more thing checked off my bucket list, too.

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I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

Diane Ackerman

This one is for my friends in the Northeastern US, who got slammed by yet another snowstorm and many have lost power for a day or two (or more). March is definitely a hard month to endure such hard weather, I remember being so over it by end of February when I lived up there. So, today I took a walk around my neighborhood here in Gainesville and I am sending you all hope for better weather and a reminder that Spring will eventually come, even to Boston.

The trees will bud out, bringing those fabulous greens and pinks that are such a treat for eyes that have seen nothing but white and grey for so long.

Spring green really is the best color. It’s not really a color to me after enduring northeast winters, it’s a state of happiness that bursts out in my heart when I see the first buds, the earliest signs that warmer weather and thawing out is really on its way.

Maybe after this storm, my friends, you will see those little crocus tips bravely pushing up through the snow, and then the first tulips can’t be far behind. We don’t have either of those flowers down here, at least as far as I’ve seen, so here’s a little purple reminder that your flowers will soon be showing their colors.

Hang in there, my friends. May you get power and then warmth to melt the snow and then Spring to warm your hearts. Meanwhile, maybe this helps.

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“She turned to the sunlight
    And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
    “Winter is dead.” 

A.A. Milne