Wakulla County

That's what the sky looked like from my backyard fifteen minutes ago. Already, the pink has been replaced by what I might call Sheaffer's blue-black ink. Remember Sheaffer's pens and their ink cartridges? When I was a child, back when writing had just been invented, we were allowed to get a Sheaffer's cartridge pen in the fourth grade to write with. 
Be still my heart. 
I have always loved pens and ink and paper, too. And real, true fountain pens make me almost inappropriately thrilled. I have a few, and use them. I even have a Mont Blanc that Glen got me many, many years ago but ironically, it is far from my favorite. It has a sort of lip at the end of it right above the nib that is sharper than it has any right to be, thus making writing with it not so comfortable. 
But I didn't come here tonight to talk about fountain pens or ink, either one. As usual, I didn't come here to specifically talk about anything but I did get out today and do some things so I have pictures and we shall balance the words on top of those. 

Glen and I discussed "doing something" today, meaning taking a little car ride to someplace near, yet not here. We decided to head down to Wakulla County to have some lunch and take a look at the bay and perhaps to get some oysters to bring home. And that's what we did. 
We got a late start so by the time we got to Panacea, which is where both the bay and the seafood store we like are, we were both very hungry for our lunches and we stopped at a funky-looking place that we've passed a million times.
And it was funky. I might call the decor "Florescent Light". This is not a fancy on-the-water joint but we needed sustenance. 
We were ushered to a table in what looked like a conference room and a large group of people who had obviously just finished their office  Christmas party celebratory lunch, had been seated at one very long table created by putting many longish tables together. The decor in this room was still highly florescent but there was a bit of charm. 

As you can see. Our server, a woman who could easily run the world with one hand tied behind her back told us that the tree stays up all the time and soon, it will be decorated with hearts for Valentine's Day. 
Good to know. 

The menu was a pretty perfect example of every restaurant in Wakulla and surrounding counties, heavy on the seafood. Glen ordered a fried mullet dinner which came with cheese grits, hushpuppies, and a salad. I got a salad with grilled shrimp on it. 
We were not disappointed. 

For some reason, mullet has the reputation of being a poor man's fish but honest to god, if it's fresh and cooked right, you can hardly find a finer fish. Whoever cooked that fish knew their way around a mullet in the kitchen. They are a delicacy when smoked, and a fish dip made of the smoked meat is worth the trip to the coast. Mullet are abundant and used to be even more so. I have no doubt that for the indigenous people who lived in this area, mullet played a huge role in their diet and survival. Being able to smoke the fish meant they could keep it for relatively long periods of time and I'm sure they did. 

After lunch we drove the very short distance to our favorite seafood retail outlet. 

Can you believe that sky? It was so blue it almost hurt. Glen bought oysters and also shrimp for the freezer. He's about to build a fire to grill a few of the oysters for supper tonight. He'll be taking the rest down to the coast tomorrow night for the guys to eat before they go out fishing on Saturday and if there are any left after that, oyster stew will be made. 

We drove down the few blocks to the bay to have a look around and we discovered there was a very cool park which must have been recently built. Part of it was a dock that went out over Dickerson Bay and we walked down it. It absolutely could not have been a more beautiful day on the water. 

The tide was out so the fisherpeople we saw reported that nothing was biting but as one man said, who was sitting at the end of the pier, he was happy just being out on the water on a day like this. 
Amen. 

On the way home I wanted us to stop at one more place in Panacea. 

I actually took that picture four years ago when I first stopped there to see what it was all about and to wander around. I wrote about it then and if you want to read that, you can go HERE. That post is one I wrote after an earlier trip to the beach with my nursing school friends and rereading it has brought back so many memories and so many thoughts. I took pictures today but the ones I took which are on that post are better than those. Still, here they are. 

Those red berries are Yaupon Holly which is one of the only two plant sources of caffeine in North America. Aren't they beautiful? I wonder if birds eat them for the buzz.

And now we're home and I'm going to go sit with my sweetie by the fire. It's chilly here and that will feel good. 

I am still feeling the sort of eerie mood I had walking about the mineral springs area which is a place now devoid of people but with concrete (literally) reminders that people once walked those very same grounds and came to take the sulphur smelling water in hopes of...well, a panacea. 

It was a sort of concentrated silence with only the swishing of the palmettos in the breeze and the distant call of a tiny bird to break it. 

See you tomorrow.

Love...Ms. Moon