Visiting Sacred Trees And Waiting For My Husband

These are cypress trees in a bit of wetland that is not so wet right now. I took this picture at the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science which we call the Junior because forever and ever ago it was the Junior Museum and thus it will ever be so for some of us. 
I have written about the Junior so many times because I have been there so many times. I took my children when they were young and now I go with my grandchildren. It is a beautiful place with many, many trees and native plants and animal habitats that the humans walk over on boardwalks. As many times as I've been I always see something new there. 

I went today with Jessie and August and Levon. It was a teacher planning day so the kids were out of school and there were lots of people there. I woke up in a bit of a mood and when Jessie asked if I'd like to go I at first said, "No, probably not," but then I got through my regular morning existential angst for the most part and changed my mind and met them there. It's sort of a big thing for me because it's WAY west of Tallahassee and I'm way east and you have to drive through town and through FSU and it's all changed so much since the last time I made that trek. But I made it and was glad I did because the light was so perfect and the air was crisp. 

Today it was the cypress trees that had me by the heart. Jessie said, "They look so ancient." 
And they do. Cypress trees can grow for five hundred or even over a thousand years. I have heard that there's one somewhere in the forest at Wakulla Springs that is over 2,000 years old but they do not give out the location of it because some asshole would surely cut it down. Or burn it down. There's an excellent article HERE  about a woman who accidentally burned down a Florida cypress tree that was estimated to be over three thousand years old and the fifth oldest tree in the world. 
She was smoking meth in the hollowed out trunk of it. 
Can you imagine? 

When I got to the park they were having an animal encounter and in this case, the animal was a smallish gopher tortoise enclosed in a wire fence where two of the employees or volunteers, I don't know which, were giving a little talk on the tortoise and answering questions from the children who were all lined up to see and listen. The tortoise is at the museum because one of its front feet got cut off somehow and it can't survive on its own in the wild because these tortoises dig great tunnels and burrows to live in and they need both of their front limbs to do that. So when it came time to ask questions, every kid there wanted to know what happened to the poor creature's little foot. The older woman patiently answered that twice, saying they did not know, they weren't there when the tortoise was injured, but that was why he was there. Any other questions? 
Guess what the third questions was. 
Yep. How did he get his foot hurt? 
The woman very carefully said, "I have answered that twice and I will tell you once more. We do not know. We were not there when it happened. I do not need to answer this question again."
Any guesses as to what the fourth kid asked? 

I told Jessie later that I thought it was possible that woman was suffering from burn-out. 

Here are the boys at the wolf habitat. 

Jessie has pictures of them from when they were barely as tall as the gray fox and now they are both as tall as the gray wolf. 
Look at the snarls in the second picture. Scary wolf-children! 

We saw dingos (the visiting animals) and a bear, deer, a cougar, bald eagles, hawks, vultures, owls, a sleeping otter, and the thing we've never seen before for today- a vulture trying to get INTO the bird habitat. That vulture was circling that fenced area and checking every inch for a way in.
They are building a new alligator habitat so we have that to look forward to. 

There's a playground and a little cafe and the boys played and we got lunch and then we went to the pioneer farm which some of you know is really my favorite part. They have brought in actual old barns and a cabin and they have pigs and a cow and geese and chickens and goats and sheep. They grow sugar cane and have a cane press and a giant syrup pot that they use to demonstrate how the settlers in Florida got their sweetening. The cabin is my favorite. I have often said that I would live there. 

There's also another building, very similar to this one which was the kitchen. The cabin was built sometime around 1880, I think, which makes it younger than my house. There is something so beautiful to me about it. 

So that was our trip to the Junior. 
Here's one more cypress tree picture. 

Fall in North Florida. I think it is rather fine. 

I wanted to show Debby what the planter and rooter actually look like that I showed in a picture yesterday. 
Here we are. 

A dear friend of mine gave me that rooter years ago. It has wire around the neck and as a loop so it can be hung, as well as a few crystals. I love it so much. 

And this pot is brass, I think, and Lis gave it to me, again, many years ago. The poor arrowhead plant growing in it has also been with me for years, despite living in approximately two cups of dirt that never gets changed or fertilized and only watered when I remember to. Obviously, the plant will grow in water, as demonstrated by the same variety growing in the rooter. I have no idea how long I've had it in there. 

Mr. Moon should be home around midnight. I think he and his buddy are trying to set a new land speed record for getting from Canada to Florida. I mean- they left Saturday afternoon! The vehicle they rented has self-steering abilities and although they did not use that on the way up, they are using it on the way home. 
All I could do was say, "Okay, honey. Please be careful." 

I am having, as I always do in this situation, a bit of a difficult time trying to switch the gears in my head from being a woman living in solitude and quiet, to being a married woman who shares her space with a partner. It is amazing how completely different the experiences are. I would imagine that it might almost be like going to a meditation retreat for a week where no one speaks, and then going back out into the world. 
Not that I've ever gone to a meditation retreat for so much as an hour, nor ever will. But I think this is as close as I will ever get. 

And as with the retreat, I can carry what I have learned and felt with me as I re-enter this different world. 
Plus- it's going to get pretty chilly tonight and it will be very nice to have someone to snuggle with. Especially such a good, dear man whom I love so much. 

Love...Ms. Moon