A Different Path

Lately I've been wondering about a wildlife area a few miles west of here on Capitola Road which is also Old Lloyd Road, the difference being where you are on the road. So today I drove down there and parked and looked at the walking trail map posted on a sign and could no more figure it out than if it had been written in ancient Mayan hieroglyphs. As with religion, patriotism, and accessorizing, I just don't have the gene. I look at maps and I try to figure out where north is and where I am in relation to north and south and even though yes, the map at the park had a big YOU ARE HERE dot, I still couldn't figure it out. 
What the hell? This is why I have a phone. If I got lost, I could tell Siri to give me directions to Capitola Road and I'd eventually get there although, since I didn't take any water with me, I would have died anyway if I'd had to walk much further than I did which was not that far. 
The L. Kirk Edwards Wildlife and Environmental Area must have far more to it than what I traipsed across today because they describe the fishing and wildlife observations you can do there and mostly what I saw was small planted pines, much of which was on land that had been control-burned recently, and a few fields of what I assume is native wiregrass but I don't really know. I was too hot to stop and use my plant app. But that picture at the top is what the beginning of the trail looked like. 

There were some pretty parts to my walk and here are some. 

Although this picture of a pickerelweed looks as if it were growing in a pond, it isn't. It's growing in a boggy place with standing water in the trail, as in- the middle of the trail. 

Can you see the trail continuing on at the top of the picture?

There were lots of blackberry bushes but the berries were so small and dry-looking that it wouldn't be worth the effort to pick them. I really do need to find another place to pick blackberries. 

I saw zero wildlife. Well, I did see a vulture winging overhead. I am not saying that there wasn't any wildlife- I have no doubt there was plenty. I just didn't see it. I was pretty busy focusing on not dying in the heat. 
I'm thinking that this area might be a good place to walk in the winter when it's chilly and I'm glad I went. My curiosity is satisfied but I would like to explore other parts of it. There is access to the area in several other places. Perhaps eventually I will be able to interpret the map and figure out where exactly those are.

The rest of the day has passed with little to remark on. Garden-picking, a bit of mending. I think that this may be the week I let Dottie and her bebes out of the coop to free range. The little ones can fly and scurry, and Dottie has good control of them, able to call them to her at any sign of danger. If experience tells me anything, it's that they will stay close to the hen house and coop for a few days at least, before she takes them very far afield. 

I will also tell you that I watched (while I was mending) the beginning of an Olympia Dukakis made in 2002, I think, in which she plays a self-proclaimed dyke and I just have to say that if you think MY mouth is filthy, you should watch some of this. There's probably a good reason that the movie never garnered much attention but it seems like a fun ride. I'll probably watch the rest the next time I need to do any ironing or mending. 

I hope that all of you are well. As always, thank you for coming here to read. I have no idea what I'd do without you. 

Love...Ms. Moon

A Walk In The Woods, A Wander Through Time

I decided to drive down to a different entrance to the L.Kirk Edwards nature preserve trail that I have walked on before but it really wasn't much different than the paths accessed through the first entrance. One of the paths did end at a pretty creek which may or may not be part of the St. Mark's river. 

It's been a warm and gray and dreary day and I felt as if I was walking through heavy water. I use a walking app to measure my distance and I know it's accurate because it is not based on steps but on a GPS track of where you've walked. I had a hard time believing it today though, as after only half a mile I felt as if I'd walked two. I wish that the trail had paralleled the river some but it did not. That particular branch ended there and I had to retrace some steps and take another path. Mostly it is all planted pines and there are many native plants which spring forth when the burn over is complete but nothing very dramatic. 

Having said that, I do admit that I could pass the rarest plant in North Florida and probably not realize it. 

There are lots of low spots, some holding a lot of water. Here's one that is obviously underwater a great deal of the time as there are a few cypress trees growing there. 

I noticed some of the distinctive knees before I saw the tree there. There are also, as you can see, oaks of various species. 
The creek was not the only water that caused me to turn back. 

I had no desire to get squishy shoes and there was no way around without doing that so again, I turned around. 
I have a dismal and almost non-existent sense of direction and am always a little worried that I'll get lost on these paths but so far, I have not. And it is reassuring to me that the walking app's GPS tracing of my route could probably lead me back to where I started. 
I saw no other living creature today except for some birds. Mostly little bevies of quail, I guess, that scared up into the sky from where they'd been hiding in the underbrush when I passed with a great thrupp of wings. I saw one extremely tiny dead snake in the path, so small that it was about as big around as a baby's finger. 
I also came across a spot where the burn fire had re-ignited, I suppose. What else could it have been? 

There were actually flames although I don't think you can see them in that picture. It didn't worry me too much because the area that the wind was pushing it towards had almost nothing growing back yet to be used as fuel. It just struck me as odd. 

I don't know that I'll go back to those trails. I get a sense of the dismal there, and it's so very isolated. Knowing I have my phone, not only for navigating and mile measuring but also as a way to call someone if I fall and break something is a comfort but still. It's funny. I know I'm sixty-seven years old and thus more vulnerable to injury but when I'm walking I don't really think of that but the truth is that I am. 

I've thought about Roseland all day long and dipped into the Facebook posts a few times. Last night I found a post about Aunt Dot's Playhouse- the childcare place run by the lady we called Aunt Dot or Aunt Dotty. The woman who taught me to swim. The woman who made me feel loved and safe. She did so much more for me than she probably ever knew. And guess what? Others feel that way too. 
I am not surprised. 

I've had a lot of thoughts in my head today as I've gone about my slow business. Some memories, some insights inspired by a Mormon Stories episode where a woman speaks about her childhood sexual abuse, the dynamics in her house and her relationship with her mother. And of course, some of those memories lead back to Roseland too, which is where we lived when my abuser came into my life. 
So many threads, woven together, making me who I am today. And there is still so much to learn when I try to thoughtfully unravel them.

Time travel. It is real. And it can be at once so very satisfying and so very horrifying. Always edifying. 

Can you believe that tomorrow is Friday? Good Lord. Where do these days go?

Love...Ms. Moon