Winter Crafts

This is a poncho my friend Linda made for herself from many yarns woven together on circular needles. We got together tonight to show off our crafts, to dine on chicken and wild rice, spinache salad and warm curried fruit compote.
Wine and music topped off the midweek well!



Since I have been indoors for much of the last two weekends (I've got cabin fever) I made a small quilt for a baby coming this month. Here it is. I am also working on a blanket and have hats in my 'baby hat stash' for the next grandchild of one or another of my friends, who are mostly of a certain age that the grandchildren are starting to arrive!

Azaleas in Winter

Although it is January, and by rights it should be cooler; I have my first blooming azaleas. I thought you would like to see them: to brighten your winter day! I have been housebound by a cold and much work but I will be out in the woods and on the rivers this weekend for sure.

January on The Wacissa

This is Peggy of Kayak Paddle Tales paddling up to Blue Spring on the Wacissa River. This is a very deep spring that feeds the river. It's a bit chilly for swimming but when it warms up I am going with my mask and snorkel!


The Wacissa River was very beautiful today. The wind was about eight knots blowing up the river, making paddling home an easy trip.
This is Peggy doing the Queen's wave in her neat little Mystic kayak. Oh no, now she'll probably get back at me with the sandwich eating picture.
My dad likes buzzards. I took this for him.

Florida Folk Festival

Pineyflatwoodsgirl camping at the Florida Folk Festival in 2002. Oh, to be fifty two again! Mary Z. Cox took this picture and she gets credit!

Click on the title and then play "Where's Whitey?" That's Whitey Markle, the champion of ears all over Orange Lake. He single handedly forced the airboaters on Orange Lake to comply with a muffler ordinance he campaigned tirelessly for. What a guy! He even has a cookbook!

College Life at University of West Florida

This is John's side of the dorm room! Oh, I bet John's gonna get me back somehow!

I delivered my son to his dorm room at University of West Florida yesterday. This is a picture of him puzzling over computer hookups with his good friend and roomate, John P from Milton, Florida.

In his first semester in the fall of 2004, he was evacuated and school was cancelled for three weeks because of Hurricane Ivan. In the spring he had a serious foot condition which detracted from his focus on studying. Actually, I think it was more that he was running the Movie Club!

Returning to college on his own terms has been an important step in Nathan's life. He made the money to pay the bills for this semester at his job in a video store last year. So, mom is not allowed to complain about his approach to his third semester as a Junior. I wish him well as a Business Managment major!

Watching the CSX train from my kayak in Piney Z lake made me think of this song. I used to sing it when I played the Mountain View Inn in Fayetteville Arkansas. The MVI was across the street from the courthouse and was a hangout of the Tyson fellas. They came in their brown coveralls from the pig farms and they tipped well. The Arkansas lawyers and politicians came to the MVI as well.

Railroad Lady
by Jimmy Buffett & Jerry Jeff Walker

She's a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spendin' her days on the trains
She's a semi-good looker
But the fast rails they took 'er
Now she's tryin', just tryin' to get home again
South Station in Boston to the freight yards of Austin
From the Florida sunshine to the New Orleans rain
Now that the rail packs
Has taken the best tracks
She's tryin', just tryin' to get home again
She's a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spendin' her life on a train
Once a pullman car traveler
Now the brakeman won't have 'er
She's tryin', just tryin' to get home again
Once a high ballin' loner he thought he could own 'er
Bought her a fur and a big diamond ring
She hocked 'em for cold cash
Left town on the Wabash
Never thinkin', never thinkin' of home way back then
But the rails are now rusty
The dinin' car's dusty
Gold plated watches have taken their toll
Yeah the railroads are dyin'
And the lady she's cryin'
On a bus to Kentucky and home that's her goal
She's a railroad lady
Just a little bit shady
Spendin' her life on a train
She's a semi-good looker
But the fast rails they took 'er
Now she's tryin', just tryin' to get home again
Yes on a bus to Kentucky and home once again

The Lafayette Heritage Kayak Trail

Happy New Year to all my friends! I have fallen into limerance with this new park and I went back again yesterday afternoon. The kayak trail crosses Piney Z Lake and loops around the lambent cypress swamp that is Lake Lafayette.

It was damp in the piney woods. Then the sun burned the dampness off. The wind blew through the cypress trees; the woodstorks wooshed and swooped; the sun warmed your shoulders; the portages were low; the watery path was free of roots...the swamp was mostly gray and brown. The freight train was on time. You could smell alligators.