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.

Piney Z Lake and The Heritage Trail

A new feature of the blog is the ability to click on the title for an external link. So, click this title to read more about the Lafayette Heritage Park and Trail system in Tallahassee.
Here is a kayak angler out enjoying this little gem on a Friday afternoon!


I had the good fortune to discover another flock of wood storks on Piney Z Lake today. This lake is only about two miles from my home as the crow flies and about 6.8 miles by vehicle. My office is the same distance from my home. Hhhhmmmmm...kayaking or work, now which will I choose????

Piney Z Lake is on the other side of the railroad tracks which run on the edge of the Alford Greenway. Before all this land was built up with homes I used to ride my trailbike back into the woods to watch the wildlife on this lake and I wanted to access it with a boat. Now it is easy.


I saw dozens of wood storks, cormorants by the hundreds, herons of all sorts, ibises, and many ducks!
The boat ramp pictured here is for one of my kayak friends since she likes to see what she is up against when it comes to launching. This launch is on one of the five fishing fingers of the lake which are part of Heritage Park.
This little park is destined to become a part of a series of parks, jogging trails, and canoe and kayak trails in Tallahassee. The park is at the end of Heritage Park Blvd. which is off Conner Blvd. The launch is not too convenient as you must haul your boat about twenty yards from the parking lot down to the fishing finger that has the launch. But the birding is worth it!

Merry Christmas to One and All!

Merry Christmas from my hearth to yours!

A crowd for the Moon view!

Everyone wants a good seat!
Oops! I disturbed a meeting!
Meet in the cypress tree at 1700.
What's that osprey doing at our meeting?

Birds at Lake Munson

Floating among the cypress trees!








This was an excellent day for viewing birds on Lake Munson. Although I don't have a teleconverter lens, I was able to get some pretty good closeups of the many woodstorks, herons, ibis, grebes, and cormorants I saw today. The nest is a wood stork nest. The birds were flying all over the lake and I was thrilled to be among so many. I also saw an osprey. This is a great birding lake. At the end of the day I paddled up to my friend's dock and put down a box of chocolates for him to find while he watched the sunset.

Woodstorks in flight

This is a long view of the woodstork nest. They make their nests over water to avoid raccoons. But alligators hang around hoping for chicks or food to fall in the water! I'm going to watch this rookery for nesting pairs this spring. I don't think they have started yet.




These woodstorks were among the dozen or so I saw on Lake Munson today. They are truly breathtaking when they take off. You hear a wooshing of their wings but no other sound!

The Killick in many forms!

The killick is an old world word for a stone or other heavy object used as a boat anchor. This collection of killicks recovered from the bottom of Lake Munson during its last draining is an interesting assortment. Can you name the automotive parts and other assorted heavy objects?

Cypress Trees and Woodstorks

Wood storks nest in cypress trees such as these. Their nests are about three feet across and are fifty to sixty feet up in the air.

Wood storks almost became extinct before being listed on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Endangered Species List in 1984. In the 1930s, more than 60,000 wood storks inhabitated the United States. But development, destruction of habitat and other factors reduced their population to about 4,500 breeding pairs by 1980 They are magnificent birds to watch while flying and are only rivaled by Sandhill Cranes in their flying magnificence, in my opinion. They are said to fly as high as six thousand feet up...

I have seen small flocks of Sandhill Cranes in the marshes in Pasco county in the spring as well as bald eagles and redtailed hawks. Bald eagles are excellent soarers and stay very high up.

I have recently seen as many as ten wood storks flying on Lake Munson and I am told there are more. If you look closely at these cypress trees you can see the pink eggs of apple snails. The snails come out at night to lay these trails of pink eggs on the cypress knees. (I did not take this wood stork picture. Apologies to it's author and I do not intend to benefit commerically from this image. )

Lake Munson Cypress Trees

Lake Munson is a secret birder's delight on the South side of Tallahassee. There is a boat launch south of Capital Circle for access. I was visiting for a few minutes and took these shots. Earlier in the day there were hundreds of storks, anhingas, cormorants, herons, and limpkins.
It's generous number of apple snails attracts many wading birds. It is a beautiful place in all seasons. Tomorrow I will kayak it and get some bird pictures. I recommend it to birders but if you are boating, beware of the many alligators. It is lined with old cypress trees, some of which are pictured here. My friend here is an avid gardner and these are winter flowers in his garden.
I would have been there earlier but "Toss The Feathers" played the mayor's home for the Parade of Homes benefit for the Tallahassee Symphony. Impressed?