Alachua County Getaway

I needed to get out of town Saturday and my favorite place to chill is with Lorrie and Rusty. These folks are such great friends and they always welcome my kamikaze visits! Lorrie is my role model for taking risks. In fact, I have a sign in my kitchen that says "What would Lorrie do?"

She is Marty Schuman's daughter and Annie's mother. Annie and Lola spent the night with Austin and we went out for night fishing on the lake behind Lorrie's. The next day we went out in the canoe and snaked back through the woods and over the fences from the lake behind her home. We went all the way back to the secret lake, which was quite an adventure.

My arms are all scratched and I will be explaining that all week, no doubt! But it was lots of fun. We saw this snake in a cypress tree sunning himself. Lorrie got very excited and wanted to get up close for a picture!.

I also saw the babies of my fish in her pond, which are now about four inches long. I met the new dogs, cats, and birds and said hello to the goat and the pot bellied pig. There is also a new Harley and I brought Lorrie a little Harley pin to wear on her chaps!

We had some good meals and went to see Kevin's new land on Sunday after our boating adventure. I got to be a swamper this weekend!

Autoharps: I love them...

Here is my favorite accompanist, Annie! My harp was of course, made by the late Mark Fackeldey, a great friend of mine and friend to the late Marty Schuman, whose grandaughter you see here. For those of you who have not heard me bragging, I am Florida Old-Time Music Champ 1999 on autoharp. I plan on competing again this year at the Sertoma Ranch in Dade City. I also expect to take sandhill crane pictures and to kayak that weekend. It is really fun.

The autoharp underneath us was recently made by Jim Lorenz for his wife. If someone made me an autoharp like this one, I'd have to marry him! Sigh.....

These rainy weekends are beginning to get old. I worked in the yard last night after work and sat in front of the fire pit until the phone beckoned me indoors. Oh, well, time to play music....Maybe tomorow will be a good day for the Wakula River. Getting up early for the carpenter to come over to redo my master bath is getting old. But it will be gorgeous!

Piney Z Lake kayaking again!

The 3:30 CSX freight train.

" You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows!"

It was just too nice today to do any work, which included a six inch pile of papers to read through...so I jumped into the truck and drove to Piney Z Lake. I kayaked around the lake in under two hours. There were no wood storks so I guess they have moved on. I saw many cormorants, anhingas, great blue herons, white herons, more than one osprey, and even a lone redwinged blackbird. I didn't see any ibises.

The song of the red winged blackbird is very distinctive and reminds me so much of my childhood. I lived on the back dock of the lagoon at the DYC during summers, and there were scores of redwinged blackbirds which nested around the dock boxes in the thickets. I adored their song. Now I can reliably hear some singing and watch those red wings flutter in the cattail thicket near the YMCA pool. I love to listen between laps when I swim in the summer.

There is a long thicket in the middle of Piney Z Lake which appears to have grown up on some dredgings. It is used for fishing and lots of small birds fly among the trees and plants. There are also lots of blackberry bushes which I intend to visit in June. The poles you see above mark some cuts in the dredging that runs through the middle of Piney Z Lake.

Camping at Blackwater River State Park

Last night I camped at Blackwater River State Park. It was very cold but I had a portable heater in my truck and I was very toasty. I spent the evening in Pensacola helping my son recover his computer, load Windows updates, antivirus protection, and the Windows Service pak which was 90 megs. Now he is hooked up in his dorm room dad, so you can send email.
I got to the park about 11pm and threw my truck tent over the back, fired up the heater and fell asleep after playing a few tunes. The moon was full.
In the morning I made coffee and went for a walk on the nature trail by the river. I took a few pictures.
The bridge you see is the one that Nathan got trapped against when the kayak overturned last year and pinned him against the pilings. Lucky for us we got him out! He was very cool headed. He wanted to save the kayak which of course was not important, but he finally freed it and grabbed onto it and floated downstream where I picked him up. It was very scary for me but he thought it was a grand adventure!

A visit at University of West Florida

I had the pleasure of visiting my son at his University this weekend. He is having a fine time. He won a darts tournament and a complete poker outfit including table was the prize. He has gotten a job in video sales. He has fun with his roommate Jon P. I'm hoping the school part goes as well! Here are some photographs!

Ozark Breeze by Frank Williams

In 1978 I spent a great deal of time talking with Frank Williams in Fayetteville Arkansas. Frank lives in Moscow now. He is a sculptor of mammouth output who takes big risks. He did many resin based sculptures in his workshop at the Gregory Center. This was one of may favorites. Click on the title to see his website and take a tour through his work. The 1978 sculptures are all familiar to me as I spent many hours in his studio talking and playing my autoharp. I should have been in my University office doing research. Frank said you have to get around and get new input, whenever I felt guilty about not holding office hours!

The Street Singer

Not too very long ago I took my mother to an impressionist show at the Norton Gallery in West Palm Beach. I saw "The Street Singer" by Manet. This image stayed in my mind and I thought I had known her or perhaps I was her in some other time. My mother enjoys art as much as I do and she gamely went downtown with me. She is eighty one and fearless. I want to be more like her.

Bluesgotus.com

I got an email from Bill and Eli Perras today about their performance schedule so I checked our their website. Low and behold, they are using the photo of them I took last May at the Florida Folk Festival. I was MC-ing the Azalea Stage in the afternoon on Saturday and they came strolling by. I thought "Tie dye Mark's" guitar tee shirt looked so good on Bill and that Eli looked so cute in her hat, that I snapped this photo! Check out Mark elsewhere on this blog.

Thinking about how I got to enjoy photography so much makes me grateful once again to my parents, Marge and Bob! My mom is so creative and fearless! She taught me to knit and to sew. She did many crafts in our basement, such as decoupage and view de optique. She has flown anywhere or sailed anywhere right alongside my dad for 57 years so far.

My dad had his photography darkroom under the basement stairs when I was a child. My toy box, a beautiful pine box with my initials on the top, was across from the darkroom. Next to it the dirty clothes came down a shute from the second floor of our house! Mom would pick them up and take them to the washing machine, which was in the back of the basement along with my dad's workbench.

Whoa, I'm starting to sound like my dad reminiscing on his blog! This was supposed to be about Bill and Eli's picture. But, taking photos is fun!

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.