The tree photos include a pair of Royal Palms, the mottled trunk of a slash pine, a banyan in an urban garden, and a strangler fig. The bird is an immature white ibis. The boardwalk is at the Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (the birders are my native Neapolitan cousins), and the orchid was at the Naples Botanical Garden.
Even with the vocabulary of an English major, it's hard for me to describe the satisfaction and sense of well-being that comes from escaping the polar vortex region for an extended visit to a subtropical climate. I am in awe of my uncle who had the foresight to move from Grafton, North Dakota to Florida in the 1950s to raise his family; he chose to settle in a town called Naples that was so small that the family had to drive the Tamiami Trail to Miami to find a shoe store.
The beach was awesome:
"Unfavorable" weather (temps in 60s with occasional rain) kept the snowbirds and even the locals away, so I had a mile or so of beach to myself. The wind and the repetitive lapping of the shore by the waves created an ASMR-like sensation.
I've returned to Wisconsin refreshed and reinvigorated. After a day or two of chores, I'll get the blog fired up again.
Yeah, rub it in. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSez the Keweenaw.
I have fond memories of visiting your peninsula to scrabble over mine tailings and in abandoned tunnels looking for mineral specimens. (In the summer).
DeleteWelcome home! The sound of the sea is the sound of my soul ~
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! Missed you.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you back!
ReplyDeletebeautiful trees
ReplyDeleteA person is a fool in this day and age, with the cheap cost of travel, to not to visit warm climes in the winter. It clears anyones borderline SAD (Seasonal affective disorder) right up!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, the Hummingbirds will be along soon. My parents best friends moved from MA to Naples in about 1958, give or take a year. The first time I visited them in '62 and was amazed how small the town was considering all the beautiful beach and warm weather. But yes, anything more than groceries and basic hardware/auto parts, meant a trip to Miami or St Pete.
ReplyDeleteI knew that boardwalk! I have a friend who lives in Naples and love visiting the Corkscrew Sanctuary. It is very relaxing being warm isn't it?
ReplyDeleteeven though i live near the sea, i think i prefer the lapping of waves on a lake shore.
ReplyDeleteI-)
Jeez, that was a short break. Look your blog never disappoints. I can't imagine producing this much content on such a regular basis. We do love it but we can survive without it. There is no obligation here.
ReplyDeleteI'm probably taking a little bit of a liberty using 'we' there. Anyway...
I suspect we are about the same generation. There is a very old myth here that death comes not with a scythe but a fishing net. As people from my generation started dying, a friend said " he's fishing in our pond now!".
To me it meant basically, "Whatever it is, do it, do it now, don't put it off!"
I enjoy reading your blog, and I loved the stuff about stonework (I started looking for similar stuff her in Germany, and now it's almost an obsession godammit!), But do what you like doing. Just do it for you and no one else.
Your posts never disappoint. Maybe I missed the rollerskating squirrel, or the cat that looks like Hillary Clinton but I doubt it.
Your eclectic tastes are just fine. (This is probably first time I have ever used the word 'eclectic' in a sentence).
In any case keep doing it as a long as you enjoy it, but quit when you have something better. ...but just in case you see some REALLY nice stone work, be sure to post that.
Stay healthy, regards, blah, blah...
Matt