Ruskin, Florida
This publicly owned open space along the Little Manatee River couldn't be much more different from the typical New England forest I'm used to. However, spending some time wandering around with a camera I got a familiar walk-in-the-woods feeling.
4 comments:
I've been enjoying your pictures from Ruskin, Fl, especially these from your walk in the woods. Everything is still lush and green down there. I still like the autumn colors we have here in New England, though. Thanks for sharing. It looks like you had a very successful trip.
Thanks, Ed. This was the first I've spent any extended time in Florida and I found it fascinating. Between the residency, the theaters, and off-topic material in the Carolinas and Georgia, I've got an enormous volume of material to sort through.
As a former New Englander who moved to Florida, I can remember the shock of the new as I adjusted. No hills, palms, water everywhere, different plants and animals, no hills, very little seasonal change compared to Vermont, no hills etc.
Now, after 20 years, I love it here.Still no hills but constant change, though subtle. The part I like the most is that things grow for twelve months. We lose some leaves but some plants bloom in November and December.
You have captured the look and feel of semi-rural Florida very nicely. Can't wait to see what follows.
BTW...We now have a gift here from your area..Lyme disease. So be vivilant. The doctors here aren't up to speed on Lyme and it's relatives, but I know they are up there.
James, the brightness of "the woods" engaged me. A New England forest is dark even if it's oak and maple, even in winter, but darker as it goes over to the conifers. As lush as this Florida woods might be, there's no forest canopy blocking out the light. Very different.
Lyme is bad, and its cousins—Erlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever—are worse. Sorry to hear they are moving your way. I've lived in this general area a long time, spending a great deal of time out doors, and it took until four years ago to have a close encounter of the wrong kind with a tick-borne disease. Erlichiosis nearly got me then, setting off cardiac arrhythmia.
Lyme messed up some with the first part of my Giant Road Trip this year. After training all winter to be in shape for the rigors of the journey, I started having cramps and muscle seizures on my walks (four miles, 900'+ elevation change, 52-54 minutes average), then arthritic symptoms--whoops, into the doctor for diagnosis and doxycycline. Four weeks later at the start of the trip the corner had been turned and the infection under control of my own immune system, but I was not only still having joint pain, also had lost a lot of the conditioning from the winter's training. I wasn't free of the Lyme symptoms completely till a couple weeks into the trip, and of course didn't have the energy I'd been counting on.
Do everything you can to avoid ticks, but it won't work if they are there. More important to know the early symptoms (easier said than done) and find knowledgeable treatment when you do.
---Carl
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