There is an article published in yesterday's Wall Street Journal titled "The Magnitude of the Mess We're In" that I haven't yet read, but is on the top of my must-read list for the day. Yes, like, today. I find it sometimes quite difficult to fit into the hours given in one day the total number of experiences I'd like to have. There is so much to see and do and feel and taste and hear and learn that the time it would take to do it all pales in comparison.

Like right now I'm totally supposed to be in class. But it's raining. And my favorite person is not otherwise engaged, and I have internet, and coffee, and a new puppy all joyfully existing in my home. And so there it is that I shall remain also, to tell you this story...

About stumps.

 

Two inches below the surface

you don't even break the wake

but meters you have an' aren't showin'

Brrrrbbbrrrrrbrbrr...  ya give me the shakes

 

 

A forrest, he said, up under those ripples

the land, hardly cleared 'fore flood

old hickorys and oaks

they make your motor choke

and send fear through your blood

Tally-Quincy!!

I've never been on this lake before.... I bet that's hard to believe. But sometimes even just 4 miles can make all the difference in the world...

I never knew this was in my backyard. No, not literally. But kinda... Lake Talquin is amazing, and beautiful, and scary, and a little bit gross.

I spent the day on the water with my new digital water-proof camera, a few fishin poles, and the only wilderness guide I've ever met who's knowledge could rival my Dad's. I wish I could write about all the cool and interesting factoids I learned about this lake and its rivers and canals... but I keep all of that information safely stored in my boyfriend's brain. And he's asleep right now.

Needless to say... this lake is actually pretty darn cool.

This spot pictured above was on the creek with an Indian sounding Okeehokee-type name. It reminded us of that awfully awesome move Anaconda... ;)

In fact, I swore I would photo shop J-Lo and Ice-T (...or was it Cube? hmmmmm) into the bushes back there.

These bird's nests are everywhere along the rivers and the lake. I saw many Great Blue Herons, which was such a treat! My grandparents raised our family on a little canal-front house on Merritt Island fishing often from our dock chairs and scoping the grand, great herons on post after post down the brackish canal. The herons will forever remind me of my Grandmother, calling out rediculous bird calls and caws to the stoic creatures, and time after time never tiring of pointing them out to me.

Aaaahhh, yes. These are the stairs which lead to no where.... and from nowhere they follow.

The day on the lake was unbelievably peaceful. I didn't even take my phone in the boat. I know that the way in which I obsess over my phone could lead one to believe that I might freak without it, but the contrary is actually more close to the truth. I love the seldomly experienced, responsibility-free moments in time which grant me independence to exist in this world without having 'to answer' in any way, shape or form. You know those times when we make that conscious effort to float away from the crowd and into the softer, smoother, deeper waves?

Well that's what this day felt like for me...

Spirit of the Wolf

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE ??

It's the   spirit    of      the      wolf  

 

On some numbered dirt road in the Appalachicola National Forrest.