WEEKEND REFLECTIONS

This was taken while boating down the Blackwater River.

IN OCALA

I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh is was. My very heart leaped with the sound. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Just returned from a four day visit to Ocala, Florida while attending the Florida Statewide Master Gardeners Conference. It was my first visit to this part of the state and I was surprised to learn that Ocala is horse country. There are 600 horse farms in Ocala, and there were stables in the rear of our hotel where we made friends with a lovely old boy in the paddock behind the hotel.

Isn't he sweet?

What are you hiding in those hands? An apple? How about a carrot?

The rear of the hotel offered a lovely area of stately Live Oak Trees dripping with Spanish Moss. Beyond the fence is the paddock.

A LOST FRIEND

“Everybody loves the cackle of the rooster, the colors, the long tail.”  ~ Keith Gilbertson

The Zoo of Northwest Florida has closed, another victim of the poor economy and a shrinking pool of grant dollars and contributions. What a great loss to Northwest Florida. One of the breeds of animals I grew especially fond of on my many visits were these roosters. We would cross paths often during a visit and I like to think they came to know me. (I have a vivid imagination!) Aren't they beautiful? I'm missing my visits to the Zoo and all of the critters, large and small, that called that place home.  I wonder where they all went and if they all found new homes, especially this pretty boy. Hope he's strutting around somewhere lovely.

He is a Welsummer Rooster, a Dutch breed that takes it's name from the small village of Welsum in The Netherlands.

BROKEN FENCE

You got to take the crookeds with the straights. ~August Wilson

A broken sand fence at Seaside frames the aqua waters of the Gulf. I'm sure the recent winds have much to do with its crookedness. But I'm not sure I'd like it as much were it straight and whole.

THE TURKEY VULTURE

On a trip to DeFuniak Springs to attend the Chautauqua Wine Festival, we disturbed this turkey vulture from his "middle-of-the-road" meal.  It was quite the look he gave us as he waited for us to move on so he could continue dining.  I love birds, but this is one feathered fellow I have a hard time liking. Maybe its all those westerns I watched as a kid knowing that if the sky was full of circling vultures, someone had a very bad day.

SURPRISE

“When the flower blooms, the bees come uninvited.”   ~Ramakrishna

Didn't even know this little guy was in the picture until I enlarged the photo. Sometimes you just get lucky.