Awoke to a very cold, but also very sunny, day this morning. I am so glad the trailer is hooked up to shore power, and that my portable electric heaters are both working, cuz it would of been really chilly taking a shower this morning otherwise.

    It's Thanksgiving today of course, also the 2nd day of Hanukkah. My usual Thanksgiving ritual was thrown a little bit out of wack this year. For the last several years this day has come while I've been camped up in the Tallahassee area and I would simply grab my book, a thermos of margaritas and my beach chair and head for the beach out on St Georges Island. But for some reason this year I'm a full week further along for some reason, so when I checked the map for a nice beach to go sit on nothing really showed up that was less than several hours away from here. Now I am sure there are some sections of beach around here close somewhere, but not being local I have no idea where they would be. So I did the next best thing and just headed over to Cedar Key instead. I knew if there wasn't an actual beach there, I would likely find some place where I could at least see some water and maybe be able to sit for a couple of hours and read my book.

   So around 11:00 I did just that. But before I put every thing in the truck and took off I also did two loads of laundry that needed to be done. One load of basic clothes and one load of sheets and towels. Lucky for me there is a laundry facility about 100' away from the trailer, over by the shower building and pool, so I could just walk everything over there and back again. Didn't take very long to get everything washed and dried and back into the trailer but I left the folding and other stuff for later tonight when I got back home.

   About an hour and a half to drive over to Cedar Key and once there I managed to find a nice public bench that looked out over the bay with a view of the marina also. Sat in the sun and read my book and drank a couple of beers that I had brought along to keep me warm. In the past it has been margaritas, but for some reason a couple of 'Fat Tires' just sounded good instead. Read until a little bit after 3:00 when the locals started stirring  out from there own Thanksgiving feasts. I packed up my book and cooler and headed over to a little bar that I had seen. No real view of the water, but it was a cute little nautical themed kind of place with nets and dead fish and stuff on the walls and ceiling. Had another beer and some pretty good fish tacos before heading back up the highway.

   Have been busy cleaning and straightening up this evening. I have a friend who is flying in to Clearwater tomorrow afternoon and staying for a couple of days. The trailer isn't too messy most of the time, it's just to small to let it descend into utter chaos, but it needed to be swept and cleaned and extra stuff returned to their rightful niches.  Still need to do some dishes yet, but it is otherwise looking pretty good.

   It is suppose to get down below freezing at least one more night so I also need to go empty the tanks again and set up to let one of my water faucets drip. Was surprised to find that the campground had actually left a note on my door yesterday asking me to do just that, but since they left it on the front door, the one I seldom use, I didn't actually see it until this morning. Seems like a waste of water, but I guess they are on a well here since they are so close to the actual Otter Spring, so they don't have to worry about running out. Just going to read a few more chapters in my book and then go to bed. Need to be up fairly early tomorrow as it is about a 3 hour drive down to the airport.

   Woke up to clearer weather this morning. Very, very cold outside however. Spent some time in the trailer and just hung out for awhile. Have been watching the 6th season DVD of the Big Bang Theory since last night. Even though I have seen every episode at least once, it is still great fun to watch them all over again. It is even better to watch them without any commercials.

    Grabbed a couple of coats this afternoon, put on real shoes and drove own to Manatee State Park for a couple of hours. Walked a couple of their trails there for several hours, but finally froze out and had to get back in the truck and turn the heater on.

    Getting ready to head back to the trailer in a few minutes. Not much going on there this evening, but I'm thinking it might be time to straighten up and clean a little. It is suppose to get down below freezing here tonight. I am glad I'm somewhere with electricity so the heaters will work. I know I could go further south and probably escape some of this cold, but that would mean planning at least 6 months in advance in order to find a place to camp down there, especially if I wanted to go someplace like the 'Keys'. Just not sure being that well organized is a good fit for me, so I'll just hang out where I am at the moment and then hope that it warms up in the next day or two.

   So tomorrow is Thanksgiving. No great plans for me of course. If it isn't raining the plan is to load up and head off to the beach. Depending on the temperature my thermos will either have margaritas or hot tea in it, I'm hoping for margaritas. But I have a new beach book that will be fun to read. A new, for me, Lee Child novel starring his hero Jack Reacher. Should be a lot of fun.

   Not a whole lot has been going on either yesterday or today. Rather cloudy for the most part, and this morning, there was even a touch  of rain for a couple hours. Not sure if this corresponds to the 'cold front' that was suppose to come through, because it never got all that cold. In fact it's up in the mid 70's even now.

    Faced with days that have been kind of 'blaaaa', and then this morning, 'wet', there hasn't been a whole lot going on with me. Took a couple short hikes around the campground area yesterday, just to be out and about. Nothing stellar about any of them, but still nice to be out and moving. Today has been even slower, right now I'm sitting in a Micky D's hanging out and using their WiFi. A little bit longer here and then it's off to the grocery store for a few items that I need.

    So what else have I been doing since I haven't been outside much. A lot of my free time has been spent reading of course. Nearly done with yet another Janet Evanovich novel, and am getting ready to start one by Jimmy Buffett. Also have been watching a series of 'How to Write' videos one of my friends in Colorado had lent me. Not sure it is going to do any good, but it is interesting in it's own way. I've been thinking though that what I really need is to study more on basic grammar concepts. That and spelling of course.

    Also watched a couple of regular movies, those being 'Zombie Land', which was remarkably good, and one of the old Batman movies, which wasn't. There will be more to watch tonight, but not sure what it is going to be yet. Maybe it's time to try for something a bit more comedic.

   Have also spent some time straightening a few things up and rearranging a few others. One thing about living in a trailer full time, even if you are the only one there most of the time..... there isn't a whole lot of extra room for stuff. I have managed to do alright these past few years, but I am suddenly finding myself running out of those little nooks and crannies that I have come to rely on to stuff things into. It helped a lot that there was a major purge in stuff last time I was back in Colorado, I managed to get a lot of stuff out of the trailer then, I just think there is going to be another one when I get back there again. In the meantime I'll make do and try to keep from packing in any more stuff than I already have.

   One other thing; got started on some family tree stuff last night also. Had gotten a bunch of photo's and documents over the summer and I am starting to process some of that stuff. It's going to take quite a bit of time to work all the way through it all, but what else is there to do on cloudy, rainy evenings?

   Much cooler outside today, just as advertised. Really not all that bad, sure it's only 60 degrees out there, but still warm enough that I'm still in shorts and a t-shirt. Of course that is usually what I wear down to below freezing, as long as the wind isn't blowing too hard outside.

    Even with all of the cub scouts camped around me last night, they managed to remained pretty quiet for most of the morning. By 10:00 though they had already packed up and left and by 2:00 this afternoon nearly everyone else who had come for the weekend were gone also. Only a dozen or so long term people left to spend at least one more night if not dozens.

   I just hung out for most of the morning and on into the afternoon. Grew kind of bored after that though and just needed to get out and about. Grabbed the truck and headed for town on a kind of made up chore. When I had transferred my trailer toolbox contents into a new box the other day I had noticed that there wasn't any real pliers in there with all the other tools. Sure, there were channel locks, as well as vise grips, but no plain jane set of pliers. I headed for Chiefland and the Ace Hardware store there to see what they had to offer up. Of course any hardware store can keep me occupied for at least an hour, if not more. So many things to look at.... so little money to buy it all. Ended up buying one of those blister packs they sell, that not only had my desired pliers but also another set of channel locks, some vise grips and a set of diagonal cutters, all for $10 plus tax.

    Had a nice phone call from a good friend in Virginia. Sounds like it is even colder up there than it is here.... even if it isn't snowing there yet. Will be heading that way myself in a couple of weeks and I have been taking stock of what kind of warm clothing I have in the trailer already. As long as it isn't an all out blizzard for days at a time I should be okay, but will still be checking and making sure just in case.

    Made it back to the campground in time to take a quick hike over to the river before the sun went down. A nice, but cool walk, I actually had to put a coat on to do it in comfort. A few deer out there tonight as well as the usual squirrels and armadillos, no wild pigs today though.

    Tonight I'll just hang out, maybe watch a movie and read some of my book. Otherwise I'm just going to drink tea and think of what it is I want to do tomorrow.

    Stayed up until after 4:00 last night.... yes, the book was that good. Got started on a new, for me, Lee Child novel, he does the Jack Reacher series, and I just couldn't put it down and go to sleep. Even after finishing it up it was at least another hour before I was sufficiently tired to turn the light out and close the eyes. Should of known of course, that if I'm up really late it will mean something, or somebody will make a point of waking me up way earlier than I want to be. Happened again this morning... didn't realize that a whole cub scout pack had set up their camp right behind where I'm camped last night. So several of them were up and about around 5:30 this morning. Normally not a big deal, but it ain't even light out at that time of the morning.  :)   Not to worry, after figuring out what all the noise was about I managed to roll over and go back to sleep until nearly 9:00 this morning.

    Once up it was easy to see that it was going to be a beautiful day. Bright and sunny and already warming up to what must of been about an 82-85 degree high for the day. Went ahead and got some breakfast and read the comics before heading out for one of several hikes for the day. Only trekked over to the Suwanee River from here in the campground, but it was nice to be out and about in the wonderful weather.

    Grabbed the truck when I got back and headed for Fanning Springs State Park. Just a small park only a few miles from here, but last year I saw several manatee that had swam up into where the spring bubbles out of the ground. Nothing there this morning, but still a nice chance to get out and walk around again.

    Went on down to Manatee Springs State Park after that. It is just a few miles west of the town of Chiefland, so not all that far to drive either. There were a couple of manatee's hanging out at the mouth of the spring, but it was a bit difficult to see them very well in the tannic colored water. Still; it was worth while to go out to the park and then wander out the elevated walkway along the spring race.

   After a couple hours out there, it was back into town for some late lunch at a local Chinese Restaurant. Not bad chicken and broccoli, but not all that memorable either. It did manage to satisfy my hunger however; and sometimes that is really all it needs to do.

    Wandered next door to the Tractor Supply store after lunch and went up and down all of the aisles for a little while looking at all the cool stuff they had stocked on the shelves. Sometimes I think these kind of stores are even better than Home Depot and Lowe's. But those two are pretty fun too. Didn't actually buy anything today. Guess there was no real need for 5,000 feet of barb wire right now. Maybe one of these days though.

    Came back to the trailer and took one last walk before the sun went down and the clouds moved in the rest of the way. I'm hearing a cold front is coming in and tomorrow will be cloudy and a good 20-30 degrees colder than today. So I hiked a different trail over to the river this evening. A beautiful time of the afternoon/evening, saw quite a few deer running through the forest as well as a couple armadillo's. But the neatest thing to see was the wild pig that took off from a sink hole near the trail. Have heard them before in this area, and have seen plenty of sign of them rooting in the woods, but this is the first time I have actually seen one of them in the wild. They didn't stand around and let me take a picture either.

   Have been hanging out in the trailer for the rest of the evening. Just finished up watching the movie 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' on the computer. I guess I wasn't aware that the original book was written by none other than Ian Fleming, of James Bond fame. Can't say it will ever be one of y favorite movies, and now that song is running around in my head and won't leave, but it was a cute movie in it's own way.

    Going to go start up another book, but I am sure there will be no staying up late tonight. I've been having a hard time keeping my eyes open as it is. Just don't want to fall asleep to early and then get up before the sun is up..... boy do I hate that.   :)




     

    Was up pretty early this morning, not as early as I wanted to be, I really must learn to set that stupid alarm clock, but early enough considering what needed to be done. What was needed, of course, was to pack up the trailer and get on the road at a reasonable time. As it was, it was closer to 11:00 this morning than my normal 10:00 a.m. departure time. But having only a bit less than 150 miles to go, and an estimated drive time of under 4 hours, it was no big deal that it took me longer to eat some breakfast and do most of the rest of my morning routine.

    A nice day for travel actually. The temp was a little warmer than I would of preferred at around 74 degrees, but there were plenty of clouds, so it never got steamy hot in the truck. The driving was indeed pretty easy. About 40 miles on the interstate to begin with and then a switch onto a 4 lane divided highway for all but 6 miles of the rest of the trip.

    Made it into the campground at Otter Springs right at 2:30 and was checked into and all set up within an hour of arriving. A quick bite to eat for a late lunch and then some quiet time to read and take a short nap. Ran into the town of Chiefland early this evening to do some grocery shopping. Didn't really need a whole lot of stuff, some fresh fruit and veggies, so it didn't take me very long to get in and get out.

    Got back to the trailer just a little bit before dark, so I did get a short walk in today. Felt good to be able to get up and move around a little. I have been to this little campground for a couple weeks in each of the last two years. So I have a pretty good idea of what there is to see and do in the area. Some of it isn't worth seeing again, but there are actually a couple state parks in the area and there is always the ocean to go see.... and even the town of Gainsville isn't all that far away. Right now though I'm going to go read some more of my book and think about what it is I want to do tomorrow.

    Another wonderful day down here in Florida. A quiet morning reading the comics, catching up on the news and doing the crossword puzzle. Finished packing up and stowing the last stuff that needed to go back under the bed. Should of purchased some smaller boxes for my stuff, but they did all finally fit under there with everything else.

  Once all of that was done it was off to the beach for me. Hit the road going south and ended up at a beach down by St George Island. Just wanted to walk along the sand and feel a little salt water on my toes. Spent a couple of hours down there walking and sitting on the beach watching the shore birds and watching the waves hit the beach. Had my book with me so I just found a nice sunny place out of the wind in between a couple of dunes, and  read for an hour or so.

     Felt good out there in the sun, but my stomach eventually sent me back to the truck and on a search for a late lunch. Ideally it would of been some fish tacos and a beer, but I 'settled' for a couple shrimp tacos and a beer at a little beach bar instead.

    Had to go find a Home Depot on the way back to the trailer. My tool box in the trailer has just gotten to small for all of the stuff that I need to store in it. Not that I need this huge box of tools, but I have found that I need a lot more stuff than one would think. Found one big enough easily enough, so now it is just a matter of trading them out once I get back home.

    But right now I'm sitting at Taco Bell taking advantage of their WiFi while eating a couple burritos. Got a few more pictures uploaded all ready so I hope you all enjoy them.

Wakulla Springs State Park Florida - Nov. 19, 2013

A few more photo's from my trip over there a couple of days ago. You might want to check out the other ones that were posted two days ago.

So here we are continuing our trip down the Wakulla River keeping our eyes peeled for wild life and other interesting things.

Passing one of the other tour boats, you can see the duel electric outboard motors that they use while running the tours. This one is coming back from some maintenance so it is running on it's regular gas motor. Note that the propellers have a metal cage built around them to protect the manatees from getting injured by them. The regular motor has one also.

The lighting and colors were wonderful on this day.

Something you wouldn't normally see... alligators are known for eating pretty much everything, including turtles. So this was kind of fun to see.

 

 

A White Ibis looking for breakfast.

 

I know it is hard to believe, but the color of everything was just like this. The river is so clear that it is hard to believe that it is between 10-15 feet deep right here.

A large hornet nest hanging off a limb along the river.

Going back upstream on the other side all of the trees now had some neat reflections.

 

A female Anhinga drying out her feathers in the sun. Having no oil gland in which to waterproof their feathers, they periodically have to dry them out a bit so that they don't just sink to the bottom when they dive in to chase their food.

I like how the sun shines through the Spanish moss in some of my shots.

There are several hundred buzzards that winter right there in the park. You can often find a bunch of them hanging out in the trees along the water.

 

I knew the name of this bird a few days ago, but of course now I can't remember it. What I do remember though is that it is often called the 'candy korn' bird because of the color of the beak on the male.

    Another nice weather day here in Florida. A bit colder than I would like, with a temp only in the high 60's, but much better than snow and below zero temperatures. It was also mostly sunny today, so that was a really nice thing.

    Went over to the Tallahassee Museum of History and Science this afternoon. Kind of a mish-mash of a little bit of everything, it isn't a great museum, but it is still interesting enough to go and see for a couple of hours, especially if you haven't been there for a couple of years. They have several different areas set up there depending on what they want to showcase. In one area are old buildings that they moved in from the surrounding area. So there is an old school house and an old church, as well as the main house of an old plantation that was once located on the land the museum is now on. Some interesting items in each one, as well as information on life in each building over the years.

    Another section was devoted to live animals that had been injured in some way and would never be healthy enough to return to the wild. In a way it is basically a zoo, but at least in this case the animals seemed to have a rather large enclosure to live in, though it still didn't seem like it was enough.

   Lastly; there was an another area that had to do with an old time farm from the late 1800's, as well as a reproduction of a commissary store as it would of been set up at the turn of the century when the collection of pine sap and the distillation of it into turpentine and other items was one of the biggest industries in the area. Interesting to read about how the sap was collected from the long leaf pines that were prevalent in the area back then, as well as how whole communities were set up around the industry and became dependent on it much like the coal country communities did much further north.

   Did manage to get a bunch more of my photo's fixed this evening, but am finding that my WiFi account for this month is getting pretty low, so I think I'll wait until I can go into town tomorrow and log in on a library system or maybe one at McDonald's. Some of the pictures turned out pretty good so I am anxious to get them loaded up an posted. Right now though I'm going to go read some more in my book. Picked up a Janet Evanovich novel the other day, 'Notorious Nineteen', and it has been keeping me happily laughing every few pages or so.    








   

   Woke up to a wonderful day this morning. Could tell it had cleared off finally last night, just because it was much colder in the trailer this morning than it had been over the last week or so. Bright blue sky and a brilliant sun, it was going to be a good day to be out and about.

    Had told myself that if the weather did clear up the one place I really wanted to return to, just south and a bit east of Tallahassee, was Wakulla Springs State Park. Looked like today was going to be that day. Had a quick breakfast and cleaned up around the trailer before loading up the truck and getting on the road.

   Only about an hour from the trailer, I arrived at the park just in time to book a trip on one of the tour boats that take people out on the Wakulla River for a one hour narrated tour. At only $8 per person this is one of the best deals around and is certainly the cheapest boat tour I have found in any of the state parks that offer them. One park, Blue Springs, charges more than $25 per person and I had to wonder why until I realized that all of the other places have leased out their tours to a private operator. Where as the ones here are run by the actual park staff. I'm not saying that I know for sure, but I would hazard a guess that not having to worry about making a lot of profit is one of the reasons it is so much cheaper. This is even though I also think that the rangers who conduct the tours also make a real wage vrs someone who works for one of the charter companies. Just saying; maybe having the government do a few things is sometimes a better deal all around.

    I and the other six people on the trip soon boarded the boat and our guide backed us out of the slip and headed us down river. We motored downstream for about a mile before turning around and coming back up the other side. Along the way we saw all kinds of different birds as well as turtles, alligators and manatees. A nice narrated dialogue by the ranger told us about the spring and the history of the area, including the fact that it hosted several movie sets over the early years including two different Tarzan movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and the underwater scenes of 'Airplane 1977'. 

     The boat ride takes about an hour to complete before dropping you back at the dock so after that I wandered around and checked out the old resort hotel that had been built about 100 years ago. A neat place, you can still go there and rent a room or two for a stay. There are also several miles worth of trails through the surrounding woods so I wandered around on a few of them for a couple of hours. Nothing real interesting there except for spotting a couple armadillo's and finding a gopher turtle crossing the path. It was just nice to be outside again.

    Hung out at the park for several hours until my stomach started to rumble from hunger. It was time to go find some fast food and sit down for a little bit. I spent about an hour reading my book and then headed to a Target store in order to find a couple plastic bins. I had come to the conclusion that it might be a good idea to put pretty much everything that lives under my bed in a waterproof container. Even though I feel like I now have a handle on all of the water lines under there, and that no other ones are going to blow out, I just don't want to take that chance again. And if $20 worth of plastic will help me sleep better at night, so be it.

    As I said, I'll try to get a few more photo's worked up and posted tomorrow if I can. In the meantime I hope you will enjoy these.

Wakulla Springs State Park, Florida - Nov. 19, 2013

Near the head of the spring I am just about ready to board the boat that will take me on a one hour cruise down one side of the Wakulla River and then back up the other side.

A beautiful day today so there was a ton of wildlife to see along the way. Here is a Anhinga, a water bird who catches it's food, usually fish, crustaceans, snails and such, by diving for them. Having no oil gland they have to spend time drying their water logged wings out periodically so they don't just sink when they dive in.

There were dozens of manatee's in the river at this time so it was easy to spot them as we boated by. None of them seemed to be all that bothered by us.

It is fall even down here in Florida. Some of these colored leaves are on deciduous type trees. But many of these red trees are evergreen like cypress which normally look much more like needle bearing fir's. The only difference is that they lose all of their needles every year just like other trees lose their leaves.

Cypress love the water and can, in fact, sprout in water that is 18"-24" deep. Once they grow above the surface of the surrounding water they start collecting detritus  until they have made their own little island. What a wonderful place for wildlife.

Another one of the locals.... saw lots of small to medium gators sunning themselves on the shore and in the shallows. There was one or two that approached the full size 10'-12'. This one is maybe 8' long.

Another view of all of the little cypress islands out in the river. Note that all of the water you are seeing here came out of the ground not more than a 1/4 mile upstream from here. At an average depth of maybe 8'-12' you can see that it is indeed possible that this thing is spewing out millions and millions of gallons of water everyday. In the case of this spring, which is classified as a Class 'A' spring, it means at least 50 million gallons per day. Amazing!

I'm just captivated with the view everywhere you look.

More cypress trees.

The last photo for today. I will try to get a few more sorted and cropped for tomorrow..... won't promise though.

    It has been raining off and on for the last couple of days, sometimes quite hard, but mostly just a steady state drizzle that keeps everything damp and the humidity high. Since it has been up in the mid 70's as far as temperature, it hasn't been bad at all.... other than being a bit muggy at times.

     Have taken a drive both yesterday and today just as something to do, but mostly I have holed up and kept happy reading books. Currently finishing up another John Grisham novel, 'The Racketeer', and like all of his previous ones it has been highly entertaining.

   Went out this afternoon, during a lull in the heavy rain, and finally found a place to get my hair cut. One of the few things in life I still dislike doing, it only took about 15 minutes start to finish and I should now be good for another month or so. Of course I'll probably hold off way longer than that and then finally give in when I can no longer stand it.

    A wonderful evening here in the park by the lake. As I pulled back in I noticed that once again I am the only camper here in the park. Nearly hit a possum heading to my trailer, but it was running pretty quick as it crossed the road in front of me. It's foggy out over the water of the lake this evening. In the distance a few water birds have been making their 'jungle sounding' calls making it feel like I have slipped back in time 50-60 years for some reason. With Spanish moss hanging from the trees, and the lights on the poles out by the boat ramp, it feels very cozy and somehow familiar.

    Good news.... even with nearly 5 days of rain, sometimes heavy rain, there have been only a few drips coming in from the vent over the bed. Not sure where they are coming from, but they may actually be from beads of water from condensation. Right now though I think it's time to go finish up my book.... I have a couple more just waiting for me on the bookshelf.

      Feeling a little bit better every day it seems. Woke up pretty early for some reason, considering it was after 2:00 this morning that I went to bed. Just restless I guess, that and all the sleep I've been getting these past couple of days while recovering. Even at that late hour it was still at least another hour before I finally drifted off to sleep. So it was a surprise when I woke up at 8:30 a.m. today. Rather than succumbing to sleep, which is what my body wanted to do. I went ahead and got up rather than get started in a routine of 'really' late nights and equally late mornings.

   So up it was, though I still wasn't all that hungry for some reason. Read the comics, did the crossword and checked out email and facebook. Nothing of any great note in any of it, but still comforting to be slipping back into a real routine again.

    Finally made it into a shower and cleaned up as well as did the few dishes that I had dirtied in the last 5-6 days. For the most part that meant a few knives and forks and a mug for my tea.  Around two this afternoon it cleared up enough that it felt like a good time to get out and about. Had bought two one pound packages of dried beans at the store yesterday with the intention of making a really big pot of beans with some home made cornbread for dinner this evening. With that in mind I had set the beans to soak in water in my biggest kettle last night. After nearly 12 hours of soaking that had swelled to more than twice their original volume and I could see that I might have to break the original batch into two smaller ones. But first I needed to go off and find some cornbread mix to go with it.

    With nothing better to do while out I was also keeping my eyes open for a cheap hair cutting place. No real hurry about it, but it is certainly long, long over due. Since it is one of my least liked things to do however, I didn't feel too bad that I didn't run across a Cost Cutters or some similar place before getting to the grocery store. Picked up 4 boxes of 'Jiffy' cornbread mix and a couple of cartons of vanilla yogurt. I found long ago that if you substitute some, or all, of the milk for yogurt, the cornbread came out richer and creamier and didn't feel as 'gritty' in your mouth. Once that was done I went ahead and found a local McDonald's for a quick bite of very late lunch.

    Back at the trailer I went ahead and put the rest of the bean stuff together and got it started simmering on the stove. Did have to break it into two batches as it was too much for my largest, I think 7-8 quart, pot. Also had to cook them at different times because, while my stove does have three burners on it, only one of them is adjustable to anything other than high. Not a problem though, as there were plenty of hours in the evening to get it all done.

     Got it all finished up about an hour ago and did at least have a taste of it.... but really still not all that hungry for anything yet. Will wait until tomorrow to make my pan of cornbread and then have a good time eating a couple of bowls of it. I had bought and used a package of 'smoked' ham hocks to cook with the beans and along with the spices I used it really turned out quite good. Just waiting for it all to cool down enough now to put it in the fridge, as well as get a couple Tupperware bowls of it put into the freezer for later.

    Have been working on photo's for most of the night as well as reading a new book when things got slow. Will likely finish the book up later tonight or early tomorrow, but there are still billions and billions of other good ones out there to find and read.

    Got a few pictures from last weekend put together and have them posted below. They are of a trip to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens that my friend Rima and I did last Saturday. We decided to take a few hours off from dancing and spend some time outdoors in the beautiful autumn weather. It was a wonderful little journey, even though there were not many flowers to see this late in the season. Enjoy!

Atlanta Botanical Gardens - Nov. 9, 2013

It being mid November already the whole staff seemed to be busy in getting out Christmas lights and putting up decorations for the season. I found the contrast in light between these unlit lights and the fall colors of the trees and grass to be interesting.

I like seeing the white of the lights set off by the different fall leaf colors.

Just inside the entrance they have an elevated pedestrian bridge in a design similar to one I saw in Greenville, SC a couple years ago. Notice that the cables used to hold the bridge up with are only attached to one side of the bridge. You also see that there are several cables that are attached to lever arms on the same side,,, that also put a downward 'moment' on the structure. A very ingenuous design that is always fun to look and marvel at.

Another view of the support poles and several of the guy wires.

They had these cute little wood and metal stools located along the bridge in several spots. They are actually quite comfortable.

Rima also had to take a picture.

A nearly hidden water feature.

This is just a great little fountain. Look closer and see how leaf shapes make up most of the face and head while there are also small little caterpillar like creatures hidden around the sculpture.  

In one of the bog areas they had a whole bunch of temperate 'pitcher plants' of some kind. Most had water in the pitcher part, and many of them had trapped insects inside that they were slowly dissolving and consuming as food.

Some type of grass that looks somewhat like wheat. But I don't think it is.

A very pretty little gazebo like structure.

 

They had one section devoted to actual edible garden plants such as cabbage, beets etc. Around the perimeter was this whole trellis of espaliered fruit trees. I just love how these things are trained up onto individual wires. The apples, by the way, are blown glass ornaments.

Rima in front of a whole bunch of tropical orchids.

Inside one of the tropical green houses. I couldn't decide of this was one huge leaf, or lots of individual leaves all jammed really close together.

 

 

Some type of tropical pitcher plant.

Note how you can see a bit of water at the bottom of each of these. I also liked the little hinged 'hood' that each of them had. Not sure if they could move it to close off the tube or not.

Some type of orchid.

 

I have no idea what this stuff is.... but I think it looks really neat.

 

Another small water feature.

 

A fountain with a 'Chihuly' glass sculpture on top of it. For some reason it reminded me of some wild Medusa like figure with crazy hair that had been turned into glass instead of stone.