So it has been a couple of weeks since I last sat down to write. I am sorry that it has taken so long, but there has been a lot going on, almost all of it fun, so whenever there is a conflict like that, writing the Blog is always going to lose out.
   That being said, I will try to catch up and hit some of the high points that have been going on over the next several days. Of course there are also a lot of new photo's that I have been taking, and some  that are from a long time ago. So I will try to post a few over the next several posts, and try to catch up a little bit at the same time.

   But first let me complete what has happened today; My girl friend, Rima, who was down here with me for the past couple of weeks, flew out and back to Virginia early this morning. We actually spent last night in the Tampa/St Pete area so we could make it to to airport in time to get her onto her flight out. We had a good time down in Sarasota Florida yesterday touring the 'Circus Museum' they have there. Way too much to see, so even though we were there for nearly 4 hour, we still left more to see than we actually got a chance to visit... So next time!
   So now I am back to a solo existence for a few weeks and the trailer, and me, are feeling a little empty right now. But I'm going to work on my photo's this next week, and there are still plenty of things to do around this area.... so it won't be too bad. In the meantime what follows will be the start of catching up on what has been going on. 

    The biggest thing to happen after moving up here to the Gainsville/McIntosh area was the arrival on the 31st of my girl friend Rima. She flew into the Clearwater/St. Pete airport down near Tampa, and I ran down that afternoon to pick her up. We had a lot of plans for what we would do during the two weeks that she would be hanging with me, and it was a great joy to spend some time with her, even if it was less than a month since I had last seen her.
    It was a several hour trip back to the trailer after picking her up, especially since we stopped along the way for some dinner. It was the first night she had spent in the new trailer, so it was interesting to find enough places to stow all of her gear without putting it all in a spot where it would have to be moved about a lot.
   Our first day out was going to be just an easy day of running around the Gainsville area. We spent much of it over at Paines Prairie State Park walking the trails and looking at alligators and lots of different bird types. There are plenty of photo's of that day posted below so I will let them tell the rest of the story of our trip out there. Afterwards however we headed over to 'La Tienda', a local Mexican bodega where we both had beef cheek burritos. They are really yummy.... and huge to boot.
   After fully sating our appetites we went over to the grocery store and picked up some additional groceries before heading back to the trailer to watch a movie on the entertainment system.

   Paines Prairie State Park with Rima - Feb. 1, 2016

At the entrance to the park are several huge 'Live Oak' trees, this being one, though not the biggest one by any means.

All of the trees have their own complement of 'Spanish Moss' hanging off of their limbs. The moss is a type of 'air' plant that gets all of it's needs out of the air, including the nutrients and water that it feeds on. It only uses the trees to get it up off of the ground where it is able to 'mine' the air currents. I just like how it looks, especially when back lit by the sun.

Another large live oak near the entrance to the park where they have some corrals and a barn to help when they need to round up some of the wild horse's, bison or cracker cattle. I have tried many times to take a picture that show what the Spanish Moss looks like when back lit. This one almost gets it right.

Looking over the sink hole where water from the Paines Prairie surface water sinks back underground to replenish the groundwater table. Lots and lots of water this year.

My girl friend Rima. We always have fun when visiting this area.

With all of the water this year the wildlife has a lot of area to spread out in. You can pretty much count on seeing a lot of alligators at this park though, so it is fun to come and see what is out and about. This is just a little guy enjoying the sun on its back. The little white egret in the background doesn't seem to be the least bothered by it.

 

A trio of larger gator's. These are pretty routine here in the park and they are right along the trail you walk on. Since I am using a nice telephoto here, I am a lot farther away than it looks.

'My what large teeth you have'.

Another nice Little White Egret out looking for lunch. We later watched as an Anhinga caught a fish by spearing it with its beak and then beating it against a tree limb until stunned enough to flip it head first into its mouth where it swallowed it down whole. A really neat experience, but disturbing at the same time because the fish was clearly still alive as it slithered down its long, long neck. Yup, real life isn't much like a Disney movie most of the time.

A couple more pictures of Rima.... I like her, so even if these look very similar, I still like the differences in each of them.

More large alligators hanging out on one of the trails. Because of all of the water many of the trails in the park are temporarily closed to people. Having been on many of them before, it is probably a good thing because the water was up very close to the trails last year when I was here. Maybe they are now too close for safety with gators lurking alongside underwater.

For some reason this Buzzard was hanging out on the ground near one of the trails. I couldn't see, or smell, anything dead nearby so I am not sure why it was where it was. But that is one of the cool things about nature.