Magnolia Time

Take a virtual walk with us around Maclay Gardens at the most beautiful time of year (which is right now). It's a warm spring-like day. Golden butterflies are drifting through the air, and a slow rain of magnolia petals is falling from the high tops of the trees. The gardens smell like spice and moss and perfume. We are stopping every two feet to take another picture of the magnolia trees, because we never get used to how lovely they are.

Things I Learned on a Stormwater Walk

 Lake Ella is really pretty early in the morning.

There is a reason the water is so blue, and it's because of a cool water treatment system that also helps keep toxins and trash out of our drinking water.

It's also the reason why birds and other wildlife love Lake Ella.

The invasive false apple snail is enormous.

 The wetlands at the foot of Lake Jackson are also part of a water filtration system.

And they are beautiful.

Weekend Outings

On Saturday I went with my hiking club to Cathedral of Palms, which is a gorgeous forest of sabal palms near Tallahassee.

 It's a rare stand of virgin palm forest, and the towering palm trees are incredible.

The giant palms and the twisty oaks make the forest look primeval.

Occasionally there is a tree trunk reaching far into the sky between the palms.

 And on the ground, the occasional log covered with brilliant green moss.

The trail takes you through the palm forest to Shepherd Springs. Under this pool of blue-green water is a cave popular with cave divers.

 The next day, David and I drove out past Shepherd Springs and the Cathedral of Palms to the Gulf coast. We thought we would check out Bald Point State Park, which has one of the closest beaches to us.

 It's a beautiful park with a white-sand beach on Apalachee Bay.

We had the beach mostly to ourselves. I'd never heard of it before a few days ago, and now I think that's because everyone who knows about it is keeping it secret.

 Because it's an amazing beach.

 We walked along the wrack line and looked at barnacles ...

 ... a colony of lettuce bryozoans, which felt like it was made of stone or shell ...

 ... the carapace of a horseshoe crab (which I learned is not a dead crab, but a molted exoskeleton ...

... and the iridescent side of a pen shell.

We walked far up the beach.

 When we had gotten to this point ...

 ... we saw something flapping through the water beside us. It was a ray -- a cownose ray, I think -- and it followed us as we walked along the beach. It kept coming pretty close to us. It seemed curious and friendly. But we also thought that it might just want to eat us.

It was basically the perfect beach day.

Mid-January

We Bought a Couch

January is a good month for buying a new couch, because all of the furniture stores are having sales as they get ready for new inventory. So David and I went on a couch-shopping trip. We planned out an itinerary that would take us in a huge circle around Tallahassee, stopping at every furniture store in town. It took us five hours.

We looked at this couch.

And this one.

 And this awesome bed that looks like a Roman emperor should sleep in it.

We almost bought this couch.

But in the end we bought this couch -- the first one we saw -- which looks nothing like the previous three couches, but was by far the most comfortable one that we sat on all day.