The humble but exotic paw paw flower

It is spring again

Walking in the woods is what I do.

As I do small magic all around me,

Shows me the light

through the reflection of all things

North Carolina on my mind---------------

Well it is incumbent on me to post my vacation pictures on the blog.  Attrition keeps grabbing at me to neglect my blog.  It's been awhile.  I have been busy and lazy.  Here is the blog entry from our mountain getaway.

I hope the pics load OK I've used too much memory on this blog entry.
Click on the pics to zoom and hit escape to get back to the story.

  We stayed again ( as usual) at the Pisgah Inn.  It is a little expensive  but is our guilty pleasure to sleep well and spend time over 5,000 feet altitude.  Low 50's and in the clouds in early June

We did some hiking around the Inn.  The mountain laurels are blooming.

There is not much to do in the evening so we catch the sunset and go back to the restaurant at the inn for dessert.

 I get up before the dawn to stalk the sunrise.  Jean likes to sleep in.  This is called the Shining Rock wilderness for all of the quartz outcrops

Then after I get back about 9-9:30 from my dawn patrol, we walk over to get our free breakfast at the inn.  During the day we go into Asheville or exploring.

looking glass rock on a clear day

Sometimes we just pull off the side of the road and explore.

this is a stream at the foot of Sam Knob where we spent several hours

Jean is drying off below after her swim.

We followed this creek along the road ( NC 215) for miles and pulled off when we wanted to explore and play.

We have a great time in the mountains together.

We enjoy it all  but I really enjoy waiting for the dawn more than Jean does.

  So here I am again back at one of my favorite overlooks on the parkway hoping the sun will peek through

As she sleeps I grab a few morning hours to satisfy my wanderlust.

On this morning I followed the rising sun along the ridge. As the sun rose I hiked  to stay just inside the shadow of Black Balsam ridge to remain in an extended sunrise. beautiful.

After following the sunrise along the ridge I sat on a cliff edge to enjoy my starbucks double-shot and some granola with my old friend Sam Knob.  Sam is a 6,000 foot bald peak also.

this is Black Balsam from the other side of Sam. If you look closely you can see a favorite spot of mine with a little gravel beach,  just above Yellowstone falls.

Lower Yellowstone falls.  Jean swims here, Casey too.
Get there early before it gets crowded.

After our hike we go back and sit on the porch before dinner (at the inn).  Jean feeds the birds and the chipmunks. and we peer out across a big valley.

Here is the view from the Inn you can just see the edge of our balcony on the right.

After a few days we left the Pisgah Inn and stayed near Hendersonville,  NC explore it and see some family.   I made Jean walk down this alley So I could capture the urban landscape.  We like Hendersonville.  good restaurants.

Hendersonville has done a great job with their downtown.

We capped off the trip with a paddle trip down the Green river Gorge.

thank you Jean, for another wonderful trip to the Mountains.

See you next year.

It's time to go

My planning agency - the Withlacoochee Regional Planning Council has fallen victim to the ideology of the anti-government government.  Public service is one of the casualties of our right -wing "race to the bottom."  Actually, (and incidentally) my boss made some all too true comments while the recorder was running.  Anyway it's over and  you can still call me Withlacoochee Bruce.  Here is one last tour of my humble workspace.

It was a good run (17 years)

Paw paw flowers in spring

so . . .   I took one of my perfect day after church walks last Sunday.  I typically pull over on the side of the road on the way home and take a stroll through the woods.  It just so happens that I drive through Indian Lake State Forest on the way.  Makes it easy to do and on a perfect day hard not to.

After so many of these walks it has become like the famous environmental journey of Aldo  Leopold in his book.   "A Sand County Almanac"  It is a story of a man who chronicles the changes of the seasons and the land as he  walks the same woods over and over.  He travels deep but not far.  Thanks to one of my favorite professors Peggy Carr for introducing me to the book.

Any way here is the of woods right off SR 326 in Marion County, FL.  Just a few miles from home.

It's a  well managed turkey oak wire grass community.  You can see the horse riding trial

The parcel was last control burned in December of 2013.

And  because of the burn the star of this blog post is the humble paw paw.  They can flourish in the lack of underbrush.  Paw paw is one of my favorite flowers because of their ghostly lilting appearance and they are in bloom now.  Some years have a better bloom than others dependng on the weather.  The bloom last year was prolific. (if you noticed)  ( I did)

Delicate - odd - different - unlike other flowers

I search myself for the reasons I appreciate them over other flowers.  

You don't often see them but I don't think they are rare.

I like the fact that they bear an edible fruit, and I like the name  - Paw Paw.  I would taste one if I found it ripe, but then leave most of it for the gopher tortoises.

odd,  strange - different - special.

Whenever I walk here I am obliged to take this picture and other pictures of young pine trees.

But these are the stars of this hike.

I have never seen this flower here before. I will post on facebook and hope for an ID.

I hope the viewers of this enjoy the paw paw flowers like I do.

but there are many little slices of nature here for us to enjoy and delight in.

Or don't even get caught up in the names of things  -  just enjoy the whole thing as the 

beautiful unified creation that it is. This looks like home to me.

I saw a dead bear too but decided not to post.

fungus among us

Here's quick post from a hike earlier this year.  Every hike is different.  This was  A hike where the theme centered around small fungi and epiphytes.  Indian Lake State Forest is the  closest good hike to home; it's only 3 miles from the house.  I am a run and gun photographer so this is pretty much how the journey went.  I would name the fungi if  I could.  ID help is appreciated; I'm always wanting to learn.

For this post I won't weave a story line within the pics.   It was a long beautiful hike well off the beaten path.  Moss and fungi and epiphytes were revealed at times when I was almost lost.  I pulled out my GPS and got back to the normal world.  This hike once again confirmed to me that  I love places with poor soil .     Click on the pictures to enlarge.