Month: January 2022

The warm start to the west central Florida winter meant a lot of morning fog into January. Some mornings we awoke to visibility so low that the news reported driving warnings. With that much fog comes a lot of dampness.

One morning I looked out the back window and saw light attempt to break through, causing the heavy dew on the screening to glisten in a dark, rather ominous way. The reflection caught my eye, so out came the camera. The screen looks crystalline with the heavy dew hanging. In spite of a couple weeks of fog, I never saw anything like this again.

Another morning I started out the front door for a morning run, and noticed wood storks sitting atop the roof across the street and the street light pole. The saw me and never moved. I turned around from my run, took up the camera, just to see what I could get. I took several shots, but the one on the roof with the trees in the background clearly showed fog. Without the clear evidence of fog, the others just looked blown-out. I rarely see Wood storks perching in the neighborhood. Usually they are viewed from a distance across the creek. The four I saw stayed until the fog lifted somewhat and visibility improved.

The cloudy morning stayed cool, and we meandered rather than hiked the trail, taking our time and enjoying the solitude and nature. Of course we stopped for the occasional photo. We find nearly everything crowded in Florida this year, traffic much heavier than we have ever seen in our 25+ years of calling this home, crowds of people everywhere, and even campgrounds never before filled at capacity and turning people away. This early morning hike before anyone else discovered our refuge provided exactly what we needed.

The River Trail follows the Santa Fe River to the point that the river disappears underground at the Santa Fe Sink. It flows underground for three miles, and resurfaces at River Rise Park flowing another 35 miles to the Suwanee. The area of underground flow contains many underwater caves, and on land it makes a natural bridge which Florida’s first federal highway, Old Bellamy Road, crossed. We walked to the sink, which looked like a large green pool. Turtles lined the fallen tree branches taking what little sun broke through the clouds.

O’Leno State Park where we followed the River Trail encompasses the now gone town of Leno. The park name of O’Leno is believed to be short for Old Leno. On our returned hike we explored some of the building and the bridge, built by the CCC during the Great Depression.

Happy 2022! We woke this January 1 to fog, the same as the day before and actually for a good part of December.

Early, but not too early, we drove to a local small beach for a walk along the small shoreline and a hike on the boardwalk through the mangroves. The sun barely broke through when we arrived to find a very low tide, and in the distance Great Egrets along with other wading birds standing in the mud flats. The white of the birds, brown of the sand, and white-gray of the fog made the whole scene look a little surreal.

We discovered that the boardwalk was completely closed for maintenance, so walked the beach and enjoyed the view. As the fog closed in again, we left. A short walk on the beach is better than no walk!

Happy New Year to Everyone!