Tuscawilla Preserve, Subtle Flowers, Sunday Afternoon

Just south of Micanopy Florida along S.E. Tuscawilla Road just east of Highway 441, we drive along the Tuscawilla Preserve site of the historic Tuscawilla Lake.

We walk through the Spanish Moss covered Live Oaks onto a damp prairie. It's April but the prairie is still brown. A hawk flies high hunting for lunch. We hear some traffic sounds but overall it's quiet. We see patches of subtle flowers ever where.

Subtle Flowers? The ones that don't scream their bright colors at you. They're there. You see them. But it takes a longer, more in depth look to really see them. They coexist with the landscape around them, provide beauty without the need to dominate.

The world could use more subtle flowers.

Anthropomorphism on a Sunday afternoon.

   

Forest Roads & High Shoals Trail: Day 3 in North Georgia

Out of the campground nice and early heading for the forest: specifically forest roads 44 and 283 looking for waterfalls.

Just driving these roads is an adventure as we hope never to meet another vehicle. We drive with the windows open and see a pair of (some kind of) yellow warblers flying along the side of the road from bush to shrub.

This is what some may call a "bonus falls": just water sliding down dark rock along side the road. I absolutely love these!

Another rabbit by the side of the road and Sarah actually notices. When we were driving to the campground on the first day, we kept seeing small brown creatures along the side of the road. If we were in Minnesota, I would have said that the were woodchucks. But not being in Minnesota and now that I see the ears, we know they are rabbits. They don't seem to be afraid or bothered by much.

Our mission for the day: High Shoal Trail. Only 1.2 miles. However, that is 1.2 miles DOWN and then 1.2 miles UP. I like "down" better than "up". Of course that is personal opinion.

We see full size trees growing out of rocks and small openings in the side of the mountain with flowing water.

High Shoals Falls. There is such a tendency to hurry down and hurry back up (HA! like I actually could hurry going up the mountain) Still in work mode not vacation. We step back and absorb where we are. High Shoal Falls.

Finally, we head back up the trail. The upper falls, known as Blue Hole Falls, is a popular swimming place. As popular as a place can be knowing you have to walk 2 miles round trip to get to it. Apparently the jump off the top of the falls adds to the attraction. We watch, fascinated.

Somehow, I missed this single flower in the woods when we were walking down. Hiking back up, I see it. Haven't found it's name yet, but WOW.

Our forest road ends a mile outside of Helen. After hiking and driving backwoods trails for over 6 hours, we are not psychologically prepared for bumper to bumper traffic that is Helen, Georgia on a Saturday afternoon in August. We take a different road "home" to camp passing by the historic Stovall Mill Covered Bridge.

And we are home in time to feed the goats down on the farm.

After today, what could we possibly do on DAY 4?