A Walk in the Jacksonville Arboretum

     On a warm winter day last week, my husband, Maggie the super dog, and I enjoyed a magical afternoon walk on the trails at the Jacksonville Arboretum. This delightful preserve, reclaimed from the edge of a former waste dump, has been creatively transformed into a multi-use park and education center. Husband Mark, a master gardener and member of the area Native Plant Society, participated in that transformation, along with many other tireless volunteers. They cleaned up trash, cleared and leveled trails, labeled some trees and plants, and selectively planted others--carefully adding only true native specimens (plants that would have greeted the first European visitors to Florida centuries ago). The 120 acre arboretum is notable for housing several distinct ecological zones in an accessible, walkable whole. 

     We hiked the easy lake trail and then ventured onto another trail above a ravine, where several streams flowed through the area. The experience was fun (doggie delight adds a wonderful dimension), refreshing, and renewing. Although we were within the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida, it felt like a faraway adventure into forests, scrub land, and meadows. I was particularly grateful to be able to walk for over an hour and a half--exercise that would have been difficult and painful before my recent total right hip replacement. It feels miraculous to consider further exploration and gradually greater walking distances in this amazing coastal North Florida region. And, of course, I took a number of reference photos for future paintings, so stay tuned for what that might bring.





    For more information about the Jacksonville Arboretum and Gardens, the web site is here. Other than that, the photos can complete the story of a wonderful day.
















Question of the day: What are some of your favorite walks or hikes near home?

The Beauty of Spring--A Blossoming Fringetree

Here in coastal North Florida, our azaleas are already dropping petals, and the wonderful flowering bulbs I grew up with in Michigan, like tulips and daffodils, do not flourish. However, we are enjoying our second round of spring flowering. I hope that wherever you are (except for my southern hemisphere friends, that is :>), you are beginning to see signs of spring emerging.

When we added a cutting garden of strictly native plants last year, the fringetree a landscape designer recommended was past its blooming time of the year. Given his description and the pictures in our North Florida native plants books, we eagerly looked forward to seeing our little fringetree sapling in bloom this year. It has truly exceeded our expectations, with bright white clusters of fragrant, wispy hanging blossoms that almost seem to glow against darker green foliage behind them.

For those interested, Gil Nelson, in Florida's Best Native Landscape Plants, describes this as a slow growing small tree which can live over 50 years and is "among the most trouble-free small landscape trees". It also bears a blue, olive-like fruit that attracts birds. According to Nelson, although it is most often seem in traditional southern landscapes, its range extends from Pennsylvania and New Jersey on down to North Florida and west into Texas. The botanical name is Chionanthus virginicus. Perhaps some of you are familiar with this tree; it is a completely new delight for me.

Question of the day: What are your favorite spring flowers or flowering trees? Are you seeing signs of spring where you are?

Savoring--Summer Flowers, Indoors and Out

For us, appreciating nature's beauty is an essential element of creative everyday life. We also love the trees and plants in our own yard and the birds and animals that come around. My husband particularly likes gardening and growing flowering plants--luckily for me. I like bringing flowers indoors, but didn't have the right kinds of plants in the yard for it. So this spring, we chose a spot to plant a cutting garden.

Because we are committed to planting North Florida natives as much as possible, and because this is a unique ecosystem--not tropical, and yet not friendly to many of the flowers we knew from other parts of the country--it has been a learning experience. We presently have mostly yellow and purple flowers, with some reds (the colors I wanted for bringing into our home).

So, here is a quick look at our cutting garden in its very first season and at a modest bouquet I gathered to celebrate our return from a couple of weeks away. I am glad to be back to blogging and apologize for the gap in postings. Even though I had two posts written in advance to post automatically while we visited relatives, more time has passed than I intended. I also hope to get back to a more regular schedule of visiting all your blogs soon. It seems to be a slow season for blogging in general with fewer visitors coming around than in the spring. Hope you are all enjoying a fine summer (at least those of you in the Northern Hemisphere; I need to remember that some of you are looking toward spring's approach :>).

Question of the day: How is your summer going? For those of you who blog, has this been a busy or a quiet season in blogland?

Growing--Painting Done to Study Tree Structure

Although I don't have much time to post tonight, it has been too long since my last post and tomorrow looks even busier than today. So, I'll show you a study of a slash pine, done in acrylics on an 8" X 10" canvas board without my usual longer description of the painting process. This is nearing completion and is on a stand on my dresser so that I can look at it in varied light conditions over the next few days. It may get some revision in the foliage, but it may be that the wisest thing to do is to declare it completed before I overwork it.

This twisted slash pine, a very common sight in North Florida, stands like a sentinel in our neighborhood. It has been instructive to work on the trunk and limbs as they appear in strong sunlight late in the afternoon. I hope you enjoy seeing this little study.

Question of the day: Where does the time go?

Exploring--Our North Florida Yard, Part III

We are all extra busy this week--at least those of us in the US. I very much appreciate all the readers and visitors who are still stopping in to the blog. I hope that your Thanksgiving celebration was joy-filled and truly thankful.

Today, I won't write much, but want to show you more of the beauty in our yard. As I look around, I realize that we have come to a real change of season here in North Florida. After a warmer than usual October and early November, we finally are getting chilly nights in the 50s and some 40s and cooler days, in the 60s and 70s. So, some fall colors are showing up in the leaves of deciduous trees, and the winter flowers are coming into their own.

Some of the flowers in these October photos are now gone or at least faded and on their way out for the season. Our side and front yard have more varied colors than the back yard I showed you in previous posts, with lots of reds and red-orange, some yellows, whites, and purples. The red-orange and red flowering plants above are pagoda plant and fire spike. Mark doesn't remember the name of the yellow--the flower looks like a black-eyed susan, but this susie has bright green eyes.

Question of the day: What is interesting outside your window this time of the year?

Exploring--Our North Florida Back Yard, Part II--Flowers and Rain

I continue to marvel lately at the degree to which I am a happy homebody even though I love to explore, both in our own area and to lands far away. You have seen this love of local and travel exploration in previous posts. Today, I offer another homebody post, exploring right in our back yard, now made into a delightful refuge by my husband Mark's hard work. As I mentioned before, we have a cozy fenced-in area and a wilder tree and fern-filled space beyond that with a small creek at the back of our property.

The flowers inside the fence are mostly in pink and purple tones, set against plants with a range of green and variegated leaves. I took these plant and flower photos (and many more!) for painting reference, planning to do a series of small pieces picturing Florida natives both from our yard and growing wild. You see a purple flowering passion vine, bright pink penta, and caladium foliage. The penta blooms at the foot of the brilliant mandevilla vine climbing a wrought iron obelisk, which you saw in my last post.

One particularly pretty rainy day in October, I took a few photos in the yard. It was one of those rains that made everything look clear and sharp. If you click to enlarge the photos, you will see raindrops pattering onto the patio and streaming down against the house. Perhaps I'll get brave enough to try to paint these scenes. Painting a rainy scene realistically is difficult, but I know I would learn from the effort no matter what the results.

Now that I am semi-retired, I have extended my reflection and meditation times and feel a better, calmer person for it. In addition to starting my day reading and meditating in an easy chair with a view out to this lovely back yard--feeling thankful as the day slowly brightens, I also take more moments throughout the day to step outside and breathe deeply. Whatever I have been busy with or stressed about melds into the whole in its proper proportion, achy old joints seem a bit less problematic, and I give thanks.

Question of the day: Are you primarily a "no place like home" person, a happy wanderer, or someone who savors both home and wider exploration?

Exploring--Our North Florida Back Yard

I have posted before about exploring in our area and discovering all the delights of coastal Northeast Florida. Today, our exploration is even simpler--stepping out our back door. These photos were taken in late October, when we were beginning to experience nights going down into the 50s Fahrenheit and even an occasional dip into the 40s. Our daytime highs have stayed mostly in the 70s with fewer cooler days than we normally experience this time of the year.

Our little Shih-tzu was thrilled to find a turtle in our back yard one day and happily sniffed and nudged it, totally spooking the poor thing into its shell. So I wasn't able to see it clearly or get good photos until later on, without Maggie's interference. I have checked our field guide to Florida, hoping to identify this new friend, but did not see one exactly like it. The highly domed carapace resembles the shells of a couple of turtles from the mud and musk turtle family, but those listed in the field guide were quite a bit smaller than this one, which had a shell about 8" or 9" long. The similar turtle shells shown in the guide were also plainer than this one, without the interesting markings. This turtle's under shell (or plastron) was hinged so that the turtle could raise the front portion to completely close off the openings for the head and front legs after they were pulled in. I plan to do more research on-line when I have some time, but perhaps some of you readers will recognize this lovely beast.

The other photos show our mandevilla vine a few weeks ago at the end of its flowering for the season. It is one of my favorites, with clear, bright pink blossoms. This year, rather than simply clambering on our fence, the vine has a new wrought iron piece to climb. We purchased it from Scott Hornbaker, a talented artisan from St. Mary's, GA who brings his works to our weekly outdoor Riverside Arts Market. My husband admired this piece so much, I decided it was a perfect Father's Day gift (he thought so, too). You can see Scott's artistry at his web site.

I am fortunate that my husband, Mark, loves to work in the yard and has become a Master Gardener since we came to Florida. Guided by his mantra, "right plant; right spot" and his research into using Florida natives in our yard, he has beautified our home on every side. If I feel stressed and need a refreshing break, all I need to do is to step out the door, breathe deeply, and stroll around. Beyond the little fenced-in back yard area, we also have an overgrown, wilder area full of ferns and shaded by evergreen Laurel Oaks (a relative of the better known southern Live Oaks) with a small creek at the very back. You can glimpse that area in the back yard photo in my last post from earlier this week. The creek is probably the home of our turtle friend, who has not ventured up close to the house again since our small dog gave it an over-enthusiastic welcome.

Question of the day: What outdoor delights have you found at home or nearby in recent weeks?