March 09th, 2017

**After yesterdays blog debacle, I promise from now on, I will be extra careful. I found the problem and I believe the issue is resolved.  Once again, my apologies for the problems yesterday.  Moving on.**

Earlier this week, Joy and I, in keeping with our promise to hike once each week, found yet another place to go.  It's called "Celery Fields" because at one time, when Florida was far more agrarian, it was indeed fields of celery.  Now it's a great place to walk and take photographs.  There were roughly a zillion birds of all different sorts, but I leave those photos to Joy because well, she is incredibly good at it.   I do see one bird in this picture though, roughly in the center.  No idea what sort it is.  She would know though.  Hey Joy!  What kind of bird is in this picture??

There was a lot to see in addition to the birds. They even had a hill to climb. I wish I had gotten a better photo of it but it didn't come out well enough to post.  I'm reasonably certain that it is the highest point in Florida.  There were people running up and down it, a few walking it and a few that, like me, considered it briefly and walked elsewhere. 

One of my favourite spots was on a boardwalk built out over the water.  There were all sorts of water plants, some blooming, and that sort of gardening to me is just exquisite.  Always brings impressionist paintings to mind. Sometimes quite literally. Monet anyone?

As usual we walked, and talked and took our photographs and the time passed too quickly, as it always does.  She and Bob are heading back to Connecticut for the next three weeks then when they return, it will only be for about 10 days before they are off to Yellowstone for another season of Ranger-ing and I will miss her.

What did we talk about?  Well, everything I suppose. Our kids, our life-partners, the price of tea in China.  That line from Alice in Wonderland comes to mind:

"The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of other things, of ships and sails and sealing wax, of cabbages and Kings"

That pretty much covers it.  (I suspect that I am the Walrus)

It's just so easy to talk while you are walking along.  Seeing the beauty in the world around you, just ordinary things that somehow strike a chord, kind of opens up my mind.  Even if I'm walking by myself, I find new ideas, new thoughts, new perspectives while walking.  If I have a problem to solve, I'm pretty sure I will find the solution while walking.  When I'm writing, occasionally I find myself written into a corner, or the edge of a cliff or into a dark closet and if I take myself on a long walk, I always find the answer. I'm not sure if it's the physical exercise itself, in which case a good series of crunches would probably achieve the same result, but I think that's not it entirely.  I think part of it is seeing the world outside ourselves.

Even just the local world. Walking down the same roads that I walk or bike every single day to get to the beach, I see different things each time. Every new thing I see sparks a new light in my mind. New lights, new thoughts, new ideas. And if I'm walking with someone else, I get to share their new lights too!  Bonus! 

And of course, I find more of these, each and every time:

Found another heart. Always do.  And it makes me smile.  

We are expecting another set of guests today. Exciting!  And she, like me, is a walker.  So we will walk and talk and spark new lights and it will be a terrific few days. I cannot wait until they walk through the door!

Since we are expecting guests, I am declaring a long weekend.  See you again on Monday. Have a wonderful 3 days!  Take a walk, have a talk, think some thoughts and then tell me about them!  I can't wait to hear.