Still Gravity

Blooming giant ironweed - License our images  here . Vernonia gigantea is known as ironweed for the toughness of its stems. It's related to the sunflower family - pollen of the family Asteraceae was found from 76–66 million years ago. This dweller  of  North America blooms purple flowers between July and September. Cattle don't this plant, but butterflies and bees love it. We took the picture in Talladega National Forest. 

Lazy gorilla thinking about exercising - License our images  here .   Most people exercise to gain muscle and strength, but take them to a tree branch and many can't hold too long from their hands - leave aside tests of balance and equilibrium. On the other side, m onkeys easily can, and they don't train with weights. Natural lessons from the wild side of life.

Bird on a branch - License our images  here . What's the value of B&W photos in a world obsessed with colors?  Getting to the essence of shapes of grey after removing the distraction of colors. Distilled arrangements of objects and compositions. Drama and powerful expression - just  check this image from 1825 created through the "heliographic process".  One caveat: some stuff won't go well without colors.

Lantana during the fall in the Everglades - Photo: Still Gravity.   Lantana is blooming in the Everglades. Yesterday, we hiked along many common lantana ( Lantana camara ), another illegal immigrant in Florida - some researchers say that there is a "lantana mess" in this state. It's said that this is the most studied weed in the world.  The gold lantana ( Lantana depressa ) is a native of Florida - their flowers are yellow. But most of the species living here are hybrids.  The common lantana has four petals tubular-shaped flowers. They can take multiple colors: red, yellow, white, pink or orange. The colors depend on location. The plant can reach up to six feet.  This perennial is poisonous - fruits and leaves -, but anyway is popular in Florida gardens. 

Palm Warbler on a small palm tree.  Tiny, cute, and a migrant that trades the cold winters of the north for sunny Florida. Palm Warblers love to wander on the ground, walking and hoping while hunting for insects, fruits, and seeds. They also go tail bobbing frequently. Funny little beings.  Scientific name:  Setophaga palmarum . In Spanish is called reinita palmera in Mexico and bijirita palmera in the Caribbean.

Yulee Sugar Mill in Homosassa, Florida -  License our images here .                         Old stones and rusty metals towering over a narrow road of the west coast of Florida. We parked across the street and crossed to check the ruins.   These are remains of a plantation owned by Levy Yulee, the son of Moroccan immigrants of Jewish ancestry that served in the Florida Territorial Council in 1836 and ended in the U.S. Congress in 1841. The sugar mill was part of the Margarita Plantation. Most believe that Yulee moved to Homosassa after the Second Seminole War - land records from 1843 support this idea.  David L. Yulee - U.S. National Archives. The New South , a book from 1887, tells that Yulee built his plantation home on the 15-acre Tiger Tail Island on the mouth of the Homosassa River - less than two miles to the west from the remains of the sugar mill.  The island was known before as Iathloe Island. There lived the

Hare’s Foot Inkcap - License our images  here .    The body of this mushroom resembles the pawn of a rabbit when in its younger stages. That's why it's known as Hare's Foot Inkcap - science calls it  Coprinopsis lagopus . But what about the "inkcap"?  This comes from the black substance that the mushroom dissolves into when dies. This process is known as deliquescence. The term means that a solid becomes liquid after absorbing moisture from the air. Technically, these mushrooms eat themselves - self digest.  The life of a Hare's Foot Inkcap is pretty short. They exist for just a few hours. When the cap curls like seen in my photo, they are close to the end of their life. The Hare's Foot Inkcap g rows alone or in a group. A curious thing is that when it grows on the ground means that the soil is rich in decaying wood.  These mushrooms are nonpoisonous but neither edible. Remembering the humorist Terry Pratchett: All Fungi are edible.  Some fungi are only ed

Our latest Zinnia Purple Giant - License our images  here . After  the accident , we got time for a garden project - if C can't go to the flowers, the flowers will come to C.  A package of seeds from  Amazon  - the link is affiliate  - gave us thirteen species, but only Zinnias and Cosmos Sulphur grew. We are waiting now for the bees and the butterflies. Will they show up?    Sulphur flower early in the morning. 

Towards evening, Odin you should come again, Hávamál, Words of the High One. Illustration of the "Hávamál in the translation of 1908 by Olive Bray - Public Domain.   Imagine the god of our modern Wednesdays - the name of the day comes from Wōden's day in Old Norse, another name for Odin - advising us how to live. This is idea behind the Hávamál, a poem of 164 verses with wisdom of yesterday and tomorrow.  The Hávamál was found in the Codex Regius or "Royal Book" discovered in 1643. The text was compiled by an editor probably by the 13th century. That individual joined separate fragments of independent works that have in common the protagonism of Odin. It was first published in 1665 translated to Latin.  There are more than  twenty translations of the Hávamál to English. And all have differences, because how Olive Bray, the translator of "The

Her broken backpack after the accident - Photo: Still Gravity.   It was a trap. An ambush. Maybe from the forest . Or perhaps from herself. We'll never know for sure. But the fall was hard. Painful. It brought blood, pain, tears, fear, and an evac helicopter. But she survived, and that's what matters.  We must say bye to travel for a while. The rehab journey will be long. And likely, things won't be the same again. But that's life. The constant is change and there is only one thing that is guaranteed for every one of us. I won't say it because you already know it. Always expect the unexpected.  We'll be forever grateful to the angels that helped us that sad day.  The evacuation. The beginning of tough times. 

Cheaha Falls: A tiny waterfall in the mountains of Alabama -  License our images here .    After an easy mile of hiking through the Chinnabee trail, we reached the little waterfall.  The water was pretty low for a summer. We expected something bigger. A real waterfall, not a shower. But anyway, it's a cute waterfall with a tranquil pool at its base. We didn't swim, but it's said that many locals do.  Last picture of C before the accident.  The best part was that we were the only ones there. C seated on a big flat rock and grabbed a snack from her blue backpack.  She loves these quiet places. Immediately, she got lost into herself surrounded by the sounds of nature and the smooth hammering of falling water over ancient rocks. Who knows what she was thinking. I didn't.   We left for another day the hike down to Devil's Den Falls and Lake Chinnabee. There was time for them. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We had some days to spend camping in this forest .  How coul

Talladega Scenic Highway is a nice road. It's nice because goes through the highest mountains of Alabama.  This is one of those so-called "scenic roads" in travel sites and paper magazines. The ones of, "the best drives in America". You know the marketing gimmick. But honoring the truth, the paved road is pretty good and low in traffic. Judge by the next photo.  The Scenic Highway through the Talladega forest - License our images  here . We came in through the Adam Gap - the southern entrance - and took a campsite at Turnipseed Campground. This primitive camp seats between Talladega National Forest and Cheaha Wilderness. Nature in both looked pretty much the same to me. It's just an administrative division.  The campground is close to the paved road but shielded by a dense wall of trees. The access goes through a

Rising moon over White Oak Creek - License our images  here .          We reached White Oak Creek Campground on the Alabama side of Walter F. George Lake fleeing hurricane Idalia.  The camp is big. With four loops covered by trees, it's managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. All was clean. Our campsite was on the shores of White Oak Creek by Mallard Point. Just two other vehicles camping there. Plenty of silence.   This campground is close to the city of Eufaula, a jewel of antebellum architecture. We visited some years ago, so this time will pass on - our photos in this post .  The outer bands of the hurricane gave the sky a sad winter look. No rain, but humidity was high. The propane stove heated up and the cooking session began. Fresh nigh thanks to the bad weather punching North Florida. 

The giant elder of Florida - License our images  here .   This oak is the elder king of Bulow Creek State Park. A giant 78 feet tall and 8 of diameter at the trunk, this tree was lucky to escape the axes of colonists, farmers, and modern real estate developers. Fairchild Oak is now one of the largest of its kind in the south of the United States. The plaque at its base says that it's 2,000 years. The data is wrong. Between four and six centuries is the estimated age of this tree. Either way, it's a pretty old tree.   The "Fairchild" in the name was to honor botanist David Fairchild - same guy of the Fairchild Tropical Garden of Miami. This happened in 1955. Before it was just a common oak. Haunted legends surround the tree. Two folks lost their lives under the magnificent branches - or at least were found dead there. One by unknown cause and the other by suspected suicide. But no worries, these dark events happened in the 19th century.    A trail close to the tree get

Dummett Sugar Mill Ruins - License our images  here . Ruined chimneys and an old wall of coquina and bricks on the eastern side of Old Dixie Highway. What is that? U-turn and stop in a small clear on the side of the road.  Surrounded by a forest of Spanish moss draped oaks, pines, and Florida palms, these are the leftovers of the Dummett Sugar Mill after being destroyed by an Indian attack almost two centuries ago. Age, decayed mortar, and intrusions of tree roots have taken a toll of the ruins.  Colonel Thomas Dummett, an ex-officer of the British Marines, bought these lands by 1825 from John Addison and Bunch. A year later, he built the sugar mill and distillery. He brought the boiler from Barbados, the island of the Caribbean where he learned the business of sugar production - Dummett fled the place after the slave revolt of 1816, the Bussa commanded rebellion. His new sugar mill became the first steam-operated i

The confluence of the Halifax and Tomoka Rivers - License our images  here .          Small state park between rivers and marshes in the east coast of Northern Florida.  The expedition of Álvaro Mexía in 1605 mentions an Indian village near the point of the photo. This was the Timucuan town of Nocoroco, the first Indian settlement south of the city of St. Augustine at that time.  In 1766 the area of the former Indian village became part of the Mount Oswald Plantation. Its owner was Richard Oswald, a rich Scottish trader that bought a big tract of land from the British government.  Oswald participated in the peace negotiations at the end of the American Revolution, signing an agreement with John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Henry Laurens in 1782.   The Mount Oswald Plantation was abandoned when the British left Florida in 1785.  The statue of Chief T

Ouroboros. Illustration from Keith Henderson (1922) - Public Domain. Many times, we read stuff written by someone interpreting something written by somebody else. Does this sound familiar?  Well, at that moment, we become the interpreter of the interpreter. The process repeats and repeats in an awful looping chain and most of us don't read the original text anymore and settle for believing the latest tale - be it true or false.  Plato put it well in his dialog between Socrates and Ion.  SOCRATES: And you rhapsodists are the interpreters of the poets? ION: There again you are right. SOCRATES: Then you are the interpreters of interpreters? ION: Precisely. It's good to read the originals. Sometimes one gets surprises. 

The wonderful loneliness of Apollo Beach - License our images  here .   A whole day in Apollo Beach in the middle of the week is a rewarding experience in solitude. Here you walk an ancestral Florida, because this is one of the largest undeveloped strips of coastal land that survive in the Sunshine State.  Located in the northern section of Canaveral National Seashore, Apollo Beach conjures images of rockets and moon landings. But the name doesn't relate to the Apollo Space Program. The tale says that it came to be in 1958 to celebrate the Greek god of the sun and the amazing sunrises of the Atlantic - before that time was known as "Tampa Beach" and "La Vida Beach".  Stop at the Apollo Beach Visitor Center.    A short film about Canaveral National Seashore in the visitor center works well to plan the day.  We took a glimpse of Mosquito Lagoon from a dock behind the building. There were not mosquitoes, but I wouldn't dare to come here by the sunset. Then we d

C checking the info in a trailhead of Dupuis Wildlife Management Area, Florida - License our images  here .  Sometimes, we have to go back to planning. It's not fun, but it's important. We know that the fun is in the going and doing, but directions are vital, or we risk reaching nowhere.  Once in a while, stop for a bearing in the path of life.  You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who'll decide where to go. Dr. Seuss

Hiking around the man-made lakes - License our images  here .         This is protected land with stormwater lakes and canals located a few miles west of the Highway 27 in South Florida. The pavement ends at the public use area and a dirt road gets deep into the wildlife management area. We only crossed two other vehicles in this wet and muddy expanse.  Why is this place named Holey Land?  There are two ideas. One says that the area was a bombing range during WW2 and the explosive practices left many craters. The other one blamed nature for the many depressions in this region.  What is true is that there is plenty of water in this place. 

Inflation is hitting hard from every side, even from "our" national parks. The epidemy of fees keeps growing. And sure, this will affect the rich.    Did some government officer forgot about the families that make $10 an hour? What about those who need two jobs to survive? Will our national parks become a natural version of the expensive parks of Disney? $30 for a single night of primitive camping is a lot for too many - and you need to add the entrance fee. Such prices can jeopardize the milk supply of their following month. And don't we already pay for the national parks through our income tax?  An article published in National Park Traveler questions the avalanche of fees.  Critics of these fees refer to them as a "Recreation Access Tax," or RAT taxes. Like frogs in that pot of cool water, is the park-going public being lulled into a more and more costly national park experience by the growth of what the National Park Service calls "amenity fees"? H

One of our pics from Alaska - License our images  here . Hiking and climbing on ice are dangerous activities. Today, I read in the news that an ice column broke and crushed a lady climbing in Utah. The brave climber saved a companion pushing her aside from the falling ice - the story  here . But how many folks die ice climbing?  This activity is seen as more dangerous than rock climbing. Makes sense: slippery stuff, breaking ice, and snow avalanches. The stats point that the fatality risk is higher compared to mountaineering - check the paper from 2010,  Evaluation of injury and fatality risk in rock and ice climbing .  Slippery slope in Alaska.  Anyway, if you like it, do it. Like I always say, city streets and cars are more dangerous. Life is risk. Just be smart, learn, and train.  

Break from a long drive - License our images  here . The rules change from state to state and even from rest area to rest area. This is the status nowadays but check because changes are constant.  Overnight is possible in California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, Ohio and Pennsylvania (only in the Turnpike).  Need to check the rules for each rest area  in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Park and rest with time limits - 2 to 4 hours - in Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Don't allow:  Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The cozy camper trailer of our neighbor in Silver Lake campground, Florida - License our images  here .   The solution is Amazon Hub Locker. Easy and convenient. Some points about the system.  Packages must weigh less than 10 pounds.  Size must be smaller than 16 x 12 x 14 inches. Amazon will alert you when the package is in the locker and will send you a code to open it.  Need to pick up in three days. You can do returns through a locker (Amazon will send you a code).  The official info in these links.  How to collect a package in an Amazon Hub Locker . Find an Amazon Hub Locker .  How the system works . Good option for the road traveler. 

This is the NOLS system to check an injured person.  A - Airways check. B - Breathing check. C - Circulation check. D - Disability check. E - Expose injuries check. Remember "ABCDE" and carry a first aid kit. 

Entrance to the mountain bike trails in Santos, Ocala  - License our images  here .   Our son came to ride the Epic 50 - again. And we came as the support team - again. If I remember well, this is his third time participating in what is probably the most popular bike ride of Florida.  We rode our bikes in the previous visit on the paved trail up to the Ross Prairie campground by Highway 200 - a 30 miles roundtrip. This time chose to do something different: we went hiking.  Early morning in the Florida Trail. This forest is beautiful, especially under the softer lights of the morning. An orchestra of singing birds followed us and, closer to the ground, an army of squirrels - we didn't see any wild turkey this time.  The colorful medal after the ride.  Once again, our son completed the fifty grueling miles. They meant close to five hours of pedaling, liters of sweat, and cramped legs. But one always feels good after completing a challenge. We are sure he will come again in 2024. 

Rising moon on the campground - License our images  here . Not the first time, nor will be the last one. Sometimes we cross path with loud fellow campers. The couple began to argue at 2 a.m. Profanities came out of their tent. Rude wake up for the sleepy campground. A few minutes later, their voices muffled but the damage was done. The moon was the witness. 

Sandy trail by the Wild Loop of Highland Hammock State Park - License our images  here .  A Great Horned Owl visited our camp in the WILD LOOP of Highland Hammock State Park, Florida. No, no one, there were two, and a third one further away - let's call that one, "the intruder". The couple of owls tried to sing away the intruder. The territorial fight escalated into a back-and-forth concert that lasted for an hour. Again, and again, the Great Horned Owls call of "Who's awake? Me, too." -  Click here  to listen a duet. Of course, we remained awake.  A short time later, the howl of a coyote nearby. Nothing for you here, I thought. Go away and hunt somewhere else. Night is still young. And then, the full moon made all blue.  Next morning, we found the trail of a wild party printed on the sand.   Footprints of wildlife everywhere.  They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon.             Edward Lear, "The

The magic lightning of this Florida forest - License our images  here . We found a social media hiker in Highland Hammocks State Park. She crossed us on the trails four or five times. Always with a phone on her left hand and the right swapping across with a frenetic movement. Nonstop social media frenzy or obsessive illness?  The answer doesn't matter because both end in the same spot: she missed the park . The lady traded trails, forests, and the ancient oak by faraway ghosts of ones and zeroes. What a pity! The remains of the oldest oak.  

Crossing path with a python in Shark Valley - License our images  here .   Burmese pythons are expanding their range throughout Florida.  This map shows that they have reached Georgia in the area by the Okefenokee Swamp. One of the largest snakes in the world, they are mainly nocturnal. They are also good swimmers and can stay underwater for up to half an hour. Their breeding season is in early spring.  The phyton can fast for over a year if needed. They ambush their preys with a sit-and-wait strategy and, if large enough, can be a danger to humans.  What to do if attacked?  Don't hike alone.  Keep your eyes open in the bushes.  Carry a blade.  Don't let the snake wrap you up - they are constrictors! Phytons bite. Control the head.  They don't like alcohol or mouthwash on their face - not sure how to deploy this under attack. Fight for your life!  We found a dead python on a trail. We've crossed them three times in the wild. All encounters were in South Florida. So far