Taking the back roads

The time has come to begin blogging again.  And why you ask?  Or maybe you didn't but I'm going to tell you anyhow. I have recently moved to a part of the country where I hope I will have new adventures, meet new people and generally start a new time of my life.  After living in Southern California for about 44 years of my adult life and then two years in Texarkana, AR as a "nanny" to my granddaughter, I am back in a warm climate with other people who have "grey hair."  I'm in the retirement state of Florida and specially in a town called Fruitland Park.  Fruitland Park (hereafter referred to as FP) is  about 4 miles south of the big retirement community of The Villages, about 30 miles south of Ocala and maybe 60 miles, give or take, northwest of Orlando.  In other words, I'm pretty much in the midle/midle of Florida generally called central Florida. Now why you ask would someone leave the wonderful environment of SoCal and ...

 At pleasant Tuesday afternoon at my friend Judi's back yard patio, we sat enjoying a beautiful Sierra mountain afternoon.  The sun was shining, the breeze was lovely and cooling and the wine was delightful.  The conversation was effervescent and the day was a delight. We had started the day off with a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, fruit and orange juice on the deck and quickly decided that this was going to be a day of "relaxing and enjoying the great outdoors."  After breakfast, that turned into a morning of short naps. I took the first turn of laying on the floor with a pillow on going off for about 30 minutes of "power napping" and then getting on with some person business on the Internet. Judi decided to get some things done around the house and just "play it cool and take it easy" for once in her very busy schedule.  Since she rarely has a whole  day off, this was a unique opportunity for her to take a "short snooze".  So while...

Friday was definitely the day for visiting history.  First it was the Crater of Diamonds, to find precious and semi-precious stones.  Then it was a trip to the historic town of Washington, AR and the state park to see how things looked from 1824 to 1889. http://www.historicwashingtonstatepark.com Washington , AR is a lovely museum village that preserves and interprets the history of the 19 th century town.  At that time Washington was a major commercial and professional center in southwest Arkansas .  It was the home of the Bowie Knife and a major stopping point for travelers heading down the Southwest Trail as well as serving as the Confederate State Capital of Arkansas from 1863 to 1865.  The town is being fully restored so that it shows what life was like in the mid 19 th century of the south. As we drove into town we could see some beautifully restored building and some with scaffolding around it in the process of being restored.  There are many h...

Diamond hunting… now who’d-a-thunk that was possible just an hour from the house.   Well, Jenia and I found out on Friday when we went to Crater of Diamonds State Park a few miles from Murfreesboro , AR.   http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com Just the drive there was quite beautiful.   When I think of Arkansas I kind of think of shacks in the rural parts and not much else.   But when you travel the back roads, as we did on Friday, you become entranced with the beauty of the countryside.   Sure, there are the rural shacks and the cars scattered in the yard, but when you look at the other side of the road you see some beautiful countryside with huge trees and the occasional small stream.   I commented while we were driving that this trip surely qualified as part of my blog of “back road traveling.” Fortunately the Garmin GPS took us on the round-about roads and that was fine with us because we got to see so much of the rural area. Had we taken the inte...

Spring is different in different parts of the country, obviously.  After reading my friend Judi's blog, http://www.beautybreadsierra.com  about spring in the lower Sierra’s, North Fork , CA , for example… I wanted to show how things look in the south, Texarkana , AR , for example. One thing I never knew about this part of the country is how the pollen sits on the ground, all over cars, and blows in an open window so it sits on the window sill.  I don’t think I’ve ever really “seen” pollen.  I always knew it was around when I lived on the east coast and also in So Cal because I would always have allergies at this time of the year.  But to actually see pollen is a bit on the strange side.  This is what it looks like sitting at the end of the driveway just before heading into the garage.  With the little dip in the driveway, water sits in this spot and this is dryed pollen just sitting there Pollen is a fine-grained powder with just a bit of grit to...

Today I realized what the sound of silence is all about.  Stasia is out of school this week on spring break and the neighbors next door were out last week so she doesn't have anyone to play with, except me. We have been spending the days doing a few things, like a 4 mile round trip bike ride to a park.  Yipes, I need to get back to that cause I was popped when we got home.  Anyhow, a lot of time we have been just sitting outside (me that is) while Stasia rides her bike around the street.  We live in a very quiet neighborhood where the only cars you see belong to people in the neighborhood. Be that as it may, today we sat out for an hour or so and it was so quiet.  The only sound you heard was Stasia laughing at something she saw and the wind.  It's kind of a dank day cause the sun isn't out yet and the clouds are still around and the wind is blowing a tad more than lightly... and therein is the sound the silence. It is so relaxing to hear nothing but ...

Finally, it seems like the south, at least this part of the south, spring has decided to come visit for a while.  After what seemed like a very long winter, in other words, temps in the 20's, 30's and 40's most of the time, it's  become a bit warmer. According to those in the know, like the neighbors who have lived in this area most of their lives, this has been a very, very cold winter.  Not like some of the others with terrific ice storms with lots of wind and even some snow, but cold nevertheless.  For a transplanted west-coaster, it’s been exceptionally cold, rainy and cold and even cold.  I think you might be getting the picture.  But in the last week or so, the sun has been shinning and the weather has been warmer. Take this past Sunday for example.  The temps were in the low 70’s and the sun was shinning… just my kind of weather be it here or in So Cal.  We decided to check out one of the local parks we have seen driving by.  Of cou...