Florida, Oddly Enough

 

Since I write so often about missing the north, I felt I should comment on what is good and wonderful around me, here in Southwest Florida.  A list of good things about Florida:

1. Food. Even the Winn Dixie has tables of harvested tamarind and plantains, papaya, mango. Every grocery store has a locally produced in Florida aisle. Watermelons are plentiful and people here tend to really love the fresh fruits available year round. Florida produces a lot of strawberries and honey. When I shop at the CSA store, I can choose from several exotic honeys, my favorite being mangrove honey. Moringa is harvested locally and the CSA sells it by the jar for a reasonable price.

2. The scents in the air. Where I live, there are lots of the melaleuca trees which have a pungent medicinal smell, rosier than eucalyptus but different from the tea tree oil you can buy. It's often in the background and certain weather conditions make it especially noticeable. I am noticing as I age that my nose isn't picking up scents as well as it used to. It could be my medication for asthma which tends to make my sinuses swell. But, if I purse my lips together really strongly I can get a good deep sniff of beautiful air. Last night walking Sandy, I detected a bit of a urine smell in the very full creek, mixed with the Eucalyptus, cedar, and some other plant scents that was very rich. The sun had set and there was just a ribbon of coral winding through the middle of the trees. A couple of owls had begun hooting, and the moon and stars twinkled in the rippling water.  The physical perfection was sweet to behold. 

3. Clouds. Florida is Big Sky Country jr. And Gulf Coast sunsets are among Earth's finest. 

4. Diversity and rich language. I love hearing the Spanish and Haitian Creole being spoken, at work and out in the shops and at the beaches. Beautiful brown skin, tans, black hair, braided hair, The gold hoop earrings worn by very small girls. Often a present from their fathers, it seems.

5. My commute to work. Though I hate burning the gas, my drive in the early morning is my chance to see beautiful sunrise, pass twinkling lights strewn across the exteriors of breakfast taco trucks right off the road, for the agricultural workers. I have an audiobook going most mornings. Pulling into the neighborhood of my school, all the roosters crowing and the dogs running around after escorting their 'children' to their school buses. Many chihuahuas or at least chihuahua mixed.The trailers, some sad, some beautiful set back in a shady spot along curving gravel drives. Banana trees, banyans, wisteria and crape myrtles. Driving home in the afternoon, I keep my windows down in good weather. The scents of cooking food, the sound of latin music, people on their porches shelling beans.

6. Alligators, They always look happy or suspicious. And don't worry, I'm careful. I know Sandy would be a delicacy!

7. Birds, I've had conversations with big owls, had them fly in front of my car. Wild turkeys, too. Watched a flock of huge waterfowl in the sky illumined by moonlight. I see and hear the Woody Woodpecker type of red-headed woodpecker, daily. They are big. But even the humble little  common birds are amazing and varied and fill the morning and evening air with an amazing cacophony. The Spoonbills are always striking when they land, with the black band of feathers at the edge of their arched wings,looking so dashing as they land.The roseate variety gorgeous in flight.

Well, the list isn't exhaustive, but here you have several wonderful things about Florida

~Oldgirl aka Dorothy Dolores