Maclay Gardens State Park

Beautiful, huge live oak trees, blooming camellia trees, formal gardens and woodland trails plus a lake for kayaking make up Maclay Gardens, "America's first two-time National Gold Medal winner."

Here are Sabal Palms and Sago Palms which are really cycads.

The femal Sago Palm has a soft cabbage looking center that produces reddish fruit with seeds.

The male which I've pictured in previous blogs produces a large pine cone.

The seeds in those red fruits are very poisonous, but this chameleon doesn't care.

Maclay gardens have many other flowering trees.

Jolynn is standing under an American Holly loaded with berries.

This is the formal walled garden with a metal sculpture

at the center of the fountain and pansies blooming in December.

Dark pink camellia

White camellia

Wakulla State Park in December

There are definitely seasons in the Florida panhandle. Winter on the Wakulla River is a little grayer, but it was a beautiful, clear day with a high above 70 degrees.

Here's a closer picture of the Anhinga on the tree above.

There were many more migratory birds than in the summer.

Here's an American Wigeon.



A whole flock of American Coots enjoyed the peaceful river.


We were lucky to see and photograph a mama manatee with her baby.
The group of five played and seemed to pose for the photographers.

Of course we saw alligators . It's Wakulla State Park.

However, many must have been below water keeping warm.

Most of those few we saw were swimming rapidly, not sunning in the swamp grass.

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

Wakulla Lodge

Off to Pebble Hill Plantation

Here we are at Pebble Hill plantation, one of over 120 in the Tallahassee, FL / Thomasville, GA area. Only a couple are open for public tours so we took advantage of the tour guide's knowledge to learn a little about local history and customs.

Dad enjoyed the outing. He's been a real trooper all week and handled the Skybus trip from Ohio with no problem.

The plantation was rebuilt in 1934 after a fire destroyed the original. The grounds and gardens are beautiful year round. See the ferns growing on the horizontal branches of the wonderful live oak tree specimen.



The plantation was used as a winter home and hunting lodge for a family from Cleveland. The owner loved showing and racing horses mostly in Ireland where the turf track was softer under their feet. She also had 120 dogs for hunting fox and otter and for pets.


The Camellia bloom in Dec. I'm so glad my sister, Jolynn, could come to see them. It's great having family around at Christmas. Thanks Dad and especially Marc.

Christmas in the Florida panhandle

Dad made the trip to FL on Skybus to be with us for Christmas.

What an adventure! He's doing very well for 87 years old.

Beautiful day so Marc and Marilyn hiked our property into the uncleared areas.

Marc tried to spot a deer or wild turkey, but since we didn't get up at dawn, no luck.

Jolynn preferred the cleared areas for hiking.

Even though the weather turned brisk that day, it was wonderful for Christmas.

We picked the sole orange from the tree we'd planted. Hope to have 5 next year, then 20, then 200. We've planted 88 trees and flowering bushes already, including banana, lime, lemon, tangerine, apple, plum and pecan.

Terry loves hiking and bird watching. Even Gretchen is enjoying Florida outdoors. With 75 degrees in Dec. who wouldn't.

Lake Talquin in Nov.

Lake Talquin certainly is pretty in Nov., but we didn't catch any fish.

The water temp was 64. Throughout the summer we thought it was too hot, but even in Nov. the fish eluded us.

We did see a big Anhinga drying it's wings in the sun.

Let's Go To The Beach at St. George Island

St. George Island State Park has the nicest beaches in our area.
It's about 2 hours from Tallahassee.
The end of Oct. and there are still a few swimmers

Marilyn walked over the dunes (there's a boardwalk) to the nice sandy beach on the Gulf side

Oyster bars on the Bay side offer good fishing

Keep the kayaks away from those oyster shells. They're sharp.

Only a few waves. The oyster bars provide protection.

Terry

Looks like a long way to the causeway and open water.

Terry can brave the open seas. Marilyn's heading back.

Tallahassee Kayak Club takes on Holmes Creek

12 of us from the Tallassee Kayak Club put in at Cotton Landing for the 10 mile paddle down Holmes Creek in Washington County, FL. It was a beautiful day with temperature of about 70 at 9AM when we started and about 80 in the afternoon. There's a nice current from the dozen or so springs feeding the creek so you can do more floating and relaxing than paddling.
Jay, our trip organizer, and Terry

There are quite a few obstacles to manuver around which keeps the trip interesting. Once we had to wade in and pull the kayaks over a sand bar because the water's low this year.

That's a cypress tree on the left.

There goes Marilyn.

It's not completely isolated and remote. Someone has a cool place to relax and enjoy the river. We passed one fisherman with a 6 lb. bass on his stringer.

That's Holmes Creek. On the left you can see how crystal clear the water is. Those dark spots are tree branches laying on the sandy bottom about 6 feet underwater.

We Discovered the St Marks River

The beautiful St Marks River looks quiet and peaceful,

but we discovered lots of current especially since the tide was going out.

Our little flotilla spotted manatee, an otter, several little alligators and lots of turtles.

There were plenty of fish, but not many birds.

When we turned around and came downriver the current carried us with no effort.

This weekend we chose the Ochlockonee River

The Ochlockonee comes down from Georgia. It's not one of the spring fed rivers, and consequently the water is warmer and the current is slow. Most of the shore line is sandy beaches. We saw alligators, turtles, birds, a deer and fish jumping. We don't bother them and they don't bother us.
Great Blue Heron

Lunch time. Where are the picnic tables?
You won't find many traces of people here.
For about 4 miles of paddling upstream we only saw one little boat with a fisherman.

Anhinga

This is one big, ugly bird drying its wings in the sun after diving in for a fish

How low can you go.

Terry tackles the obstacles. The rest of us go around.