It's Froggy in the Woods

Met Kristey for The Saturday Four at 7:40am; Kim had other plans. She had asked to meet on Sunday instead, but as you know that is my sacred day. The parking lot was packed, but I managed a spot close to the entrance on the way out.

It was hot and sticky as evidenced by the haze and frog/fog in the pics below. The last mile back proved to be cooler than when we set out thanks to the cloudy sky. When I got back to my apartment after two quick errands, it was pure sky blue everywhere with wisps of clouds haphazardly brushed against it.

I had brought my camera with grandeur dreams of taking creative spider and spiderweb shots, but my late model digital camera doesn't zoom that well in certain shots. Must make plans to get a better zooming one so my picture taking limitations do not begin to work my nerve. Meanwhile, relive my morning with me...

One of many spiders suspended in the forest. I'm crushed that it is difficult to see more clearly the spider hanging right below the green branch. Notice the web lightly traced in a halo extension from it. In the background, my Spanish moss hanging like tattered lace on the tree branches.


Fog in the woods at 8:18am.


Leaf's underside. Daring to be different from the rest and showing me some love.

It's Froggy in the Woods

Four Miles at Flatwoods

No one told me there would be days like this! Four-thirty found me hustling as I walked and fed Cabal, put on my new walking gear, prepared my breakfast and hot tea before my skype conversation with Yummy at 5am AGOL time/10am Yummy time.

An hour and half later of giggling and general craziness with this cutie, I put my shoes on and gathered my new mini backpack for my girlie walk at Flatwoods. Picked up a sleepy Tawny who had crawled home around 3:30am and managed to haul herself in my car at 7:10am.

We got to our meeting point and there was no sign of Kim. Called her quickly to confirm and she was on her way. The parking lot of this part of the park was almost full of speedy cyclists, roller blading freaks and iPod-packing joggers. Then there was us, the lone walkers.

Heat in the 80s and heavy humidity were in full-effect at 7:30am. We were hoping for the best. I've never been here before and the picture below is the beginning of the path.


Next two pictures are examples of the the Florida woods from afar.




My ankles took turns aching on our walk before we turned around the two-mile marker below. The pain worked itself out and didn't hurt the rest of the walk.


This was taken by a bridge. Think Spanish moss hanging around everywhere, humidity and some pesky bugs.


Sections of this park do flood. Here is a water gauge on Turtle Creek.


Our walk this morning wasn't about setting world goals, but just doing it. We ended up walking four miles which was one mile more than we anticipated. They don't have 1/2-mile markers on this 11 mile trail. The cyclists and the joggers were amiable and said hello as they passed you or warned you that they were approaching so you could move to the side of the road.

Park rangers in trucks drove up and down the grassy part of the path. Kim teased they were picking up bodies that had expired from the heat and exercise. It wasn't that funny later when we saw an ambulance at the beginning of the trail. This place is serious business. Keeping hydrated and being realistic about your own fitness level in the heat are key. My gals and I were prepared and made it.

Poor Tawny was feeling exhaustion and sleep's siren call. I was so grateful that she came anyway. It would've been easier and understandable for her to duck out. I treated her to breakfast before dropping her back home.

After a shower and some puttering around, I made my way to Brandon to give my uncle his Father's Day present one day early. When I got there, he was already home from playing a round of golf and had read the e-mail containing a special link I sent before I left the apartment. This was part of his Father's Day gift: Uncle Dave. He said that he really liked it and made him feel good. He should because it is all true!

I ran errands the rest of the late afternoon before collapsing from running around since dark-thirty this morning. I snoozed after dinner and woke up to watch a bit Saturday Night Live and thought about catching some Z's.

Four Miles at Flatwoods

Seeing Mr. Biv

How sad is it that I had convinced myself it was Friday by 10:30am? I didn't have my Casual Friday clothes on so it couldn't have been. Well, there is tomorrow...

Yummy and his best buddy began the other half of their dragonwalk around eight their time. I think it is to be about 15 miles today starting from Arundel, the town with a nice castle we visited. It was raining this morning by Yummy's account in their blog. Squish. Squish.

Somewhere out there breathes a dragon!


While he was hunting for dragons, I began making notes on what I now call Project AGOL which has a few sub-projects. Been thinking more about the TV idea and listing my possible sites to shoot practice shows in a couple of months. It all depends on the availability of my buddies to film, my potential guest cooks and mostly my self-motivation. The whole thing feels right to me and the time for it is better. The bigger picture has been a seed for almost 10 years now. Talk about slow cookin' ideas.

Instant messaged with my friend Kim this morning and we may start making play dates on the weekends by walking Flatwoods Park. It is free, in the midst of trees and it is close enough to drive. I'll have to bug her more about it next week. My only thing is its namesake that it is flat. What I will lack in terrain, I will make up in mileage.

A good portion of my afternoon was spent at our other building with the Accounts Payable group going over unsolved invoice mysteries. My boss drove Bridget and me over which was rather nice of him. The famous afternoon thundershowers could be heard from within the building an hour into the meeting.

One of the ladies who works in my building, Tina, made a stop at a local healthfood grocery store and bought some goodies to snack on during our meeting. She had heard me talking about cutting down my sugar intake earlier in the hallway and bought me sugar-free Pecan Meltaway cookies. Gosh - it was very thoughtful of her and they were made with organic whole grain! They were delicious and I didn't have to cave in and eat the Oatmeal Raisin ones she bought for the rest.

I stayed late at work even though my heart wasn't in it. Being the buyer today meant I had to hustle on orders I didn't do earlier. Maybe my mood was tied to the weather.

On the way back to my apartment from walking Cabal, I noticed a rare sight of a rainbow. It was bright and spanned the full arc in the sky.



The middle was a little hazy compared to the rest. I took it as a life message. We start out with our own colorful and brilliant light in the world. Somehow that dims when we live our life, but becomes colorful and brilliant again near the end when we understand why it dimmed. It's not that it dimmed, we allowed the things that do not matter cloud our light. That's what I got.

Seeing Mr. Biv