Staying Upright

If ya fall get up!

Ya don't just lay there.

Get up!

One thing about it is you can be sure that ya don't stand a chance if ya just lie there.

But if ya get up, brush yourself off, look around in embarrassment, and get back moving then at least ya stand a chance to fight another day.

Someone said I'm going to quit trying cause I've fallen back into sin so many times.

Still dumb to stay down and wallow in it.

Proverbs 24:16

For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. 

Get up! Get up! Get up! 

Take life a day at a time!

Keep getting up after stumbling.

One day ya may notice well hey it's been 2 days  then 3 then 4 

Then hey  I haven't had to get back up ive stayed on my feet a week.

Me and God are gonna keep on doing this together.

Then one day you may realize I'm just gonna stay on my feet. 

Time Marches On

I thought about a title for this blog. I thought about it a lot. At one point in my thinking I decided to give it the title Spacetime Continuum. However after about two minutes of research into the lofty field of physics i landed on a much simpler label. Time Marches On. And while I do like it better it really doesnt lift my spirits. Not one bit. 

Am I the only one who ever finds himself regretting that time is running out? I bet there are others out there who feel the same way. I mean it's not that I regret the life I've lived. Oh don't get me wrong, of course I have some regrets. But as a whole I am happy with it all. The girl I married for one. I certainly found a keeper when I married Pam. She is so smart, so beautiful and I've loved her all my life, no literally all my life. I'd do that over without hesitation. Plus I'd do it better. 

So I just have this nagging gnawing discomfort in me born of the awful fact that I'm short on time and I've not done a lot of stuff that I want to do. It's hard to put into words this feeling I have. One thing about it is I am kind of jealous of my grand kids. There I said it. I feel better. So look they're young and have the entire world at their feet and their entire life before them. And here I am ...running out of time. 

Why cant I just be content with the past. Just settle to be satisfied with all I have seen and done? I mean I've been around a bit. I've seen the tallest mountain in North America 20,000 foot Mt. McKinley. I've stood on the equator. I've seen the mighty volcanoes of South America. I've witnessed the mighty pyramids of Egypt and visited the little town where Jesus was born. I've stood at the bases of the worlds largest living things, the sequoias of California. I've been on the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Coal River. I've seen the thousands of glaciers of Alaska for crying out loud. I've crossed the mighty Andes mountains. I've swam in the rivers of the amazon rain forests and once I even enjoyed a meal of roasted Guinea pig. I have snorkled around nearly every blue water island in the entire Caribbean. And I live on a semi tropical island in the  Gulf of Mexico. All this and more, much more; so why cant I  just be satisfied? Why do I wish I had another sixty years? Why can't i sit on my back porch? My porch that I truly love, with my plants that I love and with my wife whom I love and be content? I'm askin'! Seriously is there anyone there who can give me an acceptable answer?

while you wait....

While you Wait.

While you wait time marches on.

While you wait to get involved in church your children watch and learn...and miss out.

They miss out.

You're they're example.

They watch and learn from you.

So While you wait....they learn to wait.

While you put it off...they learn to put it off.

If you have children consider this.

The years of a child's development from birth to eight years are called the formative years. Formative because their brains are being formed.

By age 5 eighty five percent of a child's brain has been developed.

So whatever they experience in those first 8 years; whether proper or improper, good or bad, negative or positive, church or no church etc. Their future has been determined.

out of the ordinary river

 A few hours of paddling on the Rainbow Springs River in the Florida October sun yields tons of Natures treasures.

Take a look at some of the wonders I witnessed  today.

It is Autumn now on the Raiinbow River. Just down stream from the head spring a Maple tree is true to fall form.

This little fellow let me get up close and personal before he made a huge scene by thrashing his tail and splashing violently as though he were a ten footer.

Don't forget the rule as I did. Nothing disposable can be brought onto the Rainbow River.

The Tuna package was carefully stored away and disposed of properly.

I shared my lunch with some of the locals who were hanging around in the lagoon.

A "vent", one of many in the bottom of the river, where clear 72° water escapes the aquifer and bubbles up the sand.

Apple Snails deposit clutches of eggs on the vegetation that grows along the shore. Apple snails provide food for fish, birds, otters and more.

Damsel fly. The river is host to myriad of Damsel Fly larva who make their temporary underwater home on the leaves of the Eel Grass.

Just beneath the surface is another world waiting to be discovered. A world inhabited with wondrous aquatic animal and plant life.

Plan a visit to this amazing biozone soon and see it for yourself.

It's All the Very Best Stuff

Along the eastern banks of the river the land reluctantly surrenders itself to the water. Often it slowly and gradually blends into an indistinct boundary. River and land both share the earth here. Mosses and ferns and fungus live happily on every mound of soil that sits barely inches above the waterline.

Ever so slowly the river gives way to rich black soil, damp and fragrant with the odor of life.

Here, along this tangled web of life with it wild grape vines and river magnolias, bald cypress, maple and sweet gum trees the deer, camouflaged by nature, come to be refreshed by the cool, clear water.

On the open water the eagle, spotting his prey, swoops down snatching with his claws the unsuspecting fish and then flies to the treetops for dinner but here in the dark forest edge, protected from view by the dense vegetation the racoon, the opossum and deer find retreat and life.

Here, protected from view the River Otters live; the roots of the large sweet gums and maples growing in and out of the waters edge providing them dens for raising their young. And here along the shoreline of this living spring fed river they train the little otter off spring to dive and fish and retrieve muscles and crayfish and turtles from the shallow waters 

The colors of Autumn here on the rivers edge are somewhat subdued at this humid sub tropical latitude. However the maples and sweetgums do their part as the shorter days tells them of change and and a soon coming time of rest.

The eastern shore line of the river with its fallen tree trunks partially submerged provides the perfect sun decks for the Florida Red belly Cooter Turtles. After spending the morning dining on aquatic plants they sun themselves in the warmth of the afternoon. Sometimes a dozen or more of these river dwellers line up on a single log.

Autumn brings with it mass bouquets of blooming Cardinal plants. Their brilliant red flowers line the shores welcoming butterflies and honey bees.

The Sweetbay Magnolia makes its home here. Spreading out from the shore it arches gracefully over the waters edge. Helping to make this place where the water meets the land even more alluring and magical.

Truly a place of wealth and beauty is this living shoreline of the Rainbow River. 

Walking Slowly along Lifes Trail

At the very top of the game of camouflage is the Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar. Here he is pretending to be a branch of our Sunshine Ligustrum plant.

I'm using him/her as an object lesson, an example,with which to make a point.

My blog point is this. You'll never get to see an amazing creature like the Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar without first slowing down then stopping and looking closely at the hidden world right there at your feet.

I'm big into nature. Always have been since, as a small boy, my daddy hiked me through the woods of Southern West Virginia and taught me how to identify the trees. And since both mother and daddy showed me how to identify every edible wild plant the early spring seasons had to offer. I still remember most of what they taught me and still retain the love of nature they instilled in me.

I know that one of the reasons I learned so much about the Appalachian hills is that the pace of that class room was very slow and gentle. We walked slowly through the woods. "Now look closely at the bark of this red oak" he would say to me, "this is how you can tell it from a black oak...even in winter when there is no leaves". 

And learning the plants during "green pickin" time in the spring was done slowly and methodically as well. "Now this here is Lambs Quarter ya pinch off the new growth only" mother would say as we went slowly along dropping the plants into a brown paper bag.

I reckon my upbringing is the reason why, to this day, I can often be found kneeling on the ground with my face near a plant or a bush or a rock examining and photographing some small creature or some minute plant. I move through my life and my days slowly. Wherever I find myself in, any given day, I'm usually going slowly enough so as not to miss the obscure, the miniature, the often unseen world of nature.

Don't get the wrong idea I'm no sloth. I'm constantly on the go. If we are not on a trip then we are planning one! We travel from coast to coast. We visit tropical rain forests in South America and the Artic tundra in the Northern Hemisphere. But as soon as we stop I slow down, open my eyes and look around me. I get up close and personal with my world. I would much rather find, living on a rock, an insect or a lichen that I've never seen before, and take a photo of it, than I would to see the Eiffel tower. And if I were to get the chance to see the Eiffel tower I'd marvel at its size and engineering and beauty for a while and then I'd be found inspecting the plants and insects that live in the soil at its mighty base.

Pam and I were in Alaska recently. We walked trails in the world's largest temperate rain forest. And what did we do mostly? We photographed dozens of mushrooms that wed never seen before. 

At low tide at the Alaska town of Hoonah, population 700, we explored the rocky shoreline exposed by the out going tide. I mean no lover of nature would ever pass up a chance like this. First of all I know that this particular opportunity may never present itself again. Hoonah Alaska, thousands of miles from our home base. I may never pass this way again. So what do we do? We do it!

And we found literally hundreds of marine creatures patiently awaiting the returning tide. Crabs, sea worms, crustaceans, bi-valves and star fish. And we photographed them all.

We flew to and landed on the Jeneau Ice field three thousand vast square mile of Icy whiteness! We walked upon a mighty glacier; one of the over 100,000 glaciers in that amazing land. From it we drank the cold water coming directly from the glacial ice.

  A millions year old 2-3 pound stone that had been carried down by the mighty glacier is now my favorite Alaska souvenier. You can't fly over a glacier and experience it too. You must land, stop, look, touch and become one with such magnificence.

      A high mountain lake in Alaska

That's true of our lives here on earth in general. You can't just fly over top of this amazing planet; you've got to stop and get up close to experience it. You must do one or the other. I recommend the latter.

Doing what Catterpillars do best.

The Geometer is aprox 4" long.

Curve Toothed Geometer Catterpillar 

I reckon he's called a geometer because he measures his length everywhere he goes.

Life on the Withlacoochie

Rivers have always intrigued me. I admire rivers. Rivers are dependable, permanent  and beautiful. And rivers, like time, cannot be stopped. The Withlacoochie for example is a picturesque southern river in north central Florida. It's waters are dark brown and sometimes almost black. The banks of the river are lined with Sweet Gum and Bald cypress, Sable Palm and magnolia. It flows for nearly a hundred fifty miles before entering the Gulf of Mexico.

I love this river. I love its calm dark water. I love its southern charm, it's gentle pace and mostly I love that it provides a place for myriad of life along it's shore line.

Because the Withlacoochie meanders to its destination, rather that rushes, it becomes home to many aquatic plants such as water lettuce and lotus lilies along it's shores. Also here are growing cat tales, rushes and grasses. 

Since the river has no banks, at least few high banks, it tends to wander off into the cypress groves that inhabit its shores.

Here you'll find, if you're willing to get down close to the nature of it all, a world of life in every square inch of the river Withlacoochie.

Take a look a some examples of the life I captured In photographs on just a square yard of the Withlacoochie River shoreline.

       New growth tip of Cypress Knee

           Moss in spore cycle 

   Duck Weed ~ floating aquatic plant

     Crablike Spiny Orbweaver spider

       Three inch tall Bald Cypress tree

             Floating Water lettuce

   Apple Snail Eggs laid on a plant stalk

An expanded area of shoreline, when searched and explored, turns up hundreds of species of plant and animals including Aligators, Snakes, several species of Turtles, many varieties of fish and River Otters as well plus a treasure of aquatic plants.

Today's indepth look was contained to a very small section of shoreline.

A slow moving river like this one is home to phytoplankton & zooplankton as well.

The Withlacoochie is a living river that would take a lifetime to explore. That would be a life well spent.