It caught my eye immediately, high on a rock-hewn mountainside in West Virginia. The lone pine tree towered over jagged stair-steps of granite, a startling sliver of green among dull grays and browns. We were heading home after a week-long stay in Pennsylvania, tired but grateful for the fun vacation with our family. I-77 snaked through towering mountain peaks, along vast, tree-filled ravines, and over bridges so high I wasn’t sure if they covered land or water. Because I’ve lived in flat, palm-tree dotted Florida almost half my life, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the never-ending green peaks ... Read the Post
Seasons
It was a brisk March morning as I walked along the tree-lined sidewalk near our home. My dog snuffled along beside me, his nose intent on anything and everything squirrel. Florida winters are milder than much of the rest of the country, so our fall season happens about mid-winter. I noticed each live oak we walked past was at a different stage in its seasonal cycle. Some of the trees were completely bare -- their spindly, gray-brown branches naked -- and I shivered from the bold reminder of winter. Other trees were already decorated with tiny, bright mint-green buds of new life. “Here’s ... Read the Post
Weeds
We were driving along US 301 one sunny spring morning when my son, Cole, commented, “Those are really tall, pretty flowers.” Construction crews had just paved a large sidewalk next to the road and no one had mowed the tall grass alongside it yet. Recent heavy rain and the constant Florida sunshine lent a beautiful, healthy flourish to all the vegetation. I glanced toward the flowers and frowned in surprise. Instead of flowers, I saw wave after wave of tall, spindly weeds growing along the road, reaching over the new sidewalk. I commented back to him, “Those are actually weeds.” He was ... Read the Post