In Progress

Happy new week everyone. One more day of Florida wildlife on my post today and then I shall give you a rest from it. At least for a few days. (grin)

Here's a quickie page I have started for my trip journal. 

I love posting art as I always can see better what it needs to be finished or fixed, and looking at this I have seen that the front of my boat is not in the water. I looked at it for quite awhile and couldn't figure out what it was that just wasn't right. Funny how putting it online made that jump right out at me.

 When I have some art time I will fix this issue, but for today you get boat with only the back end in the ocean.

I shall show you the finished page once I get it completed.

But how about a few more  photos?

You can see the Everglades (for those of you unfamiliar with them) are flat and wet, at least in this season. The amount of water running into them is so low at this time in history (compared to the past) that they are really in trouble. The state has started fixing roads so water will go back in rather than being bottlenecked by highways. But there are many other reasons why the water doesn't go back into them, mostly non-environmentally friendly development. I am glad they have at least started to elevate roads so the water can flow under them and back in. But it is also hard to make fixes for a hundred + years of bad decisions because as you know, everything takes money and enough people to believe in them.

 You find little "islands" of mahogany trees within the river of grass and also little hills that look like islands from a ways off but are actually pools the gators dig out and go into during the summer when the area dries out.

And you can see the Roseate Spoonbill flying here in my photo above. I love the pink.

Wood stork below. We don't have storks here in New Hampshire (nor Spoonbills nor the variety of water birds you find in the Everglades).

There is a tower at about the halfway point of the Shark Valley Tram ride that you can get off and go up. It gives you some pretty amazing views of the landscape.

Including looking down and seeing this gator in the grass below.

And this view shows the road the tram takes back to the Visitor's Center.  The tram tour took 2 hours and was really amazing.

The Everglades environmental crisis was brought to the public's eye in a big part by a book written by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. She helped make this area a National Park before the whole of this part of Florida got developed.

I ordered a copy from Amazon and hope to read it once I finish my current read.  If you can't tell. I found all the ecology fascinating here. 

And I still have tons of bird photos I am going through.

I won't be joining you for T tomorrow as I am off for my sister-in-law's funeral. This one is going to be tough as she was only 55. 

Thanks so much for visiting. Much appreciated on my end.