Beautiful Beginning

 

Here's a look at last week's sunrise  from our dock:

 

 We had a couple weeks of "Winter weather" in Florida, but it seems to be over for now.    Days are warm and sunny.

 

 

On the same morning, just a few steps away from the Cottage, this red-bellied woodpecker was doing his best to make sure the neighborhood was awake.    Next is a picture of what's keeping us close to home these days.

 

The multi-talented travel planner in the family is wearing another hat these days as he adds a new bathroom to a corner of the Cottage.  Photographs are to show him where the infrastructure is located when he needs to know after the walls are finished.  I'm including just this one picture for our own memories.   The rest of these pictures are follow-up from a nature walk the week before last.

 Hickey Creek Park is a mitigation park originally established to protect the endangered Florida Gopher Tortoise.   

 

 

Environmental mitigation is an attempt to offset the detrimental impacts of development on native plants and animals.  The land for this park was purchased through a conservation trust.  Usually, a walk in this park  is a serene almost jungle-like experience (but with established trails).  And indeed, most of the time last week it was exactly that.   Except for a while during the first portion.

 

I knew there had been a prescribed burn early in November.  This sign at the entrance explained the benefits of the burn.  One section says that the burn reduces overgrown vegetation, resulting in a more open landscape, including for keystone species like the gopher tortoise.  It says the burn will increase soil fertility and vegetation re-growth.    Controlled burns also reduce wildfire danger by reducing overgrown vegetation.  Controlled burns mimic the natural process that existed  before population growth required them to be suppressed.    I understand all this and I'm glad it happened.  But even so  …

 

 

 

 …   I almost turned around and gave up on my walk before it really even started, because this is what it still looked like almost three months after the burn.   I was glad to read that the fire had been monitored closely by trained burn professionals, because it is scary to think of it being out of control.    

It seemed like longer than it was as I walked past the burned area before again seeing the beautiful woodsy landscapes that I remembered from other years.

 

Here's one more beautiful morning from our dock:  

 Winter morning, Florida style.   

Thankful for good weather and beautiful views, even when we don't really go anywhere.

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LINKING THIS WEEK TO THE FOLLOWING:

Thank you hosts!

NATURE NOTES;  THROUGH MY LENS;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;  FRIDAY  BLISS; and  SATURDAY CRITTERS;