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How-To Eat a Mangosteen
We’d stopped by Central Market, a grocery store that is a bit like Whole Foods but with some Trader Joe’s and other indie food type stores mixed in, last week to pick up some things for my mom’s birthday. They have a good coffee selection so that was our main goal but while perusing the fruit and vegetable section we spotted mangosteens. Our first encounter with mangosteens was while living in Florida when Chris began reading about them to grow. They are a super tropical plant that really cannot be grown anywhere in the continental U.S. and even Hawaii has problem growing them. You can read more in detail here…
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Zoe | 3 years
I tried to find a photo of me holding a four day old Zoe but I think it is tucked away on a hard drive somewhere. I wanted to recreate it but Zoe was a bit fussy this morning so I opted out of that. Maybe on Saturday for her birthday party. Instead I took these after I’d painted some butterflies on her face. She was painting with my mom this afternoon and I convinced her to let me paint a couple butterflies while she kept telling me the paintbrush tickled on her cheeks. I love my little niece…she says some funny things! She’s in love with coins right now…
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How to Thru-Hike the Florida Trail
*Edit 12/2015: This is one of my most popular posts and it was written in 2011. The trail has had some reroutes during this time. Please check the most recent guidebook released from Florida Hikes and be sure to contact the Florida Trail Association in regards to reroutes and current closures. Thanks and have a great hike!* *Edit 03/2020: I recommend this post from LB Hikes who finished the FT in 2020 as an update to my write-up here.* While there is a plethora of information out there about hiking the Appalachian Trail I realized there isn’t that much on the Florida Trail. Sure there’s the guidebook and other forums…
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Watson Rare Native Plant Preserve | Part 3
In case you missed it: Part 1 & Part 2. Wrapping up our tour of the Watson Preserve a few months later… We begin the final part of the tour through the pitcher plant bog that was actually quite dry. A bud of the Calopogon tuberosus orchid. Love the orchids intermingled with the pitcher plants in this one. Pitcher plants certainly have their own personality. Love the unassuming yellow colicroot, Aletris lutea. And the beautiful pitcher plant flowers… I also love finding the green lynx spiders tucked under and between leaves. They can be finicky to photograph that’s for sure! I really should stop and take photos of myself more…
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2011 Summer Interview Series | Prem @ Florida Native Orchids
After Chris discovered Little Slough and our subsequent count and documentation of 607 ghost orchids within about an acre in the swamps of south Florida (doubling the then known population in Florida), Prem got in touch with me about his interest in ghost orchids and how he hadn’t been able to see one. He was already an avidly interested in the native orchids of Florida and had documented many others throughout Florida. Now there is a small contingent of photographers and adventurers who seek the ghost orchid out, either documenting their own pockets of ghost orchids or seeking other lost orchids and rare plants in the wilds of Florida. Prem…