June Bug

One thing to know about North Florida residents is that we love to socialize and celebrate.  Holidays are BIG around here and if there's not a holiday, we will have some sort of festival.  In the last few weeks area towns have held The Blueberry Festival, The Wild Azalea Festival, The Florida Folk Festival, The Wild Blackberry Festival, more than one Watermelon Festival, and most recently The June Bug Festival.

The June Bug was held on a HOT, HOT, HOT Saturday, June 18.  After weeks of seeing mysterious signs proclaiming the June Bug was coming, I must admit that I attended out curiosity. What does one do at a June Bug Festival?  Visit with friends, neighbors, and strangers.  Ingest all sorts of culinary delights not usually found around here. Peruse vendors of almost any item imaginable.  Admire vintage cars proudly displayed by their owners. We especially enjoyed stepping into air-conditioned shops downtown to inspect their selection of treasures.  There was even a parade. The highlight of the day was the Snow Cone Stand with a rainbow of colorful flavors available.

The highlight of the night was gathering in the downtown park to listen to local bands and visit with folks we know, but don't get to see often.  And of course the booming fireworks!

All in all it was a great day! I can't wait for next year.

Growing

Today I picked the last of the peas in my little garden.

The drought this year really took a toll on the poor little plants.  We live in the city limits and the cost of irrigation is just too steep.  Since water is at a premium around here, we couldn't justify the amount we would have had to use just to reap a few more of the delicious little morsels.  As a result, the plants were stunted and produced just a few delectable handfuls of green deliciousness. But, the cucumbers have done well and it looks like I'll have some ripe tomatoes soon. Yummy!  Since we didn't get our fill of peas this spring, maybe I'll have a strong case to experiment with a fall garden! 

Speaking of fall gardens, the plants that have grown the best this spring are some volunteer pumpkins. Apparently our jack-o-lantern making last fall left some pretty determined seeds in the middle of the backyard.  When we discovered the tiny plants a couple of months ago, we transplanted them to a little patch of dirt and ignored them.  Amazingly enough they are producing some little pumpkins. 

These little beauties are still on the plant.

And we picked this one yesterday.  I guess some things just have to grow!

A Close Encounter

There's not much to do on a Friday afternoon in a small town in North Florida but travel about twenty miles down the road and across the river to "check on things at the farm".  It has been unusually HOT and dry, so when my husband made the suggestion to do just that today, we all jumped in the truck and took off. We had to make sure there was water for all the animals there.

When we got to the farm things were as usual.  Lazy horses and cows munching on an afternoon snack of tender new green grass along the edges of shrinking ponds.  Refreshing when the temperature is around 100 degrees and there has been little or no rain for weeks.

After a quick check around the lake we were ready to grab a burger at the local cafe.  As my son closed the gate to the main pasture we noticed movement ahead between some rows of young planted pines. For a moment we threw around the idea that it may be a beaver, or otter, or even a raccoon looking for water. However, as we approached the source of movement, we realized it was none of the above. 

 

Our new friend smiled for the camera, but quickly lost patience with us and became eager to be on his way to a new wet home.

 

A hiss and a little wiggle, and ....



Quick! Everyone back to the truck! (I know this one is out of focus, but that is the best we could do as we scurried away.) He didn't chase us, he was just ready to move on.

 

The brown line in the middle is him as he settled into the shallow water. One close encounter was enough for today.