Nice in Niceville ~ Playing in the Dirt

One of my favorite things is playing in the dirt and I'm getting to do a lot of that. Hooray! Yesterday we brought home tomatoes and hot peppers and they are now in their happy pots ready for transplanting another day, along with doing a lot of Spring things in the yard, planting, transplanting, cleaning up the raggedy bits from a Florida winter. For me, this is a meditation and therapy, a gift that is about giving and receiving all at the same time. There are memory plantings, in the best way of remembering; bird feeders and butterfly gardens, angels and pagodas, feeling the love, holding the love. 

A visitor

The squirrels love the bird feeders.
There's enough for everyone.

This yard is big enough to have vignettes all around. So we do.

Peppers and tomatoes that will eventually be transplanted.
Last year's sweet pepper plants are in the ground and one already has a blossom!

This will be the butterfly garden.

A place to relax and enjoy the work and the beauty. 

Bayous and bays are everywhere. 

There is still a lot of post storm clean-up going on

Trees and trees and more trees

Azaleas are blooming in banks of pinks and reds and whites, along with a lot of flowering bushes and trees I don't know the name for. It's hard to capture them unless I compare it to the bougainvilleas on the way to Zoni when they are in full bloom, so I didn't try.

These are from the backyard of the place we went yesterday morning for an oyster breakfast. 

I'm not sure what sort of fishing they were set up for as they drifted along.

An osprey looking for his own breakfast

I didn't grow up in Northern Florida, with its beauty so different from the East coast. I've always felt like Florida is about 5 states in one, city, country, and very different coasts, Atlantic and Gulf. While it will never be the state I grew up in with its developments and polluted waterways, there are still some magical places left if you take the time to look for them. Just like anywhere, beauty is there to find, sometimes right in your own backyard. Keep your eyes open!

Have a wandering Wednesday. Do something whimsical.