A botanical blog: Leu Gardens in Orlando, FL

I'm not sure that the Harry P. Leu Gardens is going to make my list of top ten favorite gardens, but it was nice to stroll among the tropical plants for an afternoon.

The parking lot is small, though we arrived early enough to find a spot. By the time we left, folks were parking on the lawns all along the driveway.

Upon entry you walk through the Garden House where you pay and can visit the gift shop. There are some large rooms for events in the house. It seems that lots of people have their weddings here and in the gardens themselves.

The Tropical Stream Garden is the first you pass through, and I think it was my favorite of them all. It was like Hawaii, and I do love Hawaii. Here's a view looking back at the Garden House from the Tropical Stream Garden.

There are many collections in the Gardens, but many were not in bloom.  I mean, what season is it here anyway? The azaleas and camellia blooms are almost gone, yet the leaves are just coming out on many of the deciduous trees. Spring is just so atypical with these subtropical and tropical plants. We are supposedly in Zone 9B, but there is a lot of crossover of plants from different zones as well.

I zeroed in on the palm collection and was fascinated by the variety of leaf shapes, as well as the flowers and fruits in various stages of development.

These palm flowers I've seen before at The Great Outdoors, so they must be a pretty common variety.

These next three were all on the same tree, so I'm guessing that they are three stages of the plant's fruit development.  To me it seems strange how they are so unlike the more typical North American flowering trees whose fruits all mature simultaneously within a season. These seem to have a sequential or rolling blooming and ripening season. 

I love the light coming through the larger tropical leaves, and the patterns that are revealed on their undersides. 

Here is an intimate view of a large stand of bamboo.

A beautiful tropical flower of some sort.

Masses of figs!

This pavilion was in the center of the Idea Garden.  There were more familiar plantings in this section that you might find in the suburban yards in much of the US.

I wish I knew what this flower is. It sure looks like some kind of an orchid, but I know almost nothing about orchids. It was growing in clumps in the ground like iris or gladiolus. There were also white ones.

In closing, one of many non-botanical anoles living in the gardens.

A little time away: Ocala National Forest

Could it be that even full time RVers need a break from their home-on-the-road now and then?

This week we had the "opportunity" to get away for a few days while our RV underwent a needed adjustment. As reported previously, the teflon strip under the bedroom slide had become skewed out of place, and so the slide was screeching and squealing as it moved in an out. In addition, the errant teflon strip was pushing out and misplacing the carpeted wooden trim on the inside edge of the slide. Hard to explain that - I should have taken a picture.  Anyway, the shop anticipated that it would take about 20 hours to remove the slide, make the minor repair, and reassemble the slide. So we took this "opportunity" for an adventure that would take us more than a day trip away from here.

We had no time schedule so we were free to take as long as we liked to get to our destination, Astor, FL. We passed through New Smyrna Beach on the way just to check it out. The Canaveral National Seashore extends all the way up to New Smyrna, so we drove along the beach, and Kona got a swim in the Mosquito Lagoon! (No dogs allowed on the beach, but there were no signs along the lagoon.) Her first in a long long time.

Then we stopped for lunch at Dolphin View Seafood Restaurant and had their fish rueben special. This is where we sat, looking out over Mosquito Lagoon from the mainland side. This egret was just waiting above our heads for a little something...

After lunch we lazed around on the other side of the restaurant property 

in their tiki bar section, and it did feel a lot like a laid-back tropical vacation.

Even the birds were yawning.

Finally we got back on the road toward Astor, which is on the St. Johns River. We found a modest pet friendly cottage at The Castaways on the River. It was very clean and comfortable, and had a GREAT shower.  (Boy, that's one thing I really miss about a sticks and bricks house: a full throttle, high pressure hot shower.)  More importantly, it provided a comfortable and safe place for Kona to rest while Rick and I went out exploring the next day.

After dinner we sat outside just soaking up all the river had to offer. There were plenty of pelicans and osprey, fishermen idling by in their boats, and an old docking area filled with multiple kinds of water vegetation. In just this tiny picture there are at least three kinds of floating water plants. Some of it so minuscule I didn't notice it until I blew the picture up. (See the pale green confetti like stuff down in the spaces between the other leafy stuff? I think it may be duckweed.) The largest is water lettuce.

OK, next day. This part of Florida has many clearwater springs that are popular for swimming, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and wildlife viewing. We had already visited Blue Springs and Wekiva Springs earlier this month, but I really wanted to see the springs in Ocala National Forest, and kayak them too if possible.

Ocala National Forest is the second largest in Florida (the first is Apalachicola, up near Tallahassee). Ocala NF is minimally developed, and from the roads that pass through it you'd think it was nothing but dry scrub, long leaf pines and saw palmetto. But, like much of Florida, it is a big sponge of lakes, rivers and springs. It's all about the water.

When I lived here about 30 years ago I canoed Juniper Springs, and had been looking forward to doing it again ever since then. It was magical - a clear blue spring with a run of about seven miles, lots of wildlife, a white sandy bottom most of the way, and even sand boils.  In some parts of the world this refers to a different phenomena, but around here, sand boils are places where the springs bubble up through the sandy stream bottom. There were even places where you used to be able step into them and be supported by the up-currents of the spring. In many places now the sand boils are off limits to protect them from damage and garbage.

We chose not to go to Juniper Springs as we had heard it was now a difficult and long trip due to many downed trees from a recent hurricane. One option we were considering was Silver Springs, but we weren't sure about anything. We woke to a cold and windy day, with no prospect of it improving, so we doubted we'd get the kayaks in the water anywhere. We headed into the National Forest with high hopes and all our equipment just in case. First we stopped at Silver Glen Springs because it was the closest. It was clear that it was too windy and cold. There was also a forest fire in the area that was still not under control, so we decided to drive further south to Alexander Springs, away from the fire, and further from Lake George, where it might be less windy.

Although Alexander Springs was lovely, we thought it was still too windy to kayak, so we took a short hike along the Timucuan Trail instead.  The Timucua were the native people who lived in this immediate area before the Spanish arrived.

The trail was a little over a mile, and about half of it was boardwalk through the squishy parts.  

It led out to some nice views of the Alexander Run in a few places.

This big turtle (Florida red-bellied turtle?) was out for a stroll in the picnic area. See how beautiful her shell is?

After a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we returned to Astor, wondering what else to do with our day off. Castaways on the River is all about the river, so we decided to splurge and rent a little motor boat for the rest of the afternoon. That turned out to be just the right thing to do.  Here are Captain Rick and First Mate Kona.

Although it was really chilly, at least we didn't have to be concerned about paddling against the wind. We just bundled up and enjoyed the sunshine and the water.  We drove up to Lake George, had a close call at the mouth of the river with a bit of shallow water, and turned around. Lake George was pretty rough so we stuck to the back channels. This is Blue Creek, a beautiful detour off the St. Johns.

Abundant birds and turtles, a few alligators, and I guess there were probably manatee too, but we didn't see them. We went idle speed along the whole length of Blue Creek, just in case. Plus it was pretty shallow in spots and we didn't want to get stuck or bend the propellor.

Back out on the St. Johns, we passed many of these residential canals, which are really typical in Florida. A lot of the homes in Florida are on canals like this, so folks can have their boats, and access to larger rivers, lakes or the inter-coastal waterways.

When we stopped at the South Moon marina for gas, there were about 15-20 pelicans lounging around waiting for fishermen to clean their fish at the dock. 

They weren't bothered at all by us pulling up, or by me getting really close to take their pictures. There were adult...

and juvenile brown pelicans. You can see the difference easily in these two pictures. 

In addition to the color of their head plumage, their eyes are also different colors.  

Our fun day away ended with dinner at a local down home Florida restaurant called Sparky's. They were having all you could eat catfish, but we passed on that. I think every guy in the restaurant was wearing a camouflage hat. Now that's local color.  THE the local color.

Our new location at TGO

We've moved to our new site at The Great Outdoors. Just to compare with our last one, here's the street view:

And the side view:

and the view from what we have of a backyard. Rick counted 12 trees on this little site!

So as you can imagine, it feels a little dark and tight compared to our last site. I think that in the summer this shade must be very welcome.  We'll be here for three weeks, but on Tuesday we move the RV to the shop to have the slide fixed. It's estimated to be a 20 hour job for a very minor repair. They have to take the bedroom slide (and that includes the bed and the washer/dryer) out completely in order to fasten down a teflon strip that has come loose under the slide. 

While the RV is in the shop we'll load up Ms. Subaru and head over to a little cottage in Astor, FL on the St. Johns River so that we can take a long kayak paddle on the Juniper Springs Run. Really looking forward to that.

A Little Change in Plans

Sunset over The Great Outdoors

We had planned on leaving Titusville and The Great Outdoors Resort on Feb. 25th and heading for the west coast of Florida, but that was not how it worked out.  We discovered a couple of weeks ago that we had a problem with one of our slides, and decided to get the work done here where we were familiar with the local RV service shop. This required us finding a new spot at the resort, as our nice one here will have new tenants on Mar. 1. So tomorrow we move to a different section of the resort. We'll miss our lovely neighborhood, but feel pretty sure the next one will be good too.

Here are a few views of the site we've been in:

From the other side:

And from the back:

We'll be here until Mar. 25  so we can get the monthly rate again. There's plenty to do for another month, in addition to the repairs. I've been taking the tai chi and yoga classes, and riding the nature trail on my bike everyday. We will try to have a few beach days before we leave, and hope to get over to Leu Gardens in Orlando.  After that we hope to spend just a little time over on the west coast before we start heading north.

Airboat Thrills

I've avoided these for years.  No, not alligators. Well yes, alligators of course, but I mean airboats.

The environmentalist are all over this kind of sightseeing and recreational boating, and not in a good way. The internet has many heated forums where environmentalists and local airboaters are blasting each other about the damages airboats do vs. their rights to use them. It seems evident that airboats are part of the local culture that I was talking about in my last post. Gator and hog hunting too! 

So, in the spirit of most everything I do in my life right now, I decided I needed to experience it for myself rather than passing judgement without first hand knowledge. 

Midway Airboat Rides is located just a few miles west from The Great Outdoors RV Resort, where the St. Johns River crosses Rt. 50.  Funny, both places claim to be nature loving and cater to people who want to experience nature first hand, and both probably do their fair share of damage to the environment. Oh dear, and here I am supporting both. This kind of thinking just gets me down.

Pulling into Midway, the first thing we saw was this roseate spoonbill in the river. He wasn't as shy as others we've encountered, so we were able to get a good photo. Yes, he's probably used to the noise. 

Greeting us, well sort of, at the front door of the establishment was "Pork Chop" a large Vietnamese potbellied pig who lives where ever he wants to I guess.  

We were scheduled to leave at 2:30 for a one hour ride along the St. Johns River. While we waited we browsed through their little shop at souvenirs and caged birds and reptiles.  The place is all about animal encounters, and it's trying hard to come off as environmentally sensitive, with hand painted nature murals and "Love Mother Earth" emblazoned across the side of the building. Okay.

There were five boats docked in back, and we wondered which one would be ours, but then two pulled in let off their passengers and we got on one of those - the yellow one below.  They are powered by the same kind of engine that a Corvette has, and unlike a Corvette, they have stadium style seating so everyone can see.

Everyone wears very nice noise-cancelling headsets with microphones so you can ask the guide questions and hear what he is saying over the noise of the boats. Yes, big noise. 

The landscape is flat, and the part of the river we rode runs through conservation land, marshes, a very large cattle ranch and a cypress swamp. I'm not clear how much of the land we saw was a preserve, but from what our guide said, I would guess that most of it was. Don't know how the cattle ranch fits in there.  Perhaps they graze on the conservation land. Hmmmm. How does that work?

Here you can see the cattle and the alligators co-existing. They don't seem to bother each other - just mind their own business.  Most of the alligators we saw were not bothered by us either. 

The cypress swamp was the prettiest part of the ride. 

Our guide took us in and turned off the engine so we could take off our headsets and enjoy the quiet for awhile.  The line on the trees about four feet up is the highwater mark from the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Fay in 2008.

We may have seen more birds that we've seen anywhere else, including nesting great blue herons, little blue and tricolor herons, several kinds of egrets, roseate spoonbills, black and white ibis, black necked stilts, pelicans, kingfishers, bald eagles, hawks, and.......... a crested caracara! (A life bird for both of us that we have been looking for since arriving in the area.) There were many little birds too that we couldn't focus on because we were going too fast. The birds were spooked sometimes when we drove by, and sometimes not. The river is rich in fish, said our guide, and so draws the birds and the gators. 

When we arrived back at the dock we got the opportunity to hold a baby alligator, and we couldn't turn that down!

You'll notice that his mouth was rubber banded shut while we were handling him, thank you. This guy felt soft on the bottom and hard on the top - a little like a snake, but more complicated than a snake because of all the body parts.  

So, I'm not sure how I feel about the airboats. It was fun, and we saw a lot more of the back country than we would have on our own. I don't think I'm going to go out and buy one any time soon. And I'll probably not be doing it again. I just wanted to know what it was like, and now I know. The noise is obnoxious, so I hope they don't become more popular. I'm glad they are regulated in the national park lands. But I'm not ready to go out and fight against their use by locals. And I sure hope no one tries to prohibit RVs and RV parks. So, live and let live, including the noisy boats and little beasts, as best we can.