Central Florida

Once you get away from coastal and, therefore, settled, Florida....and you go inland, you can find magic. Not the beautiful postcard images, but signs of a harder life, of harder times......

butterfly

Flowering Trees, Pine Island, June

Pine Island's Flowering Trees in June

The fragipani stands bare all winter and then, when it warms and the days a longer, these magnificent flowers come out.

Selby Botanical Gardens, Sarasota

This is a beautiful place. The specialities are orchids and bromeliads in the conservatory. Outdoors along the winding paths are huge trees providing places for singing birds to land. There are mangroves and butterfly gardens lush vines and such diverse, beautiful foliage. The breeze comes in from the Sarasota Bay.....paradise?

Earth and Spirit, Pine Island

PINE ISLAND CLAM HOUSE