Spring in Florida … in January!

Well, some say the jury is still out on the Global Warming issue but here in Florida it is warm and it is spring.  January is not yet gone and the azaleas in my subdivision are in bloom … about six weeks earlier than usual.  I saw a report on the news the other evening about a small, seaside town in New Jersey that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy.  The mayor is lobbying for regulations that will force all new buildings to be built about 10 feet off the ground. She has plenty of data to show that the seashore is eroding and any future storms will wreak the same havoc as Sandy so by her reckoning if people want to rebuild they should do so in a realistic manner.  Could we please send this mayor to Congress?

Sir David Attenborough proclaimed recently that humans are a plague on the earth.  I couldn’t agree more.  There are too many of us and global warming is one result.  It’s easy to get depressed about it all but that doesn’t help. I really don’t know what does help but for me it is hiking the beautiful land at Myakka River State Park.  I find things, like this Century Oak tree.  Well, I call it a Century Oak but that’s only because it looks like another oak that someone told me was a Century Oak.  Perhaps we should just call it a Magnificent Oak and leave it at that.