Evidence of Progress??

I went to northwest Florida last weekend to attend a family gathering.  Since we don't have ready access to good seafood up here in the mountains, my hubby and I wanted to take advantage of the proximity and headed down to the coast with my brother for dinner on Friday night.   It had been a long time since I'd been the south end of the county where I grew up so I figured we'd head out early and see what was happening, even getting to see a few birds along the way.   

Well.......let me tell you.  I got the shock of my life.  I knew south Walton County had been growing in popularity for years but nothing prepared me for what I saw.  Every single foot of the gorgeous white beaches I grew up with and loved has now been  plastered with condos, houses, restaurants and shops.  Public access to the beach is almost non-existent.  I was driving so I didn't get a single picture but you can go to some websites to find out just exactly what I saw.  Rosemary Beach   Watercolor  Seaside   and others including Sterling Properties.  Some of these have been in existence for many years, but the spaces between have all filled up.  

The traffic was unbelievable, both on the 4 lane divided highway parallel to the coast and on the inner roads, and this was on a random Friday in early November!  Knowing what happens in the summer, you couldn't pay me enough money to go there then.  Makes me so sad to see places I loved become inaccessible to a whole lot of folks who actually live in that county.    Perhaps had I not grown up in that county I wouldn't look at it as a bad thing, but I did grow up there and it hurts.  

Since I got no pictures on this trip, let me see if I can find something in the archives, so to speak. 

Hubby with friends from Germany

Oh, well.  I'll just stick to my little town in the mountains and proudly proclaim I've become a curmudgeon.   Oh, and there wasn't a bird in sight.  

Y'all take care

Fall in the Mountains

I wish there was some way that I could share  accurately the breathtaking beauty to be found here in the mountains at the moment.  We don't have as many maples as New England so we don't have as much red color, but the oranges and golds certainly make up for it. 

Every one of these was taken without getting off my porches and deck.  When you look out the windows, you are looking into a sea of shades of gold, yellow and orange.   Sadly, though, this peak color also means that leaves are falling.  We're enjoying them every day because soon there will be long months of bare limbs.   

Winter months provide their own beauty with lacy limbs, sometimes outlined in snow, and allowing views in directions not seen while leaves are on the trees. 

I grew up in northwest Florida where so many of the trees did not shed leaves.  The area is covered by pines and though they do shed needles, they are never bare.  Even the oaks there mostly shed part of the leaves in the fall and the most of the leaves in the spring as new growth appeared. 

For many years I dreamed of living somewhere with rolling hills, hardwood trees and four seasons.  I've got those here and I'm a happy camper.  

Strangely, there are very few acorns this year.  Gonna be a lean year for critters that rely on them.  I'll bet that means that the squirrels will be flocking to our feeders even more than usual.  I don't mind supplementing their food supply, but being the primary source gets tiresome, particularly as their feeding keeps the birds from the feeders.   

Y'all take care