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| View of Ozello from our house. |
We'd planned a Florida vacation this winter, as a belated celebration of our 50th Wedding Anniversary, and had booked a rental house for a week in February on the Ozello Trail, just south of Crystal River. As luck would have it, our week turned out to be the ideal time to get away from Virginia--there was snow and ice on the ground when we left, and another storm dropped more snow in in our area the day after we left--then sub-zero temperatures set in.
It wasn't exactly balmy when we arrived in Crystal River on Saturday afternoon--I made a wrong turn and ended up at Fort Island beach just as the wind was picking up. I dashed out to snap this photo and the sand was blowing so hard it was like being stung by tiny missiles!
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| The beach at Fort Island, near Crystal River. |
We had dinner at Crump's Landing, just across the causeway from the house in the gale and barely managed to enter the restaurant--the storm brought 40 MPH winds to the Florida coast that night, and subfreezing temperatures. The wind subsided the following day and the sun came out, but we had temperatures below freezing the next couple of nights too.
Fortunately, our hosts had provided two portable heaters and warm blankets for us, but Herb hadn't brought any warm clothing with him, so I went out and bought him a sweatshirt and a polartec jacket at the Goodwill store in Crystal River.
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| Our vacation home. |
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| The view of Ozello from our house, watercolor sketch. |
I did this little watercolor sketch on our first day there, looking out over the back deck from the glass doors.
On the next night, the full moon rising over the marshes was a wonderful sight!
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| Moonrise over Ozello |
Driving along the 10-mile Ozello Trail back and forth from Homosassa Springs to shop for groceries, I kept noticing these bushes with colorful red berries all over the place, and wondered what they might be. My curiosity got the better of me and I stopped at a pull-off by the side of the road to snap off a branch from a bush to take back to the house for identification and painting.
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| Watercolor sketch of Brazilian Pepper Tree branch. |
I had thought this might be one of the Florida native hollies, but I was mistaken--my specimen turned out to be an aggressive invasive plant known as the Brazilian Pepper Tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), which is related to poison ivy and poison sumac. I washed my hands as soon as I discovered this and handled it with suitable care from then on. Fortunately the plant's sap is not as toxic as some of their relatives, but it was still enough to cause me some itching later that evening. I disposed of the specimen as soon as my sketch was finished.
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| Brazilian Pepper Tree (Schinus terebinthifolium) |
By Tuesday morning the weather had warmed up enough for us to try an exploratory walk around our neighborhood. I collected some botanical material to paint in the afternoon, inside the house. For my first specimen I picked a couple of small branches of a mangrove with flower buds, and some of its unusual, viviparous fruit, called "propagules."
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| Red Mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) |
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| My sketch of the Red Mangrove |
The following day was the warmest, and we walked down the other side of the road towards a small beach and park. The tide was going out, and there were lots of birds: white pelicans, ibises and a little blue heron.
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| The beach at Ozello |
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| Little blue heron |
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| Ozello park. |
I went out to paint that afternoon, thinking I might visit the Crystal River Archeological Park, but decided to stop along mile 5 of the Ozello Trail instead--the typical landscape of our surroundings--the watery expanses, the marsh grasses with their hammocks of native vegetation, were very appealing. I pulled off at a boat launch, parked and climbed up to a hammock--the highest elevation around--for a vantage point for my painting.
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| View from the Ozello Trail, watercolor |
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| The Ozello Trail view |
To be continued...
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