Lovely Days at Fort Clinch State Park

November 5 – November 20, 2024                             Most Recent Posts:
Fort Clinch State Park  Site 11                              October 2024 – A Mixed Bag
Fernandina Beach, Florida                         I Don’t See Nearly Enough of Them

My winter travels began on November 5 when I pulled into site 11 at Fort Clinch State Park for a full two weeks.

There are two campgrounds here.  A larger river campground and this smaller 20 site “Atlantic” campground. It’s not actually on the ocean though.   You have to walk along the Amelia river beach to arrive at the Atlantic.  I really do love walking on the beach here and the little town of Fernandina Beach is wonderful.  

I learned this year that I’m not the only one who thinks Fernandina Beach is a great place.  John Grisham built a house here in 2014 to add to his collection of 4, one of which is near the farm in Virginia, another is in Chapel Hill North Carolina where David and I were living when we met.   Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey also live here.  For whatever interest that is.

My routine is to be up for dawn which is very reasonably at 6 am these days.  I take the boardwalk from the campground to the sand trail which takes me out to the Amelia River.   This is my every morning, rain or shine although it has been nearly 100% shine.  You can see in the picture below how close the boardwalk is.

Sunset behind the campground is at about 5:25 each day.   I didn’t take as many pictures of the sunset as the sunrise but here are some taken during the first week of my stay.  I love the sea oats.

Sunset shots were taken with my back to the water.  This is the boardwalk to protect the dunes.  It’s leading to the campground.

I ridiculously took 550 pictures during my two weeks here.  Most of them were of sunrises like these.

Every morning was cloudy at the horizon line…..for two weeks but only once was there spitting rain. 

Sometimes the sun couldn’t be seen until it was above the horizon line.  This spot at the confluence of the Amelia River and the Atlantic was a gathering spot for the birds.  I took a shot here nearly every day.

I took daily walks along the shore, usually right after sunrise, 4 miles or so. 

I only saw the surfers one day.  It’s November,  they didn’t have on full wet suits. 

If you’d like to see this 20 second video I took of them, use this link.

Nature’s wonders appeared at my feet.

This artistic scene was amazing.  The color of the sand is due to the dawn color.

Fading dawn colors on other days.

Pelicans skimming close to the water blend in so well they are hard to see.

Notice the clouds in these pictures.  They were a constantly varied painting.

Nature’s art at the beach is abundant.

At low tide the beach at Fort Clinch is very wide.

But best know when it’s  high tide.  I could barely walk the beach without getting my shoes wet.  I had to wait for the waves.  This is on my way to the Fort itself.

These pictures are taken on my return trip. That’s the fort in the distance.  I have visited it on an earlier trip with David.   As I am not a big fan of military history,  walking by was sufficient for me.

Some days I did half my hiking on the beach and the other on the trails at the park.  They wander through the maritime forest beyond the sand dunes.

Luckily I only came back once with these hitchhikers.  They are the devil to get off your clothing including shoes and best done with gloves.  They are absolutely horrid for poor dogs’ paws.   I’ve always heard them called sandspurs but others say sandburs.   I’m wondering if they have them out west too.  Western readers?

I was very lucky to come upon this Zebra Longwing, the Florida State Butterfly.  Sadly, I have seen very few butterflies these last few years.    Is that the same where you are?

Another piece of  luck was to be in this open sky area for the Super Moon.  Wish I’d had Gaelyn here to photograph it for me.

One more post from this stop coming up next will be  about the darling little town of Fernandina Beach.  Hopefully it won’t take the two weeks this one took to post.

October 2024–a Mixed Bag

October 8-31                                                             Most Recent Posts:
Greenfield Mountain Farm                   I Don’t See Nearly Enough of Them
Foot Hills of Virginia                             September in Virginia: Rain and Covid

This post will cover the rest of October which wasn’t quite as much fun as the last post about the week-end Carrie and the kids came to visit.

At the end of October, I took Winnona to Malloy Chevrolet for an oil change, grease job and a few other maintenance tasks.

Bringing her back up this short lane into the barnyard I foolishly cut right too close to the shed and caught the metal roof.

It was a stupid and careless move.  I was concerned about getting her turned around in the barnyard.  I have done this dozens of times in the past 5 years.  I have no idea what happened to me.  But I’m sick about it.

I did get her turned around but now what?   There is only one body shop nearby that will take a vehicle as tall as Winnona.

To add to my problem, the power went out at the house for no reason I could see at all.  My phones were not charged, I had no back up of bottled water.  In short, I wasn’t prepared.   When it rains. . . . . . . .
But I did have a HUGE stock of candles.  Here’s the bedroom at bedtime.

Four days later my reliable knight came to the rescue.   I couldn’t get the rig to a body shop in the next 3 weeks before my reservations in Florida and frankly, right now I do not have the money to pay that bill.

Shannon, who seriously can do anything,  repaired the fiberglass though he couldn’t get rid of a bulge that will need to be professionally taken care of.
The repair even when painted will be very noticeable but it will keep the rain out which is the big thing.
Poor Winnona,  I know she is really missing David who would not have done such a careless thing.

Wish I knew a professional car/RV painter who could turn this blob into a dolphin.  Wouldn’t that look great?   I’ve looked for a very large decal but to no avail.  The gray whale is 37” long and 15” wide.

Of course problems come in 3’s right?   Five days after the RV damage, the alternator on my new to me Honda went out on my way to town.   I was hoping to get it to my mechanic but when the power steering went out I made the first left turn and got to the house at Mason Lane where I had to have it towed in for repair.

While stuck in town, I walked around looking at the nearby Halloween decorations.  These are only a very few of the houses I saw.  I was amazed at the size of that roof spider and wondered where they store him for the rest of the year.

Wondering the same thing about this huge skeleton crawling out of the ground.  Isn’t it great!

But this is the Halloween House extraordinaire.   I probably put pictures of it on the blog every year I am in Virginia.  It is full, front yard, side yards, back yards and crawling on the house.

They even change out their driveway lights.

One day I got up on the roof to do the detail clean up of mold around the edging of the roof and the solar panels.  One of the men who works for Shannon came in the spring and did a wash/wax but no detailing and he’s coming back in a couple of days.

As you can see, I had a tough time doing a decent selfie.

Nearly every day I hike a few miles on the farm.  The deer are out but the bear don’t seem to be.  Although all I see of the deer is their white tails bouncing away since I make so much racket going through the enormous amount of leaves.

Take a look and listen with this link.

In the video, I was on my way up from  what we call the lower field.  These next pictures are from there on my way down.

Shannon also mows my fields and mows this one high up behind what was the spot where the big old barn stood.   I love the view from here.  I can’t look down on the house for all the trees, but I can see Winnona and the mountain range in the distance.

Eddie came to do the wash/wax.  I got a picture of him up on the roof but was so busy that I neglected to get any other pictures of him working his way around the sides. 

On the last week-end of October my friend Laurie and I took our weekly book discussion, which is usually a tela-discussion when I am traveling, up to Carter’s Mountain Orchard.

I think my friends are getting tired of me taking pictures of our lunches.  I quickly snapped this shot of the book discussion part but totally neglected the lunch food which was delicious.

The view of Charlottesville from atop Carter’s Mountain

In the background you can see the book.  In the foreground is an apple cider donut ice cream sandwich we had for dessert. 

Carter’s Mountain has everything apple including cider flights, apple cider donuts by the half and dozen, apple pie, apple slushy, canned apples, applesauce and on and on.

And of course they have several varieties of apples, pick your own or buy a bag as this man did.

I woke up to frost one morning making it clear October is drawing to a close and colder weather is on the way.

The wonderful scuppernong grape arbor leaves are a golden yellow.  Lately, I’ve eaten enough grapes to make me sick.   The scuppernong is a large variety of muscadine a species of grape native to the southern United States. It is usually a greenish or bronze color and is similar in appearance and texture to a white grape, but rounder and larger.  Ours are best when bronze and they have seeds and thick skins.  These are native grapes, not hybrids.

From my last hikes of 2024.

On Halloween I went in to have a temporary crown removed and the permanent one put on.  I was happy to see my dentist office front desk personnel were definitely dressed for the occasion.  What fun!   I always costumed up at work but I was in the minority.  Here it was everyone.

Including my dentist, Dr. Sapon, and his assistant.  I asked him why he chose to be a fireman and he replied, “that’s what I do, put out fires.”    Love it!

I was able to eat lunch right after my appointment and my friend Mary took me to a restaurant new to me called Mezeh.  Clearly she too is disgusted at the picture thing.

Mary created her own bowl.  I had the bowl known as Vibrant Vegan  with arugula,  brown basmati rice, black lentils, falafel, classic hummus, Lebanese tabbouleh, chickpea salad, sumac cucumbers, pickled onions, cilantro vinaigrette.   It was absolutely delicious.   Definitely on my list for a return visit when I come back to the farm in 2025.

The October sun sets for me on in Virginia.  I leave for parts south tomorrow.