Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge

D’Iberville, Mississippi

I see that I am a year behind on writing “Refugees, Part II.” I also have been hanging on to a draft of an article where I parse my long (and glorious!) history with doughnuts. In that piece, I keep trying to connect fried cakes with some sort of existential optimism. I think I understand why I am not finished with that one yet.

I need to feel close to the ground again. I need to clear my heart and head and fill them with flowers, birds, and the smell of pine needles in the sun. My husband Tom and I are on the road again for several weeks: the Tree Steward and the Master Naturalist walking about together before they aren’t able to do so anymore. My current plan is to write short nature-based posts, which I will post more often than has been my habit.

So far in this journey we’ve visited Highlands Hammock State Park in Florida, Everglades National Park,  Big Cypress National Preserve, and, today, Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge. Here are some photos from today:

wet pine savannah

box turtle (Terrapene carolina)

parrot’s beak pitcher plant (Sarracenia psittacina)

inkberry (Ilex glabra)

Note: I am not abandoning our country to ethnocentric, sexist, despoilers of all this beauty. I will not be watching television on January 20, 2017. On January 21, if we are near a city, Tom and I will march for women (and their husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers). If Tom and I are in the hinterland, our hike will be a march for equality and respect for our people and our land.