southern comfort

Well...since my last post, life's been like one big nap. I swung by Cincinnati, then on to visit my parents in Florida, now I'm back in Cincinnati.

I discovered the wonders of (very) minor league baseball...go Pensacola Pelicans!

Gathered shells at the beach- and it was warm enough to play in the waves!

Saw longleaf pine, wiregrass and Red Cockaded Woodpeckers (RCW)! I spent some time reading and hearing about this ecosystem in Restoration Ecology, so as I mentioned before I was excited to find a big longleaf pine forest a short hour's drive away from my parents' house(thanks mom). Longleaf pines are special because, like prairies they rely on fire to fight off other species and spread their seeds(fire allows the pine cones to open). They used to burn naturally after lightning strikes, but since wildfires are usually put out now, managers have to do controlled burns to keep the forests in their former state. We drove through a large area that had been burned recently. The pine trees looked pretty healthy. We got to drive down some nice red dirt roads, pretty ambitious for my mom's Tercel (thanks again mom). The really great part was seeing endangered RCW. In one part of the forest, there are very active colonies, and the nest trees are marked. Still, there's no guarantee of seeing birds. But we'd almost stopped looking, when we heard some birds singing, and saw something moving on a trunk. It was a woodpecker! We saw a pair flying back and forth from the tree, and I'm pretty sure I heard some young ones crying inside.



I promised to plug this... if you're ever in Pensacola, be sure to check out the brand new Pita Grill, a Greek-Lebanese fast food place. We need to help support the existence of Middle Eastern food, and vegetarian food (though there's plenty of meat too) in Pensacola. It's good food, based on what I had.

I've been catching up on some fun reading, to cleanse my mind from textbooks. So far:
The Hobbit, Tolkien- needs no review

Still Life with Woodpecker, Tom Robbins- I see why my English major friend was in love with him- beautiful,original use of words, pleasantly bizarre adventures, wouldn't recommend it to those who blush easily

Double Whammy, Carl Hiassen- mystery involving bass fishing, televangelists, land development, and south Florida- good backdrop for a mystery, interesting enough I couldn't put it down for 2 days , but not the same literary quality as above. Not really my style, but a friend borrowed my suitcase and left in in there, so had to give it a try.