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University of North Florida

Last Saturday Dot and I went down to Black Creek out of Middleburg. The first couple miles was houses, nice houses, but houses nonetheless. You'll see some of the homes at the end of this 'show'. Since we go kayaking to enjoy nature, we are not going to do this section of Black Creek ever again. Just too many houses. The last two and a half miles or so was nice, once we got past the houses.  

Starting out we came across these two boys going for a swim in the creek. It seemed pretty chilly to us though. 

Here's the first kid going in ...

And here's the second. 

We did see a fair number of turtles on the creek which is usually a sign of a healthy ecosystem. We also crossed paths with a snake swimming across the creek. We almost ran over it and as soon as he saw 'big red', he turned tail and went back to the side he came from.

It was a nice day to be on the water. The air was cool but not cold. And we both got a bit of redness from the sun.

The flowers on top are honeysuckles. The banks were awash in honeysuckle. 

Okay, education time. It sure is nice to have a bona fide horticulturist for a friend. Our very own Chuck Hubbuch. Chuck heads up the Grounds Dept. on campus and is responsible for all the new palm trees and such we all see popping up all over campus. 

Here's Dot getting a whiff. They were fragrant. 

Here is what Chuck has emailed to me. 

Nice photos. Common names are confusing. I've heard this plant called wild honeysuckle but a lot of people think of honeysuckle as the vining plant with white, yellow or red flowers. The honeysuckle in your photos are actually a native, wild azalea that isn't related to the vining honeysuckle. It is sometimes called the pinxter azalea. 

Now we all know. Thanks Chuck. We all appreciate your input.

Obviously butterflies like them too.

We took a break here to stretch our legs. This is looking back downstream where we came from.

Same place.

There were some honeysuckles on the bank so I took some close-ups of them.

This is where we took our lunch break. There was a house back in the woods to the left and we ate lunch on their dock. There weren't any No Trespassing signs, so we felt fairly safe doing so. 

These are some of the houses we passed on the way upstream.

Along with some of the scenery in between.

As I said we saw a fair number of turtles.

And some nice scenery.

This house was pretty neat. This is looking straight at it from the creek.

This is looking back at it after we had passed it. The builder had built the roof within about 3 or 4 feet of the tree.

This was a pretty nice looking home.

As was this one.

And this one.

This one is for sale. 

As is this one. Anyone out there have a bunch of bucks?

On the way back to Dots' house, we went through Penney Farms. Now you know the 'story' behind Penney Farms.

We both agreed to one thing. Nothing beats the St. Mary's River for pure beauty. Which is where we hope to go back to Saturday after next. And if we are lucky, we will have someone else join us. Remains to be seen.

Enjoy!

Email to Jack Woodward      mailto:  jackwoodward66@hotmail.com

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