Azaleas in Full Riot at Rainbow Springs State Park

Yes, all the azaleas are blooming! That’s the good news from Rainbow Springs State Park in Dunnellon.

Rejoice. Do not hesitate. Pack up the kids, the family dog and its leash. Alert your neighbors, get together and carpool or caravan. This is huge. The azaleas blooming at Rainbow Springs means spring has officially arrived to North Central Florida.

It is a sight worth seeing – masses of azaleas blooming along old brick walkways, meandering up the sides of waterfalls and cascading down the hillside to the headwaters of the Rainbow River.

In the Florida timeline there are two eras: BD and AD. Translation: Before Disney and After Disney. Rainbow Springs was a thriving private attraction in the BD era. A Wild West theme had cowboys and their horses – the old stable are still visible in the back area of the park. Glass bottomed boats glided on the Rainbow River. Overhead, gondolas went through the air on a suspension cable, going into tropical bird aviaries. And the azaleas, ah yea, they were here, by the hundreds, a blooming reminder that landscaping in Florida doesn’t have to be tropical to be beautiful.

When Interstate 75 arrived, everyone drove straight to Disney. In the AD era, old time attractions like Rainbow Springs died. The horses were sold. The glass bottom boats sank to the bottom of the river. And the azaleas? They stayed on, blooming in the fullness of Florida springtime, oblivious to the economic downturn.

A developer bought the headwaters and surrounding property. The Rainbow Springs residential area began to grow. Being able to go to the springs was a perk of having a home nearby. Some green thumbs noticed that under the jungle of overgrowth were beautiful azaleas and other plants. They formed a garden club called the Friends of Rainbow Springs and began weeding. In the fullness of time the developer decided to build condos at the headsprings.

Condos? The green thumbs thought not.  They fought to save the springs and won. A combination of county and state monies purchased Rainbow Springs State Park in 1990.

But there was no money at first for staff so the same homeowner volunteers became the Friends of Rainbow Springs State Park. They kept it open, kept it maintained and waited for improvements. For one dollar you could visit the park. The park has staff now, and many amenities including covered picnic, a swimming area, gift shop and restrooms. It is still one dollar to get in the gate. Such a deal!

Guided garden tours are given the first and third Saturday of the month through April. Tour starts at 11 a.m. No reservations necessary.  The walk around the gardens is about one mile. Some of the walk is on uneven brick surfaces with slightly steep grades going uphill.

You’ll go by beautiful manmade waterfalls leftover from the private attraction days, get a glimpse of the old stables, hear about the springs and how what we do with our lawns affects its water quality, see the Rainbow River Run and of course, lots of azaleas.

On the second Saturday of every month except June, July, and August, there is a guided bird walk that starts at 8:30 a.m. On your own, you can take a backcountry nature trail that meanders for 2.5 miles. The free trail guide is in the gift shop or ask for it at the main gate.
Dogs are not allowed on the bathing beach or concession areas. They may walk the trails of well behaved an on a six-foot hand held lead.

Want more? Ranger programs also include guided canoe/kayak trips, guided snorkeling trips and on the third Saturday of each month there is Music on the Grounds – open mike and coffee house at 8:30 p.m. Bring a chair, a mug a musical instrument, perhaps some poetry and hang out with local talented artists.

Rainbow Springs State Park address is 19158 S.W. 81st Place (off U.S. 41), Dunnellon, Fl. 34432, phone (352) 465-8555. Their Web site is under: www.floridastateparks.org

Admission is $1 per person, children under the age of six admitted free.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida.” Chapter 18 in “50 Great Walks” is all about Rainbow Springs. She lives in Ocala.

Empty Bowls Filled with Love and Soup

I walked up the wide stairway then down a long hallway looking for the right room number. I heard my destination before arriving. Laughter spilled out of an open doorway of the ceramics studio at Central Florida Community College in Ocala . Yep, exactly where I needed to be.

It was the last day of the Empty Bowls project. I’d had to cancel a studio date earlier but now my turn had come to pull up a stool, play and help social change – namely fighting hunger by feeding the hungry in our local area. How cool is that? I stepped inside.

A greenware bowl

Bowls already fired, called greenware, were on the long tables along with brushes and foam trays for colors – acrylic paints that have to be applied in three coats to come out bright after firing.

Jillian Daniel Ramsammy, CFCC’s Hampton Center Director and guru for this project suggested doing the outside first.
“Have you got a design in mind?” She asked.
“Sortof, yes.” I nodded. “Blue green sea colors then paint fish over that.”
“Good, here, look at the color chart, let’s pick out some blues and greens.”

The colors leap off the chart, vivid hues far different from what comes out of the bottle – a thick matte paste with a muted color. It takes imagination to see the finished bowl. I wander over to a table covered with fired bowls – bright colors, beautiful designs.

A finished bowl in the CFCC ceramics studio

The Empty Bowl project has had three months of bowl-making sessions. At the end of this last day over 500 bowls will have been painted.

I’m surrounded by fun and laughter in the ceramics studio. At the table next to me several CFCC teachers are painting bowls and enjoyed doing something totally different from their daily routine.

CFCC faculty painting empty bowls

In walks a CFCC student, a little breathless as she ran up the stairs. Sitting across from me, she quickly works on a bowl, doing the background then lettering words in a clear, sure handwriting.

I comment on her lovely script, so straight and perfectly formed. My attempts at making fish outlines fizzled with wavy lines and indistinct shapes. The fantasy and reality didn’t quite match.

“My hand better be sure, I want to be a surgeon,” she says smiling. Jillian walks by, looks at her sure handwriting and says “I’d let you operate on me.” We all laugh.

I didn’t get her name but here is her story – she goes to CFCC Monday through Friday, on weekends she works 32 hours at the hospital so she can pay for her car to get her to classes and it pays the rent. Oh yes, she also has small children. Whew. I felt like I’d run a half marathon just listening to her schedule. With all that, and she found time to paint bowls for a good cause.

The Empty Bowls Web site says: “The basic idea for Empty Bowls is simple. Participants create ceramic bowls, then serve a simple meal of soup and bread. Guests choose a bowl to use that day and to keep as a reminder that there are always Empty Bowls in the world. In exchange for a meal and the bowl, the guest gives a suggested minimum donation of ten dollars. The meal sponsors and /or guests choose a hunger-fighting organization to receive the money collected.”

On March 3, at CFCC from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Patriot Café, Bryant Student Union, you can enjoy soup and bread and pick out a bowl to keep as a reminder of the empty bowls in the world. Minimum $10 donation required. Call (352) 873-5881 for tickets in advance. Proceeds benefit Interfaith Emergency Services, Citrus United Basket and Tri-County Outreach.

But one little catch developed – almost everyone who painted a bowl, including me, said they’d like to get heir own bowl. Jillian’s advice to potters – come early.

Ceramics carries a bit of mystery. I left my painted bowl – it looks dull. But like a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly, a bowl transformation will take place. The bowl cures for a few days. Then Jillian and helpers put on a clear finish. Next it is into the kiln for firing and what comes out – a bright vivid bowl, made with love for a good cause. I can hardly wait to see the results.

There may be an Empty Bowl event near you, check here for state listings. Or organize your own event.Yes, you can change the world one bowl at a time.

I arrived feeling rushed and uncertain – would this take long? Would it be hard to do? Would I be done in time for the next thing on the schedule? I left smiling, happy and wondering what’s the hurry? Slow down and enjoy the moment. Paint a bowl. Fight world hunger. I’d do it again anytime.

©2009 Lucy Beebe Tobias. All rights reserved.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida” and the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA. She lives in Ocala, Florida with two dogs and three cats at last count.

Seeing Sandhill Cranes at Paynes Prairie

The air is alive with noise. All around us on Paynes Prairie near Gainesville it sounds like a thousand squeaky doors swinging open and shut on their hinges – creak, creak, creak.

Noise surrounds us. We can’t see the noisemakers but I can almost taste my anticipation. I really want to see the noisemakers and so does everyone else in the group.

Binoculars swing from neck straps. Cameras are hand held but loosely, at our sides, it isn’t picture time yet. We’re walking along a dike called La Chua Trail, a group of day trippers led by Lars Andersen of Adventure Outpost in High Springs and the author of “Paynes Prairie: A History of the Great Savanna.”

Lars tells us about the Indians who lived here ever so long ago. One tribe controlled Paynes Prairie and its riches including churt, also called flint, a material considered prime for making tools and weapons. Surprise! They were early entrepreneurs with a corner on the market.

A bald eagle flies overhead. We take that as a good sign. The morning is warming up but no one sheds fleece jackets, still too nippy for that. We walk on. The noises are getting louder.

Suddenly, the scene opens up, the vegetation along the edges of the dike clears and there they are – hundreds of Northern Sandhill Cranes along with two whooping cranes who seem quite comfortable hanging out with sandhills. We’re seeing hundreds around the prairie there are thousands. They are literally snowbirds.

We’re stunned at the sight. It took me a few minutes of staring open-mouthed before I thought, oh, right, camera, raise camera, turn it on, and take pictures NOW. And wouldn’t it be nice to have a longer lens?

Sandhills obviously like to eat and talk simultaneously. These are long lanky birds dressed in grey with red on the tops of their heads. Their beaks push around the prairie mud looking for food. Little spats flare up here and there about who should be where – two cranes lift necks, flap wings at each other, do a little dance, then settle down again to the business of eating plant and animal materials.

In the winter sandhills migrate from Michigan and Wisconsin to South Georgia and Florida. This is a banner year for sandhills at Paynes Prairie. Why so many? No one has THE answer but lots of speculation.

Lars tells us the birds are eating amaranth seeds. Amaranth is an ancient grain, the first to be cultivated as a crop in the New World. Aztecs used amaranth extensively, even in their sacrifice ceremonies.

When the Spanish came along, all things Aztec were forbidden, including growing amaranth. It is making a comeback these days. The grain grows wild on the prairie. This has been a very good year for amaranth; perhaps the sandhill cranes know that and have come to harvest the good stuff. Some sandhills like Paynes Prairie so much they will stay year round but most go back up North.

We meander to the end of the trail and an observation tower. Way off to the left, in a small body of water, a bison is spotted. Bison? Yes, the prairie has them. On the way back we see several alligators and a bittern. It is a banner day for wildlife sightings.

For Libby Schecher, every visit to Paynes Prairie is special. Libby is from Maine, staying in Gainesville for one year to study acupuncture. “I love coming to the prairie. I’ve fallen in love with alligators, they are so ancient, with small brains but they care for their young, make nests.”

Ah, alligators. One thing I like about walking on dikes is when we see an alligator; it is down in the water, much lower than we are. That works for me. I do not want to look an alligator in the eye. That small brain thinks everything is lunch.

Libby recalls coming to the prairie last week and seeing alligators sunning themselves at Alachua Sink. Along come several wild turkeys that stop, look towards the alligators, discuss the situation, go forward two steps, go backwards two steps, and finally retreat, leaving the area. Smart turkeys.

Paynes Prairie is a 21,000 -acre preserve with multiple access points. The LaChua Trail that we took is three miles round-trip from the North Rim of the Prairie to the observation tower. Main access is 4801 Camp Ranch Road. LaChua Trail opens at 8:00 a.m. and is open 7 days a week. No pets on this trail. For safety and wildlife disturbance reasons, the trail closes 1 hour before sunset.

Every time you go to the prairie it is different. Right now the La Chua Trail is very popular. Families with baby strollers, couples arm in arm, groups and gawkers – all are coming with hopes of seeing sandhill cranes.
Your turn to plan a visit to Paynes Prairie, a slice of authentic Florida. Go for it.

Lucy Beebe Tobias lives in Ocala. She is the Authentic Florida Expert for VISIT FLORIDA and the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida”

Climbing a lighthouse for more than the view

I earned this T-shirt the old-fashioned way – by actually doing what it says – climbing 203 stairs to the top of Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. The lighthouse is 175 feet tall and the view from the top looks out over the Atlantic Ocean and Ponce Inlet.

This is a serious piece of construction. Brick walls are eight feet thick at the bottom tapering to two feet thick at the top. In the days long gone when blue uniformed lighthouse keepers keep things going they walked these stairs several times day and night.

What the shirt neglects to mention is that there are also 203 steps going DOWN, making a total of 406 spiraling stairs. Gasp!

No, they don’t give you a shirt. I bought it as a reward.

You see I am afraid of heights and claustrophobic. So what was I doing climbing the tallest lighthouse in Florida? Overcoming fears and knowing the only way to see the great view is to get up there. In the grand view of things, I’d rather be challenged climbing up a lighthouse than hanging off ropes in a ropes course for character building or whatever it is called.

Oh, and there was a video crew from Visit Florida following me wheezing up the spiral stairs. Yes, your Authentic Florida expert at work. The video on Florida lighthouses will be up on their site in a few weeks. Check out Visitflorida.com then click on Authentic.

Every landing there is a window and sometimes a ledge to sit on. While pretending to admire the view, I am actually trying to get breathing back to semi-normal. The windows have transoms that open allowing air inside, a really good idea.

I know doing this deed is not right up there with climbing Mount Everest or biking across the United States, but there is a rush to doing something difficult and succeeding. And when you see kids prancing up the stairs and down again, it becomes a matter of pride not to be bested by the younger set.

This lighthouse has a museum on the grounds that houses Fresnel lenses. To me they are amazing works of art – specially cut pieces of glass meant to magnify a small light (in the beginning given off by kerosene lantern) into a big light that can be seen by mariners 20 miles out to sea.

The Coast Guard deactivated the light in 1970. A Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association started in 1972. They maintain and restore the Lighthouse and grounds. The town of Ponce Inlet bought the lighthouse from the Coast Guard.

When you step inside the white picket fence, everything inside the picket fence dates from 1887 when the lighthouse opened. Museum staff restored the 1933 Rotating Third Order Fresnel lens and had it reinstalled. It gives out the signal from that era, but it is a private aid to navigation not a regular Coast Guard approved beacon.

Of course, all that work means you’ve earned lunch too. Ask the staff where locals do lunch. They have several very good suggestions close by involving inlet views and seafood.
Florida has 33 lighthouses. You can work your way through the Lighthouse Trail. Click on this link to Amazon to see the book about the trail. So far I’ve climbed St. Augustine Lighthouse, Cape Florida Lighthouse at Key Biscayne (with my son Martin) and now Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse. Only a zillion more stairs to go.

Lucy Beebe Tobias is the author of “50 Great Walks in Florida” published by University Press of Florida, February, 2008. You can buy the book (and get it signed by the author) at her Web site. She climbed two lighthouses while researching the book. Lucy also is the Authentic Florida expert for Visit Florida.

Searching for the Fountain of Youth

There comes a time when the words “the Fountain of Youth” sound pretty attractive. For me, that time is now. So off I go, thinking it will just be a myth, a dream Juan Ponce de Leon chased all over Florida back in the 16th century.

Wrong. There really is a Fountain of Youth. De Leon was sure he had found it near St. Augustine. Today the small spring looks a little hokey all encased in a building full of stage sets, but drinking the water can’t hurt and, who knows, imbibing might help a few wrinkles disappear. De Leon couldn’t get enough of the stuff.

In 1493 de Leon joined Christopher Columbus in his second voyage to the New World. These explorers excelled at saying they were going one place and ended up somewhere else. Obviously they traveled before GPS units were available.

Columbus wanted to find a short passage to India. He ended up finding the New World. De Leon first stayed in the Dominican Republic then conquered Puerto Rico. In 1512 he got a permit (some things never change, like needing permits) from King Ferdinand of Spain to discover Biminy.

Hiring three ships at his own expense he sent out in 1513. Using a really cool instrument called an astrolabe to navigate, the ships went north then turned inland and anchored right up to land on April 2. The next morning they came ashore on what de Leon thought was an island on April 3, 1513.

Because flowers were in bloom, he named it La Florida (the flower). So much for Bimini. De Leon was just north of what would become St. Augustine. He gets the credit for discovering the continental United States. Yes, I know, back in grade school it was all about Pilgrims. Well, guess what, the Spanish were in Florida long before the Pilgrims got their feet wet jumping ship and rock skipping. Ah, the things you learn when you go discovering in Florida.

A guide at the Fountain of Youth told us the Spaniards met Timucuan Indians. Their Indian town called Seloy was right here. The Indians stood over seven feet tall. Good thing they were friendly. The Spaniards averaged about four feet eleven inches. And there was this fountain, a natural spring. The water tasted bitter (sulfur water) but heck, maybe the Indians were tall and lived long because they drank the water. It couldn’t hurt. De Leon loaded up caskets of water to take back to Puerto Rico.

After five days hanging out with Indians and drinking the water, he sailed around the tip of Florida, discovered the Gulf Stream and landed on the West Coast of Florida. Returning again to the West Coast in 1521 he tried to land and start a colony. The Calusa Indians didn’t appreciate the newcomers and fought many battles. De Leon died on from a poisoned arrow wound. He was almost 61 years old, ancient by the standards of the day. Most Spaniards were only living until the age of 30 to 40. Maybe it was the water.

Surprisingly, proof that the Spanish landed on April 3, 1513 lay covered up and ignored for generations. In 1904 a private landowner wanted a palm tree removed to improve the view. The gardener found a pattern of stones buried near the tree. Typically, when Spanish explorers set foot on new soil, they claimed it by making a cross. The long arm has the number of stones corresponding to the century. This cross has 15 stones. The short arm has 13 stones. So the year was 1513. Unpretentious and unadorned, the stones of the cross lie on the ground next to the fountain.

Also found at the site was a salt container. These were used to hold documents and a parchment found inside attested to the fact de Leon was here.

The property is in private hands but operates as an attraction. You can walk the grounds and get the guided tour of the fountain, a big indoor globe that rotates (you just have to see it to believe it) and a planetarium, the oldest planetarium in America. This is where they explain how navigators used that astrolabe. The stars played a major part in discovering the New World.

One building has Indian history and the grounds are open for walking. I like the huge clay jars the Spanish used to put under eves to catch water. The day I was there a group of students from a nearby charter school arrived with sketchbooks and found much to draw.

It is pretty amazing to walk out towards the water and see the area where the small ships (they were 84 feet long) came into shore. The shoreline has changed but this is the spot. And so Florida was discovered. It already had a thriving Indian culture. More cultures would follow.

It is said these are the words Juan Ponce de Leon uttered when he stepped ashore:
“Thanks be to thee, O Lord, who hast permitted me to see something new.”
Amen.

©2008 Lucy Beebe Tobias is a freelance writer, photographer and artist in Ocala, Florida. Her book “50 Great Walks in Florida”, February, 2008, is available now at www.Lucyworks.com