EQUINOX GIFTS

Tuesday March 20, 2012
Manatee Springs State Park Site #84

 

Celebrate today is Spring Equinox!

It’s one of the two days a year when day and night are nearly equal.  A time of balance.  This is one of Earth’s Holi-days.  A time to celebrate that this amazing planet Earth is faithful in her trip around the sun star and we thankfully move from winter to spring each year.  All we have to do is not mess things up.  Light is on the increase and things begin to grow and bloom again.  We are hoping this increasing light will be figurative as well as literal in our lives. * note: *If corporations get their names capitalized then so should the planet that sustains us. Please join me in adopting this practice. 

 

I’ve gotten some Equinox gifts I’d like to pass along with thanks to those who also sustain me.

For my wonderfully loyal followers and commenters. 

You can’t know how much hearing from you means.  And one of the things I  hear is requests for recipes of the things we are eating so here is one for you to use in your Equinox Celebration.  Particularly for the terrific Roxanne who asked about Cashew Icing.   Calling this “carrot cake” is a bit of a misnomer as you’ll find out when you take it out of the pan to eat it.  More like carrot cake crumble.  This recipe comes from the companion book to the video Forks Over Knives which I HIGHLY recommend.  Everyone who honestly cares about their health really must see this.

Carrot Cake

1 C organic raisins
1 large or 2 medium carrots finely grated
2 C walnuts finely chopped
1/2 C organic shredded coconut
1 T tahini – we substituted peanut butter
1/4 C maple syrup (actually just a splash will do)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of cinnamon

Soak the raisins in spring water until plump, then rinse and finely chop.  Put into a large bowl and add everything else.  Mix well.  Press firmly into a small round pan or glass pie dish.  We used a small casserole dish.

Let sit for at least an hour.  Frost with Vegan “cream cheese” icing and serve.   We chilled ours but it was still crumbly so I’m not sure that’s necessary.

 

Vegan “Cream Cheese” Icing (aka Cashew Cream Icing)

1 C cashews
Juice from a lemon to taste
(I didn’t want it too lemony so used only a slice)
1/8 to 1/4 C maple syrup (use to taste this thing is RICH)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Puree the ingredients with a splash of water in a blender at high speed to create a smooth creamy thick consistency then spread over the cake.
You may have to add additional “splashes” of water to get the consistency you want.

CELEBRATE SPRING!

 

Most of the rest of these gifts came from right around our campsite or on my walks in this park.

 

For Lynda my friend of 30+ years who has followed me in many things, surpassed me in most and is standing on the brink.  
Jump!  Lynda! Jump!
How about this set up??  Home sweet home + kayak.

 

 

or maybe a Winnebago View with a teeny tiny towed?
Now there is some good gas mileage on both.

 

For my good friend Pam who loves and cares for the animals

 

 

 

For our generous friends Gin & Syl who see beauty in the ordinary.

 

 

 

For Judy, one of the best nature photographers I know

who works on behalf of the wild things in the National Wildlife Refuges.  Thanks Judy for both.

 

 

 

 

For my darling Carrie and my encouraging twin Nancy.

Now I am older than both of you so you do as I say ya’heah??  And do it RIGHT NOW!

Put your right arm around your left shoulder, put your left arm around your right shoulder,  Now squeeze and feel me hugging you.  And thanking you both always for your constantly encouraging presence in my life.  Free Equinox Hugs as soon as you get yourselves down here.

 

 

And for David who is steadfast.

 

 

 

And who, though very tired, rested in his chair between taking the pictures while I floated yesterday

 

 

 

 

More light,

more sun,

more energy,

more healing waters!

 

Today is your turn. 

 

So glad you are feeling a bit better.

 

 

Hope you all Celebrated Earth’s Equinox!!

Floating in Manatee Springs

Monday March 19, 2012
Manatee Springs State Park Site 84

 

 

FRIDAY-very hot for mid March.  88 whew!

I wonder what July will be like.  David goes to get the Velcade shot and then up to Tampa for a CT scan .  He watches NCAA Basketball when he gets back including Duke getting beat in its first game.  We had to laugh.  He’s not sleeping well.  His lower back hurts.  He says it feels like a disc.  Can anything else go wrong?

 

 

Saturday we hang around the site to avoid the last hurrah of the spring breakers.

But there’s really no where to hide.  The nice quiet folks next to us left today and a party moved in with booming bass.  I always wonder why folks come out into the quiet woods or go to the ocean shore and then blare their boom boxes.  Or in this case, car radios.   Do they really think everyone within a mile wants to hear their music??

 

I escape to the grocery store.

 

When I return,  I read Shadow Country aloud while David makes a carrot cake with cashew cream icing.  We have BBQ’d tempeh, oven fries and broccoli for dinner to give us an excuse to eat the cake for dessert.  I wonder, are we eating too many soybeans?

Quiet time is not until 11:00 here but there is no camp host to enforce it anyway so the party rocks on.  I use ear plugs.  David says they won’t stay in his ears. 

 

Sunday they all leave and so do we.

 

We arrive at Manatee Springs for our “vacation” about 5:15.  David is feeling so tired without sleep that the ordeal of packing up, and driving wears him out.  I will do the set up tomorrow.   He is really hoping to just hit the sofa with his feet up and NCAA Basketball on the TV.   But it turns out that for reasons unknown, this park, about 6 miles outside of Chiefland Florida has very limited TV service, almost no Verizon cell service and very sketchy Verizon internet.   We get only ABC which is not carrying any of the tournament unfortunately.  Oh yes and FOX – not a chance.

 

 

 

 

But our site # 84 is lovely.

 

 

 

 

 

Monday morning….

David has slept even worse and so when I see him fall asleep sitting up at the dinette, I slip out of the house and go for a walk around the campground.  I should be running but it makes too much noise for me to get ready and get all the gear – heart rate monitor, running watch, hat, sunglasses.  Or at least that’s my excuse.

 

The campground is just the way I like it, very lightly populated.  We are lucky to have a site that has only one site next to it and lots of open space on the other side and in the back of the site which since we pulled Winnona in for the view, is actually the front for us.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

The duckies and we have a good view.

 

 

 

 

 

I love being out in the early morning before everyone else.

I take the trail to the spring.  The spring is gorgeous.  Natural, the way a spring should be.  I think the state parks of Florida are much smarter than the county in charge of Lithia Springs.   Look at that water, so blue.  And so clear that you can see the rocks with green moss on them in the foreground.  They are actually about 3 feet down through this crystal clear water.  The sun is very harsh making it hard to take pictures.  This place looks pristine.  I wish the entire Earth were still pristine.  Wouldn’t we all be healthier??  And happier??

 

 

I walk to the head and look down the spring run.  You cannot kayak the run until after March 31.  From November 1st to March 31st the manatee have the run all to themselves.   But this year has been so warm I doubt there have been any manatee here since January.   They are all still in the warm rivers.

 

 

I stay for a while, just enjoying the beauty and thinking about how abruptly our life has changed.  How we had no clue.  How we would have started full timing much earlier had we known and not been so afraid that we would not have enough money to do it.  That we should wait for that magical retirement age set by someone else.  I determine not to be sad.  But to come back in the afternoon and swim in this beautiful place.  Submerge myself in its healing waters.

 

And later in the day I take the plunge.

 

 

 

 

The water is 73 degrees and wonderful.  I float with ease.  Looking up at the green leaves, blue sky and white clouds.  What a glorious place.  Spring Equinox is a time of balance.  The days and nights are equal.  I need to balance my cares and joys so that they are at least equal.  Floating in the water relaxes me.  It makes me happy.  I hope David will be able to come in soon.  Perhaps it will rejuvenate him too.

 

 

 

 

 

I float on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and on.  I am a spec in the water, in the universe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am  the water.  I could do this forever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It restores my soul.   I’ll be here again tomorrow and every day until we leave.  I am so glad we have come here.

BEWARE the IDES ( and other things)

Thursday March 15, 2012
Lithia Springs Site #23
Don’t forget to MTMO

 

It’s The Ides of March.  Don’t you just love that?

We’ve got no Caesar or Brutus here but tomorrow David does go for his last shot of Treatment Round #2.  This disease seems like one of those back stabbing things but we’re hoping to get the upper hand with even more improved numbers.  Sounds great but beware  unfortunately he also has to have a CT Scan for a mass of some sort that has shown up below his ribs on the right side.  And just when we are feeling good about how things are going.  We know how Caesar felt.  No results until Monday.

 

If you’ll remember when we first got here, we commented on how quiet the park was.  We showed empty parking lots and campsites.  The solitary river.  The spring when David went for a swim with only a few others in it and many of them with fins.  Wonder where the fish go to hide when the masses descend??  Must be rough all summer long. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week everything changed.  Beware The Spring Break!

 

Thank goodness we had a site to renew on Monday since the Spring Break hoards have descended.  We were very lucky since we’d forgotten all about spring break.  Long time since college or school children.  But note to self:  wherever you are in March, make sure you check to see when the local spring break is.  Actually you’ll probably know because everything will be reserved for that week unless you hit a walk in a few days or weeks early. 

 

Today I went out with my camera to record the change.  The park is full, the parking lot, the river, the spring and the campground.   The music is up and the quiet is gone.   The party is on.  And I’m not talking college kids.  I’m talking families.  Kids screaming and adults screaming at them until long into the dark.  And my beloved DST has given them a later sunset to keep it up.

 

 

 

So we haven’t been to the spring or taken the kayaks out at all this week.  Since we don’t have to fit all our fun into one week of the spring we’ve just waited it out.  We know we can out last them.  They all have to go back to work and school on Monday.  So by Sunday night they’ll all be gone. 

 

But we will too.  We’ll be ON VACATION!!   Heading out to Manatee Springs for a week to try to play and get these drugs out of his system.

A few last shots of the Spring Breakers having a good time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure looks like a SUMMER day not a winter one even here in Florida.
Still almost a week before the start of SPRING!   Everyone here (well almost everyone) seems to be very happy about Climate Chaos.