Jacksonville Arboretum

A few weeks back it was a lovely, late winter day. I decided that the girls and I had, just had, to get out of the house and go somewhere. I did a search and came up with this place. It is maybe 10 minutes from the apartment. They have 120 acres of natural area with several walking/hiking trails. It is supported largely through donation and volunteers.

The entrance sign. The place is always busy, there is even a dog water fountain and one for refilling personal water bottles.

As we started to head off into the woods I spied the lake. I had no idea it was here.

I picked up a trail map near the water fountains and decided that the girls and I would take the Live Oak trail.

Shortly after you turn onto the trail you are in the woods. After a few minutes you can no longer hear the cars on I-295 which runs near the park.

Of course my companions were loving being outside and communing with nature.

The trail gets its name for the Live Oak trees. This is one of several large Live Oak trees.

After a bit you come to a clearing of sorts and there sits this odd wood carving. I am not sure what is supposed to be of.

As we finished the Live Oak trail we turned left and headed down towards the lake. There is a unique sculpture at the lake's edge. Also at the edge, which you do not see are several signs warning you that there are alligators in the lake.

When we got to the far side of the lake it was a lovely view across it and to the bank on the far end where we need to get back to in order to reach the parking lot.

In all the girls and I walked and hiked a total of 1-1/4 miles. A long trip for Lili with her arthritic hips. We have since been back twice and will go again before the weather starts getting hot.

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 13, 2017 at 10:58 AM

    I love the photo of you that was taken on the first night. Absolutely beautiful.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Life Update

Image
Hmm, how does one bring her friends and readers up to date on her life after just over  3-1/2 years of no posts on the blog. It would be almost impossible to attempt to create a post for every new recipe or trip over this period of time. I decided to post a few photos showing some of the high points and not so good points. So, lets take a trip down memory lane.  In early 2019 I took an 8-night cruise by myself. We stopped in Freeport and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. Then headed south to Aruba, Curacao and Grand Turk. I met some neat people and enjoyed the trip. On May 2,2019, exactly 8 months, to the day that I had lost Kelekona, I had to let Liliuokalani cross the rainbow bridge. I was devastated. I tried rescuing another dog but it didn't work out.  By November I had cheered up and treated myself to Wicked. It was fantastic. I spent Thanksgiving 2019 at my daughter's house. Who knew children could be so unhappy while shopping for a Christmas tree, even after fresh Dunk...
Read more

My Beautiful Kelekona

Image
Dogs are wonderful creatures. They love unconditionally and are great companions. I was lucky enough to be able to spend just over 7 years and 5 months with one of the neatest dogs ever, until she succumbed to cancer. Her name was Kelekona and she was a Horse Coat pure bred Chinese Shar Pei. I knew of the breed but never really got to know one until I got my Kele girl. She was a 5 month old baby when she came into my life. She need entropy surgery which I got done for her. As she got older she developed a really neat personality. She loved eating snow and ice cubes. Before the surgery she kept her eyes closed a lot because her eye lashes were rubbing over her eyes and it hurt. She loved car rides with her sister. When Mike and I got married she stayed between us the entire ceremony, protecting us. She lover her toys and had the most beautiful eyes to match her coat. She was always looking for some loving in all the right places. She was as content on the boat as she was...
Read more

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Molasses Sauce

Image
Last weekend I went grocery shopping. Nothing new there, I do that every week. This week, however I simply got carried away and spent way too much money. On the bright side, my chest freezer is now over half-full but there is still room for a turkey later on. One of the items on sale was pork tenderloin and since I hadn't had one in quite some time I picked up a package. I remembered I had this recipe which I found way, way back when I was in my first marriage and had not, to the best of my recollection, made this dish in at least 15 years maybe longer. So using the old, No Time Like The Present phrase I decided to make this. You start out by making a molasses sauce/marinade for the pork. It takes a lot of stirring or all the rosemary floats to the top. I love molasses. Next you take your pork tenderloin and wipe it with paper towels. Since my one tenderloin was almost as heavy as the two smaller ones called for in the recipe I made the full amount of sauce. Place the pork ...
Read more