Pitcher plants grow along the grassy shoreline of a slough along the hiking trail that surrounds Bear Lake northwest of Baker, Florida. Image by Del Stone Jr
Unpaved paradise: Just an hour north of here, along State Road 4 between Baker and Munson, lies Bear Lake. It’s smack in the middle of the Blackwater River State Park. You gotta see this place. We took the hiking tour… READ MORE
Image courtesy of Wallpaper Flare. — One a day: Few foods surpass the simple virtues of the apple. For instance, the shape is sculpted to fit the human hand. It is not round but oval, with a top that is… READ MORE
Image by Mathias Krumbholz by way of a Creative Commons license. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Leviathan1983
Lately I have been thinking about heaven. In heaven, I am 10 years old again. I live in a small town, surrounded by farms and forests. It is summer. I burst from my house at sunup. I cut across Mrs…. READ MORE
Image courtesy of flickr user Cweyant by way of a Creative Commons license. https://www.flickr.com/people/80267980@N00
The power of pennies: Squirreled away inside Aunt Wendy’s recent gift of chocolate chip cookies was a container of pennies. I think everyone must have a container of pennies sitting around the house. Mine is in the kitchen, next to… READ MORE
Image courtesy of Flickr user Gloria Manna by way of a Creative Commons license. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gloriamanna/
It’s a question of quality: The Hap-Hap-Happy News at the top of Friday’s Daily News left me with a lump in my throat. “Economist: Emerald Coast to grow for next 15 years.” I managed not to throw up as I… READ MORE
Props spin on the "Nine-O-Nine," a World War II-era bomber operated by the Collings Foundation, during a stopover at the Crestview, Florida airport. Image by Del Stone Jr.
12 O’Clock High: There she sat, the “Nine-O-Nine,” perched on the apron at the Crestview Airport, looking like a thousand B-17 Flying Fortresses I’d seen in a thousand movies about Eighth Air Force raids into Hitler’s Germany. Except this was… READ MORE
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Kroelleboelle.
We were talking about memorable commercials when I began quoting all the jingles I could remember. Problem was, they were all from the ’60s and ’70s. In 1965, for instance, when the Ford Mustang first appeared, there was a radio… READ MORE
Image courtesy of Raw Pixel.
When I walk into my living room these days, I no longer see the Big Empty. I see a proper home. I own the same cat-ripped furniture, the same TV from the Permian, the same Salvation Army coffee table. But… READ MORE
Image courtesy of ph by way of a Creative Commons license.
Odds and ends from here and there: Universal Bingo is sponsoring S.O.C.K.S. (Save Our Cats and Kittens), a no-kill kitty shelter, on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Universal is next to Kinfolks on Racetrack Road. Get this: It’s 8 o’clock… READ MORE
Image courtesy of the Look and Learn History Picture Archive by way of a Creative Commons search.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Thousands of Muslims ransacked churches, banks, shops and cars Thursday after a Chinese Christian trader reportedly insulted Islam by complaining about loud evening prayers, police and witnesses said. I have never understood why people kill for… READ MORE