Today I took the short drive to Pitts Spring to rehome a little box turtle who got herself caught in the chainlink between my and Carol's yard. I thought it was a couple of leaves wedged in the mesh, but the dogs knew better. Good dogs!
Two summers ago on a hot July morning, I met with Bill Cleckley here. Bill is Acquisitions Director for the NW Florida Water Management District. I was doing an article for a magazine on the importance of our local springs and the Econfina watershed, for which no room was found. We were in the seventh year of a disastrous drought, and Pitts was nearly dead. The water was stagnant, the stone wall surrounding it was dangerously undermined, and the outflow was barely making it to Econfina Creek.
We had another year of drought. NWFLWMD thought of "blowing it out" with machinery, thinking the limestone aquifer collapsed on itself. The rock wall was entirely out of the water and cracking in spots. The creek was low. I worried about my well.
And then this year we got rain, and plenty of it, as you know if you have read this blog.
And at Pitts and Sylvan Spring, which is reached by the trail through the woods where before, during the drought, the limestone from which it bubbles was exposed and skeleton white, are now producing volumes of clear, sweet water. Sylvan is again submerged, its spring run is clear until the tannin starts to stain it. Pitts' spring run is once again rushing the short distance to Econfina. Both have recharged, thanks to the rain.
The flowers are blooming, new leaves in bright greens are decorating the trees. Dogwood fills
the dark spaces with its white light. Swamp honeysuckle, really a rhododendron, is fragrant when the sun hits and warms it. I found flowers on shrubs I've never seen before. The squirrels have been dining on hickory nuts one of the tables, leaving behind the shells. Butterflies are beginning to flit in the sunshine, having overwintered as pupae.
On a seasonal pond, I saw a pair of wood ducks! It was a good day.
In prior slideshows, I show you where I usually kayak. This is the same creek (Econfina), but a vastly different environment downstream.
Since you weren't with me, how about a slide show?
