Florida beach
FL - Week 1 - Finally arrived at the beach on Anastasia Island off St. Augustine, Florida
Anastasia Island
First thing after arriving I bicycled to The Conch House for some seafood and a Guinness. It felt good to wearing a pair of shorts and my Panama hat.
There is a subtle darkness in a southern house because of the shade from tall pines and wide oaks. The houses are surrounded by a wall of green and engulfed by thin shafts of light that are prevented from entering strong enough to brighten a room. It is subdued inside and corners are often in shade. That may account for the slow start of each day.
The restoration of old St. Augustine is vastly different from the sleepy beach town of my youth. For several years during high school and college I came with a friend on our motorcycles and we camped on the beach and road along the sand to Daytona Beach and back. Those days are gone.
The weather system off shore increased the winds and surf. The ripe tide has most enjoying the view from the beach, though a few surfers are cutting in and out of the multiple breakers.
What a magical collection of rocks and shells make up the beach sand. I find nature a great artist. Walking south along the shore line to escape the few that sat sunbathing near the entrance. The gulls shouted above the surf, that crashed rhythmic upon the beach. I found a piece of drift wood and made a seat on a high rise along the shore. The sun switched on and off as the clouds sailed off shore. When I closed my eyes only the wind, waves, and wildlife spoke.
Knowing my love of poetry, Pat Kidd gifted me her mother’s copy of The Faery Queen by Spencer. The gift included the marginalia from both her mother and the previous owner, H. Baldwin.
They each added drawing and notes in pencil and pen with every rereading of the text.
This edition included extensive notes and a glossary for the Middle English. I was lucky my senior year in high school to have a gifted teacher who started the year teaching us Old and Middle English so we could read The Pearl, Piers Plowman, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Chaucer in the original text. I did not read Faery Queen for the first time until college.
Le Dolce Far Niente
Yesterday I thought about how best to use my time here. Several projects came to mind, but I dismissed them all in favour of just sitting, reading, cycling around, journaling my thoughts, and resting in the simple pleasure and “sweetness of doing nothing”.
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