Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet.
All about Nature, about the outdoors<>I love it, photograph it and protect it.
Triple Trimble Tuesday!
Well, it is Tuesday. And I do want to send along one more photo that features the beauty of Orange County’s Trimble Park. Okay, maybe two.
Good shot of the meeting of Lake and Sky first.
And then another sunset pic. I like the one shown here as the final foto better than most. Mr. Sun seemed a bit tired. I was sure he was going to chill awhile after a long day at work. Well, the days in January aren’t all that long, but you know what I mean…
I hope your Tuesday has truly been terrific! Mine has been fine. I just need to dive into my recliner and chill. Camping, as many of you probably know, can be very fun. And very, very exhausting!
Photo Credits Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Another Shot or Two from Trimble Park.
There must be thirty or forty docks at the park. No, that’s not an exaggeration! A view of a dock or two. This huge lake is Lake Griffin.
Call Orange County Parks and Rec if you’d like to book or need info such as hours, fees, how to find them, and all that. If you like to do outdoor stuff and you’re here in Central Florida, don’t overlook this hidden gem.
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Trimble Park, Orange County’s Best-Kept Secret
If you like to do outdoor stuff, let me recommend you overnight at Trimble Park in Tangerine. (That’s the tiny town after Zellwood but before Mt. Dora!) I just wrapped up a one-dayer stay at Trimble Park and I am one happy camper!
I took a photo or three and I’ll share a few. It really is a special site and it does truly “fly under the radar”. I’ve been in this county for over 50 years and I had no idea this lovely park even existed.
If you like to camp, Trimble features 15 great lots. You’ll mostly see RV’ers there, I was the only tent camper on-site for this outing. (That’s not too unusual, as many of you many may know.) But I’m all-in for tent camping. And I’m having way too much fun!
Hope to see you sometime before too long. Maybe at one of our awesome beaches, campgrounds or outdoor music venues. Life’s too damn short to spend all of it hiding in your living room, man cave or that little cubicle you’re chained to from 9-5. There are so many opportunities to do outdoor stuff here in the Sunshine State. Until recently, I had let slip through my fingers a thousand and one of those opps. And now I’m making up for lost time.
Photo credits Benjamin Lawrence Basile
One of Life’s Unsolved Mysteries–KFC and Gravy
Seriously, folks! Why is it that the gravy served with those mashed potatoes at KFC is frickin’ beef gravy? Why can’t you at least ask for a chicken-based gravy to go with those not-that-great mashed taters! Bulldog just cannot understand how this came to be… Just can’t. For real.
Photo Credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
First Watch is First Choice for Good Grub in Longwood
I found myself driving past First Watch one cold, dreary December morning recently and jumped at the chance to let someone else take care of breakfast. I had spent a very wet night camping nearby at Wekiva Springs State Park and was not up for making breakfast at my camp site. By the way, that park is beautiful; I’m whining only about the weather. I loved the park itself and will go back another day; perhaps Mother Nature will be in a better mood.
Anyway, back to First Watch. It is a fine choice for a hot and hearty breakfast, especially on a cold winter morning. The sausage and eggs were perfectly done, the rye toast could not have been better and my service was very good. The home fries seemed like they’d been under a heat lamp just a bit too long, but that’s a minor issue in my book.
I saw several couples having breakfast. I think I was the only solo patron on this trip. Although a saw no kids on this visit, it seemed as though it would be a family-friendly spot. I did see high chairs at the ready.
The decor at First Watch is simple and natural. Some would say boring. But I like and patronize places with tans, earth tones and some actual wood. Too many eateries now eschew anything that looks even remotely traditional but I like the “feel” here. I call it traditional-ish without being stodgy.
As far as value, my check was about what I’ve had at Peach Valley Cafe, Keke’s and other establishments offering breakfast and lunch. And there’s plenty of parking in the Publix shopping plaza where they’re located.
Loved it. Will most definitely go back to First Watch the next time I’m in that part of Central Florida.
First Watch ~ 2425 W State Rd 434, Longwood, Florida 32779 ~ 407 774-1830
Visited December 2016
Fave Fotos — Yes, It’s a Beach Shot Again!
This trip was way too much fun. I learned that Long Point Park and camp ground is a really primo spot for a get-away. Of course, about a bah-jillion other nature lovers and campers agree about that. So it’s good to try to book ten months to a year ahead.
Had a great time on this latest excursion. Will be back at Long Point before too long.
My mid-day routine was to visit the near-by Atlantic beaches; that, too, was awfully nice. I learned that Melbourne Beach is not very close to Melbourne. In fact, they’re about 22 miles apart. Long Point Park is the very last bit of sand before you hit the bridge and enter Indian River County. Now I know.
Like it. A lot. Got some good pix. Here’s one of them.
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Fave Fotos – Pete the Pelican Makes a Star Appearance at Melbourne Beach Wednesday
Had a very nice time at Long Point Camp down at the very southern tip of Brevard County. Great campground, I’ll be headed back that way before too long.
The only thing I did off the site was hang out for a while at one of the nearby beach access points. Got some photos I really like. This one is my fave. Pete was in rare form.
I may post a few others, but here’s one for you nature lovers.
I hope your week is going well.
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
A Christmas Morning Wish for Everyone
I wish all of you a wonderful Christmas. This piece of mine was originally posted on Christmas Day, 2007 on another site.
A Christmas wish for everyone today
This has been a challenging year for me in a lot of ways, yet I find myself feeling even more than the usual holiday spirit right now as I sit at the keyboard, waiting for Santa to come down my chimney. Wait! I don’t have a chimney! Oh well, I still believe! Well, the part about Santa, who can say? The rest of it, I’m still pretty big on all the good stuff that we think about when the holidays roll around each year. No doubt a lot of you feel the same.
I’m real grateful for friends and family this year. I take a lot of that for granted a lot of the time, but right now I absolutely “get it”… Some of you know some of the background as i make that statement. It’s all about community, being “plugged in” or connected. It’s not a happy, festive time if you’re in this life all on your own. I do know some folks who are in that kind of a situation now, and it’s not a good thing. They’re not feeling particularly joyful right now, as you might imagine.
The Christmas story does hold a lot of meaning for me. I’m not quite sure if I still believe all of it, all the nuances and consequences and so on; not quite like one “believes it” when the assembled faithful say the Apostles Creed together at Midnight Mass. Some will be doing exactly that in just a few hours, perhaps some of you.
Yet it doesn’t seem at all “funny” to me that God comes to us whenever it suits his/her purpose. Not entirely sure if “he” did in that particular, historical way. Being raised in a Christian family and having gone part-way through seminary a few years ago, I do lean in that direction. But I’ve come to see some things in a different light now that I’ve spent a little better than a half-century on this planet. This planet where almost a billion people believe that God became incarnate, was born of a young woman who had never “known” her betrothed. And that his coming among us in that way was the beginning of a Divine plan to make it possible for all of his creatures to enjoy unending fellowship with him and with one another! In this life and in the next! Now that’s a story! One we humans have been telling one another for a very long time, and I’m quite sure we’ll be telling it for a long time to come.
I’ve been struggling for so many years now about exactly how much of the story still “works” for me and all of that. But what I’ve never doubted is that God, or the Divine, does come to us and among us all the time. And I’m finally in that phase of life where I’ve learned to look for it, to expect it and to embrace it. And I know that the other really big thing about Christmastime is to get a bit closer to my brothers and sisters who also bear the image of the Divine One in their souls and on their beaming faces. Some of them were raised on the same stories I was; this one about God being born of a virgin, and many others.
Some, of course, have heard and embraced and celebrated different stories. I’m not very inclined to quibble about the particulars at this point in my life. I’m quite sure that God would love to see us move a little closer together at this time of year, and to go on telling those stories; especially that one about God robed in human flesh, living and dying as one of us. And I’m quite sure that the heart of the Divine is pleased when we carry forward “his” mission to strip away that illusion that our sins, imperfections, and much less, our differences, should separate us from one another or from his Divine Heart.
Well, Christmas Eve has progressed, as it will, into Christmas morning as I’m wrapping up this little holiday message. And I’m sitting here, luminous and expectant, like a six year old waiting for Santa to appear. Like Simeon in the temple, waiting to bless the infant Jesus, knowing then that he has seen and embraced, quite literally, the Divine plan to end our sinful and deadly illusions of separateness. I’m expectant, waiting in earnest to see and to embrace the next manifestation of the Divine. In you, in her, in us. Perhaps–and wouldn’t this be a great story–perhaps in and across many countries and cultures, in four billion human hearts at once!
A wish, a dream, a fervent hope… Perhaps that’s all it is. But a hope to hold close to one’s heart on Christmas morning. God bless each of you today and throughout the year to come. May you be blessed to see the image of the Divine, of the Christ-child in yourself–and in one another.
Ben Lawrence Basile
Christmas morning, 2007
© 2007 Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Ben is not the owner of this photo and believes it to be covered under Fair Use
Fave Fotos: Wekiva Springs State Park is So Beautiful
Enjoyed camping at Wekiva Springs State Park for two nights this week. Had a very good time. Would have been even better had Mother Nature not soaked us pretty good the first day. The first night, actually. Oh well.
This is my fave foto from the outing. This place is so beautiful.
I hope your week is going well and that you’ve had a chance at some time lately to admire the wonders of nature.
Photo credit Benjamin Lawrence Basile
Damn! The Bucs Lost! But This Could Be the Cowboy’s Year!
Last night’s contest between the Bucs and the Boys was well worth watching. You saw two QB’s who are going to have very impressive, if not Hall of Fame, careers. The Buc’s Jameis Winston had a good outing but Dallas rookie QB Dak Prescott was on fire! He set a new Cowboy’s season record for TD’s by a Quarterback with six and couldn’t miss his receivers; he went 32 of 36 for a stunning 88.9 percent. And it still was a very competitive game that wasn’t decided until the final 25 seconds.
This one made me proud to be an NFL fan! This season has been a damn good one and there’s still a lot of unknowns as far as the playoffs. I believe only three teams have punched their ticket so far, so there’s plenty of suspense here in the last two weeks of the regular season.
Hope you guys had a fine weekend. My vacation begins today, I’ll be cooking my eggs and grits on a Coleman stove at a state park for the next few days. Looking forward to that! And, yes, I’ll be watching Monday Night Football in my tent tonight as I’ve got a power pack with AC capability! See ya when I’ve had enough tromping around in the woods!
Enjoy the Outdoors. Love the Planet. 
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