Category: Life in the United States
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LIGHTHOUSE PASSION SERIES – CEDAR KEY
Perched atop one of the highest points on Florida’s west coast sits the state’s shortest lighthouse. The Cedar Keys Lighthouse, built in 1854, stands a mere 28-feet tall upon a 52-foot sand dune on Seahorse Key in the Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuge in the Big Bend area of Florida. I’ve visited Seahorse Key several…
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SMALL TOWNS ROCK – CEDAR KEY, FLORIDA
When I moved to a small north Florida town in 1980, I loved the location in the middle of the state. We could drive to the Atlantic Ocean in less than two hours, or we could be sitting at a bar overlooking the Gulf of Mexico in less than ninety minutes. Harry Cruise, a Florida…
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CAN’T SEE THE FOREST FOR THE JUNK MAIL
I no longer receive many personal items in the mail. I still send out cards and letters myself, despite knowing I’m in a slim majority. I send photos, fun pop-up cards, and feel-good notes of encouragement. Soon, I will be an anachronism. Recently, I had to buy stamps on a Sunday and couldn’t wait for…
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LIGHTHOUSE PASSION SERIES – ST. AUGUSTINE
Whenever I mention the lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida, on Anastasia Island, I know immediately if that person has been there. Gasps of “Now that’s a climb” or some variation usually occur. The 209 steps appear daunting, and it can seem as if the winding spiral staircase is never going to end , but suddenly…
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SMALL TOWNS ROCK – MONTICELLO, FLORIDA
The centerpiece of Monticello, Florida, thirty miles east of Tallahassee, can be seen from all directions when approaching the downtown of the small town and county seat of Jefferson County. The two main highways into town converge at the Jefferson County Courthouse, which pays homage to our country’s third president. The Classical Revival structure with…
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CELEBRATING EARTH DAY 2025
Fifty-five years ago on April 22, 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated. Maybe the word “celebration” doesn’t quite fit here because its inception came as the result of some horribly tragic events—an oil spill and the discovery by a woman scientist/writer of the harm done to wildlife and humans from pesticides. All those years…
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TRAILS IN THE SAND CELEBRATES #FREE
To start off Earth Day 2025 week, I’m offering my Florida Fiction novel, Trails in the Sand, for free downloads April 21-25. What does this novel have to do with Earth Day? Everything. Book Blurb: When environmental writer Caroline Carlisle sets off to report on endangered sea turtles during the Deepwater BP oil spill in…
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WILD FOR FLORIDA WILDLIFE
“Why aren’t there any mosquitoes when I visit Florida?” I was once asked. “Where do you go in Florida?” I asked. “To Disney World, Sea World – all those theme parks around Orlando.” I wondered how to reply without bursting this man’s image of “natural” Florida that exists within the gates of “unnatural” worlds made…
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SOPCHOPPY – SMALL TOWN BIG IN NATURE
The Worm Gruntin’ Festival first drew my eye to the small town of Sopchoppy, Florida, located between Tallahassee and the Gulf of Mexico. I had no idea what it was, but it sounded weirdly fun. Worm Gruntin’ is an ancient technique to get earthworms up from the ground. A wooden stake—a “stob”—is pounded into the…
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FOR THE LOVE OF SEA TURTLES
I’ve long had a love affair with sea turtles. It might have started when I learned the amazing life history of this species. It only grew after my experience first as a volunteer member of a sea turtle patrol on Matanzas Beach, Florida, twenty years ago. Then fifteen years ago, I was a part of…
P.C. ZICK 