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Notes from the Quiet Side of Central Florida The birds always wake up first. Before the sun pushes over the trees. Before the fog lifts off the water. Before I’ve had a sip of coffee. They stir in the mangroves and cabbage palms, calling across the bay in loops and trills, declaring the day before … Read more
The first time it happened to me, I was deep in a mangrove tunnel. The air had gone still. Not quiet—still. Like even the birds were holding their breath. Then the sky cracked. If you spend enough time paddling in Florida, especially during the wet season, it’s not a matter of if a storm will … Read more
What did people do before iodine tablets and LifeStraws?If you were out in the woods without clean water—really out there—what would you reach for?And what about after you boiled it? Would you just drink it, flat and metallic? Or would you try to make it taste like something more… alive? I started wondering about this … Read more
When most people think of grasses, they picture suburban lawns or tall prairie fields. But along Florida’s tidal flats, estuaries, riverbanks, and salt marshes, grasses take on a new role. Here, they are boundary-keepers, erosion-fighters, fish-nursery-builders, and storm-buffering heroes. These quiet plants shape the shorelines of our state—and tell us stories about the health of … Read more
When the tide rolls out, it leaves behind more than wet sand. It unveils a secret world—a place of shifting boundaries, strange creatures, and quiet wonders. These places, known as tidal flats, are some of the richest, muddiest, most magical ecosystems on Earth. They’re also one of my favorite places to explore. What Is a … Read more
If you’ve ever walked near a Florida shoreline and looked up, there’s a good chance you’ve seen an osprey—sometimes called a “fish hawk”—circling high above the water, its wings bent like the letter M. With sharp yellow eyes and dark-banded wings, the osprey is one of the most skilled hunters in the sky. It lives … Read more
If you’ve ever crossed the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in late spring or early summer, you might’ve glanced out across the vast sweep of Tampa Bay and wondered what was happening just beneath the surface. Here’s a surprising answer: sharks. Lots of them. Not in a movie-scene frenzy, but in something far older, quieter, and strangely … Read more
As dusk falls and the tide rolls in, the Florida shoreline becomes something more than sand and sea—it becomes a nursery. Beneath the surface, buried in the dunes, tiny sea turtles begin to stir. And as the moon climbs, they emerge in the hundreds, scrambling toward the waves in a fragile, instinct-driven dash for survival. … Read more
Florida’s beaches and backroads hold more than beauty—they hold stories. And for writers, these stories bubble up from the land itself. Abandoned hotels, drowned towns, pirate legends, roadside tabernacles, and oyster shell mounds—it’s all here, just waiting to be turned into fiction.Every rusted sign and weather-beaten boardwalk has a memory baked into it.There are whispers … Read more
Nature isn’t neutral. The swamp has moods—sometimes breathless and waiting, sometimes thick with secrets. The sky carries warnings in the curl of a cloud or the hush before a storm. Trees don’t just provide shade—they lean and whisper, they bear witness. They’ve seen generations pass beneath their branches. I write these spaces the way I … Read more