October 23, 2026- “Can I have that?” Hana was referring to my phone, on which I was checking her father’s whereabouts, to see when he might get home. Of course, she won’t be viewing screens, much less using phones, before she turns two. She took my “No” calmly and went back to her toy. My granddaughter’s mix of babbling and intelligible speech merits careful attention. The latter is limited by her seven teeth, with the eighth starting to erupt (late bottom left lateral incisor,) having to do the work of a full mouth.
Her receptive language, though, is not at all limited by oral development. When I noted to her mother that dangling cords needed to be placed on the counter top, Hana, watching and listening from her playpen, started laughing uproariously. She and I have had “the talk” about electrical cords, with me showing her where they are connected to heavy objects. She will look at a cord, then look up at its appliance, and decide it’s not worth the trouble. Still and all, we have moved just about all of the plug-in appliances to spots that don’t require toddler-level connections.
HANA’S NOTE– I have decided I like sleeping on my back at night. I sleep deeper that way.
EXPANDING CIRCLES: Florida- I have been in the Sunshine State five times: First in 2011, to Olustee State Park, Jacksonville and St. Augustine; 2015 brought me to Panama City, Lynn Haven, Marianna, Tallahassee and Gainesville; 2017 and 2018 brought me to Spring Hill, home to my younger sister-in-law, and mother-in-law, until her passing in 2018; Spring, 2022 took me around the state, including to Spring Hill, my last stop on that jaunt. The 2022 journey took in five places I had set as “Future Fives”- Daytona International Speedway, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Miami Beach, Key West and Lake Okeechobee. Big Cypress, Naples Botanical Garden, Tampa and St. Petersburg followed. Along with Penny’s two sisters, at least five of my cousins live in Florida. I got to visit with one of them on my last journey.
The turf- Florida is almost uniformly flat. A small area of slight upland, in the northwest, and the Lake Wales Ridge, running down the center of the Florida Peninsula, are the sole exceptions to a preponderance of wetlands and cane break plains. South Florida, including the Southwest, is dominated by swamp, in areas which have not been drained and developed. Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve, as well as some reserves near Lake Okeechobee and in the area just south of Cape Canaveral. Dry Tortugas National Park is a collection of small islands, 68 miles southwest of Key West. As the name implies, D.T. is the driest place in Florida. It is best known as the place of incarceration of Samuel Mudd, who was convicted of harbouring John Wilkes Booth, after the asssassin had killed Abraham Lincoln, as well as of conspiring with Booth and several others to commit the crime.
Florida is drained by the St. Marys, St. Johns, Indian, St. Lucie, Halifax, Loxahatchee, Kissimmee, Manatee, Suwannee, Apalachicola, Ochlockonee, and Escambia Rivers, as well as their tributaries. Alachua Sink and Lake Okeechobee are also receptacles of fresh water, which drain into the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Florida and Gulf of Mexico, each of which borders Florida.
First Nations- Florida is the ancestral home of the Mikasuki people. It is the adopted home of the Seminoles, a Muscogee-speaking people who migrated from the north, in hopes of escaping forced relocation from the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama, in the 1830s. In the north, the Apalachee people had been brought into Christianity by the Spanish. Most of the Apalachee moved, along with the Creeks, to Indian Territory, in the 1830s. They left behind Mission San Luis de Apalache, an historical gem, in Tallahasseee.
The Seminole had crossed into Florida in the 1810s, to avoid enslavement and harassment in their native lands. Florida at that time was under Spanish rule. Andrew Jackson led a series of raids into Florida, attacking Seminole, Mikasuki and Black Seminole villages, in 1816-7. This was the First Seminole War. In 1819, Florida was transferred to the United States. Resistance to pressure to move to Indian Territory led to the Second Seminole War (1835-42). After their villages and storehouses were destroyed in that conflict, the majority of Seminoles relocated to Oklahoma. Those who remained continued to have difficulty with white settlers, leading to the Third Seminole War (1855-58). At the conclusion of this conflict, the Seminoles moved into areas not wanted by settlers. Today, the Mikasuki and Seminole have Federally-recognized reservations in Florida.
Where I most feel at home- Spring Hill, Tampa, Naples, Osceola Tiger, Olustee, St. Augustine, Marianna
Where I most feel at peace- Naples Botanical Garden, Osceola Tiger, Big Cypress, Olusrtee. Merritt Island
NEXT: Georgia
