Hello Sunshine State

It's been a while since my last post, but we had lots to do before heading down south... deadlines for me, presentations for Laurence, and planting, so when we get back we'll have green popping up everywhere, hopefully! In the meantime we're visiting the place where it seems you can grow veggies and fruit and bright flowers year round, the sunshine state! Our first stop was a county campsite somewhere close to Valrico, FL, just outside of Tampa- one of my favorite places we've camped so far, even though I say that about every campsite. This one was exceptional because of the different Florida landscape, especially the live oak trees with spanish moss and the yucca growing everywhere - I posted a photo of our campsite below. These beautiful "live" trees live right next to dozens of strawberry fields and orange groves. So, after setting up our tent, we drove back down the highway to one of the numerous strawberry farms. Most of these had little produce stands out front and advertised shortcake and milkshakes, and even strawberry pizza. I'm pretty sure we chose the best one. Creamy, thick, pink goodness- thankfully Laurence didn't want to split one. We considered stopping here again for breakfast on our way out of town, but resisted.

After sitting in the sunshine a little while at the picnic tables overlooking the fields, we felt like a run was a good idea. We started out from the campsite and found some wooded trails that led us to the most beautiful gathering of trees (they'll get a post of their own), and then ended up on some gravel roads that circled around an orange grove. Probably one of the nicest runs I've ever been on. It helps that Florida is very flat compared to Knoxville, but the smell of the orange blossoms was delicious. Really, I think it was better than eating a fresh orange. At the end of the orange grove we found some bee hives with lots of bees busy at work- another of the photos posted below. I love the way this part of Florida feels... and smells. I'll post some more from our camping trip soon, as there's so much inspiring all around!