A 'Half a Hike'!

 A 'half a hike'? Is that proper English? Or just Southern slang?

I drove out to the Pruitt Trailhead but instead of going down to Halpata Tastanaki Preserve, I parked in the regular parking lot and hiked the Florida Trail.

It was a glorious morning with temps in the 70s and a light breeze.

Out into the sunshine!

And when I got there, I was the only one there! (when I left there were 2 other vehicles with bike racks)
Since the two hurricanes blew through Florida, the birds have flown in!

All summer, I thought there were fewer birds but now they are everywhere in great numbers!

Not sure what this small bird is but I loved it's little feetsies! 

I walked behind some wild turkeys gobbling all the way....I mean THEY were gobbling, not me. I didn't even get a photo! But there were birds in every tree and the Swamp Sunflowers were in full bloom.

One of my best sightings was this female Blue Grosbeak.

She posed....

and posed 

and I was thrilled to get so close to her.

Another beautiful bird was this Northern Harrier.

I'm not sure what this wildflower is but it looks like a bouquet waiting to be placed in a vase!

But of course I'll leave it for the butterflies and bees!

Gulf Fritillary 

Dragonfly

Time to turn around at the FT sign!

We'll save the second half for next time!

I'm going to take a couple of weeks off to enjoy the season!

Are you seeing more birds where you live now too?

I’m joining Saturday’s critters HERE

  and Mosaic Monday HERE !

Monarch Butterflies make their appearance!

 It's been a great year for butterflies here in North Central Florida. 

We've seen so many different butterflies and a great number too!

But we haven't seen any Monarchs until this week. 

And we saw THREE!

Two were doing a mating dance....

and we couldn't believe our eyes.

They were gorgeous and the light was just right for some good photos.

They danced quite a bit but also stopped long enough to pose for a few photos.

Later on the Florida Trails we saw another one.

And then when we turned to go back to the trailhead, the original two were still flying around together.

AMAZING!

And now sit back and relax while I tell a tale....

The photos just about tell the story I think but here goes!

You'll be happy to know I didn't get arrested this week. We were way back on the Halpata Tastanaki Preserve trail in the middle of nowhere and my honey picked me a Swamp Sunflower and put it in a buttonhole on my hiking shirt. I was smiling and feeling very special when in the distance we saw a vehicle approaching. It was a law enforcement vehicle with the Fish and Wildlife Commission. But there was a wet area and he had to turn around. He waved real big...but did he see the bright yellow sunflower in my lapel? Would he be waiting at the trailhead to arrest me? Could I plead that we NEVER pick the wildflowers but there were so many and it was just this once? The happy ending of this story is that he never found me. But my RED Jeep is pretty distinctive so I decided the best idea was to paint my Jeep.

What do you think? Do you like it?

Just kidding.....just kidding!!! 

I did NOT paint my Jeep...some of the other parts of the story are true! hahahahahaha!!!

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE . 

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays and

I like Thursdays HERE too! 

Are you ready for a Hike?

 

I hope you're not tired of seeing the Swamp Sunflowers! 

We found some in the most unexpected place! 

Halpata Tastanaki Preserve from the hwy 200 trailhead is DRY! The trail is soft white sand in places!

But we saw more of the sunflowers there than the wetter areas at the Pruitt Trailhead.

They've put up a new sign, which looks nice and we will walk to the right of this photo along the sandy trail to begin and make a loop.

OK! Now let's switch gears! We still order our groceries online and pick them up at Walmart! Easy peasy!

And this week, our shopper gave us a bag filled with freebies. What a nice surprise! Thanks Walmart!

We usually just stick with grocery items but this week, I put a Wilton Bundt pan in the order. And for less than $9 I have a new bundt pan for my favorite cake recipe!

Thanks to my blog friends at The Low Carb Diabetic here, I have a cake that I can eat! YAY! I am allergic to sugar and usually just do without dessert but now I have this apple cake to enjoy! Here's the link to the original recipe HERE.

I cut it into serving sizes and freeze them in a ziplock bag. That way I can take out just one serving, thaw it and even put a few drops of water on top and microwave it for 15 seconds to eat it hot! 

Here's the recipe!

Apple Cake

8 servings

1 1/4 cup (140 g) blanched almond flour

1/4 cup (24 g) coconut flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. xanthan gum

1/2 tsp. sea or kosher salt

1 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

3 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thin

1/4 cup (56g) butter or ghee, room temp.

1/2 cup xylitol or Swerve powdered

1/4 cup juice from lemon (about 1 and 1/2 lemons)

4 eggs, room temp

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9-inch Bundt pan with oil (well)
2. In a small bowl, add almond flour, coconut flour, baking soda, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Put aside.
3. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, add the room temperature butter and sweetener (xylitol or Swerve). Beat on high for 3 minutes until it is light and fluffy.
4. Turn the mixer to medium high and add 1 egg at a time, making sure it’s incorporated into the batter before adding the next. When all eggs are added, add the vanilla.
5. Add half of the lemon juice. Add the dry mixture to the bowl, mix and then add the remaining lemon juice.
6. Fold in the apples with a spatula. Batter should be light and airy. Add to the Bundt pan and spread to even out the top.
7. Bake for 35 minutes until edges are slightly brown and toothpick comes out clean.
8. Place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, take the cake out of the pan by placing the cooling rack over the pan and flipping it over.

And take my word for it....it is AMAZING!

 

I've tried a few brands of almond flour and I've had good results with all of them. The one I used for this recipe had some coconut flour mixed in so that worked good!

Have you had a good week too?

I'm joining Angie for Mosaic Monday HERE . 

Also I like Thursdays HERE.   

In Search of the Swamp Sunflower!

 

I've seen these beautiful sunflowers in years past but never had a proper ID! 

Swamp Sunflower

But this year, I kept seeing them mentioned on blogs and websites I visit regularly. 

Sandra Friend did a post about them HERE. 

Ed Rosack took some amazing photos and a blog post HERE.

And Wally Jones did a wonderful post HERE!

We drove over to the Pruitt Trailhead of Halpata Tastanaki Preserve and took a hike and even saw a few on that trail. And then we drove down the dirt road to another trailhead and hiked Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway trail (Pruitt Trailhead). You can see the other trail from here but it's amazing how different they can be. This trail is always wetter so it's a perfect area for the Swamp Sunflower. 

We were about a week early for one field. It was mostly buds. 

But we walked down farther and came to a beautiful patch of sunflowers.

It was our first 'Fall weather' day....highs only in the 70s and a nice cooler northerly breeze.

So it was perfect! We saw a few other hikers and one man on a horse so that made it interesting too.

Trying to get the perfect pics! I recognize this man! heehee!

We are seeing so many different birds now but I'll save those photos for the weekend. (below the field with more buds than blooms, but we'll go back again soon!)

Has the weather been nice at your house too? Sunflower weather? A special thank you to those who prompted me to go in search of these flowers and to finally have a proper identification! 

I’m joining Thankful Thursdays and

I like Thursdays HERE too!