In early September I went for a walk at Wall Springs Park near Tarpon Springs. I found some mallards swimming around the natural springs area but not many other birds.
The small butterfly garden that’s near the playground was in full bloom, almost overgrown from the summer rains. I keep saying there are less and less butterflies around but I did manage to find a few flying around the bright colored blooms.
It was sunny and hot early in the morning during my walk around the Safety Harbor marina. I was traveling light so all of the shots in this post were taken with my phone. The local news said this was the hottest July on record in 40 years.
Another sunny morning at the Dunedin marina.
A rainbow on the 4th of July, coming home from a late afternoon cookout with friends.
We had an early dinner in Tampa one weekend and hit the causeway coming home right at sunset. Brett was driving so I snapped this through the windshield.
From partly cloudy to dark clouds during my walk around Olds Park.
A sun halo in our backyard one day around noon.
A walk at some parks near Tarpon Springs. This was the first time I had seen this mermaid statue. She is called “Ama” and was installed in 2014 as part of the Amaryllis Art for Charity project. There’s a small sponge on the base to represent the sponge diving industry here and there’s a small manatee on the left front of the base. Manatees are common in this area.
After all of these years saying that I’m going to Wall Springs Park, I finally made it there at the end of December. It was a beautiful cold day and I went out for a long walk with just my phone. The focal point of the park is the natural spring. The original owner of the springs was Charles Wall who bought the land in the late 1800s. It had several owners after that until it was bought by Pinellas County in 1988. Back in the 20’s through the 50’s people came here to go swimming. The mineral waters was rumored to have healing powers. Now you can’t swim in it, although it’s so tempting to dip a toe in.
Looking back from the boardwalk, the sun was just coming up over the trees.
It was peaceful and quiet and only a few other people there.
The observation tower (that looks out on the gulf) was huge. At 3 stories high it had stairs as well as a ramp.
The tide was super low this morning. Lots of muck in the lagoon.
Not sure what was going on with these posts. Was it going to be a covered walkway and they just never put the roof on?
The benches were really cool. There were all different designs.
This was a really fun park and there were several different trails to take. I’ll be coming back here again. There wasn’t many birds here but that was expected. It was cold and late December.
