Cherokee Plum

Cherokee plum in bloom and native bromeliads

Highly toxic rosary pea is intertwined with the cherokee plum.

Backyard Survivors

Walter's viburnum is blooming its head off.This look-alike a banana shoots new leaves up wheras the real thing is dead.

Our lanai plant bed.

Unfazed coral honesuckle on the arbor.

All the way from the back.

Trout Lake Nature Center

The main building It's been such an unusually wet spring that some trails are under water. Since Trout Lake welcomes students, a temporary boardwalk was installed.

Trout Lake Nature Center

Trout Lake Nature Center is located in Eustis. A boardwalk leads through the wet woods out to the lake. The high trees are the perfect roost for all sorts of birds.

The black vulture prefers the roof.

The swampy woods are home to many plants whose names I don't know or don't recall if I ever knew them.

A home for a flicker on the tree.

Spring in Florida: not a single mosquito, but later in the summer ...

Bluebirds

Enlarge the photos to enjoy the young couple checking out our new bluebird nestbox.While one of them is looking at the inside, the other one makes sure nobody else comes near.

Bluebirds are endangered because they do not have sufficient nesting cavities.

Nesting boxes provide the cavities that these cute birds need.

Ben, Our Resident Alligator

Nobody volunteered to lie next to him to show that Ben is 6 to 7 feet long. He is a wild animal that does not really care who takes his picture. Ben lives in Legacy and Clock Tower Ponds, but also roams our wetlands. His tail is stronger than his body and also a bit longer and thicker. Just in case you did not believe that we live in one of several Florida hill countries. You can see the old Citrus Tower from the BJ parking lot in Clermont. There is a deep valley between the ancient BJ sand dune and the Citrus Tower sanddune.

Leu Garden in Orlando

Leu Garden has many large Camelias which grow in the shade of the old oak trees. Tropical shade palms survived very well underneath this protectice canopy.

No sale event without ice cream!

Spring has Sprung in Our Neighborhood

We hope that they will produce lots of fledglings. Endangered Florida scrub jay

Noisy and not endangered boattail crackle

Blackberries

Wildflower

Clermont

Clermont is the largest town in Lake County today. It sports several murals.

Downtown Clermont is a very modest affair. Almost all the shopping is off Route 27 and Route 50, both very busy thoroughfares, not even in walking distance of downtown.

Florida red maple

Clermont is named after the French city of Clermont-Ferrand because both are in the hills.

Never mind that the Central Florida hills are ancient sanddunes, steep at times, but not as high as the ancient volcanoes that sourround the French city.

The second mural. The third of which I know is off route 27.

Town Hall

Citrus

Our community had several lives: Florida scrub interspersed with wetlands and prairies. Clay pit. Orange grove. Cattle pasture. Retirement community. If it is like a cat, it will have 4 more lives. The woods near our home used to be a citrus grove planted mainly with the small mandarins that still produce like crazy.

The bright orange color gleams in the greenery. The fruit itself is rather sour.