Signs And Wonders Overhead

Todays' skies over north central Florida were fabulous. Three days of rain had passed and the last high clouds were quickly taking their leave, in the form of a gorgeous mackerel sky. The newly-risen sun had a very resplendent 22-degree halo around it, formed by sunlight refracting from the ice crystals that formed the clouds.

By noon the skies were clear and deep blue. I passed the early evening playing old-timey Appalachian music with a couple of friends at the Carr Farm in Micanopy, as paid musicians at the holiday party of a venerable local travel agency that one of the Carr sons works for. Those who have read Archie Carr's A Naturalist In Florida will know some of the intimacies of this farm, now managed by his children. The food at the event was great - anchored by mounds of barbeque and heaps of ribs prepared on the spot, and big steamed oysters fresh from Appalachicola Bay. Overhead the dark night sky was graced by a 22-degree halo around the waxing gibbous moon.

Good food, good homemade music, a crush of happy people, and the clear bright moon overhead. Life can't get much better than that.