Drone shot by Jorma Kaukonen
John Hurlbut and I drove down from the Fur Peace Ranch a week ago and I just finished up with a songwriting week here in Sanibel. I could go on and on about the talent and hard work the men and women of the class put in, but suffice it to say I was humbled and inspired by the fruits of their relentless labor. They will know what I mean. Thanks for the glimpse into your hearts you afforded me!
Our student performance yesterday afternoon was off the charts showcasing everyone’s hard work and last night John and I put on a little show of our own for out friends!
Jorma Kaukonen 11, 2022
Sundial Resort Friends & Family Show
Jorma & John
Sanibel Island, Florida
Thursday, September 15, 2022
- Blue Railroad Train
- How Long Blues
- Take Your Time
- Sleep Song
- Good Shepherd
- Barbeque King
- Death Don’t Have No Mercy
- Let Us Get Together Right Down Here
With John Hurlbut:
- Angel Island
- Everybody’s Talking
- People Get Ready
- The Old Homestead
- All Along The Watchtower
We wrapped this morning and we have a couple of days to sit in the sun before the next group of friends comes in for a blues workshop!
More will be revealed.
Drone shot by Jorma Kaukonen
Hey, remember the last time we met in Akron and I brought along a psychotherapist friend who was also one of us ? He lives on Sanibel. Practices psychotherapy in FL now instead of VT. He broke off contact with each other because of his unfriendly and condescending demeanor towards me. I recommended a good therapist for him. Hope he got some help.
🙂
Heads up for Sanibel area next week. Might get breezy…
Jorma I’m glad you found Sanibel. It’s so tropical and private and you’re still in our country. Spent many a winter vacation there, Captiva and Fort Myers Beach. It’s so beautiful on the west coast of Florida. Enjoy the sunsets and shells!
@Brian Doyle
Damn! I didn’t knock on wood!
Speak of the devil…We have a tropical disturbance I don’t like the looks of sneaking up underneath us in the Caribbean…Jorma will be gone by the 29th but I’ll be watching 98L closely…
@BrendanC
Depends on how big the lake. I’ve swam in lakes where they live, but they’re big ass lakes. Reptiles generally prefer to be left alone and don’t strike unless provoked. I’d feel safer in a gator lake than swimming where the sharks roam.
Fiona is ramping up to category 4…If it didn’t turn it would have been dangerous…Nice sunny morning here today with a monster not far away…The wise man builds in stone down here…
@BrendanC Oddly enough there are postings where we kayak & paddleboard to watch out for alligators. MacArthur Park (like that song that goes on forever) in Palm Beach Gardens
Guys: what about taking a dip in lake that is home carnivorous reptiles? Is that something you generally want to avoid?
The sundew is a pretty cool little plant. It’s red and round, a little bit bigger than a 50 cent piece. It has six radial arms with little round pads on the ends. The whole plant is covered with little hairs and it secretes these tiny clear droplets of sticky stuff that shine like dew in the sun (hence the name). When a tiny creature crawls across them, it gets stuck in the dew and the plant breaks it down into nutrients. Ain’t creation grand?
@carey georgas I am with you Carey, hoping for a break from hurricanes (not that it will lower my Florida homeowners insurance) The bright side of Fiona hanging a hard right it might suck the moisture with it and the Captain can get some spectacular sunny days in Sanibel
I should have said four of the five carnivorous plants in North America. The pitcher plant, sundew, bladderwort and buttwort. The worts are pretty innocuous looking, but they eat meat nonetheless. Only the Venus Flytrap is not. I have a few sundews in my back yard. The pitcher plants and worts are more persnickety about their habitat, but I know where to find them.&
I used to own a small house on a high bluff above the Neches River. Those rattlers move in the spring and fall. One year about this time I stepped off my front porch and literally had to alter my stride mid-step to keep from landing square in the back of a 5 footer that had crawled out from under the porch. It wasn’t coiled, but nonetheless I was lucky I didn’t soil my britches.
Another time I was walking a utility right of way in a Nature Conservancy preserve protecting Big Thicket habitat. I ducked into the brush on the edge and after about five steps through a small sphagnum moss bog, I ducked under a low hanging branch and camel o face to face with a coiled moccasin, cotton mouth wide open fantastically displaying the white mouth that earned its nickname. I stopped abruptly. I didn’t have time to shit my pants. I simply started backing slowly until I was far enough back to haul ass. That encounter still makes me shudder to this day, and that was probably 30 years ago. I love the woods!
Venus flytraps ?
Pitcher plants ?
Those EDR ‘s get my attention
You hope they get your attention ,before you get theirs .
@Brian Doyle
Praying for a break this year, Brian. I know we still got six weeks left in the season, but the other night the local weatherman said the Gulf appears to be cooling a bit earlier than normal so maybe we’ll all skate this year.
Jorma’s come down to Sanibel in the heart of hurricane season…Right now Hurricane Fiona just gave Puerto Rico a rough ride and knocked out all the power on PR with bad flooding…Fiona’s taking a right turn and going out in to the Atlantic but the annual Russian Roulette of Hurricane paths could have brought it here and Jorma would have gotten a good taste of a south Florida hurricane evacuation…
It’s kind of cool knowing Jorma’s on Sanibel…
That’d be the largemouth black bass at 16”. No smallmouth this far south.
@Greg martelli
The Big Thicket is an area in southeast Texas that used to be over a million acres, now reduced to less than 100,000, of the most ecologically and biologically diverse area in the nation. It is spread over seven distinct ecosystems, and is known as the biological crossroads of North America, containing plants found on the eastern seaboard often growing side by side with plants from the desert southwest as well as three species found here and nowhere else. It touches the Sabine, Neches, and Trinity rivers and contains several creeks and a bayou. It spans from sandy long leaf pine uplands to bottomland hardwood. There’s plenty of reptiles. Numerous turtles, including the endangered (I think) loggerhead, and all kinds of snakes. I’ve seen ( and almost stepped on) eastern diamondback rattlers, cottonmouth moccasins, coral, and copperhead plus numerous non-venomous species. Lots of frogs, and gators, too. I’ve fished Turkey creek since I was in my early twenties, usually in shorts, t-shirt and cheap tennies slinging a white spinner bait for black bass. My biggest was a couple years ago, close to five pounds. The spotted black bass has to be 10 inches to keep, the black bass 16”, which is pretty large for a small creek. I caught 9 spots Saturday in a little over two hours, one over 10”, all the others between 7” and 9”. Some of the tastiest fresh water fish you’ll eat come from this little free flowing creek system including Turkey, Hickory, Beech and Village creeks which converge a couple miles south of where I was. The Thicket also contains 3 of the 4 carnivorous plants found in North America. The first preserve ( as opposed to park) established in the US, it has a subtle beauty and biological complexity that I find fascinating and is worth a visit if you like the woods. Some of the best slow water canoeing anywhere, too.
Is Big thicket a bayou ?
Or an elevated park ?
When wading what are you fishing for ?
How’s the reptilian community ?
Did you have success outside the experience?
All hail the “Heart Glimpsers,” those who dare to show and those who strive to see.
Along with 2 old friends at the beach in glorious September, writing, encouraging others, and playing music!
Peace on this beautiful Sunday
I spent a couple of weeks at a beach front home on Captiva Island back in 1980. South Seas Plantation. Friend ask me if I wanted to head South too Paradise. It turned out to be true.
Enjoy
The river flows. I am right now wade fishing a beautiful little creek in the heart is the Big Thicket National Preserve. Time flows like the river, but wading in it in the midst of Ma’s wondrous creation has a way of suspending it. Safe travels home, Jorma.
It’s a tough job , someone’s gotta do it! Mom and dad lived up near Ruskin for quite a few years and would take us to Anna Maria Island when we’d visit. I likes the white sand of the Gulf. After dad died and mom moved back to Ohia, my sister would take her to Sanibel. They really treasured those trips, as you do yours. m
That bright sunny perfect morning you had today was pretty much like it is every morning year round…A man could get used to it…
Those vibrant green iguanas are new and just started showing up in the last 10 years…
The monsoon is lighter than usual this year but the giant thunderheads are still a sight…
Hope you’re enjoying the sun.
I just had a great listen on the Strange Brew podcast. Some great music in the mix and really enjoyed the River Flows cut. Your humility is impressive. Many thanks.
Will you be vacationing in the Aloha state?
Sad to say, the Hawaii gig has been postponed. On another note, as beautiful and idyllic as Hawaii is… it’s really a long way from Ohio and with a kid who is a senior in high school who is actually serious about her grades… this is time we just can’t take. At this point in my life, any time I’m not working… I’m home with the family. All that being said… I’m in Sanibel right now working and so I’m appreciating from a distance her homecoming weekend and camping at the PawPaw festival at Lake Snowden.
Time does indeed pass faster than we would sometimes like.