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March is Women’s History Month.

There are already tons of lists of women naturalists, so I’ll just provide some links for your reading pleasure. I hope you will find something to enjoy here.  Is there someone left out?  Let me know!

https://myexquisiteflorida.com/?p=3727

https://www.wilderness.org/articles/article/11-women-who-made-wilderness-history

https://www.audubon.org/news/getting-over-rosalie

https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/meet-eight-female-conservation-scientists-who-inform-and-inspire/

I *literally* just learned about Dr. Jeanette Davis on February 18. Dr. Davis, a marine microbiologist, received her PhD from University of Maryland, where she works doing marine drug discovery. You can learn more here.

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Snuggle Up When it’s Cold

Warmer weather is on the way, but I’m thinking about cooler weather and how well I sleep when it’s cool. Being cool and being cold are two very different things. A tent trip with overnight temperatures in the high 40s and low 50s taught me a lot about sleeping warm when it’s cold outside.

It is more complicated to stay warm in a tent than at home, but there’s no reason you can’t be comfortable in “Florida Cold” temperatures. These tips will not protect you from hypothermia in truly cold conditions, but this is, after all, My Exquisite Florida. One of the things I love about Florida is that I’m seldom in danger of developing hypothermia as I sleep snug in my tent.

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In the Kitchen – Coq au Vin

This is the first of what I hope will be a quarterly feature for My Exquisite Florida – recipes that I have adapted for camping. Usually the recipes will have come from a source like New York Times or Joy of Cooking, but I’ve adapted them to suit my own likes and needs. They have become part of my regular rotation of camp meals, and I hope you will find this feature helpful as you’re planning your own camping menus. But this isn’t a foodie blog, and I’m not a foodie photographer. If there’s something I’m missing, please let me know! I’ll get better with practice.

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Walking at Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive

A friend and I agreed to meet early one morning to drive through the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. Talk about a comedy of errors! First, we planned our adventure for a day that the Drive is closed. Next, the park where we were to meet has closed the part of the park that allows access to the trail we had hoped to walk on. But we found that the St. Johns Water Management District had already come up with a solution that really worked in our favor, and if you click the link you will find that we needn’t have gone stumbling blindly around, because the WMD works hard to get us the information we need.

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Collier Seminole State Park

Collier Seminole State Park offers a great spot from which to base many adventures on the western edge of the Everglades. With so much water around, it is apparent that you are in the middle of a swamp, and the traffic noise from the Tamiami Trail is always present, but all in all, I’d recommend this park with no hesitation at all. It is clean, clean, clean. There are some interesting features (the last remaining Bay City Walking Dredge, the Barron Collier memorial, a replicated Seminole village) and a great location for exploring Ten Thousand Islands, Big Cypress, National Panther Wildlife Refuge, and more. You might even run across a skunk ape, but that’s doubtful. What you are guaranteed, though, is a wide variety of natural wonders, and maybe even a glimpse of heaven.

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Hogmanay Hike at Flat Island Preserve

Since our New Year’s Day hike was such a success, we followed it up with a Hogmanay Hike at Flat Island Preserve. Led by by Tracy Hauserman and Marc Crail of the Lake County Water Authority on a day that was gray and dreary, we had an otherwise ideal morning for hiking — low humidity, a breeze in the open areas, and perfect temperature. Our group numbered 17 including Tracy and Marc. They did a great job wrangling us, and Steve and I had fun talking with different members of the group and realizing what a diverse group we were.

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