As the past burns brightly the future comes into view

Pine straw and leaves carpet the road side along our way home.

On Saturday morning the weather was overcast and balmy at 72 degrees with very high humidity.  At the present time our weather is stuck in a pattern that could last for a few days.  Cold air from Canada is trying to make it's way south to our area but is being blocked by warm air flowing up from the Gulf of Mexico to the eastern seaboard.  Our weather could remain like this for quite some time until the cold front is able to push on through.  As the dog and I walked on toward the west end of the dirt road we saw that the owner of the now dried up pond has hired some heavy equipment to assist in burning the debris from the clearing of the land.

Can I have on of those for Christmas?
Trackhoe digs a new pond.

 Last night the debris fires were so big that people were driving in from a few miles away to see what was burning.   This morning not much is left of the trees, stumps and brush that has been piled up there since early summer.  This morning the man operating the equipment had begun to dig out a fairly large area that will eventually form a very nice pond.  I am hoping it will attract a lot of wildlife from the surrounding woods.   We continued on our way and eventually reached the end of the road.

Beautiful Resurrection fern.

Here I saw a fern that is very common in this area and although I have seen this fern all my life I have only just learned the name it is called by. The web site Floridata.com indentifies it as Resurrection Fern.  This fern covers the limbs of old Live Oaks so that they appear carpeted in green.   The resurrection fern gets it's name from it's ability to dry up and practically disappear during dry periods then in a matter of hours reappear when a rain shower comes.   The ferns I saw were growing on the side of an oak tree in a hollowed out spot near the ground.  This location is not common for these ferns as they prefer to be up high where their seed like spores can be blown by the wind to other trees.  They apparently are not parasitic but are instead air plants that take their nutrients from the air and water vapor passing by the trees.   As a result of our stagnated weather pattern, it appears they will be able to get plenty of water vapor and mist over the next few days.  Well that's the way it goes here on the Gulf Coast.  Thanks for reading my blog and have a great day today.  Bye.