Eden Meadow

I was out on Big Pine Key wandering through the palmettos and pine trees and reminded that no matter how remote one sometimes feels in this wilderness, civilization is never too far away:It was not a very satisfactory walk for Cheyenne, stumbling through underbrush, so she consoled herself with a puddle.We made our way back to the kennel and regrouped. I turned off Key Deer Boulevard and headed towards Eden Pines subdivision with a vague idea to look for a trail headed west through the mangroves toward the nearest saltwater channel. Instead we ended up plunging once more into the pine forests on a wildlife refuge trail, one of the many on this island.Eden Pines is one of several rural subdivisions scattered about on Big Pine Key, which is the second largest island (behind Key Largo) in the Florida Keys. Eden Pines has something of a reputation for putting on and informal Christmas Light decorating extravaganza each winter and one of these years I will follow through on my promise to myself to go out after dark and check out the houses. As it was Cheyenne and i found ourselves a small Garden of Eden among the pines next to the subdivision.It was nothing more than a tiny meadow, a rectangle of grass modest enough that I almost walked by without noticing. Cheyenne immediately got her nose down so I knew we had to stop.I met a neighbor recently who told me she doesn't like to let her dog off it's leash else it will start to smell things. I tried to contain my astonishment at such a statement, limiting myself to remarking that sniffing things is what dogs are designed to do (why else would they have that sense of smell?), but that encounter reminded me why Cheyenne should count herself lucky.She sure found something worth sniffing in the long grass:
I have no idea what she found in the grass but it was fighting back as she peered down to inspect it. I got all botanical with my camera.I have, as usual, no idea what they are called these flowery things. The fuzzy white blob in the background is Cheyenne minding her own business, nose down, being a dog. No apparent harm came to her from her exploration. I have no idea why this patch of grass found the energy to grow in this spot and nowhere else.Surrounded by decent sized pine trees:

And some very interesting bracken:

I want to come back with a chair, a thermos of tea and a book.And perhaps walk deeper into the pine forests around here:As it was we were timed out for the afternoon and I steered the Labrador back towards the car by a slightly different route through the trees. Whereupon we came across another mystery in the woods:

Human made for sure, some sort of drain or cistern or some such thing:And with no possible solution to the mystery we pressed on back to the paved road. Cheyenne wasn't quite ready to get back in the kennel and as we strolled a little further we came across another minor mystery, this time an almost self explanatory shrine:Jim, the amateur detective in me reasoned, must have been a well-liked diver who died fairly recently. Possibly a native of San Francisco fond of the ocean.And with a nod to the dead diver we tip toed back to the car.The truck in the background has just driven up Key Deer Boulevard from the direction of Highway One to the south.