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Florida my Florida, the land of big skies and sunlight and summer clouds. I miss mountains and varied landscapes but these sights are a pleasure to get back to see even though for the first time I am sorry my vacation had to end.. 

I believe these white growths are called cankers and though they grow on weak or dying trees I find they give dead limbs and trunks a peculiar jewelled look.

They remind me of corals or anemones so I'm always looking for them when I see a dead piece of wood in the bushes. 

Then there are the clouds overhead, particularly abundant this time of year.

More cankers climbing the trunk:

I walk these areas a lot and then I find something I hadn't previously seen, a spectacular (by local standards) gambusia trench, a small canyon in fact in the rock. 

These trenches were cut in the rocks among the  mangroves and filled with gambusia fish which enjoy a diet of mosquito larvae. The idea was to control mosquitoes prior to developing these open spaces, and during the dry season gambusia survive by hibernating in the mud. Development never happened but the trenches, minus the fish, endure.

Looking aloft I spotted a red winged woodpecker that actually has a red head. He was a perky bugger too alternating between tapping the wood, squawking and giving me the stink eye. He darted off to annoy someone else barely giving me time to get my camera to my eye and record him poised in the void.

Another absurdly bright orange sunset driving home.