The beaches along the western panhandle of Florida's coastline are edged by azure and tanslucent green water through which sparkling white sand can be seen clearly. On any morning the sandlerings and dowitchers, gulls and dolphins can be see there and sand crabs darting into deep round holes, silver fish roiling in the waves near the shore. There are footprints from the day before and new ones on the wet sand including mine. The ocean stretches level to the horizon where it is dark blue or sometimes black.
Out on Ft. Pickens, a civil war bunker which lies battered by Hurricane Ivan, the wildlife find refuge from the human storm. Closed after the hurricane winds ripped out the road, it is open only to hikers so that at least two miles of the barrier island of Pensacola Beach is returning to something like it might once have been before people began to change it.
Blue herons stalk the inland marshes where native cane and grasses are flourishing, whole flocks of terns, gulls, and sanderlings rest on the warm sand. Brown and cream striped jellyfish bob near the shores and dolphins frolick there.
There are still places of repose on this Earth.
Out on Ft. Pickens, a civil war bunker which lies battered by Hurricane Ivan, the wildlife find refuge from the human storm. Closed after the hurricane winds ripped out the road, it is open only to hikers so that at least two miles of the barrier island of Pensacola Beach is returning to something like it might once have been before people began to change it.
Blue herons stalk the inland marshes where native cane and grasses are flourishing, whole flocks of terns, gulls, and sanderlings rest on the warm sand. Brown and cream striped jellyfish bob near the shores and dolphins frolick there.There are still places of repose on this Earth.
