A Couple of Outings

Last Saturday I made it inside the Natural History Museum. It’s a small building with free exhibits (excellent dioramas) of the animals and habitats found all over Florida - prehistoric up to modern day. I also paid for the extra exhibitions - one called Crocs, which I found a bit underwhelming, although there were a few real crocs swimming around in big glass terrariums, and the Butterfly House.

I timed my butterfly house entrance for 2 o’clock, when they make a daily release of new butterflies. A hirsute shorts-wearing science man appeared on the dot of 2 with a mesh box and we all gathered round. There were about 20 of us butterfly enthusiasts there, including a group from a local retirement home (I also shared lunchtime with them at the nearby cafe). The butterfly scientist (lepidopterist, riiiight!) chatted away about the butterflies while removing the ones that hadn’t flown straight out of box by hand and putting them onto twigs.

The museum gets sent cocoons from other parts of the world, and because these butterflies are not indigenous to Florida they can’t let them breed. And apparently they prevent that simply by not having the kinds of plants that butterflies like to breed on in the house! Butterflies are so picky about their mating habits that this is enough to deter them! Insert a million sexy mise en scène jokes here?

Could this guy BE more butterfly-scientist??

William Steig

The other museum attraction I most enjoyed was the display about prehistoric Florida animals. Florida spent much of prehistory under the sea, rising up during the Eocene period (56-33 million years ago) - the first terrestrial fossils from the Pliocene (2-5 million years ago) were found around Gainesville. There are some bizarre animals from that time in the exhibit, including the GIANT GROUND SLOTH!!!

Have you ever? He was 15 feet tall and roamed the earth, probably gnashing his teeth. And if you managed to escape the Giant Ground Sloth you might then get menaced by the Terror Bird:

Which is kind of a fate-sealing name, really - hard to go straight when your name is Terror Bird.

The following day I made an abortive trip to Sweetwater Park Wetlands. This involved a 25-minute cycle ride (no joke in this heat) to a really beautiful space - unfortunately with very little shade. So I had to call it quits after 20 minutes and toil back home where I collapsed for a bit. But I'll return, as it was a lovely spot.

Sadly I didn't get to add to the list this time. Baby alligator!!!

Can you see the heron in the distance?

Two roads diverged in a sunblasted wetlands park,
And sorry I could not travel both... (but I did! I just doubled back. Then retreated home.)

IN SUMMARY:
'Gator sightings: still 0, dash it!
General crocodilian sightings: quite a few, but all in terrariums.
Museum of Natural History rating: 4 out of 5 Terror Birds (point lost for lame Croc show).
Intense-looking spider sightings: 1 - this guy: 

Duckpond Round-up

I’ve been getting out and about more since I bought my bike - look at me dropping in that big news!! I have a bike, yay, my first since I was a teenager - it’s a used Schwinn with very wide handlebars and a big roomy seat. I received sage Gainesville cycling advice from a nice man called Journey (there is a noticeable alternative scene here) at the Schwinn shop - the headline being that you can cycle on the pavements. I also bought a basket so I can cruise around, shoulders free of my rucksack, and now I’m SCHWINNING AT LIFE! (Batter batter batter, SCHWINN, batter! Schwinn beneath my wings? Etc)

So I've done a bit of cycling in my area, Duckpond, and I've been taking photos of the local houses. This is the oldest part of town, and is the highest by elevation (although it's all pretty flat around here). It's full of Colonial houses, all very different from each other, and it's extremely green and leafy. (Please submit more words for green and leafy for me to use - those just aren't going to cover it!)





It's mostly eerily quiet around here. The one drawback of the house I'm in is the darkness inside, and looking around, this seems to be a feature of all the houses in Gainesville - even the modern ones. I know it's to keep the houses cool in this fearsome heat, but I can't help finding it a bit oppressive, both outside and in - there's something sinister about all these quiet-looking houses with their dark windows. It's been reminding me a bit of one of my favourite Dr Seuss stories:

And there's seldom ANY signs of life about. People don't walk or cycle much here, they're mostly in cars. So the streets are quiet, and so are the houses - mostly the only clues that people live in them are cars parked outside or decoration or litter on the front lawns. But, when you do encounter other people on the streets, they are really friendly! We always say hello.



Tom Petty, Gainesville's most famous (I assume) alumnus, grew up in Duckpond, and the Florida Historical Marker Council (I guess like our blue plaques) is going to unveil one honouring him here on the 20th October, what would have been his 69th birthday! So that's an event for my diary. (That's not a joke, I'll definitely go!)

Gainesville, I’d been told and now have seen with my own eyes, is a small town which is massively swelled by the influx of university students during term times. The difference between last week and this, when the students returned, is remarkable. Suddenly the roads are jammed with their pick-up trucks and 4x4s (what a heart-sinking sight it will keep being to see a 4x4 pull up and a teenager get out of the driving seat), there’s music everywhere and university students handing out leaflets for groups and events. I went into the CVS (chemist here, like Boots I guess except they also have a beer aisle?!) and there are two rows selling Gators merchandise. Gators being the local football team - the colours are blue and orange, and obviously I want a vest to show my support (though those really aren't my colours :( - inconsiderate of the Gators design team.)

I started classes yesterday - I'll write more about the school soon!

***QUESTION CORNER***

Q: WHY does the moss hang from the trees?

A: Well, Spanish Moss (not to be confused with Spanish Fly - get out of that tree, you pervert!) which this is, is an air plant, my botanical friends! And in fact it's not moss at all, it's a flowering plant which grows hanging from tree branches - in this area of the south, from the bald cypress and southern oak. In French Polynesia it is known as "grandpa's beard", which I will not be calling it, as I consider that disrespectful to grandpas and beards. More from Wikipedia: Spanish Moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients and water through its leaves from the air and rainfall. While it rarely kills the tree upon which it grows, it can occasionally become so thick that it shades the tree's leaves and lowers its growth rate.

So there you have it! Lots of pics and more information about Spanish Moss than you can shake a lichen-covered stick at! 

A Green Walk

Until I can get my hands on a second-hand bike, I'm your friendly neighbourhood walking Tor! I'm trying to buy a bike through Facebook Marketplace (further into its evil coils go I) - but they keep being too far away for me to walk to, and the buses so far have not been excellent at sticking to their schedules. Yesterday I waited for aggregate 1 hour in the rain for the Number 1. The plus is that the three drivers I've encountered so far have been outrageously friendly and nice. It's very confusing when you're used to London, where the buses are on time but the drivers are angry (new TFL strapline?)

On Saturday I decided to go see the Florida Museum of Natural History. It looks great - and there's a huge butterfly house next door. I walked about an hour, then ate a club sandwich in the next door cafe, then when I stuck my head into the museum the combination of fearsome air-conditioning and the stipulation to leave umbrellas in a communal unguarded bucket (where's the umbrella bucket guard??? Maybe a cash-in-hand job for yours truly?) made me turn and head back. I just bought this amazing umbrella! And I'm cold! So I will report on the museum when I get inside - which won't be long!

The walk there took me through some interesting areas - the campus here is ENORMOUS, and all the pictures below were taken on its sidelines. I was the lone walker, although I did see a man/woman fishing (only from the back, they looked a bit forbidding to approach). So here are some highlights from my walk! 

As IF!!!

That sign warns of alligators and snakes, and says to stay 10 feet from the water's edge. So this is excellent bench-placement. 

Nice of them to provide so many feeding spots for the local gators!

50 Shades of Green

You don't have to be bats to work here, but it helps!

New sublet for me??

50 Shades Greener

Sweet little fungus (?) growing up through the fence - I've seen quite a few examples of this swamp-like behaviour. 

Creepy church-type building.

IN SUMMARY:

'Gator sightings: 0, but I'm clearly getting nearer (or should I say THEY are getting nearer?!)

Bat houses: 3

Umbrellas pinched: 0, thanks to my vigilance! (Nice try, creeps at the Natural History Museum!!)

Welcome to the Swamp!

It’s hard to know where to start! I woke up early this morning and was thinking of all I wanted to write, so perhaps I’ll be a bit disjointed for a few posts - but I’m here, and settling in, and exhilarated to be somewhere so different and have this year finally beginning after all the planning!

I’m staying in an Airbnb for the first month, which was my plan so that I could find my feet and suss out where I’d like to be longer term. Lee, the host, is in Czech Republic for the month so I may not meet him. I’m sharing with Lee’s housemate Luan, from Brazil, and Yi, from China - Yi leaves today and another woman is arriving, so it’s all change here! I had a few drinks with Luan and Yi last night - they are both students at UF (University of Florida) and had tips about getting settled into Gainesville as an international, and we talked about our respective countries. I went to bed wishing I’d done all this earlier, not to be younger (although bonus!), but because it’s so great. But I’m not going to let myself have that thought - I’m here now, and I’m appreciating it!

Porch swing - you better believe my bum's been on here a few times already!

Offensively over-rooted tree

Lee’s house is very American-feeling - wooden, two-storeyed, furnished with things found and resold, and with an actual swinging porch swing on an actual wooden porch. The street has been giving me To Kill a Mockingbird vibes - green everywhere, and these houses all built in different styles all on quite large plots of land. Lee’s garden is a riot of green overgrowth and boasts a car which looks to me to be going back to nature but is apparently perfectly drivable, and three sets of mannequin bottom halves.

Feral car and new friends

Yesterday I went for a walk around the neighbourhood to try and get my bearings a little. The rain since I arrived has been relentless - coming out of the airport was like stepping into a greenhouse (the Palm House, not the Princess Diana House, Kew Gardens fans!) It’s wildly humid here and everything feels wet. When the rain let up last night for an hour or so, the sound of dripping continued on. There’s so much leafy vegetation here I can’t imagine how it ever dries out.

It's the moss hanging off the trees! It's what I came for! 

In the afternoon I bought the world’s biggest umbrella from Target. I’m pretty thrilled with it - it would be unbelievably obnoxious to walk the streets of London with it, but here I can Gene Kelly my way down a street and won’t hit a thing. People don’t seem to do much walking or biking around when it’s raining. 

I got soaked through my small umbrella and my rain jacket until I had The Umbrella, and was remembering two rain stories I’ve read - “Rain” by Somerset Maugham and “The Long Rain” by Ray Bradbury. I remember them as being about rain that was so persistent and huge that it drove the characters mad - after only two days I can imagine it - I’ve been thinking maybe I can make a comic about it! But actually so far I’m kind of into this whole weather vibe - it’s hot, it’s weird, it’s green - and most importantly, it’s different!

Blending into the surroundings

IN SUMMARY:

‘Gator count: 0 

Other animal/insect count: one sweet lizard on the hood of the feral car.

Handlebar-moustachioed dudes: less than on my journey - perhaps they hide indoors/in their cars to protect their moustaches when the weather’s like this.

Hair report: obviously this humidity is making my hair massive! I’m harbouring hopes that the humidity is somehow cleaning it, and I’ll barely have to wash it while I’m here. *Check back for future progress reports on this plan.*