Florida author speaks to schools

Here are some photos published in the Orlando Sentinel of me speaking to the Umatilla Public Library teen group.

Corn snake in the Florida scrub

Some Florida Spring Flowers

Here are some flowers blooming in the yard this morning.



shiny blueberry (Vaccinium myrsinites)



Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis)



Spiderwort close-up (Tradescantia ohiensis)



Lyre leaf sage (Salvia lyrata)



Lyre leaf sage bud (Salvia lyrata)

Florida Author Classroom Visits

I love classroom visits with my readers. We always take a group selfie at the end of the visit. Here are a couple of Lake County schools not far from where I live!

Author visit in Florida

Visiting the school right around the corner from me

Florida Scrub Wildfire - One year later

The Florida scrub that I run through was burned one year ago. Scrub depends on fire to survive, but it sure seems hard to believe when you see the scorched landscape.

One year has gone by. Certainly, the worst of the damage was caused by the heavy equipment.

Grizzly Bears in Florida!

I offer this photo as proof:

Grizzly Bear Crossing sign in the Florida scrub

Of course, there are no grizzly bears in Florida. This photo was taken two miles from my house deep in the Florida scrub. You can tell that the silhouette is a grizzly because of the large shoulder hump.

Close-up of the Florida Grizzly Bear sign

We have TONS of Florida black bears here. And cars are the number one threat to their lives, so drive carefully in bear country. Keep in mind when you see a mother bear with cubs, there is often a cub far behind. That cub is often scared when it realizes how far back from the others it is, and will panic-run to catch up. That behavior seems particularly dangerous to me.

Did the sign-people  not know this was a grizzly? Were the grizzly signs cheaper than the black bear signs? Did they run out of the correct signs? Who knows.