Wednesday February 7th 2024

Today’s weather was a small improvement on Tuesday. There was a little less wind and a little more warmth. The temperature peaked just north of seventy degrees under a bright sunny sky.

My exercise for the day was a hike in the park around Hammond Lake. This is a small body of water that I would call a pond, but that doesn’t seem to be a term in common usage in Florida. The entire hike around the “Lake” was about 2 miles as reported by my Fitbit. The area on the back side of Hammond Lake has changed a lot since I started staying here in 2016. The area has been subject to a number of prescribed burns and was also been hit by a major wind event along the way. The number of trees is much thinner than it once was. Parts of the area were also Orange groves in the past. A few, now wild, citrus trees remain.

It was a nice day for a walk. I met several other hikers and a couple of bicyclists on the trail. The network of trails is also designed for horses, but I didn’t meet any today. The horse rental area will probably be busy this weekend. The same probably applies to the kayak and canoe rental. I haven’t seen any rented in the last couple of days, but they have done a big business on weekends in the past.

The sunset this afternoon was spectacular. I think there may have been smoke or dust in the air to the west. There was a brown tint to the wisp clouds to the west. The reflection created a very deep red sky.