Going to the market…

There is something special about an outdoor market. Yesterday my girlfriend and I spent our day at the St. Pete Saturday Market. This outdoor market is larger than most, in fact you could probably spend a good part of your Saturday there aimlessly wondering around eating great food and looking at random arts and crafts. Live music will accompany you as you wonder amongst others who are thinking how great a market is compared to the average shopping center. Here your senses are overwhelmed by food and great weather.  After visiting the market take a stroll around town.

 

http://www.saturdaymorningmarket.com/

A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf

There are many books out there that are commonly referred to under the genre of nature  writing. If you visit a bookstore nature writing is commonly lumped together with anything ranging from pet care to sustainable farming practices. In my opinion nature writing  is in a class all of its own. What makes nature writing so unique is that this form of literature is completely a result of early Americana. What we now think of as the classics of this genre often include the names Muir, Emerson, and Thoreau. 

Interestingly this genre is still with us today and will be relevant just as long as people have a connection to the natural world. The first book I ever read  considered nature writing was John Muir’s A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf. I was familiar with Muir at the time, because I had visited Yosemite National Park as a teenager and I have since been back to California to visit other national parks. I happened to stumble across the book at a store in Cedar Key, FL. I was there with my father spending the weekend kayaking the gulf. The paperback I purchased was only $8 and the man in the store mentioned that the book was relevant to Cedar Key because Muir depicted this area during his visit. Within a few days I read the book and as a result I was instantly a fan of Muir. His descriptions of the flora and fauna during the 1860’s gave me a deeper repect for this place I call home. I have gone on to read a number of Muir’s other famous books, but to this day this book will always hold a special place in my heart because of Muir’s love of Florida. 

John Muir the author.

 

During Muir’s visit to Florida his descriptions of Florida were different from the Florida I see today. His descriptions were of a mostly unspoiled place, devoid of sky scrappers and countless condos. Some of his descriptions still hold true to today’s rare unspoiled areas, but I often wonder what Muir would think of Florida now. Would he be disappointed? I think that he would be saddened, but he seemed to have the fore sight  back in the 1800’s to see what was coming. I wonder what John Muir would think of urban sprawl and pollution. All I can do is speculate, but I feel pretty confident believing that he would be disappointed in his fellow man.