The St. Marks River below Natural Bridge has been a frequent companion on Saturdays. I've been helping with paddling trips for the Wilderness Way and we usually launch our colorful flotilla of kayaks on private land along "the basin," a wide marshy area where the St. Marks River rises from underground. Paddlers who don't have this prime access usually launch at the Newport Bridge and paddle up the six miles to the basin and back down again. 

I'm not the most fashionable man, I admit it.  I always stick with safe color schemes for my wardrobe.  Ones that require minimal effort to coordinate like blues, grays, and browns.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling adventurous, I throw in some red to liven things up.  That's why this time of year is always rough for me.  Finding the perfect gift for my girlfriend is a challenge because when the time comes to exchange gifts, I don't want to feel like one of those TV grandmas.  You know the ones who buy ugly sweaters for the grandkids and wonder why they don't wear them when the family gets together for Christmas dinner.

One of the best things about the holiday season that stretches between Thanksgiving and Christmas (and beyond to New Year's Eve) is the return of expatriates to the homeland.

That means that at holiday parties, you will get to reconnect with folks you haven't seen since last year's holiday parties. On any given night at local watering holes, impromptu reunions break out. I can always count on catching up with pals who've moved away at Waterworks, where we can catch up on news over a Capri sandwich and a round of libations.

Manatees. They have a unique lure. As a follow-up to my earlier visit (and blog) on the subject, I awakened before sunrise on a recent frigid Saturday (a real effort for me) and drove to Wakulla Springs State Park. The front gatekeeper had just arrived and I was fortunate to meet a maintenance man at the swimming area who was kind enough to open the gate for me, since the swimming area isn't normally open until around 9 o'clock. I had the tower-and about twenty manatees in the spring bowl-to myself.

This past weekend I stopped by New Leaf Market for their weekly beer tasting.  When I first heard about it, I expected something epic.  I imagined endless amounts of frosty beer mugs on serving trays carried by fleets of German beer maids.  Everyone's favorite Polka hits would be blaring over the speakers and every so often polka renditions of traditional holiday music would come on to get everyone into the holiday spirit. 

Ryan and Rebecca Means enjoy exploring wild places. But the adventuresome couple has taken their passion a step further by beginning Project Remote, an effort to identify and document the remotest locations in all 50 states. They have already traveled to and documented 12 states thus far, and their progress can be tracked on their website.

Bicyclists, joggers, hikers, strollers, birdwatchers and horseback riders can all find enjoyable off-road experiences at the Lake Overstreet Trails in Maclay Gardens State Park. Located near I-10 on the north side of Tallahassee, the trails are easily accessible to thousands of people, highly convenient during these short days of winter.

The groups of bars around Tallahassee reflect some very distinct cultural clusters.  The strip of bars on Tennessee Street caters to a younger crowd.  It's the place where many graduate from their fake IDs and move on to their horizontal legitimate ones.  In contrast, the bars around Midtown offer a calmer, slightly more sophisticated drinking environment without being stuffy. 

The holidays are all about tradition, and I'd like to share one of mine.

While most of the shopping public participated in the Black Friday holiday tradition of wrestling their fellow shoppers for the last video game on the shelf at Best Buy or Walmart, I have plotted my own shopping excursion. Even on a slow day, the malls and big box stores give me the heebie-jeebies, so I have pledged to do my gifting from locally owned galleries and stores. And I will start by wandering through the winter wonderland of LeMoyne Center for the Visual Arts' annual Holiday Show, which traditionally opens to the public on the day after Thanksgiving.

If I were to compile a list of my favorite foods, Latin American foods would be very well represented.  Those flavors really bring me back to my childhood, back to when my mother would have me set the table after cutting up onions and peppers for her.  I consider it a blessing that my mother was such a great chef.  I grew up eating a lot of traditional Latin American foods like arroz con pollo and bistec palomilla, and, thanks to her, I find myself making very similar dishes to this day.

I love the lengthening nights of winter, when daylight is whittled away to a luminous sliver and everything seems lit from within by an inner incandescence.

The days count down to the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the solar year - a time of ice and fire, when darkness and light are weighed in the scales and the red-gold reign of the sun gives way to the silvered, frosty dominion of the moon.