Saturday, February 06, 2010

First and Last


Shootin' this hysterical marker saves me a lot of textification on a weekend when traffic is slow anyway, so 'scuse me for postin' a picture of a sign.
As Granny would say, I really wanted to show you this concrete swimming hole.


Here, in Flagler county, is where Floridians began their water wasting ways.

Fed by an artesian well, the water flows through the pool and out this spout. From here, it's a short trip down a sandy bank to the adjoining saltmarsh.
Freeflowing artesian wells are illegal in Florida for obvious water wasting reasons. Somehow this place gets a pass.




The bath house is sagging a bit, but this is a relatively newish park and lots of restoration is going on.
That huge concrete tank just makes me want to farm fish or prawns in it.


A simple diving board harkens back to the era before we all wanted to sue each other for every little slip and fall.

You don't see many diving boards anymore ...


A peek through the bath house.






Last, but not least, the "Last" of this post's title.
Tonight will probably mark the final high school basketball game for Junior. A tournament is scheduled for later today, and we've lost some players in the last week, so it will be challenging for Junior and his mates.
Kinda bitter sweet, but I confess, I am looking forward to no more mandatory, 3 game a week, basketball attendance.




8 comments:

Pablo said...

Up in the Ozarks we call them things "ceeement ponds."

I always loved watching my kids play their high school sports, but when that all ended, I loved the break too.

Deb said...

My sports watching duties are over until mid April when baseball starts. I'll have ten more years of this!!!

Felicia said...

I once visited the first concrete swimming pool in California, which was part of the estate of 19th-century opera diva Helena Modjeska. It was kidney-shaped, huge, and really shallow--if Michael Phelps tried to swim freestyle in it, his fingers would probably brush the bottom. Have no idea how they filled it, since they weren't lucky enough to have artesian springs in that area!

Sayre said...

When I was very young, my parents took us to a sulpher spring near Newport (that funky little ex-town you pass just before getting to the St. Marks Refuge road - there's a campground there now). I remember it smelled like rotten eggs at first and was covered with the most amazing neon green moss. We loved going there to swim. Even if we had to hold our noses at the start. Your "pool" really reminded me of those days.

Caroline said...

Daughter #3 is at South Dakota State One-Act play competition as we speak.
We saw the performance on Tuesday before they took off across the state to try their luck. This may be the last performance we sit through with a child, grandson is not quite up to performance level yet at 15 months.

amarkonmywall said...

Well- I hope they win tonight!

I think you could stock that swimming pool. It just says no swimming, doesn't mention fish farming.
And the pig! What a cutey! I think she's a better shade of pink than previous years...

Buford Nature said...

I am an ecologist that is conflicted about free-flowing wells. Yes, you are correct that they are a terrible, stupid way to waste a precious resource. On South Florida ranches, OTOH, where ranchers go out of their way to ruin natural streams, ponds and wetlands, free-flowing wells create the only decent aquatic wildlife habitat on those ranches IMO.

Yep, the problem is the rancher's attitude, and the solution is not free-flowing wells, but it is what it is. (Ironically, the word verification for my comment is "sadilet").

Walter Jeffries said...

Love the sign. First pool. No swimming. Irony.