“I ripple the fronds of the cocoanut palms,
  As I join with the voice of the sea
The somnolent swell of the mystical psalms
  That I breathe from the quivering tree.
I hush to the cries of the wandering crane
  Out over the shimmering lee;
The murmuring moan of the faraway main,
  And the hum of the hovering bee:—
Then I leap to the crest of the towering pine
  And I sing of the life that I see…”

Excerpt from Songs of the Wind on a Southern Shore, and other Poems of Florida, by George E. Merrick

Not wanting to wake Frank, he got home so late, I was awake at 3:30 and went downstairs to read myself back to sleep. We had left the windows facing the Gulf wide open and a hard cool wind blew wildly through the room. I liked it. Yet, I was chilled and closed them up. I walked at daylight with the whitecaps and the birds stayed sheltered and this made me feel a bit lonely for them. I saw a fisherman in a fast boat and then the slim fins of some dolphins in the whitecaps. I was among the few who braved the beach in long pants and jackets. A sudden dip in temperature and the shelf of gray clouds over our heads. Then, to the airport for new arrivals, feeling the shimmy of wind blowing my car over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Still, once home, a gang of us walked again up to Longboat Pass in the breezy afternoon, orienting our newcomers. I needed a nap, and drifted deliciously into one. I am reading Olive, Again, by Elizabeth Strout, and enjoying it very much; I just finished Ann Patchet’s The Dutch House, which I liked, but did not love. and won’t urge on anyone. But I’m a huge fan of Olive, I can never get enough Olive! This the fifth or sixth book I’ve read in the last few weeks and I’m going to need to go back to Bookstore 1 for new supplies soon. I loved the surprise of the fisherman, so fast in the wind and the waves. When I waded into the Gulf the temperature, it was like a bathtub. I saw what I think was a fishercat in the middle of the lagoon at low tide, rooting around in the mud and muck with the birds.