one of my favorite places

First of all, let me say that this is the first day that the AC is turned off and the windows are open! yay! The kids and I have been walking through the house taking deep lungfuls of fresh air. sigh. Too bad it wont last. It will get hot again, but I will enjoy it while it lasts.

now back to this post! One of my favorite places to be is Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park. Did you ever read The Yearling? ok, me neither. It is a story of a poor Florida farmer's son who adopts a fawn as a pet. But I saw the movie Cross Creek. I love this place for two reasons.



First of all, the place is a step back in time. Her house is furnished with some of her belongs and also with things that were common to that time. There are chickens roaming around, a duck pen, her gardens and her orange grove. Just outside the historic site is Orange lake with a boat ramp, large field and small playground for children. The park rangers dress in period clothes and run her farm the way she did. It is a peaceful place that I take the children to several times a year. This is the place that made me start a picnic quilt, and it will hopefully inspire me to finish it : )



I love her house. There are three parts to her small house connected with screened in breezeways and an outside porch. I love how the outside is part of the inside.

Another reason that I love this place is the connection it gives me to my own family history. My grandmother grew up in Ocala Florida. Cross Creek is just north of Ocala. This place takes me back in time to what Florida would be like when my grandparents and great grandparents were living. My great grandfather was a judge in Ocala, and they would occasionally invite Marjorie to their home for dinner. My grandmother tells a story of a time my great grandfather tells Marjorie a story of growing up in Florida and having a pet deer. I don't know how much truth this story has, and if it was true, how much it influenced Majorie's own story. No matter what, I love to hear my grandmother tell the story.

Besides telling you about one of my favorite places, I wanted to say that we are going out of town tomorrow until next Tuesday. I'm taking the kids, picking up my mom and we're going to visit my grandmother for a few days.

See you next week!