So Many Dishes

It’s not every day that you get to pet and feed deer. That’s what Ken and I were able to do this morning, thanks to our good friend Pat. Pat is the music director at our church, but his day job is at the Okeeheelee Nature Center. We visited Pat there this morning, where he introduced us to the resident animals and took us inside one of the deer enclosures.

Baby is very friendly and loves to be petted. Liberty is more skittish, but was willing to eat almonds out of my hand, and then quickly snatched a few from Ken. They are mother and daughter, but I forget which is which.

We walked through the pollinator garden with Pat, spotting several butterfly species. Then we left him to his work while we walked some of the nature trails.

The nature center is in Okeeheelee Park, a large county park, and only about a 20 minute drive for us. Most of the property was originally a strip mine that was reclaimed. We spent a lot of time at the park when our kids were young, because the sports facilities there include the soccer fields where they played. Somehow, we never made it to the north end of the park, where the nature center is located. Now that we’ve been there, I can’t wait to go back and walk the trails again.

Okeeheelee is the Seminole word for “pretty waters.” It lived up to its name today.