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City News: Commission Meeting Fast Facts
October 27th, 2012

Columns: If You Are Going to Catch Cattle, You Need a Horse - A Florida Cracker Tale
October 27th, 2012

Columns: Trouble in Cedar Key - Election in Another Time
October 26th, 2012

Announcements: Cedar Key Library Presents - Global warming and the Changing Oceans
October 25th, 2012

Announcements: Hunter safety Internet-completion course offered in Levy County
October 25th, 2012

Announcements: Police Chief Sandlin addresses Cedar Key Lions
October 24th, 2012

Letters to the Editor: Letter to Editor - Seafood “Parking Ticket” Festival!!
October 24th, 2012

Announcements: Refuge Classroom Celebrates with Birds of Prey
October 23rd, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: Cedar Key Arts Center Workshops For November 2012
October 23rd, 2012

Features: 43rd Cedar Key Seafood Festival 2012
October 22nd, 2012

Law Enforcement News: Levy County Arrest Report 10/22/2012
October 22nd, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: Beginning Throwing with Clay 6 - 9
October 22nd, 2012

Conservation: The Greening of Your Favorite Restaurant
October 21st, 2012

Arts and Entertainment: Empty Bowls Event
October 20th, 2012

Features: What Comfort Zone
October 20th, 2012

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Trouble in Cedar Key - Autumnal equinox: Period of Great Change

Trouble in Cedar Key - Autumnal equinox: Period of Great Change

Gene Benedict

We`re approaching the autumnal equinox, a period of great natural change. The equinox this year is Saturday, September 22. That is when the sunlight is twelve hours of daylight and the evening and night is twelve hours of sunlessness.

This day and one day in March are when the greatest rates of change occur. The equinox in September marks the beginning of the Fall season, the one in March, heralds the beginning of Spring. It is said that an egg will stand on it`s end on the equinox. Having never witnessed that, I find it hard to believe.


This year, September 22, the Moon is in the first quarter. It should be visible right after the sunset. It will be surrounded by several planets in our solar system.

Out In the wilds, you should see a plethora of daisies peaking with the season. The most prevalent is the Coreopsis Tickseed, Florida`s official state wildflower. It grows to about a foot or so in height, covering the roadsides and the fields nearly everywhere. They are mostly seen in open areas not heavily shaded.


Another flower grows somewhere near the gulf beaches and the marshes. This one is most often commonly known as the Elena daisy. It was not often seen around here until Hurricane Elena wreaked havoc on the Cedar Keys twisting and turning for days just off shore of Crystal River, and the Cedar Keys. Dock Street was destroyed by this storm as were other areas on the water.

These Elena daisies grow tall and prolific along the water, but you don`t see them past about a mile on shore. They exist along Florida`s coast and those in west Africa. Some say they were carried here from Africa by the prevailing winds of storms and hurricanes. They are known by gardeners as the beach sunflower.

In this peaking period, you also see leaves changing colors. On the hardwood trees. The silver-barked maples` leaves are now red. The sycamores are turning orange and mostly brown. The cypress leaves, needles, are tanning. The holly bushes are just beginning to grow berries.


Fall grasses are flowering and going to seed. Goldenrods are peaking, as are ragweeds. The human allergies assaulted with these grasses are swelling the eyes and facial skin and making breathing difficult.


White-tailed deer are still in their red coats though on the cusp of browning and graying. And those who have recently grown antlers have pretty well stripped the antlers of their velvet, that skin that carries the growth tissue to the antlers.


And the redfish and sea trout are moving about more rigorously into the shallows as the tidal waters begin to cool.


The rate of change of air temperature is causing it to drop faster so the evenings and nights are cooler than before.

The autumnal equinox is underway. Summer is changing to Fall. Age-old rhythms rise and fall, resuming their familiar patterns...

You can Contact Trouble by email at:

tnckgebe@yahoo.com

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