Driftwood Feelin'

 

The observation deck at Bulow Creek Trail had driftwood standing in the marsh in close proximity. I was more interested in the driftwood then anything else I saw at the marsh.  There were not very many birds in the marsh or other wildlife. Driftwood feelin' is a poem by native American Henry Real Bird.  A Creek Indian who is  a cowboy poet who can "twist language like a river."  I have a link to his poem for further reading.

Driftwood Feelin'
by Henry Real Bird
(Poem Excerpts)

"How much longer
Do you want
To be in the wind
Elk River's edge
There I am standin'
Lookin' for a feelin'
In the roar of the water
Come down river lookin' around
Feelin' gotta roam.

Driftwood feelin'
Floatin' down love river
Hearts way can't do
I'm catchin' a ride
Driftwood feelin'
Floatin’ down love river
Hearts way can't do
I'm catchin' a ride
Floatin' down love river."
 http://www.worldofpoetry.org/usop/land1.htm
 

Floating Down Stream The Lady of Shalott

 

I named the leaf "Lady of Shalott" as it drifted down stream to a tropical Camelot of palm trees, flowering shrubs, ancient oaks and hammocks. The water glisten with sunlight and the bright green leaf is framed by darker leaves at the bottom of the water. The creek reflects all its surroundings like a magic mirror. The green leaf is beautifully framed by the sunrays penetrating the water.  "The leaves upon her falling light..." on The Lady of Shalott as...She floated down to Camelot."

Painting by John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shalott, 1888

The Lady of Shalott is a magical being who lives alone on an island upstream from King Arthur's Camelot. Her business is to look at the world outside her castle window in a mirror, and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. She is forbidden by the magic to look at the outside world directly.  One day, she sees the reflection of Sir Lancelot riding alone. Although she knows that it is forbidden, she looks out the window at him. The mirror shatters, the tapestry flies off on the wind, and the Lady feels the power of her curse. An autumn storm suddenly arises. The lady leaves her castle, finds a boat, writes her name on it, gets into the boat, sets it adrift, and sings her death song as she drifts down the river to Camelot. The locals find the boat and the body, realize who she is, and are saddened. Lancelot prays that God will have mercy on her soul.

The Lady of Shalott

Extract from the poem:
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining.

Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And around about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.

And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance --
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.

And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.

Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right --
The leaves upon her falling light --
Thro' the noises of the night,
She floated down to Camelot
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.

Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darkened wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.

For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.

by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Enchanted River at Mirkwood Forest

 

Crisco Bridge

 

It is a 3 mile hike on the Bulow Creek Loop down a forest path to Cisco Bridge. The forest path is filled with large oak trees, thick undergrowth, and wet marsh.  Oak trees branches can take very unusual shapes through the years as they grow, they stretch and twist reaching for sunlight.  These branches stretched across the trail and help to shade the sun.

 

At Cisco Bridge, the water was murky and dark with large oak branches hanging over the creek.  It was so dark that the water was reflecting the palm leaves and branches like a mirror.  The Bulow Creek Trail is reminiscent of old Florida.  Giant oak trees, hundreds of years old, have been standing since the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.  The park is an ancient historical area of a plantation ruins and sugar mill where all the surrounding forest was left to grow in its natural habitat.  I wonder how did the Spaniards cross the land with such dense undergrowth and foliage.  The sunlight rays that passed through the thick foliage sparkled on the creek like spotlights.  The rays look like they were floating down the creek with the current. It was enchanting to see all the images in the water, sun rays dancing, green mirrors of palms, leaves at the bottom and small fish swimming in circles.  It was an enchanting looking glass.

I loved Lord of the Rings and recently watched all three movies again.  Through the years, it has been my movie triology of choice, particularly if I am attached to my sick bed for several days. Bulow Creek, its forest and ancient oak trees are similar to the images used by J.R.R. Tolkien in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. 

Thorin Oaksenshield and Company in Mirkwood Forest hiking the forest path to the Enchanted River.

Bilbo Baggins, along with Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves, ventured into Mirkwood during their quest to regain the Lonely Mountain or Erebor from the dragon Smaug. There, the Dwarf Bombur fell into the Enchanted river.
The Enchanted river is a black river in Mirkwood, that flows north from its source in the Mountains of Mirkwood, until it joined the Forest River. It had fast and strong currents but was not too wide at least in the area near the Forest Path where Thorin and Company crossed it. The river's enchantment made it so that anyone who drank or bathed in the water fell into a deep sleep and when they finally awoke, could not remember anything for a long period of time. If I fell into Bulow Creek, I would be like the dwarf Bomfur and fall under its enchantment and into a deep sleep. Of course, that would be after I get home and dried off!

Bulow Creek - Hiking Red Trail

 

 

The Red Trail at Bulow State Park has some gorgeous scenery of the marsh and creek.  It was one of the most picturesque trails I have hiked between Bulow Creek State Park and the historical Bulow Plantation Ruins.

The Fairchild Oak

 

 

THE FAIRCHILD OAK

The Fairchild Oak is one of the largest Live Oak trees in the south. The tree has stood for centuries, over 400 years as a silent witness to the clearing of the wilderness for plantations, and, in 1836, the destruction of the settlements on Bulow Creek by raiding Seminole Indians.  The park contains

numerous plantation ruins, most hidden in the undergrowth of the forest.