Daria's World – things that make me smile

Map of Florida highlighting Hernando County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At the north end of Hernando County’s Road 495, west of Weeki Wachee in Hernando County, Florida, there’s a is a 3-acre (12,000 m2) area on the Gulf of Mexico – with a beach, picnic tables, shelters, barbecue grills, sunset observation point, playground and concession stand.

I was in the neighborhood, so to speak, and instead of turning right to go home, I turned west and headed toward the coast. Looking at the sun, it seemed to me there had to be about half hour before the sunset. Pine Island is a place when one can easily take good pictures and I was in a mood to do that once again, to walk around the breezy beach, and soak up some salt-scented ocean air.

White oleander blooms on Pine Island - Photo: Daria

The first thing that caught my attention as I was still driving toward the parking lot in the park, were blooming oleanders. I’ve seen them all numerous times before, they come in white, pink and red and they bloom pretty much all year round. But I’ve never seen such an abundance of blooms before. To me, they were quite a breathtaking sight.

Beautiful scenery of Pine Island - Photo: Daria

After parking, I took some close-up pictures of the magnificent blooms and started my observation and deep-slow-breathing walk on the east side of the beach. It wasn’t too crowded – which is always my preference – but there were still swimmers in the water and three fishermen looked like they weren’t bothered by the cool wind, while standing in the chest-high water. I couldn’t help myself but admire their passion for fishing.

Pine Island sunset with observation point - Photo: Daria

There were too many people all around the observation station so I couldn’t get a good shot from there. But there were plenty of other points available – from which the view of the setting sun was just as good, so I kept walking. Paying a lot more attention to the scenery than people, I still noticed that everyone seemed to be taking photos and their cameras were flashing all over the place.

Palm trees at sunset - Photo: Daria

Seagulls are to me well familiar residents of the Pine Island and I like to catch them in the background of my photos. Yesterday, however, they were all up in the air, flying back and forth across the island and singing a high-volume ode to the brightly-red colored sunset.

Children running free on the white sand of the Pine Island beach - Photo: Daria

But Pine Island is not only a highly photogenic place for photographers with any level of skills, but also a family-friendly place, favorite of amateur sand sculpturers, and a popular destination for sunset weddings on the beach.

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