Cuttin' Out Stuart?

This week a visit to Peck Lake Park gave the advantage of a very short hike along a boardwalk to the Indian River Lagoon (which apparently overflowed Peck Lake sometime in the past, such that the lake is not now directly apparent). Alongside the path was an old tree with a very noticeable pot-like opening at ground-level in the tree trunk, perhaps filmed and repeated multiple times as the 'dancing trees' sequence in the decades-old movie titled, 'Babes in Toyland'. Tiny fiddler-type crabs dotted the sandy shoreline, popping in and out of their burrows, especially near sprigs of sun-baked berries tossed their way.

More sinister mind-control efforts can be surmised as demonstrated at nearby Bob Graham Park, which has a boat-launch area with hinged docks that can sever the tail of a running lizard with the tap of a human (or canine?) toe. TV news journalism described the wounds of a small dachshund bitten by a coral snake in a different county; and there in BGP stood a long-haired variety of the same breed, where close by a trash can a group of lizards protected one of their own sitting on a rock minus own tail.

From there, a short drive to the Nature Conservancy's Blowing Rocks Preserve on Jupiter Island, where visitors pay a small fee to watch ocean waves break up a shoreline cliff under the watchful eyes of members. The rocky cliffs are pitted with small basins that hold water splashed into them; believe it or not, these have been the inspiration for the 'fire-pit' cookers sold in some retail stores or from catalogs. The prevailing winds were quite forceful, although there is a path protected with natural vegetative hedges which is only breezy.

Driving around Stuart and other neighboring towns/cities apparently has been some impetus for future artists to dream about novel video-game or race-set scenarios using the natural and man-made features of Martin County as backdrop and gameforms -- hence, perhaps, the number of bizarre traffic 'accidents' recorded in local journalism.