Pictures of the Past Week: St. Augustine Area

So, not only have I not posted a daily image like I vowed I would, I have not posted at all in over a week.

I've been in the St. Augustine area, on the north east coast of Florida this week, and have been in a very introverted mood.  Maybe even slightly depressed.   I've been enjoying my travels here quite a bit, though, and have seen some interesting things.

I just went through all the images I took, and pulled out a bunch that I like, that give a bit of a taste of what I've seen.   An incoherent photo essay of my last weeks wanderings..

I have a few film reviews and other things that I may post the next few days.  One thing I recommit to doing is posting images of my meander this coming week..

Driving through the Floridian Jungle..

 I came upon this Great Oak in the Jungle, called the "Fairchild Oak" after the botanist who introduced soybeans to North America.   This tree is 2,000 - that's *two thousand* - years old, and is clearly cared for by the Eledrhrim.

Emma in that Jungle.

 This is the ruin of a great sugar mill built near the Atlantic coast in the Jungle in 1831 by the Bulow brothers.   It was burnt later that decade by the Seminoles, during the second of the three Seminole Wars that were fought in Florida before the Civil War.

I then drove up coastal A1A to Saint Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the United States.   There is a Catholic shrine, Our Lady of La Leche,  on the shore where the Spanish settlers landed, where there is this great cross:

It is a beautiful, but very touristed old city.  I spent two days there, and enjoyed the place anyway, despite the difficult parking.

Psalm 26:8

I've decided that I'm going to start a series in imitation of Daniel Nichols at Caelem & Terra featuring the churches and shrines I visit.  I may even steal his hache tag "the glory of thy house" which is taken from Psalm 26.   I noticed that that verse was on the side of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche, which is nearby that great cross by the sea.  The shrine was built in the 16th Century by the settlers, and while it has been destroyed several times by hurricanes or fire, it has always been rebuilt.

There's an outdoor path there lined with the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin,  the first of which is the Presentation, or the Prophecy of Simeon.  It's the only of the seven that I considered a happy sad sorrow, in that if I received such a prophecy concerning my child, I would be both terrified and glad.  The reliefs are beautiful, as you can see:

 I also went to mass Sunday at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, which is the primal parish of the United States.   The present building dates from the 19th Century, and is very beautiful:

This beautiful shrine to Blessed Augustine is on the nave of the basilica:

There is also a great Spanish colonial era- fort there, called the Castillo de San Marcos, now a National Park:

 I also made a pilgrimage to a small Greek shrine in the city, devoted to Saint Photios.  I spent several hours talking with the caretaker Fernando (in picture below, tending the candles) who is a Colombian convert from Rome.  I bought five icons from their shop there, and promptly lost the bag on the way back to the car.  Such losses are never accidents, I only hope that they be found to good use..

 That's the latest from Florida.   I'll blog more faithfully these coming weeks, so stay posted..



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