A sprinkling of pink and white wildflowers brightened the marsh beyond the fringe of trees. From its long southern border stretched acres and acres of golden marsh that rippled in the breeze and changed tint in shifting sunlight and shadow. Beyond the marsh lay the St. Marys River, separating Florida and Georgia, and rising above the river, the high, sandy bluffs of Crandall in Nassau County. Each tree's fronds, leaves and needles give a different tone. Palms seem to clatter.
Oaks have a softer rustling.
I started to visualize living there and doing the most ordinary things, like sweeping a wooden porch. I'd been saving her old porch rockers. Gilman Paper Co. After the purchase, my husband, Gordon, a forester in timber management, and I took two stemmed glasses and chilled champagne to the edge of the marsh, looked toward Florida and toasted the event. Our two sons were in college and we thought to the future, when there would be room enough in the new house to accommodate them and their eventual families on visits. We looked at hundreds of plans, country and city houses, houses for sloping lots, beach front, mountaintop, houses with rear or front views.