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Weather: Patchy frost in the morning. Sunny. Highs in the mid 60s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Friday Night: Clear. Lows in the upper 30s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Free For All Fridays with Host David Ayres, an hour-long public affairs radio show featuring local newsmakers, personalities, public health updates and the occasional surprise guest, starts a little after 9 a.m. after FlaglerLive Editor Pierre Tristam’s Reality Check. See previous podcasts here. On WNZF at 94.9 FM and 1550 AM.
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park, 6400 North Oceanshore Blvd., Palm Coast, 10 a.m. Join a Ranger the First Friday of every month for a garden walk. Learn about the history of Washington Oaks while exploring the formal gardens. The walk is approximately one hour. No registration required. Walk included with park entry fee. Participants meet in the Garden parking lot. The event is free with paid admission fee to the state park: $5 per vehicle. (Limit 2-8 people per vehicle) $4 per single-occupant vehicle. Call (386) 446-6783 for more information or by email: [email protected].
The Friday Blue Forum, a discussion group organized by local Democrats, meets at 12:15 p.m. at the Flagler Democratic Office at 160 Cypress Point Parkway, Suite C214 (above Cue Note) at City Marketplace. Come and add your voice to local, state and national political issues.
Notably: In repentance for writing such unkind things about Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs, here’s a lovely passage from the Maine volume of the American Guide Series, the Depression-era guide books subsidized by FDR’s government, to give writers something to do and something to eat, unwittingly adding a monument to American literature. The American Guide Series has been unsurpassed since for its elegance and pre-REI lack of touristy presumptions. The passage: “The white or American elm, one of Maine’s largest and most graceful trees, is common throughout this State, as it is through all of New England. It is generally planted near houses, many persons believing that it diverts lightning. Fully as beautiful is the mountain ash. Wild cherry, found in every section, is of little value except as cover for burned-over areas. But the wild black cherry, widely distributed though not abundant, provides one of the State’s most valuable furniture woods. The red plum is occasionally grafted and often used as an ornamental tree. Striped maple or moosewood is a lovely tree found all over Maine. The silver maple grows near the coast, its sap being used to make an inferior maple syrup. Red maple is the most abundant, growing in swamp lands. The basswood, a species of linden, is attractive for its flowers, which are popular with honey bees. The black ash and white ash, the latter a valuable timber tree, are prominent all over the State. A rare shrub called the prostrate savin or trailing yew is found on Monhegan Island, and other islands east of Casco Bay; on Mount Desert Island it is called the Bar Harbor juniper.” I don;t know that any modern guide to the state would so lovingly linger on its fauna. I don’t know that there is as much fauna to so lovingly linger over, in Maine or elsewhere, though Maine remains a state firred in beauty damn near spiritual.
—P.T.
Now this:
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
January 2025
Friday, Jan 03
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Friday, Jan 03
First Friday Garden Walks at Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Washington Oaks Gardens State Park
Friday, Jan 03
Friday Blue Forum
Flagler Democratic Office
Friday, Jan 03
First Friday in Flagler Beach
Friday, Jan 03
Free Family Art Night at Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens
Ormond Memorial Art Museum & Gardens
Saturday, Jan 04
Flagler Beach Farmers Market
315 South 7th Street, Flagler Beach
Saturday, Jan 04
Flagler Beach All Stars Beach Clean-Up
Saturday, Jan 04
Coffee With Flagler Beach Commission Chair Scott Spradley
Law Office of Scott Spradley
Saturday, Jan 04
Grace Community Food Pantry on Education Way
Flagler School District Bus Depot
Saturday, Jan 04
Sunshine and Sandals Social at Cornerstone
Saturday, Jan 04
Random Acts of Insanity Standup Comedy
Cinematique of Daytona Beach
No event found!
For the full calendar, go here.
Maine seemed to stretch on endlessly. I felt as Peary must have when he approached what he thought was the North Pole. But I wanted to see Aroostook County, the big northern county of Maine. There are three great potato-raising sections–Idaho, Suffolk County on Long Island, and Aroostook, Maine. Lots of people had talked of Aroostook County, but I had never met anyone who had actually been there. I had been told that the crop is harvested by Canucks from Canada who flood over the border at harvest time. My way went endlessly through forest country and past many lakes, not yet frozen. As often as I could I chose the small wood roads, and they are not conducive to speed. The temperature lifted and it rained endlessly and the forests wept. Charley never got dry, and smelled as though he were mildewed. The sky was the color of wet gray aluminum and there was no indication on the translucent shield where the sun might be, so I couldn’t tell direction. On a curving road I might have been traveling east or south or west instead of the north I wanted. That old fake about the moss growing on the north sides of trees lied to me when I was a Boy Scout. Moss grows on the shady side, and that may be any side. I determined to buy a compass in the next town, but there wasn’t any next town on the road I was traveling. The darkness crept down and the rain drummed on the steel roof of the cab and the windshield wipers sobbed their arcs. Tall dark trees lined the road, crowding the gravel. It seemed hours since I had passed a car or a house or a store, for this was the country gone back to forest. A desolate loneliness settled on me–almost a frightening loneliness. Charley, wet and shivering, curled up in his corner of the seat and offered no companionship. I pulled in behind the approach to a concrete bridge, but couldn’t find a level place on the sloping roadside.
–From Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley (1962)..
The Cartoon and Live Briefing Archive.
