Driftwood Hunting on the Magnolia River

Just before sunrise is my favorite time to be out in nature. The air is crisp, the birds sing their morning songs, pastel colors paint the horizon of a new day. I breathe in the sweet smells of dew covered leaves, and my heart is full of gratitude.

If you don't already know, I'm a little obsessed with driftwood. I love finding interesting new pieces, taking them home, cleaning them up, and creating driftwood art. My husband also enjoys finding driftwood. I feel like there's a primitive pleasure of hunting and gathering that motivates him. There may also be a little bit of that in me, too -- my heart pitter-patters every time he finds a big chunk of briny, smelly, soppy driftwood and presents it to me.

We do most of our driftwood hunting on beaches and shorelines. Since our beaches have closed temporarily, due to the coronavirus, our hunting grounds have dwindled, so we've been putting a little bit of extra effort into finding driftwood while kayaking.

We went kayaking on the Magnolia River a few days ago, and discovered a big, beautiful piece of driftwood floating on the water. It was snagged between a few branches. We poked and tumbled it with our paddles before my husband fished it out of the water; though, I was nervous watching him grabbing for it with his hands. I would have preferred for him to use his grabber, but he assures me that he could see that there weren't any critters hanging around.

What a gorgeous piece of driftwood, but phew, it was stinky! We wrapped it up in my windshield protector and stuck it in the hatchback of my smallish SUV, but we had to keep the windows wide open the whole ride home. It smelled like a bunch of wet towels in a musty basement once confined in my car. It's currently airing out in our backyard. Later this week, I'm going to power wash and scrub all of the slime and muck off of it, then I'll give it a good soak in a tub of bleach (if we can find any). After it's bleached, I'll let it dry for a very long time, months probably, out on our back patio porch, before using it to create driftwood art.

Be well my friend, and until next time, carpe diem!

Melissa Anne

"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." ~ Mother Julian

Video of the sunrise photo from the top of this post ---> @melissaannestudio

Kayaking on the Magnolia River (Part 2)

In my last post about the Magnolia River, we took a left at the launch and explored the upper Magnolia. Today we took a right at the launch and explored the lower Magnolia. It was a totally different experience, but just as beautiful.

(If you missed the other Magnolia River post, click here.)

There's substantially less tree coverage shading the lower Magnolia. It's a wider, deeper body of water with the occasional speed boat sending large rolling ripples through the still-as-glass water. It was beautiful at sunrise but got hot and bright very quickly. We will probably do this paddle again when the weather cools and the sun becomes a welcome source of warmth on a chilly day.

Below is a YouTube video I made of our adventure:

Until next time.
Carpe diem, my friend!

Magnolia River, Magnolia Springs

I think I'd rather do a little less telling and more showing today, if that's alright with y'all. Follow along in the video below as we explore the Magnolia River in the sleepy little town of Magnolia Springs, Alabama. Some highlights of this trip were: me not getting my feet wet at the put-in (lol) and a little discussion about the mailboxes on the river.

If you've decided to put-in at this location, please consider that there are only four designated parking spots. One might think it looks rather innocent to park on either side of the quiet gravel street, but the people who live on the street say otherwise. My advice is to be aware and to be respectful of the residents' wishes for people to not park on their property; have a plan B kayaking adventure in mind if all of the spots are taken.

You can find the location of this public launch on the Go Paddling App or here on paddling.com.

There are no portalets at this location.

Until next time.
Carpe diem, my friend!