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reaching to the sky like arthritic fingers. Old oaks and Sabal palms are silhouetted against the horizon. Cows graze lazily in the pasture. There is the snag where a hawk sits to hunt or just look out over his domain. It is almost paradise, with few reminders that the urban boundary is but a couple of miles west. One morning, what I see on the left prompts me to pull over. I grab my camera and hop out of the truck. Perfect light from the morn- ing sun is highlighting a menagerie of birds that has gathered at a small pond — roseate spoonbills, great egrets, wood storks, snowy egrets and more. I think about the people in the cars whizzing past on their way to work. They are missing this! I, too, have to get to work — tending plants in pool cages. Reluctantly, I tear myself away. As I punch in the code at the entry gate and pass the empty retention ponds, a sad thought enters my mind. Some day, the land I just left will probably be sold and it, too, will be molded into what I am now driving through … another sterile landscape. % Sarasota News Leader August 8 & 15, 2014 Page 118