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Monday, May 13, 2013

Just lovely my dear.......

When I went to Duke gardens a few weeks ago, I noticed that they also had an enormous amount of peonies planted. At that time not in bloom yet. So really I had to go back, because I just love peonies. Besides roses & hydrangeas that is. They come in that order on my favorites list too. And yes indeed, so true. I really love the "drama" flowers. So I took my chances this morning and drove up again. And ah..., they were so beautiful!

As like walking in one of those old English gardens somewhere in Cotswold. They all had the signs of an high tea just waiting to happen. "Just lovely my dear"....

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. ~Gerard de Nerval

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Spring trip to Sullivan's island

This week I went on a short trip to Sullivan's island near Charleston.

There is a little boardwalk along side the harbor which I love.

This friendly and a bit nosy pelican was also there.

Somehow seeing pelicans around me, gives me the ultimate vacation feeling. It means I'm near water and near warmer temperatures ;-)

Even spotted some dolphins in the harbor, that probably were hoping to get some leftover fish from the fishing boats.

Sullivan's island beach in the early morning.

The dogs had a great time on the beach since they are allowed to go off-leash there at certain times a day.

Some of the other visitor's on the beach.

There were a lot of Sand dollars to be seen at the beach that morning. And there was me thinking those are very rare shells to find. Not on Sullivan's Island at least.

On the way back home the GPS really had a hard time to get back on the I95. And kept directing to all these backroads of backroads. So we ended up passing through a town called Lakeview. Which, as the name suggests, had a really nice lake. Although, more of a swamp if you ask me. It would be the perfect spot to film a very scary horror movie there!

Right at the edge of the lake there was this old cabin. Which said it was from 1870 and was called Page's mill Pond.

The wooden deck had holes and big cracks in it, so did not take my chance to stand on it.

Very mysterious place don't you think? After this little town the GPS suggested to take a right on Chicken road and then a left on Turkey Branch (Seriously! :-) ) and then the first right was I95. Just had to laugh about that! But made it home safe again.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Trip to Pungo lake in NC

Last weekend I went to Pocosin / Pungo lake here in North Carolina. The photography club of Holly Springs went on a trip to this beautiful nature park and naturalist Mike Dunn would be our guide for that day.

And just minutes after we entered the park Mike spotted a corn snake in the middle of the road and he managed to block it before it got away. So we could take some pictures of it.

Impressive creature right? Have to say I am not used to snakes of this sort and size at all. Where I'm from the only snakes that live in the wild are called worms and those are a lot smaller! Seriously! I am not a snake fan, but getting this opportunity that close? Couldn't resist. The photographer in me won over my fear of snakes.

After a few seconds the snake wanted to get away from us and took an even more impressive pose. So I did enjoy taking pictures of him but was happy to be using a nice zoom lens.

We were hoping to see some bears that live in Pocosin, but while driving around we did see some very nice wild flowers like the yellow thistle. And below the cinnamon fern, which does justice to its name. Loved it's color.

Also saw some very interesting scenery.

And unused roads full of wild flower

But then Mike saw the first bears of the day in a field. A mom and two yearlings!

I was so happy! We did see some bears! But it even got better!

More bears in the marshes.

What an experience! Thanks to Mike we ended up seeing 19 bears that day! Wow! What a beautiful day this had turned out to be.

Mike also spotted a Nutria rat and an otter. This day kept getting better and better!

B.t.w. if you really like nature and/or photography you should check out Mike Dunn's blog. Which is full of great information & beautiful pictures! You might even be interested in going to one of his future educational trips he has planned for this year. And see all that nature has to offer yourself!