Category: Nature Coast Botanical Gardens

a second look, butterflies, fantasy images, fun, gardens, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, perseverance, photography, simple things, weather

Fall in Florida…

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There has been lots of fall foliage in my Facebook feed lately, but mostly from New England and Michigan. And just today my Facebook memories reminded me of the trees I used to see on my way home from work that I used to claim as fall color, Florida style. So today I rode up to Spring Hill to find the trees, and then headed to the botanical garden to see what was blooming.

I think the color of the trees disappointed me a little, it’s more brown than red. I think that the glimpse of those trees that you see behind houses, or hidden among other trees, always seems to be brighter fall colors. But when I haven’t been up north for a while it feels like fall to me.

The botanical garden was a surprise today. It was early and the flowers were plentiful and loaded with water droplets, and butterflies.

That orange butterfly must have been hungry because he let me get a lot of photos of him. And one photo was straight down on his back, and when I viewed it blown up in the computer all I could do was say, “Boo!” Halloween will be here soon…

And while I was zooming and cropping I loved these droplets too!

a second look, butterflies, fun, gardens, life goes on, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, perseverance, photography

The good sport…

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This butterfly is the last of the pictures I took the other day at the botanical garden.  He was last because he teased me the entire time I was there, zooming past but never lighting anywhere for long enough for me to get a picture.  Maybe he wore himself out because when I was ready to leave he showed up and stayed put.  I took pictures immediately, even though it wasn’t the best angle for taking a picture.  But facing away from me as in the feature photo we can see that he seems to have been through some hard times.  A big chunk of his left wing is missing, both top and bottom.  I doesn’t seem to have slowed him down any though.  And he hung around long enough to let me circle around him for some different angles for photos.  What a good sport he turned out to be after all.

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'scene' along the way, a second look, flowers, gardens, go with the flow, life goes on, lizards, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, on closer examination, perseverance, photography

Also at the garden…

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Of course there was more than just bees at the Botanical garden the other day, the bee was just the most fun for the photographer.  I also saw some unusual bird species that I hadn’t ever seen before.04-08-20swallowtailkite.jpg04-08-20bluebird3.jpg04-08-20bluebirdsortof.jpg04-08-20spoonbill.jpg

And of course pretty flowers…04-08-20pinkflower2.jpg04-08-20pinkflower.jpg04-08-203orangeflowers.jpg04-08-203flowers.jpg04-08-20pinky.jpg04-08-20redrose.jpg

And lizards.  Lots and lots of lizards.  Not that it takes a trip to the botanical garden to see them.  Nope, they are everywhere…04-08-203lizard.jpg

Christmas on the brain, flowers, friends, fun, gardens, moments, moon, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, perseverance, photography, sunset

Garden flowers…

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Of course there were also flowers at the botanical garden the other day.  And it seemed as if the red ones were the ones catching my eye.  Christmas colors.  Christmas on the brain.12-10redflower12-10hibidcus12-10flowerbranchI loved this little donkey planter that sat on a shelf in my mother’s house.  I loved it enough that I claimed it for my own when my mother was the one doing the downsizing.  I still love it, maybe it’s the colors?  So I had just said that I needed to find a little plant to put in it.  Something alive in the house, something to take care of.  Then I went to Publix and the Christmas cactus were on sale.  Just the thing I think.  But my success rate with plants isn’t all that great so I hope I haven’t condemned the poor thing to death,12-10planterWith Christmas on the brain the last couple of days I decided that I needed to find a spot for my tree, but there is no empty wall space in this tiny house.  But where there’s will there’s a way because I found a spot.  I’ve been itching to start sewing again.  Normally that would be such a nice winter activity, except you can hardly call this Florida weather winter.

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And at the end of our day at the botanical gardens we were seeing a lovely sunset, but had no nice view for photos.  But the moon looked pretty enough.  I hear there is another nice moon expected tonight.  At 12:12 on 12/12.  I hope to be awake to check it out.12-10sunsetmoon

'scene' along the way, a second look, friends, fun, gardens, moments, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, second chances

Christmas garden…

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I lived within a few miles of the Nature Coast Botanical Garden for about 10 years, and thought I dropped in fairly often,  But it took my friends who live an hour away to give me a heads up that there was a wonderful Christmas display at the gardens.  Had been in past years also.  How did I miss that?  I didn’t drop in as often as I thought apparently.  But yesterday we roamed and took pictures.  Christmas was on display everywhere we looked.  Everywhere we turned.  It was lovely…12-10Christmasgardens12-10angels12-10angels212-10wingsNot only angels and wings, but snowmen too.12-10snowmanAnd fancy, sparkly Christmas balls.12-10shells12-10orb12-10metta;oc12-10cutout12-10goldballs12-10hedgehogBut I also have a thing for hedgehogs.  Such a cute addition to anyone’s tree.  Especially mine.

'scene' along the way, birds, Florida landmarks, Florida wildlife, gardens, lizards, nature, Nature Coast Botanical Gardens, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, technology

Saturday at the Botanical Gardens…

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At the Nature Coast Botanical Gardens that is.  I may never have gone there on a Saturday before.  I say this because it just seemed to be bustling with activity, which isn’t usually the case.  They were getting ready for a wedding, decorating the gazebo, and chairs were set up ready for guests.  It looked to be my kind of affair, small and simple.  I’ll bet it was nice. 10-12gazebo

It was early and the sun was strong and made for deep shadows.  The butterflies in the butterfly garden were scarce, and too busy to sit for photographs.  But the female cardinal was too busy eating berries to worry about me and my camera.10-12cardinal2

But what tickled me most was that the train was zooming around the track.  That was a first.  I’d seen that the track was there of course, but hadn’t seen it in operation.  The gentleman running it says it runs every Saturday from 9 AM to noon.  The track circles a display that includes two little waterfalls, and I happily tried to get pictures but the strong sun and shadows got in the way.  So I used my new iPhone to take shots of the train in burst mode, and it shot a movie instead.  Clearly I need to study up on how to take best advantage of the features of the phone.  And the site wouldn’t let me post the little video.  But I got one shot of the train at least.10-12train

This water feature was new to me also.10-12waterfeatureAnd, what we have most of here in Florida, lizards!10-12lizard