From a Recent Walk

When I downloaded the scarf pictures from the camera yesterday, it also downloaded the photos from a recent long walk we took at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge. I had all but forgotten about it!

Living here in the South, I rarely get the opportunity to wear winter clothes, so when it gets a little colder, I put on my scarves and hats and gloves and love it! The hat I knit a couple of years ago and I still love it. It has style and sparkle... ;-) 

And Daniel with the sunglasses - he was smart, I was squinting!

In the middle of the swamp, my sister called and we chatted for a bit. Daniel had to take a picture of me on the phone out in the middle of nowhere. I love technology!

More swamp pictures - it really was beautiful!

An abandoned wasp nest. Aren't they amazing architects?

A cardinal sporting his most beautiful red coat.

A few leftover fall leaves.

And a deserted birds nest, waiting for Spring.

With that, I wish you a relaxing and beautiful Sunday!

❧ Silke

A Sunday morning outing

This morning the sun was shining and it was quite cool - a perfect day for a nice long walk at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge.

This is the place where Daniel had gone a few weeks ago and had seen three bobcats. So, of course I was hoping that we might see them again this time around

This was a trail that I had not yet been on and it was stunningly beautiful! Even in winter with most trees bare and not much blooming yet.

We did see many, many birds. Isn't this red-winged black bird pretty?

And we were glad we had taken our small pair of binoculars with us.

That way we could get a close-up look at the two bald eagles hanging out near us, one in a tree and the other one flying around.

We saw many birds nests from last year. None of them were in use at the moment.

New ferns were growing in this area that had been burned earlier this year. It looked quite dramatic.

We walked by a cypress swamp and were fascinated (as we always are) by the many cypress knees sticking up from the ground.

It looked like an assembly of sorts...

And, of course, we saw quite a few alligators.

Actually, it wasn't easy getting pictures of them. As soon as they heard us coming, they would either slither elegantly or simply splash back into the water and swim away.

But a few were brave enough to stay in their sunny spot.

Or maybe they were just too cold to move much...

We saw one baby and one that was simply huge!

And every size in between.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of looking at them. To me they are quite beautiful!

No bobcats this time, but still a perfect walk!

Wishing you a wonderful Sunday!! Tomorrow I'll be back with more art...

A Surprise!

On Sunday, Daniel, Winslow and I drove to the Savannah River for a nice walk on the trail alongside it. We've been there many times, yet every time it strikes me as so beautiful and new that I come home with lots of photos. This time as well and I'll share more of them in later posts...

On our way there, I was thinking how we hadn't been to the beach in a quite a while and how I missed seeing the dolphins. So, imagine my surprise when I suddenly heard a dolphin breathe next to us, looked over at the river and saw that a couple of them were "walking" with us. No matter how often I see them, it's still magical every single time!!

Thank you so much for your visits and your sweet comments on Daniel's books! I am busy, busy this week as we are getting ready for a family visit and then some time away. But I hope to visit your blogs this week sometime...

Busy Day!

We have errands to run this morning and a Mexican feast to prepare for a dinner party tonight. Well, it's just us and Doris (the friend from my previous post), but that's enough people for a feast, right?!

So, for now I leave you with some garden photos from this morning...

See you all again tomorrow! Enjoy your day!!

Wordless Wednesday - Just Hanging Out...

Savannah Wildlife Refuge (Part 2)

If you remember from yesterday's post, we visited the Savannah Wildlife Refuge and finally arrived at our favorite pond. This is quite small, but not water I'd like to fall into. (You can click on any of the photos to see them larger!)

First, we saw an anhinga drying his wings,
then a turtle on the side of the road,
and several sunning themselves on logs on the pond.
And what have we here? A curious alligator, swimming straight toward us when he saw us standing by the side of the pond. We could have been worried, but he wasn't that big.
When he got close, he stopped and stayed there for his photo opp. Do you see the plants hanging out of his mouth? He was probably vegetarian...
Now, these are always exciting to spot - alligator babies. This one was really small - smaller than the turtles we saw.
But this one was already a little bit bigger, although it still had the stripes on the tail.

Finally it was time to leave and we made our way out of the refuge, but not without stopping to take a picture of this magnificent creature!

I think they will forever fascinate me!

I'm hoping to get some studio time today. But in any case, I wish you a great start to this week!

Savannah Wildlife Refuge (Part 1)

I was hoping I'd have more art to show you, but I haven't had any time in my studio lately!

Yesterday morning, however, we decided to get up early and head out to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge, which used to be an old rice plantation. And are we glad we went as we found out that it's going to be closed from June 1 through the end of the year for road repair.
While there, we saw beautiful spider lilies, pretty purple flowers,

and hundreds of iridescent dragon flies.

I was looking for a very noisy woodpecker in one of the many big trees, but couldn't find it.

Instead we saw several of these stunning Purple Gallinules in the reeds
and amidst thousands of blooming water lilies.
And then we came to our favorite little pond complete with cypress trees, Spanish moss, rotting logs, and...

some very exciting wildlife!

Come back tomorrow to see what all we saw! Happy Sunday, everyone!!