Swamps Are Gardens too!

Swan Lake and Gardens is basically a swamp! The water is shallow, filled with Cyprus trees and the water is now smothered with duckweed, a tiny small 2 lobed plant the size of a pin head! Its not a good plant to have in a LAKE...as it cuts out sunlight from reaching the bottoms of the lake bed.  When wild birds fly from one lake to the other they can transport this weed on their feathers and feet so it gets moved around pretty fast and it grows like wildfire I put some in my wee water garden and its now filled and clogging my pump!

Swan Lake has a large collection of swans....they roam and swim openly through out the park...although I don't see any fly...so I'm assuming the wings are clipped some way that makes me sad, I go to see the other wildlife that fly in and out of the area it is a Wildlife area too.  And the swans are beautiful, and well cared for.  We had a nice cool day for a change so we wandered around and enjoyed what we saw!!!

                                                            Australian   Black Swan 

                                                                         Pond Sliders

The Green Anole

                  

                                                             the Belted Kingfisher 

                  

                                                               Egret in a tree

                                              Mute Swan Foreground Whooper Swan background

Always a fun place to visit. 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

Home Team 4 Visitors NADA!

This past weekend we made the trip upstate to visit family and attend a ball game in the city!

We ate at a vegetarian Mexican eatery they had sidewalk dining so we people watched while we ate something we don't get to do out in the rurals where we live..unless we go to Walmart~

! Mom has never been to a "real" ballgame, this is not the Braves or the Yankees or the Mets like I used to attend when I lived up in NYC but its the Greenville Drive! Its way more fun than a Major League game for the reasons I'm sure you already know!  I don't think I saw one single spitting match or one inappropriate scratching!!

IT was HOT as heck! but the first pitch was at 7 pm and soon the sun went behind a cloud and then behind the stadium seats so we enjoyed it after that! 

They Won 4-0 Pretty cool!

I saw a few things along the way...

this is Shower Bath Falls its bigger than some  and smaller than some! the book says its a 13 ft falls...not much water coming over although we have had more rain lately...

This stump has a great spot to live and die don't you think?

Found a roadside meadow! Full of small tidbits and this butterfly...

the mountains had a summer haze laying over them...it was cooler up there though!

Now back home its 97 degrees 50 % humidity...and tomorrow we expect 1-2 inches of rain! I hope it pushes the heat out for a while.

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

The Reluctant Traveler

My Mom...I've dragged her to points of interest and beyond!!I dragged her over 8,000 miles and 34 days of car travel that trip! I've dragged, pushed and insisted she accompany me on zillions of trips...near and far, she always went along! Never said NO!

mom in our small soaking pool,  2008 

 Here she is at Yellowstone, in 1998 

I'm the middle child....not the baby and not the oldest, I'm sure there are lots of middle children out there!!

I'm not looking for sympathy here...this is the reality of life ...but my ability to go "places" has reached a snag...ya'll know my mother had to have hip surgery in April...and since her release she has had a tough time, her mobility is down to barely able to get around using a walker, she does have a more mobile 3 wheel thing we call The Rover...but she gets tired so easy just pushing it around exhausts her.  She is gonna be 90 in a few months...so I have no one to watch over my Mom if I want to take off and she is getting too frail to make longer trips.  My Mom has always been my best Pal...we have done sooooo many things together!! 

Here she is walking at Swan Lake and Gardens, Sumter SC 2009

Mom's goose

Here she is walking on the dirt road where we live when I insisted we take a walk ....its 2 miles round trip!

Mom walking in 2009 carrying her oxygen in a back pack!

I'm what you call stuck between a rock and a hard soft place... I have 2 sisters last year my Mom went to spend time in Colorado with my older sister who is retired and has ample space and she doesn't travel except to come here.  But when I broke both my arms...(*&^%$) she came back and decided not to go back to CO at that time.  My younger sister has made choices that keep her nose to the grind stone so tight she is not available most of the time, my son is wrapped up in his own life as one should be...so that leaves me! 

Here she is bundled up on the boardwalk at Congaree National Swamp when I insisted to go visit the park in the dead of winter...

So on the 4th of July...Mom and I were quiet at home we did nothing special..

Mom July 4th 2011 on a picnic in Sandhills Wildlife Refuge

except I had the Walking Dead marathon to keep me busy,,,she actually watched a few episodes with me and asked so many questions, why did they do that, who are those people, whats with all these horrible effects of blood and guts?...I try to explain its an escape for me...I'm not sure she gets it...the cooler weather meant at least we could go outside for a breath of fresh air from the humidity of the SC summer we relaxed on the porch.

Here she is in 2010 when I dragged her to down to the coast for 4 days we explored Charleston &  Edisto Island

  beach Edisto 2010

Mom on street Charleston, SC

So this coming weekend...we are traveling upstate for a weekend at younger sister's home.  I am looking forward to it we leave Friday!  We have plans to attend a minor league Ball Game on Saturday night, And Sunday we will return home and we are bringing Maggie with us for a week...she loves it at our home as its completely peaceful here.  

2006 When I dragged Mom up to New England in October, she didn't even own a winter coat, don't need one in SC!

Then I dragged her to Niagara Falls in the rain...in October...at least we got her a coat!

Mom Niagara Falls, NY

pondering at 40 acre rock Kershaw, SC

Today we need some supplies...a trip to the Piggly Wiggly I ask "you wanna take a ride with me?"

"No, I don't feel well enough to go." 
--Sigh--

Mom in 1970 

Here is a list of states I've dragged Mom since I got my driver's license in 1969! 

in Alphabetical order:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois 

Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee

Texas, Vermont, Virginia, DC, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming!!

She has been, but not with me, to Florida & Utah also! 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

The Front Line

On the Home Front:
Well I got 6 and a 1/2 pints of Jam from my berries! Its yummy too..and some plums are on the way to ripe maybe by the 4th I will be plum picking!  We have no travel plans for the 4th is not a good time to travel anyway...way to many drunks celebrators on the road! On the Blog Front: During the time my blog roll was not working I did some clean up! A lot of people had just given up their blog and hadn't updated in a long time so I deleted those.  I thought Blogger would go to the Dead Zone! Glad it didn't....Yet! 
BUT it could happen. Do you get annoyed with those on your blog roll who you visit and comment regularly and they never reciprocate? I have run into that and after a good- hearted try I just stop visiting and eventually delete that blog from my roll, this way I can better manage my online time and my blog call roll fits neatly on one page! 



On the Nature Front: A Damsel fly on a log by some red algae?

And check out this shield Bug I saw at home..

A couple frogs found their way into our water collection barrels and now we have tadpoles in both of the short barrels! I moved a few of them to my water garden!! 

They sing loud at night!! Almost too loud wont be long till they will be looking for new digs I imagine!

On the Hobby Front:
Been trying to figure out how to get macro shots  with this Panasonic camera! I have found out a few things it does not have long range zoom in the A-S-P settings..only Auto! It has 2 auto settings so it serves the need but I do enjoy some macro now and then...my first couple of attempts, these are not extreme macros which I want to try at some point..I do need to get the tripod out its just awkward to handle.

And here are the plums I'm waiting on...they are nearly ready.  Once they turn more orange in color they will be sweet..If I pick too early they will be too tart.

On the Bird Front:
Two things! First Wood Thrushes--oh the beautiful song they sing...it lures me into the woods in my bare feet trying to snap a photo of them...for some reason they are up high in the trees I don't know maybe training young, maybe eating the wild cherry's not suitable for human consumption but just right for birds! Whilst out looking for them I found this
 Just to show that birds work well together! I heard the ruckus and went to investigate! Its a little shaky in the beginning, ok well its shaky throughout but you will see why..

                           


                                                   AND yes I did get him down...

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.