To Capture the Sunlight

Florida has delivered some stellar autumn days to us so far. It is a much favored season here. Our endless hot summer has taken a much needed break.
The sun's rays coming to us now with a more gentle angle and turning the earth into a soft glow.

Beneficial flying critters of all sorts and sizes are increasingly alive with activity. As they hover and flit about the garden; the tiniest of wings highlighted in the sunshine.

I wish I could capture the essence of these days; to bottle it, to describe it, to hold onto it somehow.

Sunlight is a glorious gift.

The autumn season is unlike any other.

It's warm yet comfortable, it's bright and clear and clean but not washed out, it brushes the skin and touches the soul with the same stroke of radiance.

Being in the autumn garden to soak up the goodness of nature is one of the blessings we reap from summer's hard work.

It is the season when we notice the simplest aspects of life and thankfulness abounds.

Every color more vivid and true.

Each green leaf illuminated.

Supporting actors become stars in the sun's spotlight.

Yes, there is evidence of decline in the garden.

It is inevitable with shorter days and longer nights.

Parts of the garden withdraw in natural transition. Every bit easier to accept in the midst of autumn splendor.

Elements of the garden change continually. As I look around there is a different kind of beauty to be seen.

Lessons from the garden... learning to appreciate every facet of these seasonal changes.

Even though to hold the sun's brilliance is impossible; I am ever grateful to partake of it each moment it shines freely to brighten my world.

Happy gardening! Meems

A Week in Wildlife

There's been a whole lot of gardening going on at Hoe & Shovel over the past couple of weeks. And do you want to know every little thing about what I've been doing? I kind of doubt it since it mostly involves fall clean up projects. Lots of trimming. But also I've done some planting. So far I'm working away at a good trimming and pruning of the shell ginger, the confederate jasmine that grows along the length of a 30 foot fence, the snow bush, the plumbagos, the palmettos, the schefflera. Just about everything has or is needing a good tweaking to ready for the winter.

I still have a list a mile long that I won't bore you with... well, maybe I will in another post.

While all these hours of gardening ensue there are so many wonderful creatures that keep me company. I already showed you the peacocks that came strutting through the garden this week.

I'm so thankful the mild weather here is suitable for year round butterflies and wildlife activity. They are such a pleasure to observe in all their colors and forms floating about the garden. I'm often distracted by their follies.

This was the first time I've photographed the Queen Butterfly. I believe this is the male. He's a bit tattered and torn.

As is this monarch on the tippy top of the flax lily btw.


And another on the scarlet milkweed.


Red cardinal

I don't usually even care to photograph the squirrels since they are such an irritation most of the time. But they are kind of cute I admit scurrying about these days picking up fallen acorns and hiding them or perching to eat them.




Red Bellied Woodpecker in a quick visit to the bird feeder.


We got some blessed rain yesterday and all is clear and bright today. We are slated for our first "real" cool front this week. Woo-Hoo! Highs in the mid 70's by the middle of the week. I'm looking forward to gardening Monday in some autumn coolness.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend. Meems

A Saturday at Home

It's the first weekend in quite a while we haven't either been out of town or had a huge agenda to tend to. Last night our 5 year old granddaughter stayed here overnight. She'll be six in a couple of weeks. I'm reminded once again how very quickly children move along the path of life without skipping a beat or pausing to stay a little longer at one of my favorite kissy-cheek stages. No, they grow up fast so we endeavor to take the time we have to stop the regularly scheduled pace of life momentarily and treasure every visit.

This morning our 2.5 year old grandson came by to join her for some cousin time. I'm so thankful we are close by to enjoy them as often as we like. What a blessing! We ate breakfast together, tromped around in the the back yard playing for a while and they ended up hot and sweaty and went for a swim in the swimming pool.

They are both enthralled by the wildlife and butterflies in Mimi's garden. We're learning how to recognize some of them by sound as well as by sight and also learning their habitats and characteristics. And, as is the ordinary, I too, was attracted to them with my point and shoot. It happened to be that time of day when the birds come to the feeders for their mid-morning snack.

The first rays of sunlight were a little late streaming through the cloudy start to the day. But like a silent call to all butterflies the sunshine made its appearance and gave their wings the warmth they require to fly...

... and like clockwork the air show began right on cue. Monarchs, swallowtails, sulphurs, skippers, and blues flying about together at times and then separately. From my yard back and forth to my neighbor's ... all seemingly in a competition to see how many different flowers can be visited...

... it didn't take but fifteen minutes to capture these few fluttering critters and flowers to make our outdoor time even more interesting and colorful.
After a very busy week of gardening, except for pulling a few weeds in between setting up the t-ball game, I managed not to do any gardening today. Well, I don't think going out this evening to water all the potted plants (and pulling a few more weeds) counts as gardening.

I noticed the rain we finally got earlier this week gave us another quick flush of the sweet pink rain lilies. Just when you think they are all finished for the year, here they come again.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend of gardening or family or whatever brings you joy.
Meems

Another Small Town, Another Beach, Some History

The last day of our vacation, hubby and I made our way north over the Florida/Georgia border to another small, sleepy town hollowed out on the St. Mary's river. From here we boarded a ferry boat over to Cumberland Island... the only way to get to the island is by boat. Virtually uninhabited by humans for its entire history, there are clues from Indian inhabitants and then Spanish soldiers and missionairies who lived there in the mid-1500's.

The soft grassy marshes so familiar in this part of the country come into view first as we approach our destination from St. Mary's.

With their wealth of nutrients the marshes support large populations of fish, shellfish, plants, and birdlife.

The island is now managed by the National Park Service and seeks to keep the land as untouched by humans as possible.

Horses donated by the Carnegie's roam the entire island. They are grass-eating feral horses and because they are not fed, watered, or medicated by the park service only the strong survive.

We were warned not to feed or try to pet any of the families of horses we might come across while visiting. The stallions keep members of other families at bay by marking out their territories.

Wild turkeys were a common sight along with armadillos (which I have an aversion to since they commonly dig up and destroy plantlife here in my garden).

There was a time when Thomas and Lucy Carnegie built a 28,000 square foot mansion in the mid 1880's. This is the remains of what was their winter home. When it burned down in 1959, it had not been occupied for many years. Lots of interesting facts about how this family was self- sustaining on this private island when they acquired 90% ownership of it. They had running water, an indoor built-in swimming pool, they grew all their own food, and maintained lush gardens on several acres. Of course they had over 200 servants that worked for them and lived in supporting buildings. Most of these buildings are gone now with only a few remaining that the park service occupies for various maintenance facilities.

Not many of the original structures have been restored but the wash building for some reason still has the equipment that was used by the families' servants.

Hundreds of live oaks that have been standing for hundreds of years occupy much of the wooded area. We walked for over 3 miles once we landed. It was nice to have the shade of so many beautiful trees.

Speaking of walking. This is the magnificently wooded trail that leads to the Atlantic beach side of the island. I imagine this is much like what my own neighborhood here at Hoe & Shovel might have looked like so many years ago before homes and roads were carved out. These types of trees and palmettos are what canopy so many yards on our street.

Opening up from the darkness of that foresed walk we emerged onto the brightness of the beach. The change was just that sudden. The white sand dunes were tall and then low and horse tracks and deer tracks trailed through them.

Miles and miles of practically unoccupied Atlantic shoreline. I'm not a shell collector. But the tide was out so we couldn't help but pick up some very large and unique shells as we walked along to the sound of lapping waters and gulls feeding along the shore.

Starfish left behind on the sand after the tide went out. This one still wiggly, we urged it back to deeper waters.

Always fascinated with dragon flies, I noticed this quite large one, perched on the grass of the dunes as we were exiting the walkway from the beach.

On the boat ride back to the mainland after almost six hours of traversing this beautifully natural place, we were treated to more of nature's display and habitat of various birds. This huge flock decided to leave their roosting position in the snags and limbs on a small island visible as we passed. Literally hundreds of them gathered to fly in somewhat of a formation over the open waters as if signaled by an unseen call and as if they knew exactly where they were heading.

At first I thought they were wood storks but I'm fairly certain they are white Ibis. If anyone knows for sure, I'd love to hear from you.

The day was a highlight for us. We were outside all day with hardly a soul around us most of the time. We had packed a picnic lunch that we ate in the cool breeze on the river side of the island while watching the wild horses saunter passed us on the shoreline. We took the trails least used to explore the woodsy areas of the island and then ended up on the beach. Because the park service doesn't offer any food or drinks we were responsible to carry on whatever we thought we might need while there. It was just lots of fun and dare I say romantic.

The little river town was adorable too. We walked around to see the restored 1800's homes and ate on an open-porch restaurant overlooking the river. We tend to wonder outloud if we like these kinds of towns so much because we don't live in one or would we like to live in one because we like them so much. :-) We don't know the answer to that one yet. So for now, we'll keep visiting and we'll keep talking about it.