A little water...finally!

We have lots and lots of toads here. Then all of a sudden the frogs showed up. But no rain to speak of for weeks at a time. Last evening it rained and this morning again.

And I was happy to see this little guy making his way down my office window this early morning! I'm pretty sure you're a tree frog...little one......not a window frog! He really didn't care what he was, as long as he was wet!

All Better Now!

Computers can be a pain but oh so fun as well.

It looks like we were able to save all my old files so that is good news.

I'm learning all about Vista and trying to figure out how to make my computer feel right by putting everything back the way it was.

On that note I wanted to tell you we ordered my new computer from Dell. It was like building a car! The delivery date was supposed to be Aug 4th. We received the computer yesterday...6 days before promised! Way to go Dell!!

Time for a Fresh Start

Hi all. Well my computer finally bit the dust! I may or may not have lost a lot of pictures. Time will tell, things don't happen fast around here...including the internet on this lap top I'm working with. I should get my new computer about the 4th of August. Don't forget me!!!

Till then my friends!

Cathedral Caverns Grant, Alabama

Hi all!

Well, my Step-mom Bette was here this week for a visit, and boy we sure did have a great time.

We did some real exploring around my new home and Bette was just the one to get me going!

She had me going down roads in every direction!We even found this great view and guess what? It's for sale if you're interested! We wanted to check out Cathedral Caverns since it's only about 12 miles from my house and off we went to see what we would find. Well, we were more than pleasantly surprised.

We were in AWE! The cave has quite a few "world record" categories and you can check them out at the linked site on my title. Just entering and turning around is quite a sight to behold. Looking in from the entrance.Just to prove this cave was once part of an ocean floor our guide had us look up to the ceiling, near the entrance, to see a tooth of a "meglalodon" a pre-historic shark. It was about 3 inches across.The structure above is "Goliath" the world's largest stalagmite. It measures 45' tall and 243' around! There are pools of water and it was a little frightening to find out the cave floods, and at times one of the bridges we were on has water come right up to the bottom of it. It was way up there. This is one area that floods. If you look at that spotlight above on the left, you can see the old rail where people used to walk! NO THANKS!! This was one of the old bridges, which would be completely under water since I'm photographing from the bridge that the water reaches. That's a little stream at the bottom. Here we are in one of the big rooms of the cavern. I never did find out why that hard hat is down there but where I'm standing is what would be the fourth floor of a 12 story building that could fit in that space. YIKES! The room is 200 feet wide and 792 feet long! Can you see the caveman and his "Rock" weiler?There are several stalagmite forests in the cave. This was the last one for us to see, as our trip turned around here. There will be a new "wild cave" journey you can take soon. But one of the rooms would have you squeezing though a 5 gallon pail sized hole for 5 feet. I'm not sure if that is for me. Next time I go, I will spend a lot more time inside. It was just a thrill of a lifetime to enjoy this beautiful work of nature.

More on our adventures in my next post.

Please be sure to click on my title to see the link of Cathedral Caverns!

Photoshopping Phlowers

SOOCFiltered

I just love playing in Photoshop!

Garden Update

You can imagine my surprise when I found that one of the Crape Myrtle trees in my yard was this stunning pink color. I am on a true learning curve because I've never had to deal with Japanese beetles before. I have two more of these trees which I am assuming are a different variety as they haven't even begun to show buds. Are they already eaten alive or are they just late bloomers? Time will tell.I've found that most of the plants in the yard are early bloomers and so I've begun to fill in the gaps this year with annuals. I'm hoping the zinnia and salvia fill up the spaces. I noticed many of the hostas in the gardens are very small and don't stand out in their surroundings. I was watching an episode of "A Gardener's Diary" on HGTV that featured a fellow from Atlanta who was a true "garden nerd". He had a huge collection of Hostas and noted that they liked to get cold roots so he put them in pots. Hostas need cold roots to spur them to grow bigger and better each year. So I picked up these three stunning plants and plopped them in pots that I brought from NY. They are just ugly plastic pots but hopefully will be just an afterthought when these hostas are bursting out on all sides. And for my favorite new thing! I picked up this sweet Daisy Fountain at Lowe's for a mere $40. (I had a $10.00 coupon!) I put it next to the brick path that leads to the front door. The sound of water bubbling is just right and just gives me such a good feeling. Every day my mind is full of little ideas to improve my landscape.

Time. Be patient, I tell myself, it takes time.

Here are a few people who inspire me to be a better gardener.

Yvonne

http://countrygardener.blogspot.com/

and Julie

http://www.dogtrotfarm.blogspot.com/

A Little off Track

Photos from Guntersville on June 25th.Inspired by Kerry.

Obsessed

Lately all I can think about is gardening!

This beautiful Nippon Lilly made it to Alabama from my New York garden.

I am so pleased to see it preform!

Garden Fun

The quality of this photo is not the best but I thought it was too fun to pass up. Can you see the blue mouse hanging? These two had such a blast the other evening getting wild in the garden!

Fuzzy

I've been seeing the Silver-spotted Skipper since I arrived in April. Who knows this may be the same one! It's pretty tattered. It's easy to spot this large Skipper with that huge white streak on his hindwing.

Guntersville Dam

Guntersville Dam is just a quick skip and a hop across the highway from our mountain so Morgan and I decided to take a peek there last month on the way to town. There are walking trails to be explored and its a great place to bird.This is the east side of the dam on the Tennessee River. While we were there, a horn blew and next thing you know...out comes a boat from the lock. We drove over to the west side to take a few quick shots. The Great Blue Herons seemed to love this wall for sitting.We saw quite a few Herons.This monstrous tower hovered above and Morgan could not look up at it without getting dizzy,but I heard an Eastern Bluebird and was bound and determined to find it. Well there was a bird on the tower, but it was a Red-headed Woodpecker!Then I spotted my Bluebird using the scaffolding as a perch to hunt from! I think he had a pretty good view of his tasty treats below! We'll be going back to Guntersville Dam for more birding adventures for sure!

First Time Firework Handler

And the battle scars to prove it! I think we'll leave it to the professionals!!

Independence Day

We had a great Fourth of July with family and friends!
Hope you did too!

A Quick Trip

We had to go to Guntersville yesterday to drop off some paperwork but then had to wait a while to pick up some more, so we decided to spend a little time over by Lake Guntersville State Park.

Two miles before the park entrance there is a little parking area with a small trail and that looked like a good place to spend a few minutes.There were so many dragonflies around. This one is most likely an Eastern Amberwing.

Stunning little fellows. Wood Duck house? The pines are so tall! I heard birds tweeting up in the tops but have no idea what they were...

Grrrrrrr!!! I have no idea what plant this is but I love the shape of the leaves.

I really need to get involved with the local birders soon, I've got a lot of learning to do! Square bark, what texture! And a place to sit for rest.We will be taking a trip to the main park soon. I'm sure it will be spectacular!