I also visited my friend in Waterlily, and went for a walk every morning.  The sun was just coming up this morning, and the sky was so blue.  I could see the Currituck Lighthouse in Corolla across the Sound.  It's on that strip of dark land, just below the clouds.  I also saw an osprey on her nest, but she flew before I could get her picture.  

 

I thought you might like to see another beautiful part of North Carolina, the Outer Banks.

 

HAPPY TRAVELS!!!

 

And while I was taking the picture of the egret, this Great Blue Heron was watching me, or maybe watching us both.  Maybe it was just looking for a good fishing hole.  I love it.

 

 

HAPPY, HAPPY!!!

 

I am here in Virginia Beach, and every morning I walk up and down the pier.  At one end is this beautiful golf course, and at the other end is the marina for our condo community.  It is a lovely walk, and I get to see lots of birds.  This egret was fishing just across the way, and didn't mind my being close.  I guess he knew that I wasn't a threat.

 

I love seeing these huge, beautiful water birds.

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

 

 

 

As I was traveling to Virginia last week, I saw lots of fall color in and around Asheville.  Of course, I couldn't take pix and drive at the same time, but when I stopped in Black Mountain, I took this picture for you.  Their Bradford Pears are already changing.   And we will be seeing lots of our own fall color soon. 

 

I love watching every day for the changes.

 

 

HAPPY FALL Y'ALL!!!

 

Walking in the park last week, we saw this little squirrel, and she was very interested in Jon.  I love this picture.  Can't you just imagine that she is offering to share her acorn with him?  

 

 

HAPPY FALL, Y'ALL!!!

 

I got an interesting message from a friend the other day, asking me what tree was dumping all the golf ball-sized fruit on Moccasin Creek Road.  I knew immediately that it was Black Walnut, just as he suspected.  So, here is a picture of the tree, and if you enlarge the picture, you can see several fruits way up there.  (My picture of the fruit on the ground wasn't so great.)  When the fruits drop on the ground they kinda make a mess, especially when they fall on the road.

 

I looked up Black Walnut, and found out some interesting info.

 

Its botanical name is Juglans nigra, and is in the same family as English Walnut, Hickory, and Pecan.  The fruits are special too, just like English Walnut, they are very tasty.  Unlike English Walnut, they are a pain to extract from the husks and the shells.  The husks that protect the nuts are full of a yellowish-brown stain, that early American settlers actually used to dye hair!!!  Anyway, that stain can also be used to dye fabric, yarn, wood, and your hands if you're not careful.    

 

We had a friend in Harrisonburg, VA who gathered the fruits as they fell from his trees, and pushed them into his driveway.  Then he ran over them with his truck to get off the husks, without touching them with his hands.  We brought some unshelled nuts home one time, and tried to crack them on the potting bench using a hammer.  Well, you know how THAT turned out.  In order to crack the shells we had to really smack them hard, and when they broke, the shells smashed into the nutmeat.  Yuck!  I wouldn't want to do it for a living, but it was kinda fun to do, once.

 

Interestingly, Missouri is a major producer of Black Walnuts, using machinery to extract the nuts. So, somebody has figured out how to get to the tasty nuts, without infusing them with bits of shell.

 

Next time you eat Black Walnut cake or cookies or ice cream, you will appreciate them in a new way.  

 

 

THANKS, MARK FOR ASKING ABOUT THEM.  We all got to learn something new.

 

 

Jon just brought in this butternut squash.  He took the pic with a quarter in it for perspective.  Hahaha!!!

 

It could be the smallest butternut ever.  Well, at least the smallest that ripened and is edible.  I'll let you know if it's tasty or just tiny.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

Well, they look pretty, but they are deadly!!!  These Jack O'Lantern mushrooms are growing up through a rotting tree stump.  

 

We knew the tree when it was standing.  Then a few years ago it had to be cut down because it was rotting and threatening to fall across the walk path.  Over the past couple years it has sent up these jack o'lantern mushrooms, telling us that they are helping the tree stump to decompose.  

 

It is very exciting to come around the corner and see these mushrooms, because they are so bright and pretty.  But we know that they are poisonous, so we don't even touch them.  We just admire them and take pictures.

 

As with all mushrooms:  we look, but don't touch!!!

 

 

HAPPY FALL!!!

 

We still have beans.  See how pretty they are?  These are rattlesnake beans:  they are striped with purple, and climb up a trellis.  See them wrapped around the fence wires?  They do that all by themselves.  All I do is plant the seeds, and fertilize them when they start to bloom.  They do the rest.  I love it!!!

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!

 

 

 

These are Anaheim and Poblano Peppers.  The bushes are taller than I am:  over 5 feet tall, and loaded with baby peppers.  We like to grill these too.  They get sweeter when they're cooked.  

 

Our fingers are crossed that our first frost is late in November or even December, because as you can see, we've got a bunch of peppers on the bushes, and they won't survive a frost.  They melt.  That's OK, we will harvest them when we think there's going to be a frost.

 

 

HAPPY GARDENING!!!