TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE

December 21, 2010

FISH TRAP CUT

On a visit to Fish Trap Cut, I found these wonderful glimpses of nature.  These blue swallowtails were mudpudding looking for salt and amino acids.  The ferns and cypress knees were found on the edge of the upper Chief's mound.

CENTURY PLANT

Agave americana, commonly known as the Century Plant, is an agave originally from Mexico but cultivated worldwide as an ornamental plant. It has since naturalised in many regions and grows wild in Europe, South Africa, India, and Australia.

It has a spreading rosette (about 4 m/13 ft wide) of gray-green leaves up to 2 m (6.6 ft) long, each with a spiny margin and a heavy spike at the tip that can pierce to the bone. Its common name derives from its habit of only occasionally flowering, but when it does, the spike with a cyme of big yellow flowers may reach up to 8 m (26 ft) in height. The plant dies after flowering, but produces suckers or adventitious shoots from the base, which continue its growth. The average lifespan is around 10 years.

Cultivated varieties include the "marginata" with yellow stripes along the margins of each leaf, "medio-picta" with a central white band, "striata" with multiple yellow to white stripes along the leaves, and "variegata" with white edges on the leaves. From Wikipedia.

THESE ARE PICTURES OF A BLOOMING CENTURY PLANT IN THE YARD OF DUB AND MARY DOUGLAS ON EDGEWOOD DRIVE, DUBLIN, GEORGIA.

DRAGONFLIES

Took these pictures in my yard on July 3, 2010, an unusually cool day.

INDIAN PINK

I found this photograph of an Indian Pink (Spigelia marilandica) in the woods next to my home.

CHIPMUNK

Found this chipmunk in my yard.  It's hard to believe it is really a rat.

Tulip Poplar

The tulip poplar is one of the largest native hardwood trees of Eastern North America.  It has one of the most beautiful blooms of any flowering tree.

MRS. SALLY'S BIRDS

Somewhere on Taylor Grocery Road between Rentz and Dexter lives Sally Hoover.  Sally loves birds, all birds.  She feeds them year round.  If you sit on her front porch long enough, you'll see a dozen or more birds.  Here cardinals abound, sometimes ten at a time. 

SPRING FIELDS

Field on Parker's Dairy Road, opposite Laurens County Convenience Center.

TOWER OF PURPLE

A wisteria vine growing on a tall pine on the Dublin-Eastman Road in Dodge County.

THE ROCKS OF OCHWALKEE

This outcropping of Altamaha grit sandstone lies in southern Laurens County, Georgia along a tributary of Ochwalkee Creek. There are more than fifty boulders. Many of the rocks show striations of water flow. Found amongst the rocks are several varieties of lichens, fat lightered knots, wiregrass an many other rare plants.