Quite a few years ago a friend gave us two bluebird nesting boxes. Last week was only the second time in all of those years that we’ve actually seen bluebirds in the boxes. I was unable to get very close but was able to take a few photos of one male Eastern Bluebird. “O bluebird, welcome…
Tag: Southeastern United States
Weekly Photo Challenge: Local
I don’t live in a town, but rather live halfway between two small towns in Northeast Georgia. Our house is one of three homes on an unpaved lane located a short distance from the main highway. Local to me means scenes like these: See other interpretations of local or join the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge here.
Phoneography: In the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. (John Muir)
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Bridges
Suspension bridge over Tallulah Gorge See more bridges or join Cee’s challenge here.
Wisteria: It’s Everywhere !
Who knew that wisteria is an invasive species here in the Southeastern U.S.? It’s everywhere this year. Beautiful but everywhere. Wisteria is a vine, hardy and fast-growing, and it can strangle large trees and damage houses and other buildings. Many, many trees near us are almost covered with wisteria vines. On a recent walk I…
Life in the rural South: Trying not to get shot
A couple of evenings ago, an old pickup truck stopped on the one-lane dirt road right in front of our house and honked the horn. My husband went out onto the porch, and shortly afterwards I saw him talking to a man who looked as if he were right out of Central Casting. Missing a few teeth…
This Week In Our Small-Town Police Blotter: Colloquialisms In the Police Report
Our weekly newspaper often uses colloquialisms in their news stories about local law enforcement activities. Of course the law enforcement officials themselves may use these words in their official police reports, and the newspaper may simply repeat what is in the reports. Regardless, people from other parts of the country might not understand the stories. An example this…
Sweetshrub: An Old Fashioned, Sentimental Favorite
As a child, I enjoyed plucking the flowers and breathing in the sweet scent of this native shrub. European settlers in America first discovered sweetshrub ( Calycanthus floridus) in the 1730s in the woodlands of the piedmont area of the Carolinas. The bark of this deciduous shrub is said to smell like camphor, while the scent…
The Phantom of Appalachia in My Backyard
The eastern cougar is extinct, or more correctly, extirpated (totally wiped out), so the federal and state wildlife officials say, but sightings of the big cats are frequent here in the Southern Appalachians. It won’t do any good to contact the Georgia Department of Natural Resources if a cougar is sighted; they just laugh at…
“iii” Challenge: Indian flutes
Frizztext’s A-Z challenge this week features the letter “i” (which looks like the Roman numeral for 3 if the upper case letter is used in a post title, so I used lower case instead). My entry for this challenge is Indian (Native American) flutes. I have two flutes, both made by Daniel Bigay who not…
Unexpected in common hours 