Nature Notes: Wild Weather

I hope everyone in the path of the wild storms is faring well.

It hasn't been too bad in my neck of the woods.

The weather has been chilly, windy (but not the high winds some people have had) and rainy.

Our night temperatures in central NC are staying above freezing so we aren't getting the snow that parts of VA and WV have had.

The flicker below was feasting on pecans from my tree before getting a sip of water.

Some of the trees here haven't changed colors yet but many have.

Even though it's above freezing, the wind makes it feel cold enough to freeze.

I'm ready for winter so I don't mind the cool air.

The female cardinal looks so slender in the shot below.

The male cardinal and american robin below were hanging out on my deck.

The robin and flicker were getting sips of water.

The moss and flower were growing in cracks in my driveway.

 

Click for the home of Nature Notes.

Today's Flowers: NC Arboretum in Asheville

Last weekend I visited the NC Arboretum in Asheville.

There were still some flowers in bloom and the trees were putting on a show too.

It was a perfect day for enjoying the garden and woodland trails that are a part of this arboretum.

I was surprised how many flowers were still blooming although there were also areas where the plants were sleeping for the winter.

I like the pitcher plants (shown below).

The pitcher plants were part of a water garden area.

The arboretum has 434 acres so it's quite extensive.

They have 65 acres of cultivated gardens.

They also have 10 miles of hiking and biking trails.

Although some of these shots don't include flowers I thought I'd give a tour of some of the garden and trails in this post.

The arboretum's Bonsai Exhibition Garden is very extensive.

 

The shot below shows how the bridges wind around for viewing the bonsai trees.

I don't think I've ever seen such a large collection of bonsais.

I fear this post is going to be rather long.

Even the parking lot was beautiful with the autumn leaves on the trees.

It was difficult for me to decide which shots to use for this post.

There were so many different parts to the garden and trails.

I'd like to go back in the spring and see their orchid collection.

In early April they have an orchid show and sale.

During the orchid show the educational center has thousands of different orchids.

When we were there they were having a chrysanthemum show in the educational center but there was so much else to see we didn't even go inside to look at that.

Click for the home of Today's Flowers. 

Photohunters: Spooky and On a Shelf

  Spooky

 On A Shelf

The signs may not have looked that spooky when they were still on a shelf in the store. I thought they were very spooky on the motel door until I realized that it was Psycho Path not Psychopath, not to mention that it was almost Halloween.

I think the shot below zipping by the cemetery ended up looking rather spooky.

The moon helps the dark night not be quite as spooky.

Click here for the Spooky photohunters and here for the photohunters on a shelf.

Nature Notes: Nature on the road and trails

I got home yesterday from a road trip to the North Carolina mountains.

I live in central NC and it's interesting to see how much farther along the western mountains in my state are in terms of fall foliage.

This time we stayed in Brevard, NC which is near Asheville in the southern end of the NC mountains range. The northern NC mountain range are usually a week or so ahead of the southern NC mountain range in terms of fall colors.

The two shots above and one below are from the Graveyard Field Trail

I thought we might see some bears  because camping had been closed at that site although the trails were open.

When I read the sign about why they closed camping at the Graveyard Fields, it said that a bear had ripped open a tent gone inside to grab some food and that people were inside the tent when it happened.

 

The sign went on to say that no one was injured in that incident but that it was the latest of a string of recent human and bear encounters that made them decide to temporarily stop people from camping there.

The next shot is of Bearwallow Falls which is in a different forest from the Graveyard Field trail.

It's not unusual to see black bears in these mountains and they rarely bother people unless the cubs are threatened.

Still, I wouldn't want a bear coming in my tent when I was in it.

The shots above and below are ones I took in the NC Arboretum in Asheville.

The trail below is also at the Arboretum.

In addition to enjoying the fall trees on the trail at the arboretum it was a bonus that there were still some flowers and butterflies. 

Driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway is always fun. 

Below is a shot of Looking Glass Rock that I took from the Parkway.

It's nice to be a passenger in the car and be able to take photographs.

Every now and then Bill would spot something he thought I might want to photograph at a stand still and he'd pull over.

Click for the home of Nature Notes.