Halloween is here, we're ready inside and out: 10 '23

 Halloween is here!

And we are ready!

OUTSIDE

Visitors

are greeted by 

MAMACITA ROSA

who warns them to be 

respectful of her family's graveyard

and the family of ghosts who reside there

Daughter, 

UNA ROSA

mourns her father's passing

The gravestones show what happened to her father

AND MORE

Further up the driveway

Sisters, DOS ROSA and TRESS ROSA

are   brewing  cauldrons full of body-parts.

But 

step beyond

TRESS

and

you are in danger

Signs warn you

You

are being watched

And there

are plenty of watchers 

keeping their eyes on you.

There are Ghosts a

 flying in the front yard

And Ghouls  haunt 

all the flower beds

IT

is waiting

 to greet you 

(if you make it to the front porch)

INSIDE

We've been preparing  our home for weeks now.

The dining room table  and buffet are dressed

in cobwebs 

and  

creepy critters

Mr  Doug Up and Lil Hugh Morris

are visiting with Waddles (our cat)

in our living room.

with spiders, and bats, and black cats.

 Freckles (our other cat is) 

 is enjoying the new black cat bedroom decorations.

Happy Halloween

Everyone 

Our New Squirrel Feeder

 Bruce and  and I (CC) collaborated on a new Squirrel Feeding Station

CC)  created the design and and templates for the cat and hte signs

 Bruce but the cat and signs shape  out of a  cedar fence plank 

CC sanded and painted the cat and signs

We puchased a open 12" X 12" feeder box from wild wings

Bruce assembled the cat and box 

and hung the feeder on the back fence

well away from the other bird feeders

 We are  hoping  it  will draw the squirrels away from the 

Bird Feeding Station

(So far it seems to be working.) 

Home Tweet Home: 10'23

 CC spent most of the 2023 Hurricane Season ( July, August, September) indoors working on craft projects to decorate our back yard.

The area around a  large elm tree  near the bird feeders

has been renamed 

HOME TWEET HOME,

 and festooned 

with colorful bird-houses.

bird houses.

Below are a a couple of closeups:

"Share your song!"

"Home is where the heart is."

Another Short walk -about in the Ashley River Park:4 '23

 The weather was perfect for a short walk around the Ashley River Park fishing lake today.

From the Event Center Parking lot, we  walked to the fishing piers

and crossed the Parks small lake

so that we could continue the lake trail on the shaded east  East side of the park

We didn't venture into the forest today,

as there was plenty of interesting things to be seen from the docks

(Alligator in the fishing lake)

(Anhinga on fishing pier)

 and from the trail

Turtles on a log

I am so glad that Dorchesst County and the State of South Carolina

has  the foresite to protect this lovely place from development.

Tulip Poplar Bouquet: 4 '23

 Surprise, surprise! Tulip Poplar blossoms make nice little bouquets.

I picked these blossoms up off of the ground yesterday  after the wind blew them off of our tree    and stuck them in a cup of water.

They are still loooking fresh and lovely today.

They're still looking quite fresh today

Etrog Tree is in Bloom: 4'23

I am sooo happy.

Our Etrog tree has blossoms.

Maybe I will  get lucky and have a fruit set this year..

 

Tulip poplar in Bloom: 4 '2023

The Tulip Poplars in our backyard are in bloom.  They have pretty little blossoms, but they grow so high up in the tree that unless you are in the habit of walking around looking straight up at the sky, I doubt that you would even be aware that they are blooming. 

From the ground below the tree, they are not visible at all,  The blossoms are all on the outermost tips of the tallest branches and the foliage below them blocked my view.  I took some photos of the tree from the front yard, but then I was too far away, and when I zoomed in, the wind was moving the tree tips so much that all I got was colored blurs.

The best photos I have are of the blossoms the wind has knocked off of the trees.

As you can see, they really are quite pretty. It's just unfortunate they only bloom so high in the air .

Ashley River Park Forest Trail , 2023

 

Emboldened by the success of our 4/1/23  walk around the Ashley River Park Fishing Lakes, we decided today to explore a  more challenging trail that wanders through the low country forest bordering the Ashley River.

The trail starts out from the parking lot near the Park's main
 catch-and-release fishing lake, 

then follows an easy gravel path across a grassy field into the cypress and hardwood forest east of the lakes towards a small fishing dock on the Ashley River.

I don't know whether the fishing is good from this pier, but it is a safe and pleasant place to rest and get a good look at the Ashley River in both directions.  The photo above was taken looking east and downstream  and the photo below shows the view from the pier  looking upstream (west),

 

Getting  to the fishing dock  from the parking lot is an easy stroll, 

  but if you want to continue following the forest trail further downstream (which we did) the hiking gets a bit more adventurous.

Portions of the trail feel down-right Jurassic.

The area is swampy 

and is crisscrossed with small creeks,.

and other hazards

like cypress knees and alligators

Some of these dangers can be hard to spot in the dense native forest understory vegetation (which includes large stands of prickly saw palmetto and bamboo),

so for their visitors' safety, the park has installed long wooden walkways across the wettest sections of the trails.

And, in some sections of the trail,  the park has added soil to raise the level f the path above the surrounding area so that visitors can stay dry and have a clear view of what is around them.

In spite of its Jurassic era-like vibe, this short little trail (It is less than a mile) provides a delightful and relatively safe walk through a low country ecosystem that is usually very hard to see up close. We really enjoyed the walk and are sure to revisit it.