The Atlanta Botanical Garden is a 30-acre oasis in the middle of Atlanta. Except for occasional traffic noise, it is easy to imagine being in the middle of a forest, or field. There are indoor displays of orchids and other tropical plants, and the grounds are full of wonderful trees […]
Monthly Archives: October 2015
31 posts
Less than a 20-minute drive from my home is an amazing world class Miocene fossil site discovered in 2000 during road construction. A new species of red panda was discovered here, and research suggests that unlike the modern red panda bamboo wasn’t a major part of its diet. Several specimens […]
This flower is endemic to granite outcrops in Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas. These are unusual and widely distributed habitats, which are home to many rare plants. These flowers thrive on sunshine and intermittent drought, growing at times literally out of the rock. It is officially named Porter’s Sunflower, for […]
Stone Mountain in Georgia is almost 1700 feet tall, twice as high as the surrounding area. It is made primarily of granite formed from magma that came up from deep in the earth’s molten center. It is a rock version of an iceberg, in some spots going 9 miles deep. […]
Flying to Georgia I was struck by the mist forming a thick veil over all the mountains. The trees were only visible near the mountaintops, islands in a sea of clouds. Without seeing evidence of towns or homes, it seemed a very wild place. It almost looked like a remote […]
Recent cold nights have started the leaves turning in earnest in the mountains near me. This inviting path led along a grove of trees with brilliant colors, side by side with summery trees with green leaves. I imagine soon we will be approaching peak colors, but there are still many […]
This late flowering zinnia looks a bit like a blooming sun. The butterfly was sipping nectar and I positioned my camera to capture just a tiny bit of the wing with the rest just a silhouette formed by its shadow. Zinnia flowers are known to attract butterflies and birds. They […]
At sunset this range of mountains took on a decidedly purple tone. I’m not so sure there are many fruited plains nearby but I definitely thought of the lyrics to America the Beautiful watching this scene unfold. The words were first written in 1893 by English professor Katharine Bates as […]
Though few of these butterflies overwinter they fly well into autumn. Some flowers linger in an open field by my creek and I have a few still in my garden. In warmer years some may continue blooming even into early winter. Already the leaves are turning but in the sun […]