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kv0925Yeah, I really suck at LJ lately, sorry. But hey, have some photos from the last few weeks as a sort of recap of all the stuff I haven't been posting about. Lots of photos here, and maybe a couple snakes. :)
We went to an open-mic night at Hallie's music school. Turned out she was the only instrumentalist at the thing--everyone else was there to sing, either to piano accompaniment or backing tracks. I'd say she was probably the youngest person performing, too. And she just got up and played all by herself, in front of probably 30 people, no problems at all. She amazes me sometimes.
On my staycation last month we took a few day trips. We started out with a trip to Gainesville, which we hadn't visited in quite a while. Started at the Florida Museum of Natural History, on the UF campus. Always a good time.
There are lots of city parks scattered around G'ville, many of which we've never visited. So we checked a few out. This is the historic Boulware Springs Water Works building, which was built around 1900 and provided the city's water for the next decade or so. It's actually why UF moved to Gainesville--thanks to this spring they were promised free water forever, which they still receive, though this isn't where it comes from anymore.
On a hike nearby we found this wee little mantis. Adorable!
We went to the Morningside Nature Center and farm, which we've been to several times. Nice to say hello to the farm animals!
I loved this chicken, because it totally looks like he's wearing awesome chaps.
And lastly a little hike at Cofrin Nature Park, another new one for us. Pretty nice.
Our next excursion was to St. Petersburg--since I go there often for work and occasionally explore before heading home, I'd been to a few places I wanted to show the family. So we started at Weedon Island Preserve, but it wasn't too impressive. The crabs weren't out to play, and we ended up on a boardwalk I wasn't familiar with, which wasn't as good.
Next stop, Sunken Gardens. This is an old-time Florida roadside attraction, which was saved and preserved. Very nice.
And lastly a visit to Sawgrass Lake Park. This was only my second time visiting, but so far there's always been great wildlife to be seen here. This young raccoon was foraging right alongside the boardwalk, probably having received handouts before.
Tricolored heron.
Brown water snake.
Hallie.
This was pretty awesome. Along the boardwalk was a mama alligator and a mess of babies--Heather counted 18. First time we'd seen young ones in the wild like that!
This green heron was nearby, probably hoping to pick one of those babies off for a nice meal. But every time it moved, the mama gator would get a bit closer. :)
Another stretch of the boardwalk was a goldmine for caterpillars and other little bugs, like this little leafhopper.
Our last road trip was over to Brevard to visit my mom and hit the beach!
We didn't stay long at the beach, mainly because of the no-see-ums--tiny biting flies, if you aren't familiar. They were out in force! And then a passerby told us that some fishermen up the beach a bit had just hooked an 8-foot shark, so we thought staying out of the water was a good idea too. :)
On the way back from the beach we detoured to do the Black Point Wildlife Drive, a 7-mile loop through marshes and estuaries. Not too much to see, but we did spot some cool birds like this spoonbill.
Great southern white butterfly.
Another day we stayed closer to home with a visit to the Greenwood Urban Wetlands in Orlando. This is a female red-winged blackbird.
Heather's sister came to visit for a couple days, so we went to Leu Gardens in Orlando--always worth a repeat visit. The girls love to find neat flowers and leaves on the ground.
And snails.
Thistle. Very poky!
We also took her to Hontoon Island State Park, which we'd been meaning to get back to for months. It's not much farther away than some other state parks we like, but it still takes longer to get to because the only way to get there is by catching a short boat ride, which is tucked away down some slow back roads. Neat park, though!
We almost had a bad day by nearly stepping on this little guy, a dusky pygmy rattlesnake. Small but pretty aggressive and with a nasty venom. Apparently they account for the majority of venomous snakebites in Florida, and while their bite is rarely fatal, I gather it hurts like hell and often results in a lost digit if that's what gets bitten. Thankfully our fingers and toes are all still accounted for. :)
The girls had fun climbing on cypress knees.
We hiked a bit longer than we usually do, so everyone was worn out afterwards!
These are known as ladies' hatpins, which I think is a cool name.
We got wind of a special evening event happening at Blue Spring State Park, so we headed out there one night after dinner.
Gar!
But here's why we were there: fireflies! There aren't many places where they appear here in central Florida, for some reason. But at Blue Spring they are plentiful for a few weeks this time of year, and the girls had a blast running around catching them.
But I'm afraid my firefly photography leaves much to be desired. I should go try again, but with a tripod this time!
We've had some really nice weather this month, cooler than normal for a change. This past weekend we headed out to the Arboretum on UCF's campus for a walk. They'd just done a controlled burn to clear out some scrub, hence the wasteland appearance here.
But it wasn't all like that, of course!
The Wildflower Loop was appropriately named.
Sunday I took the girls to Animal Kingdom. It was pretty busy, still.
The petting zoo is always a hit.
This goat amused me.
Tiger!
And that's about it. Thanks for looking!
We went to an open-mic night at Hallie's music school. Turned out she was the only instrumentalist at the thing--everyone else was there to sing, either to piano accompaniment or backing tracks. I'd say she was probably the youngest person performing, too. And she just got up and played all by herself, in front of probably 30 people, no problems at all. She amazes me sometimes.
On my staycation last month we took a few day trips. We started out with a trip to Gainesville, which we hadn't visited in quite a while. Started at the Florida Museum of Natural History, on the UF campus. Always a good time.
There are lots of city parks scattered around G'ville, many of which we've never visited. So we checked a few out. This is the historic Boulware Springs Water Works building, which was built around 1900 and provided the city's water for the next decade or so. It's actually why UF moved to Gainesville--thanks to this spring they were promised free water forever, which they still receive, though this isn't where it comes from anymore.
On a hike nearby we found this wee little mantis. Adorable!
We went to the Morningside Nature Center and farm, which we've been to several times. Nice to say hello to the farm animals!
I loved this chicken, because it totally looks like he's wearing awesome chaps.
And lastly a little hike at Cofrin Nature Park, another new one for us. Pretty nice.
Our next excursion was to St. Petersburg--since I go there often for work and occasionally explore before heading home, I'd been to a few places I wanted to show the family. So we started at Weedon Island Preserve, but it wasn't too impressive. The crabs weren't out to play, and we ended up on a boardwalk I wasn't familiar with, which wasn't as good.
Next stop, Sunken Gardens. This is an old-time Florida roadside attraction, which was saved and preserved. Very nice.
And lastly a visit to Sawgrass Lake Park. This was only my second time visiting, but so far there's always been great wildlife to be seen here. This young raccoon was foraging right alongside the boardwalk, probably having received handouts before.
Tricolored heron.
Brown water snake.
Hallie.
This was pretty awesome. Along the boardwalk was a mama alligator and a mess of babies--Heather counted 18. First time we'd seen young ones in the wild like that!
This green heron was nearby, probably hoping to pick one of those babies off for a nice meal. But every time it moved, the mama gator would get a bit closer. :)
Another stretch of the boardwalk was a goldmine for caterpillars and other little bugs, like this little leafhopper.
Our last road trip was over to Brevard to visit my mom and hit the beach!
We didn't stay long at the beach, mainly because of the no-see-ums--tiny biting flies, if you aren't familiar. They were out in force! And then a passerby told us that some fishermen up the beach a bit had just hooked an 8-foot shark, so we thought staying out of the water was a good idea too. :)
On the way back from the beach we detoured to do the Black Point Wildlife Drive, a 7-mile loop through marshes and estuaries. Not too much to see, but we did spot some cool birds like this spoonbill.
Great southern white butterfly.
Another day we stayed closer to home with a visit to the Greenwood Urban Wetlands in Orlando. This is a female red-winged blackbird.
Heather's sister came to visit for a couple days, so we went to Leu Gardens in Orlando--always worth a repeat visit. The girls love to find neat flowers and leaves on the ground.
And snails.
Thistle. Very poky!
We also took her to Hontoon Island State Park, which we'd been meaning to get back to for months. It's not much farther away than some other state parks we like, but it still takes longer to get to because the only way to get there is by catching a short boat ride, which is tucked away down some slow back roads. Neat park, though!
We almost had a bad day by nearly stepping on this little guy, a dusky pygmy rattlesnake. Small but pretty aggressive and with a nasty venom. Apparently they account for the majority of venomous snakebites in Florida, and while their bite is rarely fatal, I gather it hurts like hell and often results in a lost digit if that's what gets bitten. Thankfully our fingers and toes are all still accounted for. :)
The girls had fun climbing on cypress knees.
We hiked a bit longer than we usually do, so everyone was worn out afterwards!
These are known as ladies' hatpins, which I think is a cool name.
We got wind of a special evening event happening at Blue Spring State Park, so we headed out there one night after dinner.
Gar!
But here's why we were there: fireflies! There aren't many places where they appear here in central Florida, for some reason. But at Blue Spring they are plentiful for a few weeks this time of year, and the girls had a blast running around catching them.
But I'm afraid my firefly photography leaves much to be desired. I should go try again, but with a tripod this time!
We've had some really nice weather this month, cooler than normal for a change. This past weekend we headed out to the Arboretum on UCF's campus for a walk. They'd just done a controlled burn to clear out some scrub, hence the wasteland appearance here.
But it wasn't all like that, of course!
The Wildflower Loop was appropriately named.
Sunday I took the girls to Animal Kingdom. It was pretty busy, still.
The petting zoo is always a hit.
This goat amused me.
Tiger!
And that's about it. Thanks for looking!
