EXHIBIT AT BOTANICAL GARDENS

We are still disorganized from our remodeling, but found time to go to an exhibit done by two of the photographers in my guy's new photography group. Chuck Murphy focuses on wildlife, including turtles, frogs, birds, and even snakes. Jena Johnson is an entomologist and focuses on--

You guessed it. Bugs.

This was the audience when we first got there.

And here is a corner of the display:

A closeup of an angry(??) bird:

Chuck did the presentation, to an audience that had grown so much chairs had to be added several times. (He joked that he made out-of-town family visit for support.) As he went into details about how he photographs his subjects, I was glad to learn they are all living creatures that were unharmed. If he catches them, he later releases them. Even the field mouse and snakes, all of which he relocated since they were in his yard!

And who could resist the cookies? They were an art in themselves! Yum!

BOTANICALGARDENS

The master bath is being remodeled and our contractor keeps shooing us off. "Gonna be loud," he warns before he starts to take out the tub. We hang around, wanting to see what he's doing. "Might wanna go out for a few hours," he hints. We gawk as he and his helper lug in tools. Finally, he says, "Maybe I should have got you movie tickets."

That sent us scurrying. No place to go so we decided on the botanical gardens. Here are my phone shots of some of the flowers in bloom there. Don't ask me what they are; I'm not a gardener.

I thought this was a tomato plant but closer inspection tells me no. Maybe some kind of pepper?

I love this arbor view. You can't see them very well, but there are three peaked arches going up the hill.

And of course my guy had his camera. Here he's chasing an elusive butterfly.

His pix turned out better than mine, but all in all, an enjoyable morning. Sad to go back to my neglected yard, though. Makes me want to hire a gardener.

PHOTO FUN

We're about to close on our house. Next week, as a matter of fact. Since the termite bond covered re-treating and repairing termite damage, all is fixed and we are good to go. So since we can't start on the work we want to do (replacing patio and bedroom French doors, remodelilng the bathroom, taking down wallpaper, et cetera), we've been kind of hanging around.

My guy got a new camera this past week so we went to the Georgia Botanical Gardens to try it out. He got some great pix, as usual.

There were several beautiful blue dragonflies and here's one on a pitcher plant:

Then he found some bees:

And when he leaned over to shoot a water lily, I couldn't resist taking a picture of my own. "Don't let me fall in," he said. Like I could stop him if he started to fall! And naturally my phone photo isn't nearly as sharp as the ones made with his new camera. But I thought it pretty entertaining!

I expect that once we close on this house, we won't have too much time for fun excursions for a while.

GEORGIA BOTANICAL GARDEN

Now that we are settling in, my guy is looking for places to photograph. We went this past week to the nearby Botanical Garden. Just a few pix:

At the entrance were several clusters of gardens including this water garden:

We went inside to a gift shop, then went through this greenhouse area before entering the actual garden:

Then once we were outside, there were acres of flowers. Here is a statue--called Peace--from one of the small area gardens:

Walking on up the path, we came to this vista where we could look down on all the plants:

And turning around, could look up:

So this gives you an idea of the place. These are not-so-great pictures from my phone, but the garden is extensive and we stayed maybe an hour. My guy is eager to get back with his good camera and tripod and spend the day.

It appears there will be lots of photo opportunities in our new home.