It will be a rough Spring...

This morning I woke up to temperatures in the twenties, the second day of our third hard freeze this year. We still have two more says of freezing temperatures to go. I have done my best to cover what I can, but I fear that we will loose several of our native plants this year. The weather has been so tumultuous! We'll have a freeze, then temps soar to the 80's, new growth, then another freeze, then tons of rain and a freeze again! Poor plants! They are so confused!

When I looked out my back door this morning I saw this white stuff on the firecracker, a native. I grabbed my camera and went out to see what it was. I am guessing that the stems were full of water from the rain two nights ago and the freezing temperature froze that moisture, it expanded and busted through the stems. It is so bizarre! I am hoping that the roots are safe enough to come back this Spring, but I fear that we will have a lot of garden maintenance to do.

Hooded Mergansers

*This image copyright the UF News Bureau*

I took this shot yesterday at work while out wandering the campus for stock photography. I found these Hooded Mergansers at the Reitz Union Pond with beautiful fall colors reflecting in the water. These are such unique ducks. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's web site All About Birds, the Hooded Merganser is the second-smallest of the six living species of mergansers and is the only one restricted to North America. They are small fish-eating ducks of wooded ponds. They winter from southeastern Alaska to southern California, and Arizona. Also from southeastern Minnesota, southern Ontario, and central Maine southward to the Gulf Coast and Florida. I love the "hoods."

Family/Friends

Here are photos I took of my sister and her family at a Thanksgiving gathering at our dad's in Orlando and photos of a high school friend and her family I took last weekend in St. Petersburg, Florida. Being able to take these photos means a lot to me. I dearly love all of the people in these images and it was a joy to capture them on film.

THE BURLEY FAMILY









THE LIPAN FAMILY

Gum Root Swamp

Sunday, November 9, Kevin and I took a three mile hike at Gum Root Swamp here in Gainesville. It has been pretty dry lately, so the swamp was low. The bugs were thick, but not unbearable. Here are a few photos. We saw deer, bobcat tracks, these red spiders everywhere and slash pine trees with two trunks. I've never seen slash pine grow this way before, we saw about 5 trees like this one. Not sure if It was an environmental thing that caused these trees to grow this way. It was very curious for sure.

Erica and Gabe Sneak Preview!

Erica and Gabe got married on the 18th at the beautiful Historic Thomas Center in Gainesville, Fl. Here are some photos from their event!
Congrats you two, your wedding was a blast!

Natures Pesticide

We have several bamboo stands throughout our yard and this year the bamboo has had a pretty serious aphid infestation. The bamboo is far too hearty for the aphids to take the bamboo down so we let them be. We noticed recently that a Downy Woodpecker enjoys the bugs and there are plenty of them. I took these photos Monday evening, you can see the white aphid residue on the stalk of bamboo the bird is perched. He ate here for a while and was so into the feast that I was able to inch in for a closer look. What a beautiful bird.

Garden Friend

Pulling weeds in the garden recently, I came across this beautiful tree frog. He was resting on a Fire Spike leaf.