Biking Through Calloway Gardens

December 3, 2017Pine Mountain, GA


The third visit to Calloway Gardens was the charm.  The first visit, I hardly had time to see anything, the second visit, I found my bike needed an adjustment I couldn't do there but spent a lot of time trying to fix it, then helping a guy jump his car. But, last Sunday, I managed to get there early  and enjoy both a bike ride, with lots of stops for pictures, and and a raptor show.


My first stop was at a little cabin, complete with a well and a winter garden of greens.

One of the first places I found was this little cabin

It was one room with an upstairs that we could not visit - had this and a kitchen and rockers on the porch

My next stop was the hydrangea gardens.  Most of the flowers were down to brown remains of themselves, however still adding form and texture.  But a couple were still blooming, or restarting to bloom.  By their buds, I think they thought spring has arrived.  But the next weekend, as I'm writing this we have finally had winter weather although we were just south of the southern snow.

Beauty is still there but a little quieter

I loved this partially opened bloom.  It seemed like an entire habitat.  The bee impersenating fly loved it too. 

This tree was in the hayacinth garden looking like a stained glass window

After this I took about a two hour break in the butterfly house.  But you don't want to have to see all the amazing tropical butterflies I managed to capture here.  But next week....

Nasturtiums were blooming in the gardens around the butterfly house and being enjoyed by another syrphid fly.

I took off riding and soon came to where you can rent boats or bicycles or eat at a restaurent or a snack food place, depending on whether you go to the first floor or the basement.  It is also the beginning of the golf course.  I passed some pretty scenes on the way.

A view near the golf course of one of several lakes

This is where you can rent boats, bicycles, eat,.  It overlooks the golf course.

I enjoyed the pattern the steps made before climbing them to see what was up the hill

I looked down at my bike to see aother beautiful view

And this view was just to the left of the steps

Several large bushes of white double camillias were in bloom a little further down

I found a whole under a pier army of boats: motor, canoes, and kayaks.  These were at the far end

Riding on, I had to stop to photograph these HUGE leaves. I attatched my glove to show the enormous size.

Then it was time to rush back to the outdoor ampitheater, near the beginning of my ride, to watch a raptor show.  I think they have 17 raptors that cannot be returned to the wild but use them to educate the public. Two of the three birds had imprinted on humans after they were "rescued". We learned to leave birds on the ground or pick them up and return to the nest or a limb. The third bird had been shot in the wing, and while it could fly, it could not fly hard enough to hunt.  I'll have to go several times to see all of them.  And probably more times than that to get good at capturing them with my camera. 

I need to go back and practice taking these birds pictures.  This was the only decent one I got. 

The fun was not done, but it was time to pack up my bicycle and go on a quest to view the super moon. I had decided to go to West Point Lake, on the Georgia/Alabama border, about a half hour away,  to look for it,  since that seemed to be a sure place not to have lots of trees. I got there with about 40 minutes to set up for the sunset which turned out to be a doozy.

But I didn't find a good place for moon rise, and finally parked right on the bridge across the Chattahoochee River, which is damed to make West Point Lake.   I sat until twenty minutes after the reported time for moonrise and finally saw a little glow in the sky.  A few minutes  later I got a shot of a very coy super moon.

A fly fisherman in the sunset

The best view I got of the rising super moon

It was a very good day which,  together with a visit to Jimmy Carter's library and museum . the previous day had to make up for a this cold, wet, any barely snowy weekend. .  The snow got within thirty miles of me but could seem to extend itself just a little further south. So thanks to all my friends that posted their sow pictures.  Then finally on Saturday morning, I got some very light snow. The funniest I heard was a weather report from Atlanta as I was barreling up a dry road, with no sign of snow.  We were being asked to stay off the roads another day as some would be wet and icy.  In their defense, I DID see a little snow and the roads were a little wet in a few places. But I was back home long before the freeze.  I had no sign of snow left.

I got a new assignment.  I'm tobuild 1000 little homes for frogs. Actually I just need to make a few modifications with a hole punch on throwaway pint containers, like you would buy potato salad in. The good news is that I have until February to do it. I also need to repair and clean out three sets of purple martin houses and and an unknown number of bluebird houses.  I think I'm going to be putting up some more bluebird houses also.

And while it has been cold and rainy,  I've taken off time from blowing, raking, and hauling leaves to work on some educational  signage. This is one of my proposed signs.  It's just the first rough draft and I will need approval of the idea before I invest any more time in it. The neat thing is that I took the picture of these cypress trees at Banks Lake, in East Georgia,  on one of the loveliest paddles of my life while I was volunteering at Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in east Georgia.

Hope you are having time to find joy in the midst of holiday preparations.  And I'd love to hear from you. Please give me your comments by clicking the comment button below.