Yellow pears, romas and black krim

We live in a pretty dense neighborhood with lots of trees, but we’ve stubbornly been trying to grow tomatoes. Last year when we moved in mid-season we got a husky cherry red and a patio. They started out not looking great, we put them in too small of pots, and they never did much. The patio tomato tasted no better than ones from the grocery store.

This year we got bigger pots and started earlier, but the plants have still had a terrible time of it, getting blown over by wind, gangly branches growing too tall and weak and breaking off outside of their cages, so we’ve been bringing in a lot of green fruit. But, we’ve gotten several batches of wonderful roasted tomatoes now. And it turns out that the mystery heirloom is a black krim (the one in the picture is pretty much ready to be eaten).

In early May, spring was not yet in full bloom at the edges of the Appalachians. There was lots of fresh green, the first mountain laurels and blackberry flowers were out, but it was not yet time for the rhodedendrons.

Stream crossing on the trail to Middle Falls. Following the main Stone Mountain Loop Trail a bit further from here we were lucky to see a mountain crayfish.

Stone Mountain Falls. A large number of steps takes you from the top of the falls to the base.

Stone Mountain State Park is named for its 600-foot granite dome, which can be seen from the Hutchinson Homestead.

There are several restored buildings on the homestead, which was built in the mid-19th century. The main home was small with low ceilings. Often the homes that end up preserved are large, architecturally relevant, owned by properous families. These homes feel both similar to modern life, in that they have lots of furnishings and fixtures, and yet removed, in their show of wealth and household staff to keep running. This homestead was striking in that it grew to be fairly successful, with a blacksmith shop to serve the surrounding area, yet the mode of living was still very personal, by the hands of those that lived there. The grounds spoke strongly to the uncompromising self reliance needed to live then, not so long ago.

female ruby throated hummingbird drinking from a cardinal flower?

appalachian brown

red-spotted purple

damselfly

sycamore creek

striped mud turtle

bass and sunfish

Mike found a dying cicada outside our house this week.

After the cold snaps but before the mosquitoes emerged we headed up to the Great Dismal Swamp NWR in southern Virginia in early April.

We hiked out and back along Washington Ditch, which takes a straight line for nearly the entire 4.5 miles to reach Lake Drummond.

Although there was lots of birdsong, most birds chose to stay high in the treetops. The bright prothonotary warblers were nearly the only ones to come down to human eye level.

Skink and bee

Pearl crescents

Usually a rare sighting for us, there were crowds of zebra swallowtails puddling

Likely a red-bellied watersnake

We also stopped at Merchant’s Millpond, a North Carolina State Park containing a proper cypress swamp. We’d like to go back and rent a canoe at some point.

When we arrived at Fort De Soto on a morning at the end of August, there was a thunderstorm blowing over. It wasn’t right on top of us, but you don’t want to be on the beach when lightning may strike, so we waited in the pickup for several minutes until the storm had passed. I had hoped to go swimming, but the water was churned up and covered in floating pieces of sea weed, so I just walked along at the edge of the surf. Mike had the NEX and took all of the pictures, and processed them for the blog.

The sky was still dark and dramatic even though the lightning was over. This is looking towards the Sunshine Skyway bridge that crosses the mouth of Tampa Bay.

Looking the other direction was a lovely rainbow

At another section of beach, the other side of the rainbow was also visible

beach sunflower

there were many brown pelicans near the shore. Here is one of them

Perhaps this is a willet

ruddy turnstone