Cheekwood Botanical Garden & Museum of Art

This will be my first photo shoot using my new dslr camera. I warn you, there will be a lot of pictures in this entry! I hope you enjoy them and I would love to hear from you.

Another day on Normandy Lake.

Another peaceful paddle on Normandy Lake. My husband Walter and I headed out to paddle another section of the lake.

As we paddled along, we came across this little Tod or Vixen. In reading about Fox behavior this little one may very well be suffering from beginning stages of Sarcoptic Mange as he/she was searching for food and paying us little mind. I certainly hope not and hope his scraggly appearance and daytime scavenging might just be due to the heat.

As we continued on, we came to a committee of turkey vultures and this one with wings spread, a thermoregulatory behavior for vultures.

All in all another successful day of experiencing wildlife in their natural habitat.

Surprise on Normandy Lake!

A couple of friends of mine and myself decided to head out for a paddle adventure on Normandy Lake. We had decided we wanted to check out a narrow finger that narrows down to nothing more than a creek.

 Our first glimpse of wildlife was this little Green Heron. We followed him along the shoreline for quite a while and I kept trying to catch him with his "topnotch" raised. He'd have it peaked and I'd miss the shot!

 We continued on down the lake and came to the area we were to explore.

 With kayaks beached, we headed on foot up the stream bed.

 We came upon what must have at one time been an old mill. I have no idea how they accessed it as there are high bluffs on both sides.

 Here is the first glimpse we had of our surprise!!

 We continued on....

 and came to this magnificent waterfall called Ovoca Falls.

This was a wonderful surprise after wading, slipping, and splashing our way "up a creek without a paddle"!