LOVE living in a land that is colorful year-round

Tybee Island Burton 4-H Homeschool Club

4-H on the coast is NOT about pigs, and cows, and horses, and chickens....not even close.  It's  all about beach ecology around here!  We've joined a bi-monthly homeschool club, sponsored by some very knowledgeable folk  at the Burton 4-H.....affiliated witht the University of Georgia.

Today's class was called: "surf sleuth."  We hopped on a couple of busses and headed over to a more remote beach, that was actually on the Savannah River.  It was very cool, because not only did we see lots of sea critters, and dolphins, but we were able to see Hilton Head and Daufuski Islands, from a whole different view....from a distance...they actually look like islands!  (I say that, because when we drive over the bridge from our town to Hilton Head Island, it doesn't feel like you're on an island...but you are...a barrier island:)

Anyway, today we headed to this particular beautiful, remote beach, and used these giant nets to capture sea critters...see what critters randomly wound up in our nets....the instructors identified the critters, discussed them, and released them.  We also had opportunities to touch a lot of the critters ourselves.  My girls (and ok, fine, me too;) are getting very brave.  Finally, note the happy guy smiling, as he's holding the crab....the crab was actually pinching him in this photo, and he needed assistance getting it off his hand:)

The pictures after the field trip involed our little picnic on the famous Tybee Island Pavilion....last time we were on the pavilion was in 2010, Labor Day weekend...shortly after we moved down.  Word of advice, don't EVER go to Tybee Island on Labor Day weekend.....EVER!  You've been warned;)

And the final photos were at a quick stop we made at the Fish Art Gallery (lots of metal art)...such cool photo ops!  I have a confession to make...they had an honor system bin, for you to drop $1 in if you take pictures.  I didn't do that.  There, I feel MUCH better having confessed my crime :D

And now..........









this guy's male...I learned to disinguish by the "picture" on his bottom, looking like a rocket...a female would look more like a pyramid:)

shrimp:)

the crab has this poor guy on his thumb:)

 
parking is $4 an hour here.  After our one our for our picnic lunch, the girls wanted to go to the beach....that would have been at least an additional $8.....I decided that we'd head home and go to our FREE beaches on Hilton Head Island:)
 



 

 
I'm an absolute SUCKER for colorful...a SUCKER.....it sucks me in, and I HAVE to take photos, lots and lots of photos .......you know....shiny things:) Thank goodness we stopped using film cameras ten years ago! Ya, I'm one of those ;)  

Fairy Girl was afraid of that giant behind her, for real:)




 
did I ever mention how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE sunflowers??? ;)  we tried planting them, but our deer like them too:)

and that's it for now!  stay tuned, did you catch these are bi-monthly field trips.....I promise you lots and lots of photos:)

pretty

Spring in South Carolina is

quite colorful!!! 

spring IS in the air!!!!

back in spring of 2010, we took our second trip to Florida.  This is when we were still living in WI, but we were ready, and I mean READY to move!  On the way back north to WI, we took a "slight" detour...to South Carolina (basically, two states out of the way;)....you see, J had been granted a phone interview at a company in some city (Beaufort;) that we had never heard of...I had this bright idea that we just go that direction, he call and change his phone interview to an in-person one!  Well, apparently, it must have worked;)  Anyhoooo, while J was in the interview, the girls and I had an opportunity to drive around Beaufort and get a feel for it.  The one thing that struck me was that there were flowering bushes; EVERYWHERE.....I have never seen so many flowering colorful bushes as I have in the Carolinas!  And I LOVED it!  I've had many posts from winter in Wisconsin, where I was literally seeking out color...I struggled with the lack of color in winter.  I would visit The Domes in Milwaukee (indoor botanical garden), candy shops, jelly belly factory....anywhere where I could find color!   

Here's the post from our first-ever trip to Beaufort, SC:

Well, obviously my wish came true; and I now have color, almost year round....our grass stays mostly green, we have a lot of sunshine, and not all trees lose their leaves.  And today, I happened to notice that one of our bushes is in bloom!  I LOVE color!!!  Happy Happy Spring!

the gentle rains came and my favorite color emerged from our new little garden

 

Burnt orange, if you must know;)

I LOVE Color!

I stole these (with permission) from my girlfriend L who was recently on vacation in Vegas. Why? Because I LOVE and miss color--and I thought her photos were beautiful--and these are my most favorite colors in the whole-wide world!!

Need Color!!!!!

First colors to pop up in my yard!! (will be blanketed in snow tomorrow:(

There's something so fun about a bowl full of jelly bellies--I know, they're colorful!!!

Mum's the word!!