Today there was hiking and picnics

 and quality time with nature and my beautiful girls. 

So grateful

Tropical Storm Bonnie's Gentle Beauty

I was asked to do one of those seven day nature photo post challenges on Facebook...

which is kind of funny to me, because anybody who knows me knows the challenge for me would be, "seriously, just one????"....so, in keeping with the spirit of this particular challenge, I cleverly narrowed it down to just one per day :D  Here are the seven photos I posted:

scenes in Sun City

...(the girls made this...with grandma):

my Sunday morning visitor

And the Turtle Patrol Marked our Nest!

I contacted one of the members of the turtle patrol, told her exactly where the nest was, and her crew marked it.  I snagged this photo from my dear friend S...thank you for sharing the photo; but I still want a Duncan Donut  :)  The nest looks higher up than where the turtle laid her eggs...wondering if the team moved the nest to higher ground to keep the eggs safe? 

I'm still in complete awe of this extraordinary and rare gift we received last night!!!
 




:)

Same Beach, different day...BUT we witnessed a giant sea turtle lay her eggs!!!!!!!!

We got a late start, getting out to the beach today.  And boy am I grateful!  Two weeks ago, we took a field trip with the homeschoolers to visit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island.  I honestly thought that would be the only time I'd ever see these giant beautiful creatures.  WRONG.  

I was sitting on my beach chair, when I saw this big round (what I thought was trash or something...but REALLY big trash) roundish movement in the water.....

It turns out, she (the giant sea turtle) had stepped on Little Angel's foot, while still under water, and surfaced RIGHT next to Fairy girl!!!  We watched her come to shore, stand there, and just look around for awhile.  I'm not sure if she was looking for her spot, or timid because there were about 50 of us on the beach.  This was about 8 pm....we started taking pictured, when I realized she really needed her space....myself and another women had encouraged everyone to stop using flashes and to leave give her a lot of room.  At that point, I realized she was headed right where we had our beach stuff.  So, I went up and grabbed it, and sure enough, this beautiful girl dropped her eggs, right behind where I had my chair!  We then watched her bury the eggs and stand there.  I've heard it happens very quickly, and then they return back to the water...but I'm guessing with everyone standing there, she was feeling timid about moving through the crowd again.  

Fact, sea turtles travel a VERY long distance (thousands of miles) to lay their eggs in the exact spot where they were born!

What we witnessed this evening, was a VERY rare and extraordinary experience!!!!!  What a gift!!!  

Feeling VERY blessed!

friday fun day

random moments

 





 

Tiger beetles are a large group of beetles known for their aggressive predatory habits and running speed. The fastest species of tiger beetle can run at a speed of 9 km/h (5.6 mph), which, relative to its body length, is about 22 times the speed of former Olympic sprinter Michael Johnson,[1] the equivalent of a human running at 480 miles per hour (770 km/h). As of 2005, about 2,600 species and subspecies were known, with the richest diversity in the Oriental (Indo-Malayan) region, followed by the Neotropics.[2]  Tiger beetles often have large bulging eyes, long, slender legs and large curved mandibles. All are predatory, both as adults and as larvae. The genus Cicindela has a cosmopolitan distribution. Other well-known genera include Tetracha, Omus, Amblycheila and Manticora. While members of the genus Cicindela are usually diurnal and may be out on the hottest days, Tetracha, Omus, Amblycheila and Manticora are all nocturnal. Both Cicindela and Tetracha are often brightly colored, while the other genera mentioned are usually uniform black in color.

Tiger beetles in the genus Manticora are the largest in size of the subfamily. These live primarily in the deserts of South Africa.

The larvae of tiger beetles live in cylindrical burrows as much as a meter deep. They are large-headed, hump-backed grubs that flip backwards to capture prey insects that wander over the ground. The fast-moving adults run down their prey and are extremely fast on the wing, their reaction times being of the same order as that of common houseflies. Some tiger beetles in the tropics are arboreal, but most run on the surface of the ground. They live along sea and lake shores, on sand dunes, around playa lakebeds and on clay banks or woodland paths, being particularly fond of sandy surfaces. (from Wikpedia)

we had a fabulous girls' day out

first, I baked and made dinner before we left...(yeahhhh me!!!)

then we mailed off two bracelets I sold yesterday and hit our favorite lunch spot (any guesses? Bueller?)

then we headed over to Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, for some hiking, biking, and nature sketch time:


saw some wonderful wildlife as well!


then we hit the Farmer's Market for some atmosphere, live music, and fun: 
 
and then we walked down to the May River and hung out on the pier, hoping to see some dolphins (not today:)

A great day was had by all!

had me a little staring contest with six deer in my backyard!

                                    they won:D

it's been raining quite a bit lately

the Lowcountry is under water, and my former pond became a pond again:)

Cardinals and Berries

Little Miss Angel spotted this beautiful guy hanging out on our front porch...he stayed there for quite some time.  Up north in Wisconsin, we had cardianals visit us (ok, our feeders) ALL the time...(they were actually quite mean and selfish about sharing with other birds species and would literally knock them off the feeders).  But now that we're down here, we just don't see a whole lot of cardinals for some reason?  (maybe because we have opted not to put a feeder out?  There does not seem to be a shortage of food sources around here).  And now, the photos.....

Sea Pines

We visited Sea Pines for the first time today!  It's a very popular area on Hilton Head Island, with gorgeous forest preserves and cool horse stables to visit and ride, and a light house to climb (ok, the only light house I know of that has never guided a ship into port--it was built strictly for decor and the tourists:)  There is a gift shop at the top, and the ONLY way to bring the merchandise up is to carry it all the way up several flights of stairs.  It turns out, they usually ask people who want to take the light house tour to carry something up in exchange for free admission:)

 

We then left Harbourtown and headed over to the Sea Pines Forest Preserve, to feed the turtles and ourselves.  Let's just say we love this place SO MUCH, that we are now going to look into buying a couple of double used kayaks!

The turtles kind of sort of loved us too:)  or maybe it was the bread?  But I'd like to think it was us too, we didn't sock them with stale bread, they got the good stuff:)  (hope they like sour dough:D)

 And, we  had the incredible opportunity to step into an ancient Indian ceremonial ground---by ancient, I mean over 3800 years old!  (supposedly, nobody was buried here though:)  It's called a shell ring--only twenty such rings are known to exist on the entire east coast.  These were very large, raised rings created by oyster shells (btw, those things are literally razor sharp, NEVER step onto an oyster bed, which could very easily happen down here--and does, all the time!  Many a person goes to the ER for this!)  Then the rings were covered with dirt and soil.

 One day post Irene.  The waves were still a little big, the seas VERY rough!  Not too many people in the water (dangerous riptides often come with hurricanes)--but I did see several people on boogaboards, riding the cool waves!)

And finally, these are my pretty beach babies---getting bigger by the second:/