July 1st Rainbow

Yesterday's storms brought this beautiful double rainbow yesterday afternoon. I had to use my wide angle lens to get the entire thing in the picture.

Sunset on May 29th.

I took this shot looking toward the city of Myrtle Beach and the Myrtle Beach pier.

Terry on the pier at Myrtle Beach State Park. He bought that hat at one of the shops in Pawley's Island. Just what he needs, another hat :0) There were a lot of people fishing from the pier. One man caught a sea turtle and immediately park rangers converged on the scene. Sea turtles are endangered and they took great care in trying to get the hook out of it's mouth. They wrapped it in wet towels and were carrying it to a local vet when we left the pier. I believe they said it had swallowed the hook. I hope he or she was alright. It made me sad to see that beautiful creature that way, but it was an accident. You could tell the man who caught the sea turtle was upset.

I took this shot from the pier looking back toward our beach house. It's the last house you see in the picture.

After we left the pier, we walked over to the nature center in the park. This is one of many snakes they had. This is a glass snake. The following pictures were all taken at the nature center.

I think in all I took over 150 pictures on our last day at the beach. I'm still sorting through all of them, so I will be posting more. I was going to post last night, but after a 10 hour drive, I was too tired.

Bird Speak

I wish I understood bird speak. I would love to know what daddy tree swallow was saying to mama tree swallow :0) The nest building continued today although not as vigorous as yesterday. I guess the rain has slowed them down. Happy TGIF everyone!

Field of yellow. 

We have a couple of bluebirds and tree swallows nesting in birdhouses in our backyard. The bluebirds eggs have hatched and we've heard the babies peeping from inside the box. The tree swallows had been busy building their nest and we noticed that we hadn't seen the female around in a couple of days. I saw the male perched on our deck railing and he would fly up to the opening of the box then fly off. When Terry got home from work yesterday, I asked him to put the ladder up to the box and look inside. I had a bad feeling that something had happened to the female and unfortunately I was right. Terry found the female tree swallow dead on her nest inside the box. She had been attacked, pecked on top of the head by what we think was a house sparrow. I did some research and house sparrows are known to attack tree swallow and bluebird nests. Their MO is to trap one of the birds inside the birdhouse, then attack them and take the birdhouse for themselves. Terry told me he had noticed a sparrow coming out of the birdhouse over the weekend and I had noticed one around the box as well. It made us both sad as the nest had been built, but she hadn't laid any eggs yet. I cried as he removed the little nest. I'm sensitive that way. The male keeps coming around. I'm not sure if birds grieve or not, but he definitely knows that something has happened to his mate. I just hope our bluebird family will be alright. We didn't think we would have any tree swallows this year until today when I heard that familiar chattering sound. I looked out the back door and sure enough there were four flying around, checking out the box. As of late this afternoon a pair have been in and out of the box and we hope that they can successfully nest and brood their young. Nature can be cruel at times.

Feb. 12th Sunset

This was one of the most gorgeous sunsets I've seen in awhile!
It seems that winter sunsets are always more intense.







Sunset colors are typically more brilliant than sunrise colors,
because the evening air contains more particles than morning air.

"The Dove, on silver pinions, winged her peaceful way." ~ James Montgomery

This pretty, little Dove was under one of our bird
feeders eating seeds that had fallen on the ground.

"Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I
fly away, and be at rest."

~Psalms 55:6.

Old Barn

We found this cool, old barn in a field off the Buffalo Valley Nature
trail at Center Hill Lake.

The Art of Nature

I've really been getting into close up or macro photography.
I love to experiment with that setting on my camera. This is
dried Baby's Breath.


I love collecting seashells from places that we've
been over the years.


Makes me want to get back to the beach! I collected these
shells at the beach in Destin, Florida. They're very special
to me.


I love drying flowers and making arrangements
out of them. It's amazing that they've kept their
color.

"All art is but imitation of nature."
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Nature Knick Knacks

I'm a sucker for knick knacks, especially
celestial knick knacks. I thought I would
share just a few of them that I've collected
over the past few months and years.


This is one of my all time favs!


We've had this little sundial for a long time. I love how
it's rusting out. Gives it character!


I got this metal sunflower post at Hobby Lobby a couple
of years ago. The moment the weather starts warming up,
he comes out of storage.