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The weather has been truly wonderful down here with skies a deep azure blue -- the perfect backdrop for the sea oats and stones on the beach at Ft. Fisher. Ft. Fisher (and Wilmington for that matter) attained some notice because of the recent film Lincoln which talks quite a bit about those last battles in the Civil War during the first 30 minutes of the movie. My youngest daughter's FIL was extremely intrigued by the history of this area which he read up on after his last visit. Evidently Wilmington was (unknown to the North for much of the time) one of the main ports through which the South got their materials from foreign sympathizers. How cool is it to live in such a historic and also beautiful area.
I know I have showed pictures of the Live Oaks before but the lines are just so beautiful and they are all around the park.
Look at that blue sky!
This was not Photoshopped. I wasn't even sure that the camera would capture the gradation of the blue color in the sky -- not often you take a picture of 90 per cent sky!! I wanted inspiration for a piece I am going to make this winter using some lovely batiks I was gifted last year.
Again, I was just taking pictures of things that appealed to me. Here were Painted Daisies (which are everywhere down here) growing through the planking leading to the gazebo.
Another very tiny wildflower. I thought it was in the aster family and it is -- Youngia or Hawk's-beard. It grows year round and I think I saw it in the spring as well.
This is a closeup of the Tri-Colored Heron that frequents Carolina Beach Lake. You can see that his transition into full mating plumage is complete with his bright blue bill and his white headdress!
Here he is in full with wildflowers in the foreground!
This is a really strange picture but this bird is about impossible to photo and I hadn't seen these down here before (probably had migrated one way or the other). It is a common Tree Swallow but I have been seeing these which surprises me as there are few bugs. He was just taking off here. I don't think I have seen one sitting before but he swooped down several times. I only had my little camera so this was the best I can do! It was nice to add another bird to my Pleasure Island list this late in the year.
Looks like the Greater Scaup is still down here mixing with the Mallards.
Couldn't resist this Mallard.
This is the slightly lavender Philadelphia Fleabane. Another one of the common wildflowers you see everywhere.
I believe this is the Florida Betony which was growing in the swampy areas.
As most of my ducks have gone back north and my sea birds have disappeared also, I decided to take my walk today down at Carolina Beach State Park. How cool is it that I live on an island that has state parks at either end (Ft. Fisher is at the other end where I walk about half the time)!!
Within a 70 mile radius of Wilmington NC, are the only native Venus Flytraps and one of the trails in the park is supposed to have these plus other carnivorous plants. The soil down here is very poor and acid. As usual I didn't spot any Flytraps but did see this gorgeous Yellow Pitcher Plant (another carnivorous plant). The picture does not do it justice as it is about two and a half feet high and the flowers are brilliant yellow. I had seen the plant before but never in bloom anywhere! What a treat.
Not a very good picture, but this is another carnivorous plant -- the Bladderwort which is just tiny tiny and grows in the water. Flytraps are very small as well and hard to spot. It may be too early in the season as well.
This was blooming all over and I think is Fetterbush but may be wrong. There were two flowers that looked very much alike but some were white and these were pink.
This is the white version and I believe this is Staggerbush.. Their leaves looked very similar. I am getting a wildflower book which will hopefully help me along here.
I haven't seen ferns before that have these brightly colored spikes of orange.
I couldn't resist taking a number of pictures of the swamp area at the end of the path. After a couple of days of pretty awful (for here) cloudy windy days, it was back to our expected gorgeous days! I loved the juxtaposition of light and dark in the swampy area.
This is a closeup of the Yellow Pitcher Plant
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