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For the past week, I have been entertaining visitors from sunny and warm Florida. Luckily I was able to provide them with a couple of fairly nice days of tourist activities here in the Wilmington area. Because of our severe cold a couple of weeks ago, our flowers are behind schedule this year Here you can see one of my visitors, Barbara, looking at this beautiful pink magnolia. It was a gorgeous day
There was lots of beautiful scenery to photograph at Airlie Gardens, one of my favorite tourist spots in Wilmington. There are two large ponds and lots of trees with Spanish moss. Depending on the season, many ducks make their home here as well but make themselves scarce for visitors.
There were Gadwalls (here) as well as American Widgeons and Hooded Mergansers on one of the ponds.
I spotted this adult Black Crowned Night Heron hanging out by one of the ponds and barely visible in the Spanish moss.
There were quite a few Blue Grey Gnatcatchers flitting around.
There were also a number of male Cardinals singing like crazy around the Gardens
Airlie Gardens is famous for their Camellias and we were not disappointed with the showing! Loved this pink and white variegated one.
Another really pretty white Camellia.
The Yellow Bellied Sliders were out in force sunning on every available log.
This is a closeup of one of the Sliders. You can see where he gets his name!
I finally got all the ladies to pose for me. Left to right are Barbara, Jean, my friend Vicki (the ringleader of this group and my best friend from high school), and Vicki's SIL Joan. Joan and Jean are fellow quilters. Barbara, Jean and Vicky were up here to play in a sectional bridge tournament. They come up early to try to get me retrained so that I can play and not embarrass myself too badly.
We left Airlie Gardens, ate a lovely seafood lunch at the Boathouse and then headed to downtown Wilmington again and took a one hour cruise down the Cape Fear River (or rather up the river as we took the northern trip). This is the courthouse downtown. A new factoid I didn't know is that this is the opening scene from the old Matlock tv shows with Andy Griffith who I did know owned houses down here at Wrightsville Beach.
I had just left the boat when I spotted this bird landing in a tree right next to me. At first I thought pigeon but looked closer and realized it was a Eurasian Collared Dove. I knew they were down here but had never seen one before. This picture made him easy to identify!!
Playing bridge the first two days was pretty disastrous. My partner had many raised eyebrows and was frustrated with me by the end of the second day. However, I really redeemed myself the third day where we won just about everything we played in!! I really feel like I am a better bridge player than I ever was 50 years ago when I played all the time but so much has changed in the game bidding, it is difficult to catch up. The ladies were happy as they got a much desired master point plus. If I didn't have so many hobbies already, I might be convinced to start playing on a regular basis again. The people were nice and the game is challenging. Vicki and I never played when we were in high school. She only learned about four years ago and already has close to 200 master points!! No wonder she gets frustrated with me but we do have to play with more competent players because of her master points -- that is my story and I am sticking to it!!
My
daughter came down for the weekend since my dear husband had abandoned me to go get our passports and some other items we would need for the upcoming trip to New Zealand. He got to see the (hopefully) last of the Rochester snow which has been vicious this year. She had never been to Airlie Gardens so I told her to bring her camera and we would go for a picture taking day. I had been there just a couple of weeks ago and was AMAZED at the changes since my last visit. There were still a few camelias but there were tulips everywhere, magnolias in bloom, redbuds and even some of the azaleas were out. My ducks are gone for the most part though -- either that or nesting which I suspect is why we aren't seeing all that much these days. Many have probably returned north as well as spring is definitely breaking out down here!
There were wonderful beds of tulips everywhere, all different varieties and colors.
Particularly liked this bed of the variegated tulips, both this one and a really pretty pink and green one.
The female Mute Swan was sitting on her nest while the male was swimming around the pond.
A small Carolina Wren was sitting by the water.
There were several Osprey hanging out in the trees although I didn't see one in the prominent nest by the water. This guy was way far away but my little camera (I didn't have the big lens with me as I was taking pictures of flowers) did manage to capture him and you couldn't see him without binoculars.
These rose looking wild flowers are again blooming on the empty lot across the street. Have forgotten the name but they are one of the first wildflowers to bloom down here.
Counting down the days now until we fly off to New Zealand and Fiji!!
Although a little chilly, it was a beautiful day to visit Airlie Gardens to see the Camelias which we figured would be in full bloom (if not a little over the hill). The cool weather must have slowed things down as they were at peak and just beautiful as always. This is a view into one of a couple of ponds that are featured on this vast estate.
One of the variegated varieties of Camelia which is among my favorites!
We have been seeing daffodils all around despite the rough weather a couple of weeks ago.
More daffodils!
These were the only tulips I saw though but in another month....
Like England, the pansies are a winter flower around here and you can see them almost all winter although more vigorous as spring approaches.
I missed the Bluebirds that were hanging out but when I looked up, I saw this stunning Red-headed Woodpecker. Pictures don't do this bird justice!! Quite a hole he is making there!
There were Gadwalls and Wigeons on the large pond with the nature trail around it. Of course, they seemed to know which direction I was heading and managed to stay as far away from me as they could. I finally did find a blind on one side off the path so I could get a decent picture of the Gadwall male and female.
A little fuzzy but this is a pair of Wigeons. I keep hoping to see a Green-winged Teal but so far, no luck.
More Wigeons and there were also a lot of Ring-necked Ducks on another pond but sun direction was a problem so I could only get pictures good enough to identify the ducks. There was also a male Blue-winged Teal in the bunch so probably the female was not far behind!! Other visitors have gotten pictures of a male and female Wood Duck but they haven't been around when I visited.
We have had guests for almost a week now with some overlap between the two sets!! My neighbors from the north came last week and we wanted to find some new places for them to visit. They had come down last year and we had taken them to many of Wilmington's attractions. One of my neighbors down here suggested that the Arboretum was well worth a visit if we hadn't been there so that was our first stop. It is located very close to Airlie Gardens. You never know what you will find this time of year as it is still a bit early for all the spring flowers. This is a view into the very lovely Japanese Garden there. The Arboretum was lovely and is a free attraction as well. It was a nice start to our beautiful day.
This is a view into the large pond that greets you.
The pond was full of carp in all colors and very large. They obviously expected us to feed them as they all swam over when we appeared by the side. I liked the stars that formed from the sun shining on the water!
We then headed to Airlie Gardens which is always a "must see" here in Wilmington. It is a gorgeous place with old Live Oaks, gardens, walkways and birds. We actually discovered a path that we had never taken before and it was my favorite so far! This is a view into one of the ponds.
The camelias were pretty much in full bloom with lots of varieties as always. These camelia gardens are close to 100 years old.
I even like looking under the bushes to see the petals from the flowers that have fallen probably that night!
There were lots of turtles out sunning on this lovely day.
Just a closer look at all the turtles (probably yellow bellied sliders).
There is one pond that has many species of ducks on it and we were not disappointed. They do keep their distance but we were rewarded with some nice views on our new path which goes all the way around the pond. In this picture you can see Scaups, Widgeons, Gadwalls and Hooded Mergansers, malles and females of all!
A lovely male American Widgeon with his irridescent green head and a white stripe down the front of his face and just a touch of black on the end of his bill.
A male Hooded Merganser with his female companion not far behind.
The female Hooded Merganser all fluffed up.
The male and female Gadwalls were there as well. We saw all the indigenous ducks except the Wood Duck and the Green Winged Teal which has eluded me.
As I was taking so many duck pictures, the others were resting on a bench waiting for me. Here are Sharon and Warren.
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