Summer Beach Scenes

‘Tis the season- beach season that is! 

This post is dedicated to our recent visits to Sullivan’s Island. On Sunday, deep in the dog days of summer, the beach here was surprisingly sparse. But it was a good surprise, especially when we found a primo parking spot near the Station 17 path to the sand. 

The photo below I took as we were leaving the beach. 

Bring on the Heat: Thriving Summer Plants

 

Watering porch plants the other day created a rainbow! That’s a Carolina Wren on the flag. It is the state bird of South Carolina. This wren is small, feisty and loud- just like South Carolina. 

We have been going through a heat wave with temperatures in the mid-90s that are pushed into triple digits when factoring in the heat index.

While many people, including myself, may only go outside in small doses, I have sought plants for the yard, porch and patio that seem to flourish in this kind of weather. 

This post features the different types I have acquired in recent weeks at places such as Lowe’s and Home Depot. 

My favorite summer plant is the caladium. These thrive in the heat as long as they have at least a few hours of sunshine to soak into their broad leaves. 

Caladium comes in a few different colors so that offers a variety of looks. 

4th of July Fun in Chicago!

 

We traveled to the Windy City to visit our son during the Independence Day holiday. The River North area downtown was where we stayed and the atmosphere was vibrant and festive. 

Chicago’s many skyscrapers are always neat to see and photograph. The iconic Wrigley Building was adorned with a huge American flag. As this site reveals, the huge flag cost $6,200 and has been flown during the 4th of July period since 2002 as a way to commemorate the 9/11 attacks.

To the left of the Wrigley Building is the 100-story Trump International Hotel & Tower, the city’s second tallest building. The hotel cost a whopping $847 million to build and was completed in 2009.

We had a wonderful view from room 1526 in the Westin Chicago River North Hotel on N. Dearborn St. 

Sunday afternoon when we checked into our room, this was the view.

Fortunately, the rain ended within a few hours…

Bear Island WMA- Summer Summit

 

On Wednesday, June 28 I finally made the trek down to Green Pond in the ACE Basin. I had the itch for months and the right day was there so off I went. 

The 12,000-acre Bear Island Wildlife Management Area was the destination. From my house it’s about 45 miles to the left turn off Highway 17 (Bennett's Point Road) then another 15 miles or so to the entrance to the vast nature preserve. 

I received a nice greeting near the gate from this friendly hen that walked up to my car. It seemed to belong to the home situated just outside the preserve.

This had to be an omen that good birding was ahead for me. 

I identified this as a Pedresa Chicken using a bird ID app I'm trying out called Picture Bird.  I open the app, bring in my bird photo and in seconds it tells me the type of bird. This was helpful in this outing to confirm birds I have seen before and to help with identities I was not so sure about. 

Just inside the entrance is a large body of water called Mary’s House Pond.

Past visits have taught me there are usually some large wading birds here. 

And sure enough, I spotted Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons. 

I tried out some different photo processing tools in my favorite Snapseed app.