Eat that Cricket!

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Decisions, decisions, so hard to pick what to post today... I want to spend at least one more day sharing pictures from our trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC.

I decided to post the anole shot eating a cricket because I felt really lucky to capture this moment as everyone else was paying attention to the elephant trainer.  I usually have 1 good anole shot a year, so I'll consider this the one for 2012.

Here's a collage of all the flowers at the gardens and zoo that I really liked.

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Here are a few HDRs I did of the botanical gardens that I think you might enjoy.

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I'll share this one other collage of my favorite zoo animals.  The koala was too darn cute!!!

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I hope you felt like you got to go to the zoo with us. It was a lot of fun, and I look forward to going again sometime.

Donnie did maintenance on my dad's lawnmower yesterday, and I got some cool shots of him sharpening the blades with sparks flying. Maybe I will post one of those tomorrow or at least include it in my blog.

Today is't raining and Joey's baseball scrimmage is canceled and the Fuquay-Varina egg hunt is being moved indoors and no longer a real egg hunt Bummer. Everything I want to do today is outside but the weather just is not cooperating.

Angry Birds Space

Just in case you somehow missed it, the Angry Birds are back with a new app Angry Birds Space!  That's right, just when you might have thought Angry Birds was fading, they're back with new costumes and, according to J&J, some great new powers.

During our road trip, we stopped at a Wal-Mart, and they had several displays with new Space-themed merchandise and advertisements for the new app.  Who could resist?!?  We needed another t-shirt, right?  Just too cute to pass up!

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The boys wore their shirts into the Riverbanks Zoo, and at the end of the day we met up with a young boy wearing a St. Patrick's Day themed lucky Angry Birds shirt, and the boys compared notes and playing styles.

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Riverbanks Zoo

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I love going to the NC Zoo in Asheboro, NC, but once a year, if we're able, I like to go to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC instead. Our normal NC Zoo trip is about 2 hours each way, but it's more like a 4 hours each way to the Riverbanks Zoo, so we just can't go more often. The Riverbanks Zoo has several animals and exhibits that the NC Zoo doesn't have and vice versa, so it's a good change of pace for us when we get to go.

I have to say up front that I was disappointed that the zoo did not have very many tulips planted this year in the zoo itself or the attached botanical gardens. I'm sure it's expensive, and I understand, but I was hoping for tulip pictures which I really didn't get.  Last year I got some ones that I was very excited about.

I put together this silly collage of 63 of the best out of 600+ pictures. You can see we were busy for our nearly 7 hour visit! Did I mention it was in the mid 80's while we were there?!? Thankfully most of the zoo has lots of shade!

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I posted what I guess was the cutest shot of the day...the giraffe up close and playing peek-a-boo with me.  Who could resist.  I figure if I go to the zoo I ought to post a zoo animal, right?  I can post a flower tomorrow from the gardens.

I want to let you know about this new climbing structure that they have at the zoo. They call it the Sky-High Safari, and it's a 44-ft. high vertical ropes challenge.  I'd say it lets you feel like a monkey!  Monkeys make it look so easy.  My boys will tell you it's a lot harder! I was so proud of them for making it to the top and back down!  Johnny is ready to go back up the next time.  Joey was trying hard not to think about it:-)

You can see Joey in the green shirt almost in the center of this image.

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Here you can see how the safety harness rope moves around the structure.  Johnny stopped to pose when I called up to him.  And he was up!

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48" is the height requirement so that kids can read up and move the harness rope at the junctions.  Johnny is just over 48".

Here's Joey moving on the 'wooden' planks.

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Here's Johnny on the ropes.  Hard to say if the ropes or the planks were harder.  I think the ropes swayed more.

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Like I said, the zoo animals make it look so much easier!  Watch this cute and loud video of the Howler Monkeys...one of our favorite attractions at the Riverbanks Zoo.

I took a break from taking butterfly pictures in the yard to take the kids to Reed Gold Mine and the Riverbanks Zoo in South Carolina.  More coming tomorrow!

Reed Gold Mine

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The boys are tracked out of their year round school right now, and it didn't work out for me to have off the week after Easter, so even though I started back to work on Monday of this week (the 27th), I was off for two days on a short road trip with the boys.  Our first stop was Reed Gold Mine on our way to my dad's house and then onto the River Banks Zoo in Columbia, SC.  The zoo is just to far from my house near Raleigh to make the trip down and back in one day.

We had been to Reed Gold Mine a couple of years ago on one of our regular trips to/from my dad's house, and Joey really wanted to go back. It's not too far off the beaten path and free, so why not.  We were surprised to learn that they now let you go into the mine on our own and do a self-guided tour.  They said state cutbacks had affected their ability to give guided tours 100% of the time.  Bummer but OK.  With guide paper in hand we set off on our adventure.

If you've never been in a mine before, it's chilly down there.  I came prepared with jackets for me and Johnny.  Joey won't wear a coat even when it's 30, so I didn't carry one for him.  It ended up being a damp 55 down there according to a thermometer on one of the mine walls.

The important thing about Reed Gold Mine is that it was the first documented gold discovery in the United States and the discovery helped to launch the gold rush.

The gold in this mine was in quartz veins, and they had to crush the ore and do several other processes on the majority of the gold to isolate it from the quartz.  We got to tour the Stamp Mill which showed us the ore crushing equipment.

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Set in a forested area of NC along Little Meadow Creek, and with it being spring, we were treated to birds chirping, wildflowers blooming, and even some unusual lizards.

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Can anyone identify this type of lizard which I have not seen in the Raleigh area?  The bright blue tummy was pretty!  I chased these guys (2 of them) around the tree for a solid 5 minutes trying to get a really detailed shot.  Funny thing is they kept moving:-)

Note:  Apparently an Eastern Fence Lizard (thanks Patricia!)

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Along the way, I saw some wild daisies blooming for the first time this year but did not have a safe place to stop.  I did stop in another area and take some bachelor button pictures.  I love these flowers!

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We also saw fields of what I'm guessing is mustard

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And the usual rural barn and countryside scenes.

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My post about the zoo trip coming.

The Quest Continues

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I took pics of a lot of things in my yard.  Mostly I enjoyed the Swallowtails on the Yoshino Cherry tree.  My neighbors are now convinced that I'm nuts standing out there for so long staring up at the white blooms in search of butterflies.

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This cute squirrel kept me company in a nearby tree.

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And these very tiny butterflies fluttered past too.

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In my neighbor's yard, this pink dogwood began to open.  I might would have posted this shot as my daily if it weren't for that branch on the right which I saw when I took the shot but could not avoid.  The light, pinks, and blues are so pretty.

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A lower angle on the same tree.  I liked the bokeh.

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Soon some of the goldfinch will migrate away.  In the meantime, they are the most popular birds at my feeders right now, and their pretty gold feathers are coming back in.

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A Butterfly of a Different Color

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I know you might have thought I'd be done posting butterfly pics after yesterday, but I was back out standing under that Yoshino Cherry tree again looking for butterflies and snapping away.  It's kindof odd with that tree being so huge to sometimes be pointing straight up!  I was so delighted after getting a few more yellow Swallowtails to look up and notice a black one.  It's a rare glimpse any time of year to see the black ones in my yard instead of the yellow ones.  So, it was a thrill to spot one on the white blossoms, and I must have taken 150 pics of this guy.  He was much more cooperative than his brothers and sisters in that he stayed lower, closer, and rested longer.  Whew...

Here's the 2nd place pose of the day.

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I like the light and bokeh on this one, but I think it lacks a bit of sharpness on the core body of the butterfly.

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And here he is all opened out.

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Here's a little humor...  I guess I could try to pp out that darn branch!  My initial reaction to seeing this nice wide open shot and then that branch sticking up into his space was not a good one:-)  It's like a lightning bolt or something!

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I ended up with these pretty shots, but it's so hard to avoid shadows!

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New pond pump running in my side yard pond!  The frogs and fish are much happier!

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And so is Johnny because he loves visiting with his pond friends.

And the azaleas are looking good!

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Those swallowtails will land on those flowers too, and with the Yoshino Cherry just about done, maybe this will be my target tomorrow.  Never know.

Posing for a Quick Capture!

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Hopefully you guys can tolerate one more butterfly picture.  I don't think I've ever posted 3 butterfly shots in a row!  I've just been on a mission to capture the best Swallowtail on those Yoshino Cherry blossoms that I could!

Here's the original.  You can see that I fixed his wing and tried to warm up the shot and bring out the colors a bit as well as clean up the noise.  I still don't feel I could quite capture the same beauty as I could have if the sun had been more cooperative.

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We had more cloud, wind, and rain yesterday, so I was pleased for a few minute window to capture more butterfly shots.  The flower petals on the Yoshino Cherry tree are fast falling now:-(

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It's so interesting how the flowers go from white to a pretty pink color as they finish up their springtime glory.

The azaleas in my yard have started to bloom too.  I just might have to turn my attention to chasing butterflies on them now:-)

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I'm back to work today for the first time in quite some weeks.  Was it February?  I have reconstruction surgery in about a month and some time off over the next 3 weeks for the boys' trackout from year round school but otherwise the challenges of the daily grind return.

Another Day Another Butterfly

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My hunt for the perfect Yoshino Cherry and Swallowtail Butterfly picture continued yesterday, but success still eluded me.  We had clouds.  We had rain.  We had wind.  Still, late afternoon, on coming in from town, I had Donnie stop near my tree to look for butterflies.  We saw one, and he put a huge smile on my face when he said, "Pretty girl, you get out and take you some pictures and I'll put the groceries away."  What a guy!  Below is what I got better or worse.

This is a view of my tree starting at THE tree and looking down the road to the back of my neighborhood. You can see Donnie's silver XB and then a very large tree on the right leaning into the road which is about the other end of my yard.  So, the frontage runs Yoshino Cherry to that large tree.

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Here's the best shot I got yesterday IMO.  I really had to work the colors in Color Efex Pro.

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The shot posted as my daily is from Friday.  I missed it on my first pass through the images, and Donnie and I both agree it beats the shot above. The blue is better color contrast for the butterfly.

Plenty of bees on the Yoshino Cherry.  I've just not been too interested in them  You can hear 100s of them buzzing about.  If you don't like bees, it's a scary sound I guess, but I pay them no never mind.

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At one time there were 3 Swallowtails up there.  But they flew around more than they landed.  I did get this nice shot but of course the sun disappeared a few minutes before.  The light is lower and colder than I'd like for a shot like this.

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The Wisteria in yesterday's shot in Madi's yard is ending.  Look at these blooms around the cactus on the ground.  Still pretty!

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I took Dogwood shots in Donnie's yard here and in my yard below.  They sure are pretty right now.

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Oh and let me not forget to tempt you with Friday night's dinner:-)

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