Valkyrie's Page of Wonder

October 03, 2006

Chattahoochee River

We went to Atlanta this past weekend (Sept 30th) for a ferret meetup/picnic at a park on the Chattahoochee river. While we were there I decided to take our little Canon Powershot around the park and see what I could find.

Down by the boat ramp Peter and I found a King snake making its way up the wall. It managed to hang on to the bolts in the wood and pull itself up into the grassy area above. As we were watching the snake a man and his white lab came down. The guy stood by the water's edge while the dog plopped down in the river. It was so different from what our dog, Shadow, does that I had to get a picture of it.

Farther down the river we ran across some ducks and geese floating in the river. There were also some more geese on the other side of the river but our camera doesnt have a good enough zoom to get a good shot of them. I got several more pictures of the river before accidently stepping in and getting mud on my pants. After that I wandered back to the group to clean up before heading out on my solo nature walk.

Started out heading north toward the designated path and ran across a tree on a small hill. I took a picture but it didnt look too good so I scrapped it. Then I headed east and found some pretty yellow flowers near the trees and noticed a bumble bee buzzing around so I got as close as a could and snapped a couple of decent shots off. He didnt even care that I was there. A little farther and I found a vine working its way up one of the power lines. I decided to call that one Nature Reclaimations, or something like that.

As I headed back toward the group I took time to stop and smell the pretty purple flowers and get a nice photo. The lady bug I encountered wasn't very photogenic and my camera wasn't cooperating either. Around the group I found a interesting fallen log, a moss covered stump, a tree supporting a tree and "Pawprints in the Sand". Well it was more or less mud but you get the idea.
I had some difficulty getting any decent pictures of the squirrles around there so all twelve of those shots were tossed out. If you want to check out all of the photos that made the album you can do so here: Nature Photo Gallery. If you want to check out the pictures from the meet up and see the cool ferrets go here: Park Meetup in Atlanta.

Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

June 02, 2006

Pendleton King Park Ferret Meetup

Recently we had our ferret meet up at Pendleton King Park. It had a luau theme and was very fun. But you can read more about that at my wife's site: Ferret Dreams: Luau Photos Well...ok, so maybe she didnt talk much about it either. It was still fun and the pictures she links to tell a good story about what happen.

I'm here to talk about some photos I took while I was there. Namely from the Scratch and Sniff Garden..er I mean the Touch and Smell Garden. The first picture here is the sign that hangs next to the entry way. They say don't take the plants but someone before us decided to chop a big chunk of parsley off and take it with them. At least thats what the plant looked like happened.

The main area of the Garden was dominated by this fountain/pool thing. The spray it put off combined with the slight breeze made it very cool feeling. The water didnt look too clean but I think it was just the walls of the pool and not the water itself. Kris took a moment to cool her toes in the crisp water while the others checked out the herbs and other pretty plant life. Patrick, being a cook, was able to point out just about every plant in that place. The Rosemary was the best smelling plant there in my opinion.


Upon exiting the garden I ran across these beautiful purple flowers and decided to get a closer look and see how good our little camera was. I have to say it turned out rather well. The top flower almost looks fake, CG even. I have a copy of this hanging on my fridge here at the house.
Hopefully I will be finding more things to take pictures of and post about. Maybe even get a better camera....ok so not really. I doubt i'll be able to get a good camera for a long while yet. Peace and don't forget to check out the rest of the Luau photos.