The Butterfly House

If you're ever in Gainesville, Florida, please make it a priority to go to the Univ. of Florida's Natural History Museum and Butterfly House. The butterflies live in a beautiful ecosystem that includes streams, waterfalls, fish, turtles, and birds. There are turtles on a log just under the fan leaf. John drove Aunt Jinny, Carmen and me to Gainesville for this wonderful visit at Aunt Jinny's suggestion. The butterflies and museum far exceeded our expectations. It was easy to spend a couple of hours walking around. I don't know the name of any of the butterflies or orchids but they sure are spectacular.

There are several trays with cut up mangoes and bananas throughout the exhibit. There were always butterflies on them.

The convenient walkways made it easy to see everything.

This butterfly shows its blue wings only when they open so it was very hard to get a good pic.

Zebra finch

Spice finch

After this outing we had the pleasure of going to Emily and Bill's home nearby. The cedar plank walls give it a distinctive, rustic atmosphere. Dinner at Bonefish Grill Restaurant was a huge success. Thanks Aunt Jinny for our memorable visit.

Visit with Aunt Jinny

We had a wonderful visit with Aunt Jinny and Carmen. The weather still hasn't been ideal but we were able to go for a long walk on her property and on the neighbor's. It's a favorite activity of ours. We saw deer, a rabbit, an osprey, four wood ducks and many turkey tracks. Spanish moss grows on many trees.

Carmen followed us on the golf cart. Aunt Jinny and I hopped on for the last few minutes.

Turkey vultures gathered in this tree.

No alligators in sight this year but they are here.

It's wonderful to visit with family and friends and finally be in Florida!

Dahlonega, Georgia Gold Mine

Today's rain sent us underground to tour the Consolidated Gold Mine in Dahlonega, GA with Hoppy and Marybet. Gold was discovered here well over 100 years ago.
This quartz vein contains gold.

A spring runs through the mine.

A hibernating little brown bat clings at the edge of the white stuff.

Amazing to learn about how the gold was mined. It was incredibly dangerous. Men frequently went blind and deaf.

Hoppy and John listen intently. Hoppy declined to wear the blue hard hat and he was careful to duck when the ceiling was low. The tour guide said, "This is the wishing rock. It's called that because after you hit your head on it you say I wish I hadn't hit that!"

Quite cool and damp underground.

The tour guide ran this extremely loud driller briefly and we heard the mine echo afterwards.

We each found a couple of flakes in our gold pan - perfect souvenirs for Trenton and Oliver!

A New House

I visited with Sheryl, Trenton and Oliver while Jim, John and Jay played and watched basketball at my house. It was a breezy, chilly day but nice to be outside with jackets on. This was the first time I could take outdoor pics of the wonderful new home. Home, not house; truly, this will be a wonderful place for the boys to grow up. While Trenton was busy elsewhere, Oliver and I had fun outside. The clubhouse and sandbox will be set up soon.

It's going to be fun to see what grows. There are many flowers and rose bushes.

It was fun to watch two titmice get seeds from the new birdfeeder from Greatgrandma and peck on them in the rhododendron bush just outside the dining room window.

This is a nice view from across the cul-de-sac.

Hmmm, what should I play with first?

Oh, my scooter for sure!

We took a quick trip to the playground at the school where Trenton will go to kindergarten in September. Trenton is in the background above, right above Oliver's head.

Sheryl takes great close-ups. Oliver poses better for her than for me.

"Whoa, too high for you, little guy!"

It's a great playground with lots to do.

Jim returned home in time to cook an excellent vegetarian dinner for guests that evening and I headed home after a fun day.

Pre-Easter Celebration

We gathered here on Saturday for our annual pre-Easter celebration. Trenton and Oliver had lots of fun collecting eggs! We missed Greatgrandma because she was at a Mountain Lakes Centennial celebration. We missed Peter because he was visiting family in D.C. We missed Bryan because he was working at his new job delivering Greek food for a local restaurant. Chrysanne brought a friend, Vickie, and they had lots of fun playing with the boys.
The eggs were filled with all sorts of candy and even some coins. Nice big brother evening up the score.

How on earth does Sheryl have enough strength to lift Trenton over her head?!

Seeing what's inside and having a taste.

They also received baskets with toys and books. Thanks for coming everyone. I hope Sheryl's blog will have more pictures. I was just too busy having fun to take pics.