MORE FROM GREEN SPRING GARDENS

When we were trying to decide where to go for our walk, we chose Green Spring Gardens which I mentioned in my previous post. The places we go within a relatively short drive always guarantees a pleasant time, and today was no exception.

There is an open gate as we enter the garden area.  We saw that they close at 5.00 p.m. and it was already 4.00 p.m.  We decided it would be prudent to park outside the gate, as the sign suggested.  There were many cars parked outside already.  Gregg dropped me off at the top so that I could walk down to the pond and meet him there.  But first I took a photo of these cute dogs who were already leaving.  I saw several dogs this day.

When I sat on the seat next to the pond where I was to meet Gregg, this little girl introduced herself.  She is a little blurry as she trotted in fast.  Her name was Hope and the lady walking her told me she was a rescue dog and she hadn't had her for very long.  Hope was a sweet furry friend and I made a big fuss of her.  

We stayed chatting for several minutes until Gregg turned up, and it was time for Hope to continue her walk.  A sweet encounter and a good start to our own walk.  

Here she is checking out one of the many smells she would encounter that day, curious about everything as I saw her disappear out of sight.  I could tell Hope would have a very happy life with the lady she was with.  I had a good feeling and I just knew there was a special connection between the two of them, and a whole lot of love.

The only birdlife I saw on the pond were two Canada Geese.  There were no nests nearby that I could see.

Do you ever like to study the bark on trees?  We are always interested in them and need to learn how to ID all the ones we see.  Our next project!  Gregg took the following photo.  

Here is another I don't know the name of.

It seems that many have decided to show how much they care for their partner.  I know it is an age-old tradition but what I would say is give them a hug instead and tell them verbally.  Leave the tree alone for others to enjoy, what say you?  I wonder what Hal and Nancy are doing now?  I wonder when it was that he carved their names on this tree?  Hal had to be a tall man to do that.  It was way above my head. (I believe I have shared this tree in an older post.)

It is really peaceful in this area.

"Rivers know this: there is no hurry.  We shall get there someday."

~A. A. Milne~

It would be lovely to live in a home next to a park or a large public garden...

and it always gives me a lift to see the first daffodils.

 How sweet the daffodil, its sunlight hue calls out, "Notice me, I am joy!"

~Author Unknown~

'Glory of the Snow' from my last post.

Blue Anemones.

Purple Pansies.  

I thought the hyacinths were a very pretty shade of pink.

The cherry blossoms were in bloom.  

There were also more dogs to see.  I didn't take photos of them all...

and I was surprised to see so many of these small dogs. Are they Maltese?  A Maltese Convention perhaps?  

I don't think I was seeing the same dogs over and over again.

We are slowly getting to the end of our walk, and we stop near the house.  If you go here and scroll down its page, you can find a short history of the place.

From the lovely green door...

down to its door knocker, it is interesting to read its history.

As we walked down the hill to where Gregg had parked our car, I stopped to take one more photo of these new buds.  

And that was it for the day's walk and photo taking.  It was lovely, and now we have to decide where we are going to go next time.  

We have company coming, so may be a little slow getting back to you over the weekend. 

SPRING FLOWER

We found these pretties at Green Spring Gardens.  It was lovely to see the spring flowers blooming.  I will share more in an upcoming post.

You may recognize these as Glory of the Snow, which is a bulbous perennial originally from south-west Turkey.  It flowers in early spring and after flowering it goes dormant until the next spring. 

I found this link where you will find more information if interested.  

DECK CAM BIRDS

A few photos and videos from the deck cam out back.  This is a male Brown-headed Cowbird with a Mourning Dove behind him.  I've noticed that they don't seem to mind sharing the birdseed.  

The female Cardinal makes an appearance in the next photo.  It seems like she is checking out the camera.

In the video you will see the Cardinal pop in and in the background there is a Red-bellied Woodpecker and a Blue Jay that flies in.

       :

I added this photo as I liked the pretty feather pattern from the back.

Another video showing her back feathers.

Here's her mate.  I get a lot of Cardinals visiting every day.  

They are a bright little bird with lots of personality.

SPRING

MONDAY FOOD POST - NIGHT OUT WITH THE FAMILY

We got together with our son and daughter-in-law for Gregg's post birthday meal.  One of our favorite get-together restaurants is Seasons 52.  It takes us about 45 minutes to an hour to get there, depending on traffic, but definitely worth the extra drive.  We arranged to meet at the restaurant. 

We arrived first and the Maitre D let us sit down at our table.  Our son and daughter-in-law arrived within five minutes, enough time for us to get settled in our seats.  Sometimes a restaurant might ask us to wait for our company before they will seat us, but not this place.  We really appreciate that.

The food was excellent, one of the reasons we enjoy coming here.  This is our fifth or sixth time and we have had nothing but outstanding food and service.  Our waiter was a sweet young man who took care of us very well, as did other staff who brought our food to the table.  

We took photos of our meals.  The above is a collage I put together of all the photos our son took.  He likes to take artsy photos just like his Dad, and it's always fun to see what they see through a camera lens.  The three photos on the left going down are the candle on the table, dinner napkin and plate which is pretty obvious I guess, and the handle on the charcuterie board.  The three photos on the right are my cocktail, a Pomegranate Margarita Martini (delicious), Brad's cocktail, Cucumber Smash and a choice of these desserts, which after your meal is a nice small portion if you want to have dessert but only need something lighter.  There are regular sized desserts on the menu of course.

After a busy day none of us had eaten a lot.  We ordered two appetizers to share between us while waiting for our main meal.  On the left is Grilled Artichokes with Preserved Lemon Hummus, and on the right I can't remember the exact name of it but it was a crabmeat and shrimp concoction.

Gregg's meal was Caramelized Grilled Sea Scallops with roasted garlic broccolini and goat cheese risotto.  

Our daughter-in-law had Roasted Vegetable Gnocchi which came with butternut squash, spiced cauliflower, almond granola and sun-dried tomato pesto.

Our son ordered the Kona-Crusted Lamb Loin with roasted-zucchini-potato mash, roasted pepper chutney and a balsamic sauce.
A creature of habit I always order the

Wood-Grilled Boneless Rainbow Trout, which also came with the roasted garlic broccolini, along with marble potatoes and a dill-mustard sauce.  It never disappoints.

None of us were leaving without dessert but we didn't want anything too large after that wonderful meal.  Our waiter brought to our table what you see in the collage above.  I chose the Mocha Macchiato, which is a mocha and vanilla mousse, chocolate cake and caramel sauce.  These small desserts are called Mini Indulgences. 

A super celebration for the birthday boy, and a great evening with our family.  

Enjoy your week everyone, and thanks for stopping by.

HUNTLEY MEADOWS, SECOND PART

Hopefully we can go back to the park soon.  There should be more birdlife coming through now.  We always love the path through the wood before we get to the walkway across the marshy area. 

I have seen dozens of photographers on our visits, many with very large zooms, and they stay there for hours.  If you look closely you will see that he has two attached to his tripod.  This is the first time I have seen that set-up.

I would have loved to have seen his photos, and wondered if he had a gallery somewhere.  He was on the phone though and I certainly wasn't going to disturb him.

There were lots of families around. Maybe his was walking elsewhere while he took his photos.  We try not to go on a weekend, but when we do it is nice to see families enjoying themselves. 

I could be mistaken but the water seemed lower than on our last visit.  We wondered if the beavers had been working on this old, multi-branched stump sticking out of the water.  Always looking for signs of beaver we saw none today.  They are more active if you are here early morning or later in the afternoon.  More on them at the end of my post.

I enjoyed seeing all the turtles on the logs.  There were dozens sighted.  I believe these are Painted Turtles.  At times we have seen Snapping Turtles, some very large, but not today.

If you go here you can see more photos and information about Huntley Meadows.

Here are more photos of the birds we saw.  The one below is a female Northern Shoveler, mentioned in my previous post...

and her mate.

We also saw a few American Coots.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were swimming in and out of the reeds.  Their heads disappeared often.

Always enjoyable to watch but I eventually left them in peace.

We are almost at the end of the walkway.  The mound in my photo below these illustrations (found on line) is a beaver lodge.  

The one we always see right off the walkway has been here for as long as we have been coming to the park, about 30 years.  It is amazing to me that they built so close to where the pathway is well traveled.

There is another interesting website at this link, an illustration and more information about the beaver.

We watched it get even bigger and at one time this seat was almost covered.  It is one where we sit and look at the wildlife.  There is another pond to the left of this photo, and also a beaver dam.  We have seen the pond rise and fall depending on how busy they have been.  The park people let nature take its course more often than not, but I see the seat has been slowly cleared.  The lodge, however, has basically been left alone.

At this link it will tell you more about the beaver.

Eventually it was time to leave and we made our way back through the wood.  If you look up at that tree trunk there are fresh holes made by woodpeckers, getting ready for nesting I'm assuming.  

Gregg also enjoys taking photos and many of these in my two posts are his, like this interesting dried plant.  

I also saw that these tiny flowers called Spring Beauty were growing everywhere.  Good signs of Spring!

That's it for now until our next visit.  If you want to look at other posts I have done on the park, you can find the link underneath this post.

Have a great day and thanks for taking a look.  I hope you have enjoyed Huntley Meadows, and will get a chance to visit the park yourself one of these days.  If not I am very happy to share it virtually.