The Peacock at Middleton Place

I decided to go to Summerville, SC with Richard when he had business there. It was a wonderful trip and I so enjoyed it. While we were there, we went to Middleton Place. It is a plantation that dates back to the 1700s. The grounds are beautiful as were the creatures who live there. I discovered this peacock in one of the trees by the stables and took a few pictures of him in it.

He seemed to enjoy my taking his picture and flew down and followed me around the side of the stables. Guinea hens piqued his interest and he tried to get their attention by displaying for them so I took advantage of his vanity and got some more photos of his beautiful plumage.He totally ignored me as I moved around him while he showed off his magnificent feathers. The hens were not impressed, but their indifference seemed to make him try all the harder to get their attention and he began to stomp and dance back and forth while shaking his tail feathers, causing them to make loud clicking sounds. Here's a behind the scenes look at his act!

The Big Fishing Trip

Sarah, my daughter, treated her father to a little fishing trip for Father's Day. He loved every minute of it! Here's a picture she took with her "disposable" Pentax Optio camera of Richard and their guide, Starr Nolan. They were on a stream somewhere near Asheville, NC.

Sarah is a bit of a camera snob. She refers to the Pentax we gave her as her "disposable" camera. That's partly because shortly after this photo, she promptly dropped it in the creek. It took days to dry out! It still works, but she went out and bought herself a new Nikon D300. It does just about anything you can imagine, including communicating to the photographer what shots should be taken! You can see some of her beautiful photography on her DeviantArt page at http://finalrice.deviantart.com.

I promised Richard's brother Jim that I would download a copy of this pic for him to see, so here it is. It's a great photo of a day that meant a lot to Richard!

Watermelons and Coyotes

We grew Stars & Moon watermelons again this year. We picked this one a little early, trying to head off the turtles! Though it was not quite ripe, it was still delicious and I love the way the seeds twirl about this matrix. What we didn't eat, we fed to our chickens who absolutely loved the special treat.

We've had a bit of trouble keeping all sorts of other creatures from enjoying our fruits this year. Since we don't use pesticides/herbicides, it makes it a challenge to keep insects away. We also entertain rabbits, turtles and deer who boast very discerning palates. Earlier this year a coyote decided to rip one of our heavy-duty garden hoses to shreds. I don't know if it thought the hose was a snake or if it just decided the hose was a great play-toy. I'm thankful, though that at least it did not decide to raid our chicken house and yard. We've done a good bit to keep our chickens safe from predators, but a number of evenings, we'd spy the coyote sitting and licking it's lips staring at the brood.