Weekend Wandering

Some pictures from Long Branch Environmental Education Center. This place was pretty neat.


Some pictures from a short walk in Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, an old growth forest about 2 hours west of Asheville, NC. Some of the tulip poplars there are over 400 years old.


We found a recently hatched luna moth. 💚


Some cute Kentuckian.

Garden Critters and Blooms

Flying Cloud Farm is only 6 miles from my apartment. They have community UPick flower fields, so I find myself there with my macro lens pretty often.


Here are some shots of my garden from earlier in the week. The tomatoes in the front bed are about two feet taller than I am right now and I think collectively they threaten to bring down the stakes. Next year I’ll opt for metal instead of wood.


My first dahlia bloomed! (!!!!!!!!)


Ammi and zinnias.


Not pictured below: the squash and the cucumbers that won’t stop growing.

Pictured below: very tasty pickles.


Garden critters – including a monarch caterpillar! There are at least 5 of them nestled in the milkweed and we’re all really excited about watching them pupate.

Early morning walk in the dew

Here are some photos from a really nice morning a few weeks ago. I woke up early and saw that my corner of the world was drenched in sunlight and early morning dew. On my way to a trail I love to hike I had to pull over multiple times because Western North Carolina just does something to you at 8AM. I found spider webs scattered along fence posts, sweet grazing sheep, and I had my first trillium sighting of the year.

September Yellows

Septembers in Western North Carolina are beautiful. The days are still warm, but they seem to get a bit shorter and the nights cool off significantly. These shots were taken at my favorite place in the world, the valley below Sam’s Knob, located in Shining Rock Wilderness area. I found plenty of lovely yellows with my Fuji XT30 and the Laowa 65mm macro lens.


Here are some other fun shots from that day, too.


We went back to another favorite area just above Sam’s Knob a few weeks later. Here are some more September yellows from Black Balsam Knob.