Pumpkin Fly Pie

These pumpkins serve as decorations in a garden at my elementary school. The smaller one has begun to decay.

 

I wonder if the green anole is checking out the bug buffet that may be attracted to the decaying pumpkin.

Is Baseball Still the American Pastime?

At our elementary school, as the hundreds of cars drive through to drop off the kids, adults are there to open the car doors and lead the students onto the sidewalk. I do this twice a week and it is an enjoyable part of my day because I get to see kids I have taught in the past and others I learned to know through the years. So out of our approximately 700 students, I can give names for about a third of them.

And so this was what I was doing when I saw a first grader who was my student last year. I noticed he was wearing a NY Yankees jersey. I asked, “Are you a Yankees fan?” He said, “Yep!” I asked, “Did you get to watch the game last night?” He answered, “You know, I don’t really like to watch football.”

Well, there you go.

Toadaly Bad Choice

B happened to notice this large toad hiding in the track of the garage door.

Thankfully, while I was taking the first picture, it decided to make a better choice.

And off it went.

Nice toad. Nice save. You don’t think about checking the door track before you click it closed.

Mailbox Monday: Tough Guys

After mini-explosives were used to blow up previous mailboxes, my dad had this one made from heavy pipe. It has stood for a long time.

This one is made out of that truck-box metal.

This one had fake bullet hole decals applied. Funny!

And if all else fails, there is safety in numbers: there are twenty-two in this mailbox gang, that includes a couple of nonconformists.

Scorpion at Roosevelt

I found this little guy seeking refuge in the women’s bath house at Roosevelt State Park. It was a cold morning and it had died in there. It was quite small but our neighboring campers found a larger one in the woods.

We remembered that the other time we had camped there, scorpions had gotten on the tent and were in the bathrooms.

We don’t ever see scorpions at home, so they are quite the novelty. I think they look so prehistoric.

It’s a Sign!

When we were driving home on Sunday from our camping trip in northwest Georgia, we stopped at the dam that creates Lake George. To get to the dam, we had to cross the Flint River and thus crossed into Alabama. In the quarter mile that we drove to the first road to the right to go to the dam, we passed these signs and a couple of others.

But this one jumped right out at me

and the teacher in me cringed.

Have to wonder if Buddy’s family feels honored.

Lake George

For years I have heard of friends camping at Cotton Hill on Lake George, about 130 miles from Tallahassee. I determined on our trip home from Pine Mountain that we would go and see it for ourselves and we did. The route is just a tad tricky and we went two sides of a triangle once when we missed a turn, but it was a nice adventure and we saw some country we have never seen before. Along the way we passed a field of sunflowers. These are not common here. In fact, I don’t think we have any in our area.

Cotton Hill is an Army Corp of Engineers camping area. It appeared to be spotless. Our first look at the lake was here at this boat landing. Across the lake, a seaplane was landing.

We later learned it was at Bagby State Park, which also has camping and cabins. We went over there and had a nice lunch in their lodge.

We were shown a lodge room, as well as a cabin. While the lodge rooms were nice enough, the cabin would suit us better. The lodge rooms open with exterior sidewalks. I have come to prefer interior ones. They just feel a little more secure.

Both Cotton Hill and Bagby State Park are places we would like to return to.

From there we continued south and saw a sign for the dam that creates the lake, so of course we wanted to see that. It looks pretty much like the one at Chattahoochee and it is the same water, as well.

We have seen large mixed flocks of birds at Chattahoochee before and were not surprised that this was the case here, but what did surprise me were the white pelicans, that are only winter visitors.

Amidst the cormorants and other dark birds, they sort of stick out!