Native American Heritage Celebration

/

Master Naturalists had 2 tables at the Native American Heritage Celebration that took place on the Wonders of Wildlife parking lot recently. This was my second year to volunteer at the event and much easier than last year since I was only volunteering one shift on each of 2 days (rather than most of the 3 days last year). Some of the core training students got some early volunteer hours at the event as well.

One table was dedicated to bison – with a full table of things made from bison parts. The other table was caterpillars of native moths/butterflies: luna moth, black swallowtail butterfly, and monarch butterfly.

On the first morning of the celebration, I walked around and enjoyed the displays of pumpkins and gourds.

One of the other educational tables was showing the ‘three sisters’ – beans, corn, and squash. They also had some wonderful large sunflower seed heads.

Probably the most dramatic event at our table was the emergence of a monarch butterfly from a chrysalis that had been on the plant with the caterpillars on the last day – and before I arrived. It had flown to a nearby gourd so I still go to see it and take a portrait!

Longwood Gardens – October 2021

/

We took a day trip to Longwood Gardens in mid-October. The website was encouraging ticket purchase before coming and cautioning that it is no longer possible to leave/return as we had usually done for lunch; the gardens also open an hour later than pre-pandemic. We arrived a few minutes before our ticket time and the garden opening at 10. There were others that had the same strategy…a line formed. I took a few macro pictures of the plants near our place in line while we waited. It was a little disconcerting that only about half the people put on masks inside the visitor center and there were several busloads of children that arrived - enlarging the crowd in the building. We exited to the gardens as quickly as we could and headed to the conservatory.

We chose to wear a mask in the conservatory too – as did about half the people in the building. There is construction closing the west end but still plenty of mums, tropical plants, children’s garden, and cactus to see in the part that is open. Even the hallway of bathrooms in the conservatory was very lush with green walls. Enjoy the slide show of zoomed pictures from the conservatory!

I’ll post about the water lilies and fiddleheads and macro photographs later. There were a few pictures I took as we walked about through the forest and meadow and then enjoying the display of fall squash and gourds…but I spent most of my time experimenting with macro photography with my phone.

We spent about 3.5 hours in the gardens…then were tired and hungry enough to call it a day. We stopped at a fast-food drive thru…then parked and ate…before continuing home.