Fall and spring at the same time

On March 23, 2026April 10, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants2 Comments

Thanksgiving weekend was a perfect time to go for a walk in my neighborhood. It had finally cooled off and the leaves were turning those fun fall colors.

There was still a lot of things blooming in the ground and bushes along the utility field and it looked like spring in some spots.

The yellow flowers had turned to seed pods.

The invasive brazilian peppertree bushes were covered in berries. I can usually find a few bugs on them including what I think are leaf footed bugs above.

I could hear a peeping noise deep in the reeds and keep looking for what was making that noise. Finally a sedge wren popped out. I don’t see them often.

Plants along my walk.

A 3 park walk and a little bit of history

On March 2, 2026April 10, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants, Tampa bay sights4 Comments

It was mid-November but you would think it was spring at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. It was still warm and butterflies were all over the butterfly garden. Brett and I were out for a walk through the gardens and then to Heritage Village next door.

Red things were still blooming.

The sun was coming through the holly tree.

The banana trees were loaded. I wonder if the squirrels eat them.

A soft shell turtle hiding under the duckweed.

A moorhen and turtles in one of the ponds. I’m sure there’s an alligator hiding underneath there.

Brett had never walked through Heritage Village which is a part of the botanical gardens here. The village is full of old historic homes from the Pinellas county area that were moved here to be preserved. You can read about the homes here.

The historic village had recently been donated a relic from the old Tiki Gardens theme park/restaurant on Indian Shores Beach back in the 60’s. Seeing the big statue brought back many memories of going there with my family when I was growing up. You can read more about the history of this restaurant here.

Our last walk of the morning was at nearby McGough Park to see the turtle pond. There are so many turtles that live here and you can feed them. On the this morning kids were already throwing in the pellets for them to eat.

A stroll down my street.

On February 25, 2026March 6, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants5 Comments

In late October I was out for a walk in my neighborhood. The sun was just coming up over the trees. I had walked to the utility field hoping to see some critters hanging around.

Taken with my phone, I could see a bald eagle sitting high up on the tower.

Native bladderpod was going dormant for the winter but there was still a few green pods on the plant.

Rattlebox starts out with beautiful yellow flowers, then turns in bean pods that are highly toxic. Originally they were planted to help with erosion and they grow like crazy but were later found out that the beans were bad for critters to eat.

I’m not sure what these are but they were in the same area.

A red shoulder hawk was sitting on a light post, looking around for a snack.

A crawly critter on the sidewalk.

There are several bird of paradise plants along my walk.

When I got back home I could see a tiny alligator out in the middle of the pond across the street.

Hibiscus blooming in my front yard.

Lots of color in the gardens

On December 29, 2025January 3, 2026 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants2 Comments

In early September I went for a walk at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. It was still pretty hot and I left my camera in the car and just walked with my phone. My first stop was the butterfly garden and it was pretty quiet there. I was hoping for some hummingbirds but I didn’t see any this morning.

Color along the path.

The spatterdock made pretty patterns in the water.

A few of the critters I saw.

Pretty fungus growing from the summer rains but the above in red is a stinkhorn mushroom and has a foul smell if it breaks apart.

The banana plants were blooming.

I grabbed my camera out of the car to catch this green heron catching a bug. He was feeding in a small pond next to the parking lot.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) at Image-In-Ing.

A morning walk along the trail

On October 20, 2025November 9, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals, flowers and plants4 Comments

It was mid-June and hot on the morning I went for a walk at Chesnut Park. I didn’t take my camera thinking there wouldn’t be too many birds around and the baby deer hadn’t been born yet. I was playing around with some of the settings on my phone to capture the above along the trail.

Some type of mushroom growing on a dead tree. It was huge.

More shots along the trail.

This squirrel came too close. People have been feeding them and the squirrels are aggressive here.

Views of the lake.

The buttonbush was blooming.

This looks like a good place to take a break.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) at Image-In-Ing.

Sunflowers on a cloudy day

On October 13, 2025November 9, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants4 Comments

I made another trip to a sunflower farm at the beginning of June. Jimmy Mc’s farm is closer to home and was a quick trip. They only have a small sunflower field and a few cows. Brett came as well since he had not been to this farm before. It had rained most of the night and I wasn’t sure if we would get rained out but at least it was cool.

One of the cows came over to the fence to see if we had sunflowers to feed him but it looked like he already had plenty to choose from on the ground. Maybe he remembered me from last year when I fed him some sunflowers and came over to say hello?

Just past the sunflower field I could see turkeys running for the woods.

This was the last day of picking season and many of the flowers were getting old but I still managed to find several handfuls to take home.

Some of the little critters out in the field.

As usual I try and check the ones I take home for hitchhikers but I had so many that I barely looked. When I got home and was getting them in vases I found one that had to go outside but not before taking a quick shot. The green lynx spider is good to have in the garden since they eat a lot of moth larvae that are pests.

Playing around with my phone camera. I used stage lighting on portrait mode to take the above.

As we walked to the car I noticed the great blue heron sitting along the edge of a small pond. It looked very peaceful.

Then I noticed these guys strolling around to my side of the pond. Sandhill cranes with 2 almost grown juveniles (with the orange beaks). They were just cruising around out on the farm. Two years ago I saw them here as well so I’m wondering if it’s the same parents.

A quick video of them yelling as they walked by.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

A rainbow of flowers and a new bird

On September 17, 2025October 15, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants9 Comments

During my visit to Sweetfields Farm in May I spent a lot of time in their zinnia field after walking through the sunflowers. They have rows and rows of different colored zinnias and the butterflies were having a convention in the flowers.

I only saw swallowtail butterflies but there were a lot of them, posing nicely on the zinnias.

They had every color of zinnia there. I picked one of each color to take home.

The butterflies were so busy feeding that I was able to take the above with my phone.

There were lots of grasshoppers in the field.

The bonus was seeing the above birds. I saw them on a wire at the far end of the sunflower field. When I got closer they moved into the nearby tree. They looked like finches but I have never seen them before. Both Merlin and Picturebird apps identifies them as Indian Silverbills. There was no record of this bird on Ebird being in Florida so I posed the question to a Florida bird identifier Facebook group and they all came up with the silverbill. A few thought it might be a juvenile tricolored munia which has been know to breed in central Florida. If it is the silverbill then it must be an escaped pair of pets that had been breeding now out in the wild.

Sunshine out in the field

On September 8, 2025October 15, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants, Tampa bay sights2 Comments

Even though I had a few sunflowers blooming in my front yard I still made the trip up to Brooksville to Sweetfield Farms for their sunflower festival. There is something therapeutic about walking around a big sunflower field and then clipping some to take home. I had not been to this farm for the last 2 sunflower seasons, only stopping at a closer farm that doesn’t have events to quickly cut sunflowers.

This farm is very Instagram worthy. Lots of great photo ops here and they have lots of activities for little ones.

But the sunflower maze and fields are the main attraction.

Along the back fence the sunflowers were towering way over my head.

There were lots of fun critters here including grasshoppers. I saw a ton of them on this trip.

I think these are strawberry fields amaranth flowers. They were really pretty.

They had rows of zucchini and squash and many still had the blossoms on them.

The baby chicks are always a popular.

A picture perfect barn. Inside were just-picked vegetables to buy.

Some of the goats were eating the grass on the roof.

There are a lot of bees here. I didn’t get too close and was using my camera. They fly away if you get close and are picking the sunflowers. We need the bees so it’s better just to let them go. This is a big fundraiser for this farm to sustain their business without outside help. It gets really crowded on the weekends (I went on a Friday) and luckily I think they only had one rain day. I picked a few sunflowers, a few zucchini and a ton of zinnias to take home but more on those later.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

Sunshine in the front yard

On August 13, 2025September 6, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants7 Comments

I planted sunflowers seeds early this spring in the tiny spot of dirt that gets full sun in our front yard. By mid-April the buds were coming up fast.

Another week later one was blooming and we were heading to south Florida for a few days and I was afraid I would miss the peak blooming.

I didn’t miss anything. Days after we got back from our trip the sunflowers were in full bloom and the few plants had a ton of blooms on them. I was thinking deer would come by and eat them all. Last year deer came by and ate half the plants right before they started to bloom and then squirrels started eating the sunflowers as they started to droop but this year we didn’t have anything bothering them except bees.

The sun comes up behind the house so most of the blooms did not face the street.

Buds kept popping up.

One of the stalks got top heavy and leaned over, almost to the ground so I got an old stick we had in the garage and tied it up to keep it standing. Luckily the stalk didn’t break off and continued to bloom.

SkyWatch Friday

Around the yard in early March

On June 2, 2025July 10, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography, flowers and plants5 Comments

Things blooming in the front yard in March.

I was taking pictures of the flowers in the front yard and saw this ibis over by the pond across the street. I walked over and realized he had a snack (frog). He flew off with it in his beak.

The great crested flycatchers were back for the summer. I heard them calling when I was taking the garbage can out early one morning and ran in and got my camera. They stayed high up in the trees.

A brown thrasher was also in the trees in the front yard.

Swallow tail kites cruise along the golf course and they don’t hang around for long. I saw this one across the fairway from the window and ran outside with my camera. He flew close and quick right over my head and then flew off over the trees and was gone.

I don’t see snakes often in the yard so I was excited to see this harmless black racer cut across the yard. The first shot was through the window and then I crept outside and was able to get a shot of his face before he slithered under the neighbor’s bushes.