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.

Fun morning at the farm.

On February 26, 2022February 17, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn zoo animals4 Comments

I hadn’t been to Horsepower For Kids (sanctuary/farm) in a long time so I stopped by for a visit at the end of December. All of the baby geese that had grown up in early 2020 were still there making the duck pond a busy place.

They had 2 new canadian geese at the pond. They swam close to the dock and I noticed they both had angel wings. Angel wings is a nutritional deficiency caused by improper diet. It means someone was feeding these geese too much bread when they were young and their wings didn’t grow properly. It can keep them from flying well and that’s probably why they are living here now. At least they have a great home to live in now. That’s why it’s so important not to feed the wildlife bread.

It’s fun seeing all of the different crazy “fowl” running around here.

Some of the other residents.

I was admiring this salad. These guys eat better than I do.

Butterflies are seen all year long here.

Fun on a farm

On July 19, 2021March 11, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn Florida animals1 Comment

I love going to see the sunflowers at Sweetfield Farms in the spring. Not just because there are fields of flowers but there’s also farm animals. They had baby goats when I visited in mid-May. They were so cute They would come right up to the fence and you could feed them hay. The kids were going crazy over them.

It’s always fun seeing the male turkey showing off when the female walked by.

And you know I love chickens.

They also have vegatables that you could pick. I think the zucchini blooms those yellow flowers.

A grasshopper on a leaf. I’m sure it’s not a good thing to have a grasshopper on your farm. Assuming a lot of them would eat through your plants.

I found a bluebird near the edge of the farm.

So many sunflowers. These were some of the smaller ones. More to come on those.

A fun morning at the petting zoo.

On August 10, 2020August 10, 2020 By dinajohnstonIn zoo animals3 Comments

The last time I was at Horsepower for Kids petting zoo/animal sanctuary was in early March. At the end of May I stopped by right after they had re-opened up. I figured this was a good place to get out and stretch my legs and it wouldn’t be crowded. Everything is pretty spread out and there were only a few other people there first thing in the morning. These above juvenile geese were growing up in the safety of a pen with a small pond before being released in the big lake. I realized that they were just eggs when I was there in March and now they were almost grown up. It would have been fun to see them as tiny fluff balls but at least they were growing up to be handsome loud annoying big geese.

The best was seeing the baby peacocks although they were pretty shy and stayed under the bushes. I”m sure the neighbors close by wouldn’t think more peacocks were the best though. So cute!

This goose let me know to stay back (taken with my 400mm lens and cropped).

I only saw one baby chicken wondering around with the adults and she was pretty big.

A few of the other smiling faces.

This beautiful bird was a rescue that the sanctuary had recently taken in. It was a former pet and was very friendly.

Our World Tuesday Graphic

Hanging with my farm friends

On January 21, 2019January 22, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography3 Comments

I spent a recent Saturday morning hanging around Horsepower for Kids non-profit farm. All of the animals are very friendly and curious.

They also have horses that you can pet and ride. The girls in the last picture were heading out for a fun ride.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Visiting friends in the rain

On January 29, 2018January 30, 2018 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography6 Comments

I hadn’t been to Horsepower for Kids horse farm/sanctuary in a while so I stopped by on the way home after a walk at Chesnut Park. It had started raining so I walked around with my umbrella since the weather had cooled off.

Said “Hi” to the chickens and pigs. The one above came over to give me a snort.

The mandarin duck family seems to be growing there.

The kids out for a ride did not seem to mind the rain.

Our World Tuesday Graphic image-in-ing: weekly photo linkup

Fuzzballs on the farm

On May 7, 2016May 7, 2016 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

The chicken family stayed under the bushes. Mom was showing them how to scratch their feet in the dirt to stir up the bugs.

The lone gosling was trying to keep up with mom.

I love this time of the year. New babies were everywhere. These were at Horsepower for Kids in early April.

Linking to Saturday’s Critters

Eagles nest at the farm

On March 29, 2014March 29, 2014 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography8 Comments

Both babies are about the same size now.

One is flapping a little more.

I think they were fighting over scraps.

The parent looking around. The babies were on the other side of the tree trunk on the right.

It’s a big nest.

This is the 2nd time I’ve seen bluebirds hanging around near the nest. I didn’t see any last year. They’ll be leaving soon to head back up north.

The lone baby chicken is getting big. I was glad to see it doing well.

This horse was very friendly.

There were several other people there watching the eagle’s nest on my most recent trip and this horse wanted attention.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon so I decided to stop by the eagle’s nest one more time to see how the big babies were doing. They were pretty big at this point. They looked to be the size of the parents. One was already flapping his wings pretty good. It’s peaceful there and I like seeing all of the peacocks and chickens running around. I took a ton of pictures on this trip since the weather was so nice and the birds were pretty active. I’ll post more later.

Linking up to Saturday’s Critters Shine the Divine