Looks like spring in the fall

On March 3, 2025April 10, 2025 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants3 Comments

While most people up north may still have snow, this is what central Florida looks like now. These are from my trip to the Florida Botanical Gardens at the end of November. It was warm then and even though we had a few cold weeks it still looks like spring here now.

There were still a lot of blooms before winter here.

I love seeing the light up flamingos that are part of the holiday lights.

The bald cypress trees were just starting to shed their leaves.

I interrupted this blue jay trying to snack on the berries.

Parts of the gardens were still closed due to tree damage from the hurricanes.

My favorite trees here are the silk floss trees that bloom in the fall. There are two large ones here and this one in the parking lot is the smaller of the two as you can see by the shadow on the ground.

While it was past the blooming peak there were still a lot of the blooms on the tree.

Linking to A Stroll Thru Life.

A hot walk at the gardens

On October 10, 2024December 6, 2024 By dinajohnstonIn flowers and plants8 Comments

Update: Brett and I are safe, waking up to to the mess of Hurricane Milton. We are just north of St. Pete and Clearwater. No power and most don’t have water. As the sun comes up we will head outside to see the mess. Please pray for central Florida to get through this 2nd hurricane in 2 weeks. Thanks, Dina.

I made a quick trip to the Florida Botanical Gardens in late June. At this point it was too hot for anything longer than a 45 minute walk outside. I wasn’t expecting to see many birds but I did see a few smaller critters.

Color around the gardens.

The butterfly garden was already overgrown. I waited a while hoping to see some hummingbirds or hummingbird moths but neither made an appearance.

My favorite tree here is this skinny rainbow eucalyptus tree. The bark peels off in colors.

There are a lot of great old trees here. The tag said this is a kapok tree but I’ve never seen it bloom. Some kapoks only bloom once every 10 years so this may be one of them. The big kapok on the main road through Clearwater blooms big orange blooms every spring.

The big lake is getting all choked up. It seems like they would clear out the water hyacinth that is invasive. It keeps the water from moving through.

After the walk at the gardens I stopped at a fairly new farmer’s market nearby. There were a ton of tables here and most had exotic fruits and vegetables. The coconut booth had a lot of people around it grabbing fresh coconuts.

I came for some mangos but the exotic fruits were interesting. The top booth had a lot of lychee. My husband grew up eating it as a kid but he has lost his taste for it now. The bottom shot is rambutan. You peel the skin off and it’s like a grape underneath. I’ll come back in the winter when it isn’t so hot and look around a little more.

A 3 park morning

On January 18, 2022January 7, 2022 By dinajohnstonIn bird photographyLeave a comment

I was out early one morning right before Christmas. My first stop was the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular but thought I would do a quick lap around the gardens. The gardens were decorated for Christmas and you could see the lights all over the bushes and trees. I thought this owl statue was cool and would have loved to see it all lit up but I didn’t make it here for the night holiday lights this year.

The usual birds were in the main pond. A green heron at attention, a wood duck (the entire family was floating around the pond) and there were lots of moorhens.

After the botanical gardens, I stopped at nearby Largo Nature Preserve to see if there was anything new. A grebe spent some time preening close to the boardwalk and there have been some northern shovelers there for several weeks now but nothing new or different.

My last stop before heading home wasn’t really a park but the Dunedin marina. I was hoping to see dolphins or manatees hanging around the marina but I didn’t see any on this trip so after walking around for a while it was time to go home for lunch.

The prettiest ducks in Florida

On July 10, 2021June 13, 2021 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

Wood ducks are common year round at the Florida Botanical Gardens. They nest here and if the timing is right you can see them swimming around with babies in the summer. I found 3 males and one female swimming around the main pond early in May. These guys are usually skittish so I stayed at the other end of the pond behind some trees and they just floated around, bathing and flapping. I wondered if there were other females already sitting on eggs somewhere.

At one point two of the males started arguing. Not sure what started it but one was chasing the other away but then they stopped and continued to float around together again.

May your days be merry and bright!

On December 24, 2019December 24, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn Tampa bay sights1 Comment

Pictures from our walk around the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. These are only a tiny few of the million lights from the Holiday Lights in the Gardens Festival. While my sisters were here over Thanksgiving weekend we stopped by on Saturday night. The gardens were packed but we still had fun walking through the lights.

And in the words of Irving Berlin –

“I’m dreaming of a white christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your christmases be white”

Mine will be white if the weather holds up, I’ll be on a sandy white beach relaxing.

My Corner of the World

My favorite tree

On December 16, 2019December 17, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

I went to visit the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo in early November to see one of my favorite trees. The huge silk floss tree was bursting with pink blooms. It’s weird to see all of these blooming pink flowers in November, even in central Florida. Even the birds like the tree.

Other flying critters.

A scarecrow was still guarding the pond.

There was a crew there putting up Christmas lights in the trees. It takes them so long to decorate the gardens that they start early.

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The ladies were out at the Botanical Gardens

On December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography1 Comment

This female summer tanager did not mind me watching her while she feasted on a beautyberry bush. Or, maybe she didn’t see me. I was hiding in the bushes after all. She stayed for a few minutes filling up on berries and then took off.

A female indigo bunting was hiding in the bushes.

A female rose breasted grosbeak was eating something high up in the tree.

Female woodpeckers. A pileated and a downy.

Both males and females look the same for thrashers and green herons so these could be either.

So many colors

On October 1, 2019October 1, 2019 By dinajohnstonIn bird photography4 Comments

So many bright colors at the Florida Botanical Gardens in early September.

Found these leaves on the ground. While I would like to think it’s fall already, they probably came off in the storms that we had recently had. It’s a tease considering fall won’t be here in central Florida for months. I loved the yellow colors though.