Stop and smell the flowers

I got up early for the almost 2 hour drive to Bok Tower Gardens in central Florida in early March. The weather called for sunny and warm but halfway there the fog started. The closer I got to the gardens, the foggier it got. I was a little bummed but I figured it would lift sometime in the morning. It was still foggy when I started my drive into the gardens.

You pay at the gate and then drive for 5 minutes up to the where the gardens start. Part of that drive is through orange groves. I had my windows rolled down so I could smell the orange blossoms. The smell was strong and I pulled over for a few minutes and snapped the above with my phone. Nothing screams “central Florida” more than ripe oranges and orange blossoms together on the tree.

There’s always a lot blooming here, even in the winter.

You can see the spider webs in the fog.

I’m not sure what this pink tree was but it was almost past it’s peak.

The sun was just starting to peek out after I had been there for an hour.

The azalea bushes were still blooming with the color popping in the fog.

This was a fun trip and it was great to be out and about (even though I was riding a rented scooter). The fog eventually lifted but it kept things nice and cool.

SkyWatch Friday

Just getting out of the house

Was I being watched?  I noticed all of the different art faces that are on on the trees at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo.

Pretty things blooming in July.

Little critters.

You can usually find alligators, bunnies and turtles at any park in the area.

It was a quiet morning for birds though. I’ve been working from home since mid-March so I’m still trying to get out of the house on Saturday mornings for a long walk even if the wildlife is scarce this time of year.

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Pretty plants

Lots of unusual plants and flowers at the University of South Florida’s botanical gardens in Tampa. I don’t go to these gardens often but I was at Lettuce Lake in north Tampa recently and there wasn’t much wildlife there. Most of the park was still flooded due to recent rain so I left early and decided to stop by the gardens and see if there were any hummingbirds in the butterfly gardens. No hummingbirds but lots of butterflies. More on those later.

I rarely see green lizards.

A statue of a cow in the middle of the gardens? Not sure why. She was cute though.

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Beautiful flowers in Naples

Lots of pretty flowers at the Naples Botanical Gardens.

Lots of little critters too.

Shots of the gardens during our long weekend in Naples for a staycation in late May.

The one picture I took at the Naples Zoo above. A statue of a turtle in the ocean made out of recycled plastic which was cool.  I didn’t love the zoo. It was a few minutes from our hotel so we stopped in before lunch. I felt like you couldn’t see the animals very well based on how they had the exhibits set up. You had to wait in line to board a small boat to cruise around a small pond to see the primates. You couldn’t just walk around and view them. It was too hot to wait so we left. We are spoiled living so close the Tampa zoo which is soooo much better.

Photographing New Zealand