Art of Nature

I've been doing a lot more photography and a lot less blogging this summer.  Most of my photos have been gardening- or nature-related, but that doesn't make up for not blogging.  It does have its rewards - a month or two ago, I found out that our local paper had a weekly photo contest, so I started sending in submissions.  They would have a different theme each week, and recently the theme was the "Art of Nature".  Since that is what I take more pictures of than anything else, I had a lot to choose from.  I narrowed it down to a few and got Robin's help picking the one to submit.  I had been enjoying just sending them photos every week, but then I had to go and win.  To see the article they published on the web, click here, or take a look at what they published in the paper.

Woods Bay State Park

Earlier this year I wrote about how Venus' flytraps are only found near Carolina Bays.  These are still a Woods Bay State Park.  It is a small park that features a large Carolina bay and a cypress tupelo swamp.  I have a friend who is a connoisseur of swamps, but to me, they all look the same.  To be honest, I haven't studied them enough to know the differences - maybe these formations are more interesting from the air, as this picture shows.  You can even see another one to its left that has retained its shape, even though it looks to be farmland.  For a slideshow of the park, click here.
mystery, and rightly so.  They are mostly found along the coast of the Carolinas, elliptical in shape and all align in the same general direction, northwest.  I won't speculate on their origins, but I did visit one this summer.  I was on another trip and was looking for something else to visit in the area and found