Durham, North Carolina
One warm, humid, and lovely midday, we spent a couple of hours meandering around this botanical garden with our son-in-law’s parents, who were down here for the week of Katherine’s birthday. What an amazing time we all had! The last time I had visited Duke Gardens was in 2014, ten years ago, when Larisa & Dima were living in Durham.
There are 5 miles of pathways through this 55 acre garden so there was no way to see it all. We started with the historic curated terrace gardens. There were all kinds of bees visiting the many flowers still blooming.
Tim spotted the little lizard on a leaf and we all started jockeying to get a good picture of it. We couldn’t figure out what it had in its mouth and it seemed just as curious about what we were doing.
There was a large patch of wild petunias with bees going in and out of each blossom, acting as if there was no more pollen to be had. Apparently these are also a favorite of the hummingbirds, too.
After enjoying the view from the overlook we followed a path to the 18-acre Asiatic Arboretum.
This very beautiful Ruddy Shelduck from Asia is not native here and because its wings are clipped it cannot fly, which I find upsetting. I’m not going to count it as a life bird because in essence it is living in captivity.
And soon we found ourselves in the Kathleen Smith Moss Garden, which felt very cool and woodsy.
When we decided to head back to the parking lot we got a little lost but eventually found our way. I hope someday we will go back soon and see the Garden of Native Plants. In the days following our visit we got to go see Finn perform in his Taekwondo class, and the whole family went out for a sushi birthday dinner for Katherine.
This is the first post I’m writing from my new laptop. Whatever version of Windows I had on the old one will no longer be “supported,” whatever that means, so my computer wizard has been setting me up with my new friend here. So far, so good. He had to purchase an updated version of Adobe Photoshop but I have been adjusting to the changes quite well. My old laptop lasted me for over nine years. I hope that’s considered a good run.
love that turtle posing with its head high, like communicating with Nature – enjoying all your photos, they are a FEAST
Thank you so much, Leelah! The turtle quickly got back into the water when he detected people coming closer to him. 🙂
What a beautiful walk through landscaped nature! The photos are amazing! I’m glad you had the opportunity to experience this again!
Thank you, Jeff!!! Your kind words mean a lot to me, coming from an award-winning photographer whose photos I’ve always loved. 📷
That’s an outstanding run for a laptop, Barbara — congrats!! To me, there’s nothing quite like a botanical garden. So much peace and calm, so many interesting things to see. I love the water views you’ve captured, and I’m particularly fond of the Terrace Gardens. It makes me sad about the duck, too.
Thank you, Debbie. That old laptop and I had been through a lot together! I agree with you about the peace and calm in the botanical garden, and the water pool and large pond add something extra-special to the setting and mood. It was amazing how many different kinds of flowers were blooming on those terraces.
Thanks for sharing the beautiful garden with us.
Were you affected by Hurricane Helene?
The outer rainbands of the hurricane brought us two tornado warnings, so we spent some time hunkered down in the bathroom Friday morning. One touched down in a nearby town and did some damage. Lots of branches and twigs down on the ground. Nothing compared to the utter flooding devastation 250 miles west of us in the mountains.
I like toad lilies. I tried to grow some here, but they didn’t take. Your photo makes me smile,
We lingered a long while admiring those toad lilies. It seemed like someone had splattered paint all over them. 🙂
What a nice venue to visit Barbara. And lucky you made the visit before this onslaught of bad weather. That’s a large area for a botanical garden!
I’m amazed at the color of this Carolina Anatole who seems to glow in the dark – maybe it has chameleon-like tendencies? It looks like it is giving you the side-eye for trying to photograph it with its “treasure”. I like the close-up of the busy bee in the wild petunias.
What a nice view you had overlooking the Terrace Gardens. The Skipper butterfly is beautiful, as are the blooms. That’s interesting they have this Asiatic Arboretum and I agree with you on the Ruddy Shelduck. It’s something we’d never see out in the wild. I was surprised as I scrolled down to see a duck, something not usually seen in an arboretum. I wish they’d give it a companion.
That’s a great shot of the Yellow-bellied Slider soaking up the sun.
The Kathleen Smith Moss Garden looks serene, especially how you captured the dew drops on that leaf.
You did well with your first post … I found the photo file set-up quite different from Windows 7 and had to get used to it. I know this computer runs so much faster and no issues on WP now, which was my main reason to stray from my trusty Windows 7 laptop I’ve had since 2014. We are not hard on our computers are we?
We did get there on the best day that week because it was followed by three days of rain and then the remnants of Hurricane Helene on Friday.
AI says “Anoles can change color from brown to green or gray-brown, but their color-changing abilities are not as great as those of true chameleons.” This one was so bright green, like a neon sign! I think my son got a picture of one puffing up its pink throat back in 2012 on Cumberland Island in Georgia.
https://www.ingebrita.net/2012/04/cumberland-island-national-seashore/
The ruddy shelduck did have a companion, there were two of them, and a pair of Australian shelducks, too. Maybe next time I will be able to get pictures of them. There was also a large mallard family there, too.
Next time I go I might go to the moss garden first. We were so tired (and lost) by the time we got there we couldn’t linger as much as I would have liked to. The signs said they were still creating it so it promises to be a lovely sanctuary some day.
Funny how we’re both retiring our old computers at about the same age! I was surprised how smoothly the switch went. Tim seemed to get it all done from his recliner in one rainy afternoon.
Thanks for sending me to the 2012 post Barbara – interesting seeing the lizard with its bright-pink throat. Interestingly, with the Windows 7 computer I was not able to leave a comment without putting in my credentials and then it was still iffy. Now I was able to leave a comment, though it didn’t show up, just said “submitting comment”. I enjoyed seeing that trip’s post.
I can remember that chameleons were a popular pet when I was a preteen, much like geckos are popular pets now. We had a mom-and-pop pet shop where I used to stop in all the time and see their array of pets.
I can see being worn out by such a large place, even though you didn’t go to all of it and so large, it’s easy to get lost. The mossy garden will be magical indeed, maybe even including a fairy garden when done?
I think Tim is a computer whiz to do all that from his recliner … it’s easy to have angst going into a new computer experience. I know I sure did.
I’m glad your comment showed up. How or why will remain a mystery! 🙂
My sister had an iguana when she lived in New Mexico, and she sent me lots of pictures of her. My brother-in-law used to take her with him to a golf course to let her roam around (get some exercise?) and enjoy the grass.
It will be interesting to see what the new moss garden will look like. As you know, I love that we have moss surrounding our house instead of grass.
Tim is definitely a tech wizard, and he enjoys that kind of thing, making updates and adding apps and reconfiguring stuff. I’m always telling him to leave my laptop alone! Constantly changing things confuses me but he seems to thrive on tweaking things. 🙂 My approach is to ‘leave well enough alone.’
Now that would be interesting taking your pet iguana to the golf course to roam around. It probably enjoyed itself in a natural habitat.
The moss garden should be pretty when completed. I would like moss better than grass on many levels. I’ve seen moss on forest floors that looks like velvet in certain lighting.
Tonight when I responded to a comment, I got the message “you already said that!” I did not say that already! That has not happened since I was on Windows 7, so go figure. I know lots of people were unable to comment on people’s actual blogsites for a while, so that was not just a Windows 7 issue, so I’m guessing WP tweaked something and fixed it. Tim is a tech whiz and I’m in the same camp as you, which is why I kept the Windows 7 laptop so long and I’m not ready to shut it down for good yet. 🙂
I hope you haven’t had any more problems with commenting. I’ve been away from my blog for too long, lots of company and activities with the grandchildren. This is turning into a very busy fall season. I shut down my old laptop for good. The only problem I’m having is that I don’t seem to have spellcheck working on anything but my notepad!
No, I am not having any more issues commenting, so that is great. You transitioned quickly Barbara. I left everything on the old laptop, but also transferred everything to a new flash drive and have it plugged in for now to access things I’ve saved or written but not used yet. I find not having so much on the laptop now that it boots up in a minute and shuts down as quickly – before it took forever to do both. I just hope I can find everything that I put on the flash drive. I intended to do this in a more orderly fashion, but WP forced me to act swiftly and not look back!
Your photographs are very pretty Barbara. I love the purples and greens together that you so clearly captured. And the turtle neck stretch is fun!
Thank you, Teri! We had such a good time that day, so many things to delight our eyes!