Lovely Day...

We were a little surprised this morning by the new occupant of our pond...



Just fooling! We took a trip today to the Columbia Zoo and Botanical Gardens, where this fine fellow lives. We amused ourselves imagining the animals' reactions to finding him sunning himself on the banks of the pond, though. Okay, I guess we would have been a little surprised too.

It's a very nice zoo, but the botanical gardens are really special. It's inspirational to see the way they put plants together, and I get ideas for plants I'd like to have.

Here's one I plan to have a lot of at some point. It's called Muhly grass or sweet grass. Most of the year it's a little nondescript, and then for a relatively short period in the fall, it takes on this pink hue that makes it spectacular.



There is a much smaller version growing wild along the roadways in our area. I want masses of it someday.

This was a beautiful little water feature. The palms make it look more southwest than southeast to me, but it was still lovely.



The park runs beside the Saluda river. You can see here what a pretty day it was. It was only in the 50's by mid-day but warm in the sun and so bright and clear. It was one of the days when you're just happy to be alive to see it.