Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Twins at the Arboretum

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets." -Ludwig van Beethoven 

We have one of the best Arboretum's here.



It has hiking and bike trails, gardens, including a most spectacular Bonsai garden, programs year round, and some very interesting displays.  When we learned there was a display of various items made of Legos, we knew we had to take the boys.  They were pretty excited that they were given maps to help them find all the Lego displays.  They love maps.  Probably because they equate maps with buried treasure.  They kept referring to the maps to discover where the next Lego display might be...sort of funny since they can't read yet.  Anyway, here is the first Lego display they discovered...a Monarch butterfly and a flower.  Hendersonville is one of the stop off places for the monarch butterfly. This time of year we see lots of them as they migrate.

Map reading?

Each boy had their favorite Lego displays.  Sawyer happened to like this one, and wanted me to take his picture in front of it...

It is a pretty huge lady...

Tate liked this one of the snake.  I have learned a little rhyme to help know if a snake is poisonous or not.  It goes like this: red on black venom lack, red touches yellow, kill a fellow.  So far all the snakes I have seen here are black ones which they tell me are harmless.


He wanted his picture taken in front of it.  If you look closely you can see the snake on the left of Tate, and a mouse on the right.

Pretty clever.


Some of the Legos were very hard to find.  They were put in areas that went with the habitat.  For example, there was a woodpecker on the side of a tree, a sundial was in the middle of a fountain.   Here's a fence made of Legos, along with 4 squirrels (two on the top of the fence, one on the left, 2nd rail over at the bottom coming through the fence posts, and one on the right looking through the fence post).  The bird feeder is full of Legos "bird seed", and the bluebirds are Legos as well. Totally amazing!


This one of the rototiller was interesting.  We thought there was nothing unusual about it other than being made of Legos, but Sawyer kept wanting us to come over to look at the inside of it...


There was a man eating a pizza in there.  Pretty clever.

There were some fun Legos too...

We all enjoyed the Legos displays, and looking around at other things at the Arboretum... like exploring the gardens...

Checking to see if money was thrown into the fountain...there was not...


So Sawyer wanted to remedy that so he is asking for pennies to throw in there.  We did not give him any.

More fun exploring...



Pawpaw and the boys...I love this photo...


Look at the newly added display...huge bugs...


These bugs are animated.  We plan to take the boys this week to show them this display.  They are going to love it.  

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Twins...

"Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul." -Friedrich Froebel

End of the season sales are wonderful.  I found some bubbles for next to nothing, and remembering the fun I enjoyed with a bottle of bubbles as a little girl, I bought them.  The hours of delight they brought to my grandsons was way more than my investment.




Tate was delighted with this huge bubble that he blew








 "When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes.  But when you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls." -Ted Grant



Go out and enjoy the last of our summer days!

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Tour D' Apple...

"Not the fruit of experience but experience itself, is the end."-Walter H. Pater

Every Labor Day, the city of Hendersonville puts on the Apple Festival.  It is estimated that 300,000 individuals visit this three day event.  Vendors of apples, arts & crafts, various food vendors, and carnival rides for kids line the street of downtown Hendersonville with their wares, rides, and games. It is truly a fun filled weekend.  There is an Apple Run on Saturday which even has a "mini moo" run of one mile for the kids.  On Monday there is the "Tour D' Apple" which Warren and Luke both ride in.  My photography club has the pleasure of doing the photos for both evens.  Warren and Luke were way out in front of everybody, just in case you were wondering how they did.  Luke did 25 miles, and Warren 45.

I barely made the race.  I had my shoot sack, coffee, badge, and I thought my camera when I discovered it was nowhere to be found in my stash of stuff.  (it must be the white hair that makes me forget important things).  I had to drive back home to get my camera.  I got there 5 minutes before the start.  Here I am getting out of my car... with everything...even my camera this time.
Photo by Mike Merrill

Do I look like an official photographer?
Photo by Dennis Guffey

Thank goodness they delayed the race by 10 minutes due to all the fog...
Photo by Dennis Guffey

 The delay made it possible to find Luke and Warren in the crowd to get some pre-race photos...  I have a reputation for not getting any of them when they are out on the ride... I did live up to my reputation.  I did not get any of them riding, but I saw them...too late to get any photos.
Luke before the race...

Warren before the race...that guy in front of him looks pretty mad.

The dynamic duo...


Luke again...

My fellow photographer, Dennis, was kind enough to get some photos of our family too.
Photo by Dennis Guffey 

Warren, me, and Luke...photo by Dennis Guffey

Don't we look good?  Photo by Dennis Guffey

Warren at the end of the race...relaxing...photo by Dennis Guffey

Here's a photo of Dennis so you will know who did the photos...
Dennis

...And all this activity was brought to you by... Apples.




I loved this lady's saying on her shirt...
Her shirt reads..."One day I won't be able to do this.  Today is not that day."
Amen to that.  
 
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