Gastonia's a great place to send me to work, because one of my kids lives nearby. She and I went to the Schiele Museum of Natural History to see their special exhibit, Buffalo Nation, about the people of the Plains.









They made me homesick - it's been about 4 years since my tipi wore out. This well appointed lodge is furnished inside with replica gear by Linda Holley.




Linda, whom I know from Rendezvous, is also responsible for the horse gear.












It's really hard to take pictures in a museum because you can't use a flash. Flash isn't good for artifacts, plus it reflects off display cases. And I can't hold still enough long enough for the slow exposure required for without one. So these are the best of the pictures - the rest were too blurry to post.


It did make me want to take a few months off from work to do some beadwork and quillwork and tanning - things I haven't done in quite a while but sure did enjoy when I did them.



But, I have this addiction to paychecks, and I have a darn cool job, so I'll keep on messing around with groceries and see what's down the next road.











These buffalo (bison) calves are 8 weeks old.






I've posted several posts today, playing catch-up, so keep reading, all the way down through Brookgreen Again.

May there be a Road!

Heading through the high winds but between rainstorms, up from the beach toward Greensboro, I saw the sign at Ellerbe for the Town Creek Indian Mound. Of course, I had to check it out.









It was raining when I arrived, but I watched the movie in the visitors center and the rain quit by the time it was over.









The mound is within a walled compound. Entrance is through this gate, wide enough for one person to pass at a time, for security purposes.











The archaeologists have reconstructed buildings on the site, on and around the mound. A ceremonial building atop the mound, a dwelling, a burial hut.

I want my canoe!!!


While I was in Whiteville, Barbara and I went to Fair Bluff, and to the Lumber River State Park.



Don't ask me which water's which.



Everything about the weekend made me wish I had my canoe with me!







At Fair Bluff, we walked the river walk, which had actually been under water last time I visited Barbara. I can barely imagine!








We then grabbed a snack at the soda fountain. Yes, soda fountain.




Another cool thing about Fair Bluff is they have these little pocket parks in alleys, between buildings...




I wish people would put those little gardens all through civilization.

At The Museum of Forestry in Whiteville, NC



you can see cross-sections
of some really big trees...




Pick up fossils....









Along the tree trail out back...









See some big heads carved of wood...






And see Smokey the Bear reading in bed!

Brookgreen Again?!




Oh, yes.

I was blessed with a return trip to the beach to do a set which had been cancelled earlier.








I am so glad I'd been to Brookgreen before spring really started. It was all about the statues that time. This time, it was all about spring.





Good as these sculptors are, they're competing with nature here.








The azaleas (this was the day before that heavy frost hit) were in full bloom everywhere. Seemed like everything else was too.




















I went to the zoo part this time, and took the feed the animals tour.







The otters were great fun to watch, but darned hard to photograph - they don't hold still.



The docent told me that alligators slow their metabolisms in the winter to where they only have to breathe like once a day! Not that they have fast metabolisms any other time - they can get by on 30 pounds of food a year, too. They can eat anything, but only need just a little bit of it.





Another thing I never knew: foxes climb trees. This one's a grey fox; they can just walk up a tree like a cat. Red foxes aren't supposed to be able to climb trees, but the docent says the ones in their enclosure do it anyway - they probably learned from the greys.

IS THAT WHAT I
THOUGHT I SAW?

Driving through Gastonia, NC, through a nice neighborhood - I had to have my daughter stop the car so I could check it out.

Yep, a knight in shining armor. Well, shining armor, anyway.



It's been a month since I had a chance to post blog. Not from lack of material - I'm not really sure where to start. Just that I was recovering from my hard drive crash and otherwise internet-access challenged. And too busy working and finding cool places to post about them.


Sir Knight was in North Carolina. The Knights of The Golden Horseshoe were in Virginia. Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood and his party crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into the Shenandoah Valley on Sept 5, 1716.

When they returned on September 10th of that year, according to legend, Spotswood gave his companions small golden horseshoes. The group became known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. These monuments - I don't know why there are more than one - commemorate the event, along route 33 in VA between Elkton and Ruckersville.

Timing is Everything.

I had a week off, did my taxes, ran a full backup of my computer, and the next day the Hard Drive crashed. Didn't lose a thing. It's been 2 weekends of installing programs and moving files onto the new hard drive!

In between, of course, I went to work.

I went walking at Ivy Creek Natural Area with my friend Sue after work Monday. I left my good camera behind but got some pics with the Treo. Ivy Creek's a hilly 215-acre preserve at Ivy Creek and the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.



Once upon a time, a freed slave turned sharecropper worked, saved and bought land which became River View Farm.



He raised and educated 7 children, 5 of whom earned advanced degrees. His oldest daughter Mary and her husband ran the farm after his death.



She was a school principal. Her husband, Conly Greer, was Albemarle County's first black extension agent. 2 years after Mary's death, The Nature Conservancy bought the farm. The city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County later purchased the property, as well as adjacent parcels with the help of the Ivy Creek Foundation. Today it's the Ivy Creek Natural Area.