3-29-17 State Botanical Gardens of Georgia, Athens:

According to MOBOT, the garden in Athens is another reciprocal garden.  It's just under an hour away from here, so we decided to go check it out.  I was a little concerned when I saw online that it's actually free for everyone, not just members.  Seems like if it's free for everyone, it wouldn't be all that great.  But I was mistaken, it was another really beautiful garden.
Even the ride to Athens was nice---not a lot of traffic, mostly state highways, beautiful weather... .

 Just in the past few days I've noticed a lot more green in the trees.  Pollen counts are soaring, but it's beginning to look a lot like Spring.

3-26-17  looking for the NW passage!----

Except that I'm really looking for a SW passage from the Ivy Creek Greenway to the Suwanee Greenway.   They are suppose to get connected someday and apparently people have made their way from one to the other, but I haven't been able to make that connection yet.  Figure if I can, it'll make my biking a lot more interesting.  So today I took a stroll in the preserve to see if I could finally find it.  Someone told me a couple days ago that after crossing the bridge, you go off trail and follow the river---so off I went.
Just below our apartment complex is this concrete drainage ditch.  On one of my strolls past here awhile ago, I saw another ingenious use for it---a skate board park.

 This is part of the extensive twisting bridge at the base of our complex that ends up going over Ivy Creek.

3-25-17  Since going and seeing all the daffodils at Gibbs Garden, I've been wanting to get up to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and see what's blooming there.  So when Angie asked if we wanted to go there with her and Josh today, I said YES!  Ken even agreed to go!  She also said there was a Cuban food truck that would be near the garden--- in Piedmont Park---and they wanted to go there for lunch.  Double Yes!!

 Spring has sprung!  Tulips were pretty much in full bloom.  They were so beautiful!  I like that they come in so many colors.

 Josh and his new friend.

3-20-17 sunset at sunset cove:
Finally made it to sunset cove when there was a really nice sunset.  It was a beautiful evening weatherwise, too.  I thoroughly enjoyed my hour or so visit here watching the sun go down, then catching the next half hour or so while the skies turned colors!
The marina to the north.

3-17-17 our bird friends:

I love being able to look out our living room window and seeing so many birds.  I even made hummingbird water today.  Haven't put it out yet, but it's ready and getting cool.  But for now, we have lots of birds to watch.  Not to mention the family of squirrels that we keep trying to keep out of the bird feeder.  There are birds at the feeder almost all day now.
Such as this female Cardinal

 We have some new regulars now, too!  Love having colorful birds coming to visit.  I believe this is a Goldfinch

3-13-17  Sea Creek Falls:

Another difficult falls to find!  The directions we had weren't very clear!  We still didn't have internet, either, so had to wing it.
 Got a bit concerned when we got this far.  We weren't going to drive over the river, so parked and checked to see if there was a path from this side.

 there was.  So we walked the .1 or .2 mile trail.

3-13-17  Toccoa River Swinging Bridge:

The sign on Highway 60 directed us to the swinging bridge.  It was 3 miles in to the small parking area.  Took us about 15-20 minutes each way to go the 3 miles.  Then we walked another 20 minutes or so each way to the bridge.
Here's the beginning of the trail

 another downed tree.