9-16-17  off to St. Louis:

Time to make another trip to St. Louis.  No Dr. appointments for me for a change, but Ken had a check up and it was time to get the Taurus inspected and registered again.  So the new car sat in the driveway of our apartment and we were off in the Taurus.
We elected to go down I-85 to I-285 to I-75 this time instead of heading cross country on SR 20.  If there's no accidents---and that's a big if!---Sat. usually flows pretty good that way.  Here's the normal low traffic at Spaghetti Junction (intersection of I-85 and I-285) on Sat. morning.

 One of the landmarks along I-285.

9-15-17  just another Buford sunset!

Looked like it was going to be a good one.  So I walked up to the bridge over the Ivy Creek Greenway and watched the sun go down.

I wasn't disappointed.

9-11-17  Tropical Storm Irma hits Atlanta!

Another 9-11, another disaster!  At least people knew this one was coming and were able to prepare for it.  Before Irma was a tropical storm, she was a Level 5 Hurricane that was about 500 miles across!  That is one HUGE hurricane!  A couple days before landfall, it looked like it was going to make a direct hit Miami.  But it changed coarse a bit and hit around Pine Island in the keys and then made a direct hit on Marco Island and Naples.  But the "dirty" part of the hurricane (the upper right side of the spin) did hit Miami, and Ft. Lauderdale, and all the way up the coast really doing a job on Jacksonville.  Then it hit the Georgia coast flooding Tybee Island, Savannah and on up the Carolinas.  Almost the whole state of Florida had an evacuation order and where did they go???----Atlanta!   Traffic was a mess all the way from S. Florida - Atlanta.   The hurricane actually hit S. Florida during the early hours of Sunday, Sept. 9th as a level 4 hurricane (it's run along the East side of Cuba slowed it down a bit).  This was about a week after Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston!  Perhaps people from Florida saw what Harvey did to Houston and what Irma did to a few of the Caribbean islands, so most of the 6.5 million people in Florida who were told to evacuate actually did.  82 people died in Harvey.  So far, it looks like "only" 31 over 3 states (8 being in a nursing home days after landfall when electricity was out and the S. Florida heat got to a bunch of the residents of the home).  Irma went right up the spine of Florida.  By the time it reached Georgia, it was downgraded to a Tropical Storm (60+m/h winds).  Atlanta was then under a tropical storm warning which hit Monday, 9-11.  This was the first time Atlanta ever had a tropical storm---aren't we lucky to be here then?!  About a million houses just in Georgia were without electricity (as many as 16,000,000 in Florida).  Fortunately we only lost electricity for a short amount of time (several times---just long enough to make the tv and computers to go through restarts!).
I even took a few videos when the storm first hit us (about 3pm).  Here's my first attempt at adding one to my blog:

Lots of trees were downed around the area.  I'm really surprised there weren't many down around our complex.  Just a lot of leaves and branches.  Here's what our Taurus looked like the next day:

We also got about 3 inches of rain---which we needed.  All in all, we came through pretty well.  Wish I could say the same for everyone else!

9-7-2017  on to DeSoto Falls Recreation Area:

After a beautiful walk through Gibb's Garden, we decided to head into the mountains and find a waterfall or 2.  I had read that DeSoto Falls Recreation Area had 2 waterfalls in 2 miles, so that sounded appealing to me.  Of course we were out of data range and our car navigator system never heard of DeSoto Falls Recreation Area---so I plugged in Cleveland, Ga., and hoped we'd get in data range before we got that far.  When we stopped for lunch at Huddle House, I was able to get wi-fi.  It verified that there was indeed a DeSoto Falls Recreation Area and that it was nearer Dahlonega, but my phone couldn't figure out where we were.  I was able to plug in Dahlonega into the car navigator and we headed that way.  It was about an hour ride, but another pretty one.  With a few fun things to take pictures of as we rode by.

9-7-2017  Gibb's Garden:

Been awhile since I've been to Gibb's Garden.  And it'll be awhile before we have the chance to take a sight seeing day trip for awhile.  So---I suggested to Ken that we go somewhere.  It was a beautiful unseasonably cool day (about 77 and low humidity).  He had no objections, so about 11:30, we hit the road.
First we headed about an hour West to Gibb's Garden.  I have a season pass there and haven't been there in the summer yet.  It's billed as the Season of Color.  So off we went----
Our journey took us along SR 20 to Cumming.  They're still working on it, but it was flowing well today.  Probably by the time they finish the road work, we will have moved.

 Finally made it to the Gardens.  It's beautiful drive into the grounds.

 There certainly was a lot of color there.   Maybe not many flowers, but sure are a lot of colorful leaves.

9-2-17  walk into Mill Creek Nature Center and Ivy Creek Greenway:

For over a year now I've been referring to all my walks through the preserve adjacent to our apartment complex as walks on the Ivy Creek Greenway.  Today I actually realized that the area off the Greenway, where the Boyscouts have made trails, boardwalks, and bridges, and some viewing platforms, is actually Mill Creek Nature Center.  I haven't often gone into the Nature Center since it is about a 2 mile walk just to get there, but I have discovered it is pretty nice in there.  I was going to group my walks in the Greenway pretty much by month now, but I took my Olympus TG-4 with me today and took a bunch more pictures then I usually do, so am making this a post by itself.
This guys was actually still in the apartment complex grounds as I was walking to the greenway.  I had to watch him awhile to make sure he really wasn't just a leaf. 

 When I got to the Greenway, I headed East.    This Gulf Fritillary posed for me.

8-31-17  photography presentation at Buford library:

I've been going to the GNPA monthly meetings, so when I saw that they were doing a "nature" presentation at the local library, I decided to go check it out.  From what I read, it was going to show photos of some national parks and discuss techniques. 

 The 2 guys doing the presentation had a bunch of their equipment out.  This photo also rendered itself as appropriate for my 7 day b and w challenge since photography is also a BIG part of my life!

I was a bit disappointed.  It was more a lesson on camera equipment and understanding aperture, shutter, and such---but nothing really specific about nature photography.  I guess I was expecting more info on specific settings for such things as eclipse photography, or settings for blurring water, or lapse photography, or ... .  I'll have to admit I knew everything they discussed.  But it got me out of the apartment for a couple hours and around people with similar interests.  That in itself made it worthwhile!