"The Tree" What is it? (and a hop update)

Well, here's the infamous tree! It was supposed to be a dogwood, but I don't think that it is. I tried to get a shot of it fullof blooms, but the spring storms beat me to it so all I was able to get was the picture of a few of the flowers that stayed on the tree.

I also got a good shot of the leaves so hopefully that will help too!

Can anyone out there in cyberspace help me identify this tree?















Oh yeah, I almost forgot in the fall it produces little hard brown berry-like fruit. They have never produced any new trees, until this past year, but the yard is full of little seedlings now.



I also wanted to give a hop update. This is what they look like now, only a week and a hlf after the last set of photos. They are awesome plants!

Manatee Springs Still Continued (just one more)

I missed this one in the other two posts and just had to get it out there. It's a Black Vulture in the classic vulture pose!










Just as a heads up I'm going to try to post the pictures of my tree later this week. I don't know what it is, but I've got some shots of the flowers and I should be able to get some shots of the leaves now that they are coming out. Hopefully someone out there will be able to help me identify it!

Hops, hops, and more hops!

My hops are out and looking better than ever!

It is the peak growing time for hops and I wanted to try to capture how fast they are growing right now. This picture was taken only 2 weeks after they first broke through the ground.










This photo was taken just 2 days after the first one. Sorry about the shading, but I snapped it as soon as I got home from work. The other one was taken on Saturday so I was able to pick better lighting.

Hopefully you can see the center vine and how much taller it has grown. also you can see many more vines climbing up through the bench.






This shot was taken the next day. You can really see the center vine shooting up now, and if you look to the lower right you can see the cluster of vines have also reached the top rail to the bench.









I thought that I should go back and try to catch the same angle as the original photo so that you can see how they are filling in underneath the bench.

The vines are growing at the rate of about 3-4 inches per day right now, and if we continue to get the good mix of rain and sunshine they should grow at that rate clear through June!

That's when the first signs of the flower cones will start to show. That's the part of the plant that I'm truly interested in.
If you want to see the full potential of these beauties you can always go back to my very first post, Sept. '05, to see them in full bloom! Each year the vines come in heartier, and more shoots pop up off to the sides. If things go well this year I might be able to get two harvests, and that means Good Beer for Next Year!

Manatee Springs Continued

Now that Blogger allowed me to add some more photos, I can continue with the visit to Manatee Springs!

To the left is one of the vultures taking advantage of a nice breeze that was blowing from the spring to the river. One after another they took to the air and soared on the breeze. My expert work with the lens captured this one (yeah right, I think I stood there shooting photos for about 20 minutes before I finally timed it right to get a decent shot like this)!




This one was just sitting there waiting for his photo op, and I obliged! I think you can see how they got the name of Black Vulture.

The Turkey Vultures I mentioned in the first post have less feathers on their heads and their skin is a reddish color.







The reptiles were out for viewing too. I think this is a banded water snake, but I'm not going to get any closer to find out!











I thought this looked like something out of either a John Carpenter or Stephen King movie. It's just evidence of the swamp reclaiming her own!






I hope that you've enjoyed the photo tour!
We had a great time and I really enjoyed re-energizing an old friendship! Like Buffet says: "The years grow shorter not longer", so it won't be long and we'll be down there for good!

Manatee Springs

This is Manatee Springs State Park. The spring itself is a haven for snorkeler's and scuba divers. The water is clear and cold, but diving into the mouth of the spring will lead you through caves that open up into ponds (sink holes) around the park. I'm not one for cave diving, but our oldest son and I snorkeled in these waters a few years back. The cold water felt good on our sun burns, and we were fortunate enough to see a beautiful blue eel! (sorry, no photo available)




There is a nice boardwalk that follows the spring down to the Suwannee River. It's a great way to catch a little exercise, some shade, and view some wild life among the cypress trees.

Do you see it in the photo to the left?
maybe the zoom shot below will help!








It's a Florida Deer, just standing in the swamp posing for the camera. They're a bit smaller than the Missouri variety, as Lightnin and fellow blogger Pablo (www.roundrock.com) can varify.









There was a vulture convention taking place while we were there. There were hundreds of these big birds in the trees and in the sky. I'm told by my Florida wildlife expert(www.pureflorida.blogspot.com) that they are Black Vultures. I'm familiar with Turkey Vultures, which are prevelant across the midwest and central states.




Well it looks like Blogger is done letting me upload images for now, so I'll sign off and continue this in another post. I'll try to get it out later this week.