Chihuly, orchids and oddities.....

First of all, an apology to Ohio......the blue bridge goes to Ohio and then you turn right and drive 13 miles to West Virginia. These tri-state areas can be confusing!

We decided to drive to West Virginia yesterday evening, so we found this out the hard way. Huntington, WV has a wonderful art museum located at the top of a small mountain. We didn't expect it to be open, but were pleasantly surprised to find that it was! The first thing I saw was a Chihuly art glass hanging piece in the conservatory! I love Chihuly's glass, as you know from an earlier post this year! Beautiful hanging among the exotic plants!


Like a beautiful flower!

I saw plants I had never seen before......this is an Ant Plant!

Chenille Plant

Golden Shrimp Plant

(I hope I get these all right.....I didn't take notes and forgot some of them)

Moose Antler Fern

Don't remember this one......reminds me of a mop :-)

Pitcher Plant?

Screw Pine

Don't know but loved the spirals!

This was my favorite orchid!

......or maybe this one!

.....or this one.
All gorgeous!

You are probably wondering why I said this was an art museum. Well, they don't let you take pictures of the art.....only the plants and the outdoor sculptures.

Had a terrific gun collection......matchlock, flintlock, carved handles, etc. (and I don't like guns), Civil War photos, silver, glassware.

Mike and Mary having a great time on their vacation....

Ahhhhhh.......what a great vacation so far!

Birds of the beach.....

When I'm on vacation, I take lots of pictures.....lots and lots....Killdeer on the beach

Geese flotilla with the bridge reflections

Mock on the Rock!

I heard this one before I could find where she was hiding!

Little Song Sparrow way up on top of a tall plant singing away.

I wanted to get her and the blue bridge together, but barely got the corner in the background.
She was so far above me, I could barely photograph her at all!

House Sparrow family at home among the broken concrete they are using for landfill.

There were also a dove and a bird up on the wires in this same area....probably a starling as best as I could tell.
I just got back from town with lots of pictures of buildings, but I haven't even finished the beach from this morning yet! If I see this much every day, I'll never get it all posted.

Butterflies and bridges....

I took a nice stroll down on the river front this morning and saw a lot more than I expected.

I will just have to post several times a day to get everything in probably.

While making my way along the beach, I was surprised to come around a corner and see these purple flowers with dozens of the little white butterflies on them! Cool! This shot is not quite focused.....the camera chose to focus on the rocks and I didn't realize it until I saw it on the computer. Drat. I even shot a video of them fluttering all over these flowers, but will not add it right now.
They flitted and fluttered constantly, but I got a few half-way decent shots.

Such a nice contrast in colors!

The bee liked these flowers, too!

This swallowtail was making landings on the sand and I enjoyed the reflections he cast.

He found a dead fish to explore......yuck! Beauty and the...whatever!

It floated and landed over and over and it was really relaxing to just watch it.

Landings

There were several of these little ragged skippers in the plants along the edge of the rocks. Hard to get them out of the leaves enough for a picture.

I really enjoy these bridges and today could see the reflection on the water which made them twice as nice! I call this one "Bridges, geese, bridges".

Bridge reflections on the water

Under the blue bridge!

More later.

Mike has a break for lunch, so am going out again to eat and see what is in town.

Basket/cage thing figured out!

My husband finally identified the basket/cage thing......he wrote in the comments, but most of you did not see it:

"I just figured out what your wire basket is. Because the wetlands are inside the levee if too much water accumulates there it has to be pumped up to the river. Your wire basket goes over the drain pipe to prevent logs, trees, trash and elephants from being sucked in and ruining the pump."