11/22/08 (Saturday): We sure chose a fun place to volunteer this time! Wiley is enjoying getting to garden every day (in a REALLY big garden). I've enjoyed cleaning the historic Maclay House (that's it in the picture--it's hard to get a good shot because of all the foliage) and decorating the Visitor Center for Christmas.

Next week, I get to decorate the entrance station. Last year they turned it into a gingerbread house and they had some of the decorations left over, so I've been making some additional decorations. Some folks from a local seniors club are coming on Monday to help me finish up. I'll post some pictures.

Needless to say, the gardens are gorgeous. This yellow butterfly particularly likes these two pots, right outside my window at the Visitor Center.













The gardens are famous for their camellias, which are just starting to come into bloom. The bushes are just huge.













Mr. Maclay, who designed the gardens in the 1920's, drove around the area and collected specimens that he particularly liked from local yards. So many of these bushes are over 100 years old.












There are also lots of gardens within the garden, like this walled garden.















Of course, lots of people visit the gardens mostly for the lakes. The closest lake (Lake Hal) allows boating (no motors) and fishing and has a small swimming beach. The other lake can only be reached by hiking. It's pristine and no boats, swimming or fishing are allowed.










There are plenty of things to do on our days off. So far, we've been to St. Mark's a couple of times. It's located right on the Gulf of Mexico where a couple of rivers dump into it.












These black vultures were sitting on the edge of the boat ramp. I'm not sure what they were waiting for, but they sure weren't in any hurry to move out of the way of the boaters!












In my spare time, I decided to use up some leftover yarn and crochet ponchos for the granddaughters. I think they turned out really cute. I put jingle bells at the neck and edged them with fuzzy white yarn. Then, I found Santa tights at the dollar store. The girls loved them! Of course, I ran out of yarn about half way through the last one and the correct color only came in a huge roll, so now I have lots of leftover yarn again. anyone want a poncho?!

That's it for this blog--things to do and places to go. I'll finish catching everyone up in my next blog, where I'll have some pictures of a couple of kayaking trips we took and a historic mission we visited.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!