WARNING!

If you plan to be on the road , April 1-4, stay clear of our route, AL-TN-KY-WV-OH, home. The 3rd maybe relatively safe as we are spending a day in Lexington, KY at the Kentucky Horse Park. I have every intention of posting photos so if you like horsies check the blog later that week.

The horse park and maybe some final wisdom will be  wrap for this blog. We have absolutely no idea where to waste money this summer but I will let you know when and if plans are made.

Blog the Bog 2017

At the end of November I posted an entry about the Weeks Bay Pitcher Plant Bog. This afternoon we returned to find renewal. May it continue.

OK, get outside, look around, then sign an on-line petition, write or call your brain-dead congresscritter, and/or make a donation. The muckers are in control, send up a flare!

Flower Power

One of the joys of snowbirding is the early spring and an environment that encourages flowers.

The Bottle Brush plant (callistemon) is one we became familiar with during previous stays in Georgia. Rumor has it that it attracts butterflies.

In Georgia they resembled small trees. Here they look like a bush. I decided to call it a plant as after repeating bottle brush bush three times I perceived a danger to further speech.

And then there are roses

And then some things on the wild side

Jean, the better half of the management couple, has a nice display dominated by this flowering tree.

Close-up

Finally, 'The Rose of Alabamy." For 10 points, what movie can be connected to that?

Third and Final, I think.

Across Mobile Bay from Fort Morgan, the subject of an earlier post, is Fort Gaines and we may have enjoyed this one the most. WHY? you ask. Because it is the smallest and consequently less walking. Strange how your values change with age. Fort Gaines is in relatively good condition and, aside from one late 19th-century exterior artillery battery, everything is within the walls.

Everything is as you would expected it. The officer's quarters face the "parade." It was a three-story building but US Navy guns remodeled it as they damned the torpedoes and sailed into Mobile Bay.

Like Fort Morgan and Fort Pickens, the US Army coastal Artillery updated things a bit before the Spanish American War with the addition of "hidden batteries."

During the Civil War the artillerist was a tad more exposed.

Unique is not a term often associated with the military yet the "kitchen courtyard" behind the officer's quarters had this stone wall. The outdoor kitchen, outdoor being a climate adaptation in the south, was well equipped with a fireplace and oven.

This may be the end of the FORT SERIES. Perhaps we will swing into spring with some flower photos or something equally peaceful.