This is an orchid that Jim Rogers is growing that he showed me one day when I visited his inner sanctum at the Conservatory at Biltmore. The throad is actually black. Below is some very interesting mushroom that I found growing beside the Bent Creek trail in the Arboretum.

Mushrooms aren't the only plants that have thrived this year. There is abundant greenery large and small growing on the forest floor.

One of the blue bird boxes I monitor occasionally is inside a small fenced in family cemetary that predates the Vanderbilts arrival in Asheville. The above stone commemorates those buried in this small plot. Below are a couple of bees feasting on a thistle nearby.

These baby birds clearly were in the mood to be fed. The guy below who is a bit older seems to be having a bad hair day. Until the feathers are fairly mature at around the two week point, these birds can look pretty bizarre.

Sometimes it is amazing how many birds are piled up in these tiny nests. It is no wonder they fledge so quickly. I would too if my siblings were sitting on top of me all day long including when they shit.

In the middle of summer we had a hellacious thunderstorm that produced a tornado in South Asheville. It took out an impressive number of huge old trees in the forests at Biltmore. Downtown though it got very dark and ominous.

I get a huge charge out of my bird monitoring duties. Occasionally, as below, a non-avian will appear to check Abner and me out. This was a very young but still quite fearless groundhog who was seeing what we were doing but remained in close proximity to the entry to his burrow.

Bird babies everywhere. Below are some Canada Geese with their young and above are some of my very young baby bluebirds.

Sometimes the male bird will sit on top of the box guarding as above. The babies are a trip. These guys below were so young their eyes weren't open so when I opened the box, they assumed I was mom bringing food.

Below are a few bluebird babies with the rudiments of feathers forming amongst the fuzz.

The mushrooms were plentiful and splendid this summer due to the return of wet weather.

Mountain laurel (above) and other native flowers were also abundant this summer. I didn't realize the impact of the previous summers of drought on the flora of our area but now that I have witnessed what nature provides when rainfall is plentiful, I see the difference.

One of the buildings of The Inn at Middleton Place, above below a portrait of a very big and very stubborn insect that had taken up residence on my tire while I was parked near my room at the Inn. He wouldn't leave until the car was actually rolling out the drive.

More of my episodic fascination with mushrooms and other fungi.

These are shots of the Inn at Middleton Place. The architecture is contemporary but fits beautifully into the lush grounds. None of the historic structures or gardens are within sightlines of the Inn and vice versa, but it is an easy walk from one to the other.

Above is an Ibis walking through the grass near the aquatic garden looking for bugs or whatever they eat. Below is the old guest house at Middleton which is the largest of the surviving buildings on the plantation.

More views of the beautiful gardens.

An unperturbed Great Blue Heron at Middleton above and one of the surviving outbuildings below.

The gardens at Middleton are extensive and magnificent.