Photos: Flowers, Wildlife, Landscape

I love taking photos of almost anything, especially flowers, wildlife and landscapes. Recently, two of my flower photos were chosen by a local hospital to have enlarged, framed and displayed in waiting rooms or corridors. Here are a few of my favorite flower, wildlife and landscape photos I took recently on vacation at the Outer Banks.

Blanket flower growing on the back side of a sand dune on the beach.

Sea oats hold the dunes in place.

Cattails in a marsh.

Marsh near Manteo on Roanoke Island.

This tiny crab is about the size of a nickel. They were all over the beach.

Strike a pose!

Hiking trip photos

This past weekend my husband and I went on a little hiking excursion. We didn't have to drive far to reach the start of the trail. It wound down through dark woods to a small river that flows over beautiful primordial looking rocks. The clear water tumbled down small waterfalls. Rain sprinkled but we had rain jackets and I had an umbrella. Yeah, I'm a genuine hiker, carrying an umbrella.

Wild roses in full bloom grew along the path and the scent was amazing. It mixed nicely with the smell of pine needle and moldering leaves. Rock cliffs stretched up toward the sky on one side, carved by the water over millennia.

Other wildflowers grew near the water. Trout jumped from the surface a few times. Mist enshrouded the cliffs in the distance on the opposite side. We even found trees half cut down by beavers.