Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography
This blog is for my insights on life, the Bible, hiking adventures with my grandson and whatever is important to me
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Terri’s Sunday Stills-All Things Bright and Beautiful
Whatsoever is Lovely Challenge-2025 Week 47
Ragtag Daily Prompt-Variegated
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Goat Island Park and Greenway; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
This week Terri, host of Sunday Stills is offering the challenge prompt of Monthly Colour Challenge in Any Shade of Brown and/or Gray. I’ve scoured through my photos for shades of Brown, I have discovered many of them are from This Trail, That Trail & Trails Over There.
Here are my entries …
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Terri’s Sunday Stills:Monthly Color Challenge – Any shade of brown and/or gray
Photo Credit:©️2019-2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved
God Bless. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
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Becca’s Sunday Trees – 611
Dawn’s Festival of Leaves 2025-Week # 7
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Fusion
Location: Goat Island Park and Greenway; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a wonderful week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Capturing Leaves and such along the South Fork Catawba River before church this beautiful Sunny morning with Coleman. We enjoy walking along the riverbanks whenever the opportunity arises. And since we were feeling a bit better after being sick, it was an opportune time.
Leaves of American Sycamore trees …
The American Sycamore tree is native to Eastern North America; which includes the eastern and central United States, the mountains of northeastern Mexico, extreme southern Ontario, and extreme southern Quebec.
The American Sycamore is a long-lived species, typically surviving at least 200 years and likely as long as 500–600 years. Interestingly the species epithet occidentalis is Latin for “western,” referring to the Western Hemisphere and named as such by Carl Linnaeus since the only other species in the genus was P. orientalis (“eastern “), native to the Eastern Hemisphere. Therefore, it became confusing due to the fact that the American Sycamore was first known in the Eastern United States. Hence, it is sometimes referred to as the Eastern Sycamore in order to distinguish it from Platanus racemosa which was discovered later in the Western United States and called western sycamore.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Fusion & Telephoto Cameras
Location: Banks of the South Fork Catawba River; Goat Island Park and Greenway; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a fabulous week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Photo Credit:©️2022 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Location: Rock Hill, South Carolina
God Bless. Have a terrific weekend. Enjoy a Walk. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
As scene on our hike at Goat Island Park and Greenway. The Eastern Cottonwood stood out tall and strong amongst the surrounding trees along the trail.
The Eastern Cottonwood is native throughout the Eastern, Central, and South Western United States of America. It also can be found in the Southern Canadian prairies, the southernmost part of eastern Canada, and northeastern Mexico.
The Populus deltoides (Eastern Cottonwood) is a large tree which grows to 20-30 metres (65-100 feet) in height with a trunk up to 2.8 metres (9 ft 2 in) in diameter. It is one of the largest North American Hardwood trees. Its bark is silvery-white, smooth or lightly fissured when young, becoming dark gray and deeply fissured on old trees.
What stands out when you are out walking about in your area?
Becca’s Sunday Trees – #601
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Catawba River Link Greenway Trail; Goat Island Park and Greenway; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Enjoy the Outdoors. Have a rest under a shade tree. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The Lagerstroemia Indica “Whit II” is noted for its true red blossoms. It is a splendid, upright, deciduous tree with a profusion of large clusters, packed with crinkly , cherry red flowers at its branch tips.
The Dynamite Crape Myrtle is a long blooming summer flowering tree. [The one pictured here began blooming near the end of July across the street from us.] It will bloom through early autumn.
The Lagerstroemia Indica “Whit II” – Dynamite Crape Myrtle is an attractive ornamental shrub or small tree with smooth, peeling bark. The fiery red summer flowers with gradually change to vibrant orange-red fall foliage. Even after the leaves drop, the display is not over. Smooth but mottled bark showcases an attractive range of tan, gray, and brown which covers the trunk and branches of the Dynamite Crape Myrtle.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Old Town; Riverside Community; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Enjoy the Outdoors. Have a rest under a shade tree. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The Northern Sugar Maple is a deciduous tree in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae) native to Eastern and central North America from Canada south through the Appalachian Mountains to Georgia and west to Minnesota to northeast Texas.
Here in North Carolina, it is found in the mountains and sporadically in the Piedmont region. Northern Sugar Maple trees may reach around fifty (50) to one hundred twenty (120) feet tall with a dense, spreading crown that provides heavy shade and grows slowly to medium, although it may grow faster in open areas. It tends to grow best in moist, well-drained, slightly acidic, fertile soil in full sun, but it tolerates average well-drained soils in sun to part shade.
This particular tree is located on the grounds of The Trailhead Store, a property of Daniel Stowe Conservancy. It provides shade for visitors to enjoy a respite from the hot sun and humid heat of a sunny summer day.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: The Trailhead Store; Daniel Stowe Conservancy; Belmont, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Enjoy the Outdoors. Have a rest under a shade tree. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
This is a Golden Threadleaf Sawara Cypress, Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Filifera Aurea’ tree. It is sumptuous, perhaps overly so although lovely to look upon. It has a bold, seamless yellow coat of drooping, thread-like foliage that sits like a huge canary-gold Easter Egg. The brilliant color of the Golden Threadleaf Sawara Cypress appeals to everyone mostly, however, its bold yellowish colour may not be pleasing to some folks.
Chamaecyparis pisifera is one of those species that horticultural humanity has fooled with for a very long time, and it is an easily propagated plant. ‘Filifera Aurea’ is an old cultivar of C. pisifera with tightly compressed needles wrapped around pendulous branchlets hence the name, ‘Threadleaf’, to describe the appearance of the foliage. There is also a cultivar, ‘Filifera’, with the same type of foliage that is a nice quiet green. But ‘Filifera Aurea’ stores some of its excess sugars and starches that form in its needles as a bright gold pigment, a glorious gold pigment, a wild, extravagant, take-your-shoes-off-and-dance gold pigment that has to make any gardener smile, even in the midst of the late winter doldrums.
‘Filifera Aurea’ is a good sized plant, eventually reaching 18-20 feet with age, but retaining a relatively formal, broadly conical shape that adds to its bold statement in the landscape. Chamaecyparis pisifera cultivars perform surprisingly well in the hot, wet southeast and ‘Filifera Aurea’ is no exception. It will happily grow a foot a year, if not overly stressed, in a broad range of soil conditions as long as it has full sun and reasonably regular moisture.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Max Fusion Camera
Location: C.B. Huss Recreation Complex; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a funtastic day. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The Juglans nigra, Eastern American Black Walnut is a species of deciduous tree in the Walnut family, Juglandaceae, native to central and eastern North America. Black Walnut trees are used commercially for its rich deep brown colour and is easily worked.
The Walnut seeds (aka nuts) are cultivated for their distinctive and desirable taste. Walnut trees are grown for lumber and food. An interesting note is that in 2017, the United States Department of Agriculture valued U.S. Walnut timber at $530 billion. Also noted that a significant portion is grown in Missouri.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Max Fusion Camera
Location: Old Town; Riverside Community; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Have a funtastic day. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
In my youth my church youth group would go camping 🏕️ up in the Sequoia National Forest and sleep in big green military tents amongst the “gentle giants.”
Girls would be in one or two small army tents and boys would be in separate tents in a separate area of the camp. Each tent had a capacity of up to 21 people, however, I think we only had about a dozen teenagers plus 1-2 adult chaperones per tent. [Side Note: when I camp I still sleep in tents].
It is amazing to walk amongst the Giant Sequoias often referred to as Coastal Redwoods, Coast Redwoods, and “Gentle Giants.” To look up at the sky through the center of a California Pacific Coast Redwood and walk amongst the trees so tall as if reaching up towards the heavens is mesmerizing.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Fred Blackburn … All Rights Reserved.
Location: Avenue of the Giants; Humboldt Redwoods State Park; Weott, California, USA
God Bless. Do you have any giant trees in your neck of the woods? Coleman and I love to walk in the woods enjoying nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
The Mexican Fan Palm is known for its slender, columnar trunk that can reach 100 feet tall and swell slightly at the base. Its trunk is brown and bumpy when young, but smooths and grays over time. It has large, fan-shaped leaves that can grow 3–5 feet wide and have sharp spines at the base.
Washingtonia robusta is one of two species in the genus Washingtonia. The other species closely related to it is the Washingtonia filifera (California Fan Palm). Both Washingtonia are grown as ornamental trees. The Mexican Washingtonia has a narrower trunk (which is typically somewhat wider at the base), and grows slightly faster and taller; it is also somewhat less cold hardy than the California fan palm, hardy to about −8 °C (18 °F).
The Mexican Fan Palm is normally grown in the desert areas of the Southwestern United States. Those areas include California, Arizona, and southern Nevada, as well as the extreme southwestern regions of Utah and Texas.
Both of the above locations for the Washingtonia robusta are located inland a short distance area from the Coast of the Pacific Ocean. The images were taken in Spring and Summer of 1979 by my father when we visited these places.
Photo Credit:©️1979 Nornal H. Waters (my dad) … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Minolta XG-7 35 mm
Location: 1) Hearst Castle; San Simeon, California; 2) Ports O’ Call Village; San Pedro, California, USA
God Bless. Have a marvelous week. Explore Your World. Enjoy Nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Fusion Camera
Location: Rocky Branch Trail; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Enjoy Nature. Have a funtastic week. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Coleman’s
Choice of
Pulling Up a Seat
By the River
Coleman loves to play in the sand by the river. He’ll also climb anything he sees worthy of his climbing capabilities. Yesterday, his climbing took him up an American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) tree to Pull Up a Seat.
The ascending progression …
The Sitting Adjustment:
And Back Up a Tree again to perch on a limb …
Where did Coleman disappear? … See his legs dangling up so high like a monkey in a tree?
Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge 2025-Week 16
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved.
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max Fusion Camera
Location: By the South Fork Catawba River; Riverside Park and Greenway; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Do or did you like to climb trees like Coleman does? Where is your favourite place to Pull Up a Seat? Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Cornus florida,
the Flowering Dogwood
Click on each image for enhanced viewing.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved
Camera:1 & 3) Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max; 2) Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura 4-Star & CPL Filter attachments.
Location: Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Observe the Beauty in Nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved
Camera:Canon EOS Rebel T3i with Canon EF-S55-250mm lens and Altura UV & CPL Filter attachments.
Location: Centennial Center; Town of Cramerton; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Observe the Beauty in Nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Old Town; Riverside Community; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Observe the Beauty in Nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Salix babylonica
Photo Credit:©️2025 Deb L. Waters … All Rights Reserved
Camera: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max
Location: Old Town; Riverside Community; Cramerton, North Carolina, USA
God Bless. Observe the Beauty in Nature. Thank you for visiting and sharing your time and thoughts with us. I appreciate y’all very much.
Gfpacificbee’s Insights & photography 