Tag Archives: Georgia

The superb magnolia

It’s towering, all right:

A magnolia and jsq

“DURING a progress of near seventy miles, through this high forest, there constantly presented to view on one hand or the other, spacious groves of this fine flowering tree [the dogwood], which must, in the spring season, when covered with blosoms present a most pleasing scene; when at the same time a variety of other sweet shrubs display their beauty, adorned in their gay apparel, as the Halesia, Stewartia, Æsculus pavia, Æsc. alba, Æsc. Florid. ramis divaricatis, thyrsis grandis, flosculis expansis incarnatis, Azalea, &c. intangled with garlands of Bignonea crucigera, Big. radicans, Big. sempervirens, Glycine frutescens, Lonicera sempervirens, &c. and at the same time the superb Magnolia grandiflora, standing in front of the dark groves, towering far above the common level.”
—William Bartram, 1773
Picture of John S. Quarterman in front of a magnolia by Gretchen Quarterman, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 Dec 2006.

Wild azaleas

Piedmont Azalea (Rhododendron canescens), native to the U.S. southeast. Often confused with honeysuckle, but that’s a vine from Japan, and this is a bush from here. These azaleas are growing in the woods in Lowndes County, Georgia.

Azaleas

A sky full of azaleas: Continue reading →

Draining a Beaver Pond

We like beavers; they keep the water in our 12 acre pond. But they’re getting a little too ambitious. They’ve build another dam upstream, and they’re gnawing down trees. So we decided to put a pipe through their dam to fool them (this idea owed to David Fields).

This is the creek

This is an ordinary 4 inch perforated drain pipe, bought at North Lowndes Hardware. It needs to go through that dam I’m standing on. How do you do that? First remove a bunch of sticks (gloves are useful for this): Continue reading →

Gretchen and Paige on WCTV about Quarterman Road

So we were riding our bicycles today, and Gretchen got a phone call from Carolyn saying WCTV (Channel 6, Tallahassee/Thomasville) was at her house and wanted an interview, but she was at work and couldn’t do it. Gretchen rode down there, and this is the result: Slowing Down Speeders, by Deneige Broom:
Quarterman Road in Hahira was paved within the last year.

Some people who live there say people drive faster than the posted 35 miles per hour limit.

The Georgia Department of Transportation says this type of paving is safe for up to 45 miles per hour.

Lowndes County agreed to lower the speed limit to 35 miles per hour after they heard concerns from residents.

Since GDOT says the 45 mile per hour is acceptable, a posted speed limit of 35 can’t be enforced without approval.

Residents just want something done.

“We had drag racers out here a few weeks ago, two corvettes speed racing side by side up and down the road,” said Gretchen Quarterman who lives on the road. “It’s a neighborhood, we have 30 families that live on this road, they have small children.”

How did WCTV hear about this? They saw our neighbor Carolyn on YouTube: Continue reading →

Treat’s Rain Lily

Treats Rain Lilly You may know these as Easter lilies, or “those lilies that grow in the ditches by the road in the spring.” It turns out their real name is Treat’s Rain Lily, and they are a native of south Georgia and north Florida, plus a bit of Alabama, and don’t grow anywhere else. We’ve seen them in Georgia counties along the Florida border as far west as Cairo, but not any farther north. Here’s much more about these lilies.

They really like where we burned this spring in the woods:

Hundreds of them in the woods

The red flags mark where we transplanted some longleaf pine seedlings.

Pictures by Gretchen Quarterman, 2-3 April 2010, Lowndes County, Georgia.