We didn’t see fish, but roses instead.

Tom and his Dad rode around with Garrett, the Biologist, for a few hours this morning, checking hog traps but they didn’t find any hogs.  I went to the Post Office to mail our absentee ballots and then to the grocery store.  I was happy to find that there is a grocery store in Santee – Food Lion – it’s not a really big store, but has a pretty good selection.  The Walmart in Manning is a little further away, but nice, too.

We all got back around noon, and had some lunch before setting out to visit the Orangeburg National Fish Hatchery, about a half hour away.

When we arrived, though, we found that they were still trying to clean up their hurricane damage, and in fact, are waiting for one of the maintenance guys from Santee NWR to come over there with the heavy equipment needed to clear out downed trees. So, the Fish Hatchery was closed . . .

OK, Plan B . . . the lady I talked to in the office recommended that we check out Edisto Memorial Gardens.

The park is operated by the city of Orangeburg, and located in the center of town.  There’s a small parking lot across from the rose gardens, and then a driveway up to a another really large parking lot . . . they must host some larger events to need that huge parking lot!

 

We parked and crossed the street to the Rose Gardens,

 

It was a beautiful day, and almost all of the roses were still in bloom, although many were starting to fade.

We walked among the roses and I practiced my photography skills on roses and butterflies.

The butterflies loved the purple flowers on this bush!

A collage of many of the roses we saw today . . .

From the Rose Garden, we followed the boardwalk through the Cypress Forest,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

where there were many large trees – cypress and live oak, and magnolias.

The boardwalk took us towards the river,

and it looked like it followed the river for some distance, but it was blocked off – must be hurricane damage here, too.

There was a water wheel in the river,

and as we stood there watching it, the wheel started to move, scooping up water and re-depositing it into the troughs at the top, where it ran down and flowed back into the river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We weren’t sure what its purpose was, but it was pretty cool.

Circling back around to the Rose Gardens, we walked over a bridge between two ponds where there was a group of geese and ducks hanging out,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

including one ugly duckling!

Along the banks of the pond, there were statues of children, which looked very realistic.

This looked like a peaceful spot for real people to sit and feed the ducks, too . . . so pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The geese weren’t as friendly as the duck as we walked past them – they stood their ground and were hissing at us.  I’m just glad they didn’t come after us!

 

We made it past the killer geese, and back to the Rose Gardens.  It was a beautiful day in a beautiful garden!