I like to walk down to this lake, walk around it, and reflect on this, that, and the other thing but the lake does its own reflecting as well. Pick up sticks, anyone?
It also provides a nice bit of bokeh.
Up close and personal with a butterfly? Alien? Somethings look different when you get this close, don’t they?
If you’re a mathaphobe, you’ll be sad to know that geometry is everywhere in nature. 🙂 But as the Scots might say, “Dinna fash”, there’ll be no test. Just enjoy.
Ah, water drops!
This is my sort of abandoned home.
Jude’s moved from purple to white as the color of the month, maybe in deference to the white heat of Arizona (106F today). While back in the park during my recent trip to Illinois, I spotted one of a pair of mute swans. My guess is that this is the male and the female is either somewhere sitting on a nest of eggs or hanging out with tiny cygnets. I managed to creep up relatively close to this one by walking along a back path, moving very slowly once I got within sight, and then stay more or less behind some bushes.While beautiful to see, swans are often very aggressive so it’s just as well I wasn’t too close.
I had big plans to do a Monday walk post but time and friends got away with me and it’s now bedtime so not time for more. 🙂 I walked in “my” park right away on Friday morning, a delightful time with a bit of forest bathing in some sections. This is more (and of course different) trees than in many blocks surrounding our house in Arizona and nary a cactus in sight. So much beautiful variety in the world. Happy Monday!
Ann-Christine gives us the choice today to pick what we’d like to share and her beautiful flowers can literally be picked. What do I have here in Arizona? Since our move just over a year ago, other than cacti, I’ve been mostly taking photos of birds, so here are a few recent favorites.
Let’s drop in at the Riparian Preserve and see what we can find. A harrier hawk is always fun.
“He imagines a necessary joy in things that must fly to eat.”
― Wendell Berry
“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”
― Robert Lynd
Then there’s the spoonbill who came during one of the storms in the south and has been here all winter. Here it’s balancing on one leg while looking astonished. Is that like rubbing your stomach and patting your head at the same time? Pretty in pink but what a big mouth!!
may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living ~e. e. cummings
There are lots of spectacular birds but there are also the cute, more approachable ones that you might see in your yard.
Wherever there are birds, there is hope. Mehmet Murat Ildan
If you’re a fish, you’d prefer to see this haughty cormorant perched on a limb rather than in the water where they run silent, run deep, run deadly.
Tomorrow, the birds will sing. Be brave. Face life. ~Charlie Chaplin
A pod of pelicans arrived towards the end of last year and a few have stuck around. I didn’t realize that pairs like this fish and swim in tandem, for all the world like synchronized swimmers. Of course the swimmers don’t usually eat fish while performing, at least I hope not!
And now it’s back to the weekend. I hope you’re enjoying yours.
