April 03rd, 2026

This week's Photo Safari Report was easy to name.  There is one particular Preserve that we have to time our visits to carefully.  The entire preserve runs alongside the beautiful Myakka River.  It's a gorgeous place but because of it's riverside proximity, once rainy season starts, it has a tendency to flood. So we always go there during the very very dry season (which is to say this time of year) ahead of the rains.  So in honour of this glorious but limited access preserve, we will call this one by it's actual name, The Sleeping Turtle Hike.  (Oddly enough we've seen very few actual turtles here, awake or asleep)

Joy and I hiked along our usual familiar trails until, at one point, we noticed a trail that was kind of tucked in behind a covered pavilion (said pavilions dot the preserve here and there). And in fact, we weren't absolutely certain at first that it actually was a trail but maybe a rocky/pebbled corner or a spot where the grasses had been worn away.  Happy news. It was. Yay!  A new hike!  Well not really.  Eventually here and there we noticed little bits of things that seemed perhaps a tiny bit familiar and by the end we realized that yes we had done at least part of that hike before but a Very Long Time Ago.  Long enough, in fact, that, yeah sure, call it a new hike.

Most of it took us alongside the river so there were, as there almost always are, various typical river photos of mirror-like reflections,  arching  elderly oak branches or fallen palm trees reaching out over the water and a few boaters:

The place was lousy with birds, seriously.  They were everywhere. But they were also constantly moving - and we all know that my best photographic abilities involve things that stay in one spot.  Therefore, very few bird pictures:

I did manage to find a few flowers here and there, or at least flowering shrubs.  Some of them smelled Amazing!  Others had, no fragrance at all, but pretty is still pretty, no matter:

The rest of the photos are just unrelated randos that appealed to me for whatever reason and but I'll share them anyway. Who knows?  Maybe they will make you smile too :)

I actually have one more rando for you but it requires a bit of explanation.  We were surprised to find, here and there as we went along, silk flowers and silk butterflies tucked into the oddest places.  It was such a funny, quirky thing to come across that I had to get at least one photo.  I have no idea why anyone would do such a thing, perhaps thinking they were improving on nature?  Regardless, it certainly caught my eye:

Thanks for joining me on this Photo Safari!  The Sleeping Turtle Hike won't happen again until next year sometime during the dry season, as per usual, but there will be plenty of other hikes, I assure you:)

Have a great weekend ya'll!!