It's time for another Photo Safari Report!  This one I'm calling the Magical Woodpeckers Hike. You will find out why.

We are right on the heels of summer which means the temperatures and the humidity are rising.  And that, in turn, means that our hikes start earlier and are shorter so that we can continue to enjoy them rather than just endure them.  We hit the trails ahead of the birds this time but once they finally showed up, it was worth the wait.

We wandered down one path and up another trail, enjoying the walk'n'talk that we do, but taking very few photos for what seemed like a long time.  Some hikes are just like that.  Lots of walking and very little snapping.  We assumed that would be the case once again.  Until we turned down one particular trail and Joy suddenly came to an abrupt stop. So naturally I stopped.  She pointed and I saw it, a cute little woodpecker right in front of us.  Awwwww.  We both stood unmoving while taking a couple of pictures.  

We were absolutely silent as we always are in those times and perhaps it was the combination of the quiet and our stillness that got things started, but suddenly we began to see more woodpeckers and then more and then still more until we realized that they were literally everywhere.  Some on the trunks of trees, some on branches, even more in the air, flying, swooping, zooming around us!  There were so many that there were multiple woodpeckers on each tree, sharing branches, flitting through the leaves, fronds and sprills and again, zipping past us as if we too were part of the forest.  There were so many woodpeckers that they filled the air. It was almost as if the sky were raining woodpeckers.  I have never experienced anything like it before and let me assure you, it was Magical!  Wow!  

Obviously, therefore, I have woodpecker photos.  I will try (try) to keep them to a minimum.  Here we go:

We did see and hear a few other birds including one that had a song neither of us recognized.  It is never a shock when it's something in nature that is new to me, but Joy (as a former Ranger) usually is familiar but this time even she had never heard it before.  We spent quite some time trying to find the source of the song. She eventually was able to get a photo of the adorable little dickens, I did not. Ratz!  I don't remember the name although it started with the letter V if that helps any birders out there.  It was a surprisingly small bird for such a Big song (I saw Joy's photo) so it was another really nice surprise!

Here's a small handful of the other birdies:
​

Only a few botanicals for you today, one in black and white:

This is a strange time of year.  The temperatures feel like summer, which is our usual rainy season, but it's drydrydry like winter which is always our dry season. Which means the rivers and creeks have very low water levels.  Therefore, water birds are struggling, and the green growing stuff is droopy and crispy and certainly not thriving which means non-water birds are struggling.   We didn't even see any butterflies or bees yesterday!  Which definitely tells you that something ain't right!

Rain is predicted for this afternoon (hope that's true!) and on and off for the next week so perhaps, finally, the rainy season is truly on its way.  I know, I know, according to the calendar summer doesn't begin until June 20th and this being the last day of May, we have weeks until summer. Right?  Nope, not here in Florida.  It's is hothothot like summer right now and has been for a few weeks.  It's a little ahead of schedule, true, but Mother Nature has her own calendar, and she doesn't consult us.   Nor is she required to.  This is her world, we just live in it.

Hope you enjoyed this Photo Safari Report of the Magical Woodpecker Hike because I'm not absolutely certain when the next one will be.  Meanwhile, hugs all 'round!  Have a great weekend!

Hey there!  Have you all recovered from the long weekend?    I know that not everyone actually gets to have 3-days off in a row because of the sorts of jobs that they have, but for everyone else,  it's a big woohoo!  Something that I think we all look very much forward to.

Three consecutive days off with no job-related responsibilities or stresses. No waking up to an alarm clock. No rushing through every single moment of the day, trying to, somehow magically shoehorn extra non-existent hours, into a 24 hour period of time.  Ahhhhh!  Wonderful!

And you can do whatever you like with those 3-days.  Some people travel, just  a short get-away. Other folks relax at home or catch up on projects.  Maybe you hosted friends and family. Or perhaps since the weather is nicer now, it was time to get your garden started!  Traditionally it's a day of remembering those who have passed, especially those who have served our country in our military.   And how best to remember and celebrate their lives than to live, laugh, love our lives.

And no matter if you chose to commemorate the Memorial Day Weekend with a cookout, a trip, a project or just a lot of relaxation (ahhhhh!)  it was still 72 hours away from your normal workaday life.  And change of pace itself is enough to recharge batteries for most of us.

Still there is always a balance on the other end.    Yes, because Monday was a holiday, there is now only a 4 day work week ahead (another yay!) but it also means cramming 5 days work into 4 and sometimes that feels more like punishment than reward, right?  I remember it well.  Coming into work extra early on the Tuesday following a long weekend just to try to catch up. There were always a Long list of messages on the phone and an almost endless pile up of emails on top of the normal weeks work!  Which meant coming in early, working through lunch and often staying late for a few days just to get back into a normal weekly rhythm.

Even for me, retired tho I be, I have a sort of pattern to my weeks.  Mondays is also a day of tidying of course after a weekend but mostly it is a day of laundry. Lots of laundry. Load after load of laundry. I change out all of the towels and sheets that day on top of the regular clothes sort of laundry.  Tuesdays, on the other hand, is mostly about grocery shopping and dusting and vacuuming, ironing and cleaning bathrooms, because come Wednesday my Museum Day is on tap and I accomplish little at home other than meals on a Museum Day.  

When a three day weekend comes along, on Tuesday, I find myself trying to do both Monday and Tuesdays chores all on Tuesday.  Even though it's not as if I'll get in "trouble" if everything doesn't get caught up by the end of Tuesday and I'm in no danger of being fired after all, I don't like to drag things out too far.  It just ends up cluttering up the rest  of the week.  I just  want to get back to a normal pattern of things as quickly as possible so that a Monday/Tuesday doesn't also become a Tuesday/Wednesday and then a Wednesday/Thursday.....you get the drift.   There is a comfort, for me,  that comes with an orderly, predictable pattern.  

I know without a doubt, without a whisper of a hint of a question, that by Tuesday afternoon, all of the clothes that we own that are not on our bodies, are clean, ironing, folded, put away and ready to be worn again.   There is no wondering if ones "lucky" socks are ready to be worn again because they are always washed, dried, rolled up and tucked into the sock drawer, right next to the, presumably unluck or, at least,  less lucky socks by Tuesday afternoon.  Just the way it works in this house.

When Thursday comes around, I am free to go hiking with my sister without feeling that heavy load of chores dangling over my head like the sword of Damocles.  It's all already done. I can relax, enjoy my hike, the photography, the company and the day.  Friday is my baking day and then the "work" week is complete and Tim and I can enjoy the weekend together.

It's Wednesday now and yes, I knocked out all of the Monday & Tuesday stuff and I am back on track.  It is a good thing.  I do love a three-day weekend, without question, getting to spend 3 whole days with my sweetie (woohoo) without jobs getting in the way.  But my favourite part about AFTER a long weekend, is Wednesday when I'm all caught up again.

And now I am. Huzzah!

They they are again, the two intrepid explorers of hiking trails!  That's Joy in black'n'white on the left and me on the right just in case you weren't certain.  It's tricky when you cannot see our faces.

Clearly this is going to be yet another Photo Safari Report. Exciting!    This will not be a usual one however.  So I'm going to call this the Different Sort of Hike because it was a little different.  Mostly, in the end, because we ended up with so few pictures!

I'm not absolutely positive why  we got so few photographs on this hike.  All of the proper elements were there.  It was a terrific huge preserve, we wandered the paths for several hours and managed to get in multiple miles doing so, it was a gorgeous bright and sunny day.  I guess I have no good excuses but facts are facts and the fact is, not a lot of photos.

I didn't get many bird photos and most of the ones I got are not worth sharing.  I seemed to have gotten a lot of pictures similar to this cardinal:

As you can see, it is unmistakably a cardinal, but my photo is more of a crystal clear branch and a rather blurry bird.  Not good.

​On the other hand, this hawk  photos was better:

The paths were beautiful, as they almost always are. And they are so pretty that they are photo worthy both in colour and black 'n' white.  Here, decide for yourself:

There were some very pretty wildflowers.  I probably got more botanicals than anything else but honestly, not too many of those either.  Still, here's what I got:

We suspect that, even though we are out there on the trails by a quarter to eight, we need to start earlier now that the temperatures are rising.  Any bird with a lick of sense has found a nice cool place to hang out during the hottest part of the day as the flowers begin to droop in the heat as do the photographers.  It's tough getting great angles for shots that aren't bleached out when the sun shines so brightly and let's see if I can think of any other excuses.....heh.

Doesn't matter.  Only a few photos for you on this Different Kind of Hike, but we still had a great time.  Though we will be leaving earlier in the morning for the rest of the summer. I know, I know, technically, it's not "summer" yet.  I don't care what the calendar says, when it's 85 degrees at 10 am and the "feels like" is 100, it's doggone summer.

And before I forget, have a GREAT Memorial Day Weekend!  Relax, eat good food, get outside for a bit if you can and have big fun!!

We'll get together again sometime next week after the long weekend.

​Hugs all 'round

Was in the Dollar Store recently and saw this 3-pack of bubble.  Always makes me feel so nostalgic.  I'm not sure exactly what it is about bubbles but I adore them and always have.  Makes me feel such a simple joy.  And I don't have to be the one who creates the bubbles, just watching bubbles brings a momentary delight.  Bubbles are carefree and sillyfun and serve absolutely no purpose other than to bring happiness!  Love that.

I enjoy them so much in fact that, seriously, if you know of some environmental reason why I should not do bubbles, please do not tell me. So many things that I love are now deemed bad for me, bad for others, bad for the planet, bad for the universe. Don't ruin this for me too.  I'm begging you.

Anyway, the 3-pack of bubbles.  Naturally I had to buy it.  I had no choice.    And of course, once I got home, I had to introduce the kittyboys to them.  I wasn't sure what their reaction would be, but hey, let's find out!

At first they were very wary.  Their natural curiousity made them check it out but in a slow and cautious sort of way.  Initially there was a lot of just watching.  Everytime a bubble vanished upon popping,  they grew more interested.  What is this sorcery?  Eventually they approached a bubble still in the air and did what kitties always do, they sniffed at it.  The bubble, of course popped.  

That was shocking enough to have them step back a bit butit did not keep them away for long.  Soon they  progressed from sniffing to touching.  And of course, once again, Pop!  I think they liked that because in very short order they were sitting up on their back legs to swat at bubbles and occasionally jump into the air to smack a bubble here and there.  If they couldn't kill an air bubble they settled for stepping on an intact bubble that landed on the floor.

In short it was Extremely Amusing!  You know what they say, "Simple Pleasures for Simple People".  I don't care one bit.  I think I am a person who is made happy by very simple things.  There's not one single thing wrong with that. 

The cats enjoy the bubbles so much that I asked Tim to be the bubble creator the next day so I could take some pictures.  And then the following day I tried doing it on my own, blowing the bubbles AND taking the pictures which was a little trickier but I got a few. Different light on different days, but still...pictures.

Ready for them?

Here we go, photos with captions:

Brysco and Wyatt love playing bubble so much that they will get my attention by meowing  and when I track them down, I find them sitting by the shelf where I keep the bubbles.  Come on mom, let's play!  And so we do.  Nearly every day now we take a few minutes out to play bubble just for a little bit.  

The down side is that since we are playing in the house, afterwards I have to wash the floor.  No worries, our floor is now cleaner than ever.  Bubble time is immediately followed by washing floor time.  Not a big deal, it is totally balanced out by how much we all are enjoying the bubbles.

And lest you think it is a weird thing for some one as old as me to still be enjoying bubbles, I have this to day,  #1  I dont' care if you call me childish or childlike but I like what I like, and I like bubbles.  You don't have to if you don't want to, but I do.  To thine own self be true and all that  #2  I'm not the only one.  There is a house up in Sarasota that we often drive past that has a bubble machine at the end of their driveway blowing a constant stream of bubbles out onto the sidewalk and beyond to the street. They probably wouldn't be doing that if other people weren't also enjoying it  (I'm pretty sure they don't it just for me) #3 I've been called, odd, weird, strange, unusual and unique my entire life. I'm not at all put off if you do it too and lastly, #4 the kitties are loving it and it makes me happy to see them so happy.

In the words of Don Ho, "Tiny Bubbles....make me happy"  Of course he was talking about the bubbles in a glass of wine, but bubbles is bubbles and happy is happy and I'm good with it.

And now I have that song in my head.  Oh well, maybe that just means it's time to do bubbles.  Come on Kitties!  It's Bubble Time!

Well, it looks like the whole house is all ish-kabibble once again!  Geez!    Everywhere you look right now are nice neat stacks of clean sheets, pillows (so many pillows), mattresses, bed frames, box springs and toss pillows.  What a mess!

This is what happens when you finally break down and buy a new bed!  Woohoo!  So exciting!  It ought to be delivered some time today and we are so ready!  

Getting a new bed meant, for us means that the guest room bed is on it's way outoutout.  Our old bed, which isn't very old really, we bought it here in Florida afterall, will become the new guest  bed.  It's a good quality very comfortable mattress and will be a comfortable nights sleep for any guest you ends up snoozing on it. 

The fellows who are bringing our new bed will take the old guest room bed away, huzzah, and that will automatically make the chaos in the living room much better.  Mattresses and box springs leaning up against  random walls looks so very, ummm, I don't know,  dormitory between semesters or something.  

So the guest bedroom will now be sporting not only a nice, much newer, mattresses and box spring, but it also inherited the headboard and footboard that used to be in our room.  Love that!  I know that a head board (and/or foot board) is not strictly necessary, but I really like the way it looks.  It seems more finished I suppose.  Like when you are all dressed and then you put your shoes on.  Now you are finished dressing :)

HOWEVER, the guest room is NOT inheriting the old comforter.  That thing is thirty years old and has holes in it.  It's ready for the garbage.  On the other hand, the original guest room comforter is in Fabulous shape and will continue to do it's job very nicely. So for those of you keeping score, Guest room has new bed, new headboard/footboard but the same comforter.  

Our new bed, (Squee! So Excited!) is not only a King instead of the Queen sized bed we've always had, but it's an adjustable King.  Wow!  Both the head and the foot go up and down.  So Fancy!   It's supposed to be terrific for aiding sleep for people with seasonal allergies, sleep apnea, indigestion, and snoring problems!  And as a bonus, it's easier to watch TV or read in bed.  Awesome!

Because the bottom of it is one king sized bed and the top is two extra long twins, the sheets are sized specifically for that situation which means no more buying sets but only separates.  That'll work.  We did have to buy a new comforter though and that took stops at Multiple stores to find.  It was so much more of an ordeal than I anticipated.

First of all, our bedroom is an odd grey/green/sagey sort of colour. I don't dislike it but I probably wouldn't have picked it.  On the other hand, we didn't really have the time (Or desire) to repaint the bedroom before the new bed came so we had to find a comforter that would go with grey/green/sagey.  As it turns out, there aren't many colours that do.  Another issue was finding a comforter that wasn't too heavy or dense so that Tim wouldn't be too hot.  He's one of those people who is almost always too hot, so something lightweight.  You would think a lightweight comforter or coverlet would be easy to find in Florida, a hot place.  As it turns out, not as easy as you might think. 

Another issue was dealing with what was available in stores.  The short time frame meant trying to not have to buy on line when you are at their mercy of when things are delivered.  And worse, is it exactly what you thought it was from what was shown or written on line.    So I  think we went to 3 different stores, or maybe it was 4. Five?  However many it was, it seems that the stores hereabouts believe that everyone should have a comforter with scenes/pictures/patterns that typify Florida.  There were fish and palm trees and hibiscus and ocean waves galore.  Sometimes the colours were just oceany - blues and greens.  Other times colours one might consider as tropical - bright bright yellows, greens and oranges.  And there is absolutely nothing wrong with ANY of those options except, they aren't us.  I don't really want to sleep under the sea or in a Jimmy Buffet song.  Obviously we finally found something that would do.  That's what we settled on, something that would do.  Neither of us hated it.  AND it goes with the oddly coloured walls of the room. A very high standard indeed.

So right now, there is nothing to do but wait.  Tim emptied the rooms. I have done the laundry and cleaned the rooms (swept, vacuumed, dusted AND washed the floors).  The kitties have done everything they could possibly do to help (read that as be in the way) and therefore, I think we are ready.

And while I really hate the clutter and chaos of an ish-kabibbled state, I also know that it's short term and once the new bed is in place in our room and the old bed is in the guest room and the really old bed is gone, then I can put everything to rights and by tonight all will be well.  We will sleep the sleep a people on new sheets, under a new comforter, in a new bed.  Yay!  Can't wait!

Happy Day After Mother's Day!!  

This is how my Mother's Day began.  Sweet cards and my favourite cinnamon roll. Yummmmy! So Wonderfully Bad for me!  I got emails and phone calls and texts and IM's and oh my goodness so many good wishes for a Happy Mama's Day!  

Tim took me (and my camera) to Spanish Point for my Mother's Day Outing.  I know that means little to nothing to you but Spanish point is a wonderful place, just two towns north of us (maybe a 15-20 minute drive).   About a hundred years ago, a phenomenally wealthy woman from Chicago named Bertha Palmer fell so in love with, what is now the Sarasota County area of Florida, that she bought some 14,000 acres of land!  (which is now roughly a quarter of Sarasota County).  She carved out 350 acres along Little Sarasota Bay to build her winter home which she referred to has her winter cottage. So naturally it was a freakin' mansion!  She preserved the existing homesteaders buildings, including a chapel, and repurposed some of them into things like a guest house and homes for her own servants and grounds caretakers.  She also had magnificent gardens created.

Interestingly, her winter home called, The Oaks, no longer exists.  But many of the other buildings do and they continue to be  lovingly cared for.  Bertha's beautiful gardens, including an aquaduct (!) are being slowly reclaimed.  In short it is a beautiful place to wander for a bit.  Currently the gardens and walkways are dotted with oversized samples offamous landscape Photographer Clyde Butchers work.  I am a fan :)

Soooo since I took a bunch of photos anyway, I hope you don't mind if I share a few .  I lumped them together by category so they are no representative of a linear timeline of the walk, just FYI.   Let's start with a few butterflies.  There are gardens galore so naturally there are butterflies.  And now they even have a small butterfly house!

Kind of naturally segues into gardens doesn't it?  Some of these gardens are formal, some are definitely less formal. All of them are beautiful :)

Part of the formal garden is watered via aquaduct!  It was so unexpected but absolutely wonderful.  Here are a few photos of it:

And of course, since this property is right there on Little Sarasota Bay, there are water pictures next.  Just a few, I swear!

  A little bit of one structure, a cute little rustic gazebo, appeared in one of the water photos in the previous category so lets call the next category "structures".  A rather loose category that includes buildings of all sorts, pergolas and more. Some quite grand, other's more humble:

We walked down paths, boardwalks and picked through barely distinguishable trails (new area not ready for prime time) and went up and down endless stairs and paths of all sorts.  Here area few:

And then there was the art.  Clyde Butcher was inspired by Ansel Adams and at one point in his career decided to focus solely on black & white landscapes.  His work is amazing!  You know how some music or writers or painters just seem to speak specifically to you?  Well that is how I feel about most of Clyde Butchers work.  I am endlessly wowed and inspired by him.  He actually lives in Florida by the way.  He and his artist wife live on acreage in the Big Cypress National Preserve where they are not just artists, but also reknowned conservationists.

Sadly, because I am not anywhere near as good a photograph as Mr Butcher, and didn't notice until it was too late, you will see My reflection and occasionally Tim's too in these photos.  Dang!  Oh well, here they are and I hope you enjoy Mr. Butcher's work!

Anyway, it was a wonderful Mother's Day!  I hope yours was even better though I'm not sure how that would be possible!

​

Ya'll in the mood for another Photo Safari Report?  Well ok then!  I am calling this one the Two Eagles Hike because, obviously, we saw two eagles.  But more on them later.  I think I'll begin with my one and only black and white photo this time 'round.  It looks so dramatic in black and white!  Just a tree and some clouds in colour, but remove the colour and pow!  Drama!

It wasn't a very long hike but we did see some very cool, far less dramatic things as we covered our miles.  I think I'll start with the birdies.  There was a very nice variety so instead of giving you multiple photos of one sort of bird (yawn, boring) instead it will be  multiple bird photos each of a different sort.  Except the eagles.  Maybe I ought to start with them. 

Ok the Eagles Story.  This particular preserve Joy and I have hiked a few times before.  The first time we also came across two eagles that were, surprisingly, perched high in a tree that we walked directly under. So these massive, totally silent birds were right above us. It was a wow!    We were hoping for a similar experience this time around.  But sadly when we walked under those trees there were no eagles.  Awwww :(    Then we walked a little further and in the distance spied the nest, but it had clearly been abandoned and was kind of beginning to fall apart.  Dang.  We thought maybe the eagles had moved on to another area.  Ratz.  So we continued to hike.  Further down the trail as we went merrily along, Joy suddenly came to an abrupt stop.  She peered into the distance and so I looked too but i saw nothing special.  She brought up her camera and said, "Yes!" with such glee that I did the same.  And there is was.  Well one of them was

Well, we figured, where there is one, there must be the other, so we kept looking and of course, once again, it was Joy who found it.  The other Eagle!

And a few minutes later, we found the new nest

Yay!  We were so very pleased to learn that they hadn't decamped to another, unknown, spot!  We can watch the progress now and perhaps eventually see baby eagles !!  And then watch them grow :)  Very fun!

The rest of the birds were absolutly wonderful but not nearly as exciting.  No insult to the birds intended of course:

Otherwise let's see, we saw some interesting trees:

We did see a lot of rabbits but I only got a picture of one so he will serve as the representative of them all which is a terrible responsibility!  Sorry Bunny

I spied some Spanish Moss hanging from a vine looking for all the world like laundry drying on a line:

A few pretty wildflowers and interesting silver greenery:

Then two shots of the same butterfly on a flower because I couldn't decide which picture I liked the best:

It was only a 3 miles hike so not a really long one but it was long enough to enjoy being outside and hanging out together and taking lots of photos.  It'll do.  

I will leave you with one of my accidental photos. I wonder what I was trying to take a picture of when this happened?

HAHAHA!  Oh well, stuff happens.

However you spend this weekend, be happy, be healthy and have fun!

Wow! That's a lot of stuff, eh?

For the past few days we have had the absolutely delightful pleasure of enjoying the company of  people we adore that live out of state.  We Had Such A Good Time!  

We did so many fun things, ate at least a zillion meals, talked and talked and walked, laughed a lot and just relished every single moment.  

What did we do?  It was more what didn't we do to quote Ferris Bueller!  Let's see, hmmmm.  We did so much cool stuff!   We went to a science museum, toured historic homes, went to an aquarium, perused a wonderful used book store, collected shells on the beach and played an awesome mini-golf course.  And that was just in two days!  Most of the rest of the space in each day was filled with laughter, food and conversation.  Really it was about perfect.

Brysco was happy to  meet our guests. Wyatt not so much.  He hid for the duration.  I'm pleased to say that he has recovered fully from the experience and is back to being his goofy old self.  

And today we are back to our normal usual ordinary lives which is a little hard after so much fun and excitement.  And honestly, the minute our guests drove away, we already missed them so much.   But we have great memories now to add to the memory file that I can pull out and enjoy all over again when I start missing them too much.

I wish the weather had been nicer. It was a little warmer and more humid than was truly ideal but at least it didn't rain I suppose.  I wish they could have stayed longer.  I wish we saw them more often.  I wish I had carved out more time to spend with each of them individually just to catch up one on one.  But I'm overjoyed with the time together that we did get to have.

It was a great weekend.  One of the Best.  I don't know what you did this weekend, but I know mine was better ;)

Hugs all 'round.

"The Shadow Knows" that Joy and I were back out hiking this week so that means this must be another Photo Safari Report!~  I struggled with what to call this one because there doesn't seem to be one predominant theme of photos so I think this one is just the Mostly Randos Hike. Lotsa Rando photos this time 'round.  Which is just fine.  We skipped last week so we get what we get.  (Thank you to Joy for the above photo by the way)

It's getting warmer and just a smidge humid now that we've enterred the merry merry month of May, so we decided to hike Sleeping Turtle Preserve quickly before the rainy season starts.  Two reasons:  It tends to flood when it rains and, really because of that, once the rain begins the mosquitos are rampant and they think that Joy is a tasty treat!   Got to get in there before the rain falls every year just so we can say it's been done.

It's a preserve of much greenery, trees upon trees upon trees!  There could be giant scary predatory carnivorous and hungry wildlife within an arms reach of us and we would never know because the foliage is so thick!  Which is the exact same reason it's hard to photograph birds.  They were all around us, we could hear them, but they were very VERY hard to find.  Little buggers were hiding in the foliage laughing.   I didn't get much but here you go:  

The trails were beautiful, of course, and for a change we didn't have to wade through any streams or jump across any large puddles or creeks, or even build any frond bridges!  For a change we just moseyed down the paths.  Actually we did climb into (and therefore out of) a few ravines that would normally be full of water and had to duck under a couple of gravity defying leaning trees and the step over (sometimes climb over) large trees that had already fallen.  But comparatively, that's nothin'.  We did notice that while some of the trails were still nicely cleared others were so overgrown that occasionally we wondered if we had taken a bad turn and lost the trail. No worries, we figured it out. We always do.

Probably because it was such a lovely sunny dry day, there were scads of non-mosquitos insects:  spiders, bees, butterflies, dragonflies, bugs I don't know what were AND a dung beetle!  Didn't manage to capture them all, still saw them and that counts.

I probably got more botanical shots than anything. Partly because botanicals hold still which makes them much easier to capture but also because they are so beautiful, in every stage of life.  Some of these have gone by, some are in full bloom and some have no actual blooms. All of them are beautiful.  (Same goes for people!!)  I will break it up into two slideshows just for convenience sake:

I don't want to forget my black'n'white shots. Only a small handful today:

And of course by now you know you are nearing the end of the Photo Safari Report when I get to the Rando Category.   I probably have too many of them here so I will try to whittle it down to a more manageable slideshow.  Here we go:

We had a great time on the Mostly Randos Hike.  Hope you liked the pictures!

Fears and phobias and dreads, oh my!  We all have them.  Everybody has something that is, to them, if not downright scary, at least makes them uncomfortable.

Maybe it's a fear of heights, that is a very common one.  Perhaps crowds make you feel a little unsettled.  Or Spiders?  Snakes?  The darkness?  Water?  Whatever you particular fear is, I get it.  I sympathize with how it makes you feel and I understand.  I would never dismiss how you feel, I would never just tell you to "get over it" or whine about how inconvenient your phobia is for me.    All things, by the way, that at one time or another have been done to me.    Even if I don't completely understand why you are afraid, I would accept it as true. 

I said that with such confidence didn't I?   And I absolutely, truly, sincerely mean every word of it.  Or at least I did until recently.

Strange things come into my feed online and a short time ago a little video popped up with a youngish person (I'd say mid 20's) with an engaging smile.  He gazed very comfortably into the camera and then said, with no hesitation that he didn't understand why "old people" had an obsession with punctuation.   "Old People" use it all the time, even in texts!  He was clearly baffled by this phenomenon.   He finished up by saying that he didn't understand punctuastion and that he was, frankly, terrified by it.

Terrified.  By Punctuation.  Really?  


Well at first I just assumed (though one should never) that perhaps he wasn't properly introduced to the concept of punctuation in school and that he was describing it as being terrifying as an exaggeration just for the sake of impact in his video.  But out of curiousity I googled it and did a YouTube search and sonuvagun!  He is not the only young person who is afraid of punctuation and Confused by our (our being us old folk) insistence on using it.  It  seems as if this  fear, or at least discomfort, is a thing now.

My initial answer to the Why of it all (why do you use punctuation?) is.....for clarity!  It's all about communication!  Communication, the clear and unmistakable exchange of thoughts, ideas, requests, comments etc. is key to every single relationship you will ever have.  To break it down further,  there is a huge difference between:

1) Let's eat, Grandma

and

2) Let's eat Grandma.

And just in case you didn't understand that difference (which breaks my heart)  Number 1 is an invitation to Grandma requesting that she join them for a meal.  Number 2 suggests strongly that Grandma is the meal, or at least the entree.    

Big Difference.  That's why we use punctuation.

But it seems, according to these articles which primarily are in the form  of videos, punctuation comes off as being "hostile".  Which is the opposite of proper communication.    When I write and use punctuation and yes even in my emails and texts, I absolutely use punctuation.  A properly placed comma can mean the difference between   a dinner guest or a guest as dinner.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.  Wow.

Hostile and Frightening.  Well, I know that often we are frightened of things we don't understand and that fear can cause people to be defensive which can present itself as hostility.  Could it be that these young people were never taught how to use punctuation?  I know that nobody teaches Sentence Diagramming anymore which is a dang shame.  It's the difference between understanding how a combustion engine works and knowing how to rebuild a combustion engine.  And further, it explains a LOT of the writing I see nowadays.

Oh I cannot just blame the current batch of younger people.  Understanding how to properly communicate via the written word began falling apart even when I was in school.  Even when I was in college I noticed it.  One of the things I did in my college years, to earn a few bucks here and there, was to help people with their term papers.  One very nice and honestly very smart young fellow, for instance, asked me to look over a paper for him.  The very first sentence stopped me in my tracks.  I said, "Oh dear, this first line here, which ought to be your topic sentence, isn't even an actual sentence and is, instead, more of a phrase. "  His response was, "Of course it's a sentence...see? There is a period at the end."  And in his mind, that was the definition of a sentence.  When I explained that a sentence requires both a noun and a verb, (or subject and predicate)  he looked at me blankly.  Another wow.  He could tell me a million or so things about his subject and he knew his topic inside and out.  He just had no idea how to write it down in a way that everyone who read it also understood his topic.  Wow again.

So I suppose it started a long time ago and it's only continued it's long downhill slide until here we sit, punctuation-less, attempting to desperately communicate.

I'm not a good texter anyway.  I have no idea how other people fly though texting. It takes me forever, I hit the wrong dang buttons, have to go back and correct my spelling and still, thanks largely to an over-eager and often incorrect, auto correct, have to then send a follow up apologetic text to explain what I actually meant.

I do not use acronyms often and the only sorts of emoji's I utilize are smiley faces, sad faces, confused faces...anything face related.  I know that some people send texts that are soley comprised of emojis.  I do not even pretend to understand that.  Although if you are punctuation averse, I suppose it would be a draw.  I am guessing that a hieroglyphic text does not require punctuation.   Ancient Egyptians did not use punctuation in their written words.  But of course their civilization is now lost  to time.  Just sayin'  There is probably no connection there.

Anyway, I'm trying, really trying to understand this fear of punctuation.  By the way, I checked and there is currently no actual term for a punctuation phobia.  At least not yet.  Perhaps soon as it becomes more common.

I understand fear of bears, or flying, or even public speaking.  I can wrap my brain around fears of needles, fears of clowns and even the fear of fears.  But I'm not there yet with the fear of punctuation. I'm working on it.

Meanwhile, please note my liberal use of all sorts of punctuation in this post.  The way I see it, communication is difficult enough. Anything I can do to make myself clearer, my message more easily understood, I will do. Up to and including a period at the end of the sentence.  If that comes across as hostile, then obviously I am not communicating very well at all.  My apologies.