February 25th, 2019

  It seems that my photo theme from Friday's safari was flowers.  Spring has apparently arrived here in Venice.  And it was such a terrifically successful photo day.

First of all, we decided to hike very local.  As in probably less than five miles from my house.  It's a lovely preserve, small and kind of hidden in plain sight.  There are a lot of people who live here who have no idea this adorable little place even exists and that's fine with Joy and I.  It just means that we get to hike in peace, which is, afterall, always one of the goals.

We were there for more than two hours and saw not one single other person besides each other!  Perfect!  Nobody scarring off the wildlife or tromping on adorable little flowers springing up unexpectedly on the sides on the trail or sometimes in the middle of the trail.    Nobody walking into our shots, nobody jostling us while we are lining up a shot, nobody stepping on or over us while we are sprawled on the ground trying to capture a picture.  

Most of my photos, this time 'round seemed to be of flowers.  Joy, however, got some amazing pictures of birds and, one of my favourites, dragonflies.  I wish I could show you her photos because the dragon flies look to be winged jewels.  Really!  Stunning shots.  Dragonflies, as it turns out, a almost impossible to capture with a cellphone camera because the little buggers are, well, very little which means I have to be nearly on top of them to get the shot. And they seem to be camera shy.  But Joy's really nice camera equipment, her almost magical skill and her spidey-sense made for magnificence.  

I say "spidey-sense", I dont' know what it trully is, but she seems to have at least a little bit of ESP when it comes to photographing anything live.  She knows not just where it is this minute, but where it's going next.  She anticipates it's next move and believe you me, those babies move. Fast!  I apologize, I feel like I'm teasing you a little bit telling you how gorgeous this pictures are and then not attaching any. I will ask her permission next time and if she says Yes I will put one of those in for you to wow over.  And you will.

I also found the biggest pine cone I've ever seen!  Really, I had to stop and marvel at it before I snapped the shot.  Wisely, I made certain that I put something beside it for comparative perspective.  So here you have it, my size 7 1/2 clodhopper next to the HUGE pinecone:
​

Birds were chattering and singing and chirping as if we weren't there.  Maybe, by now, they know that we mean them no harm.  Sometimes we people start hiking the trails, the birds go silent.  These birds were not only, not quiet, they were also not invisible.  They flew over head, sang to us from nearby branches and sometimes zoomed by us at shoulder level like little feathered rockets.  I'm not sure if they are ignoring us or if they like us. But either way, it's very flattering that we are not considered 'the enemy'.​

There also seemed to be an astonishing number of things in the shape of circles! Well, I suppose they are probably always there, but for some reason, I noticed them every where I looked on Friday.  Circles mean forever don't they?  No beginning and no end. I like that :)  

So I guess those are the highlights of Friday's hike.  Each one is completely different.  Even if it's a place we've hiked dozens of times, every time we head out, we know we will see and capture something different than the time before.  There's only about six weeks left until Joy and Bob leave for Yellowstone so we need to get in all the hiking we possible can .  Prepare for at least a few more photo safari adventures from us before the season ends!