July 30th, 2021

Yesterday was hiking day so today, once more, I'm posting the Photo Safari Report!  Are you ready?  Then, let's go!

I'm calling this one the Rainy Day Hike. Because it was. Yeah, I know,  we normally hike on Wednesdays but since Wednesday was a very rainy day, we postponed the hike to Thursday.  When I woke up on Thursday morning it wasn't to an alarm clock but to a thunder boomer.  Dang!  I jumped out of bed and ran to the kitchen window to look out and saw steady rain.  This was NOT in the forecast.  Ratz.  Joy and I rapidly exchanged texts and we were (fairly) certain that the rainstorm would be done by the time she arrived. It was not.

As Joy pulled into the driveway, I dashed  out through the rain with all my gear and jumped in the car.  We discussed the situation and the decision was made to drive back to Sarasota (where Joy started her day - poor thing drove back and forth multiple times that day) to hike Celery fields because the rain had already stopped up that way.  Ok.  Off we went.

Celery Fields is so named because at one time the area was precisely that.  Fields of Celery.  Now it is a park and a preserve.  There are marshes, ponds, an 85 foot hill which is very likely the highest point in Sarasota, gardens, trees and therefore, also wildlife.  We passed on the hill but set out to view the gardens straight away.

As it so happens, Big Cat Habitat is right next door to the gardens so as we snapped and viewed and ooooh'd and aaaah'd we heard lions roaring for their breakfast!  A little unnerving.

Still, the gardens were beautiful, as gardens are.  Everything was wet of course, but we knew it was going to be. The flowers and butterflies didn't care a bit.  And bcause it was a fragrant garden, there were butterflies everywhere we looked!  Did you know that a group of butterflies is called a Kaleidoscope? 

Having finally exhausted all photo ops in that area, we moved on to the base of the hill.  Joy had heard stories of barn owls living in a nearby falling down barn (where else would barn owls be?).  We found the barn but saw no owls. They were probably there though because they are masters of camouflage so I'm not at all surprised that we didn't see them. So instead we took a few other pictures:

Next we moved onto the marshy/pondy area across the street which is the bulk of the preserve.   There are also canals, boardwalks out to pavilions and a path that goes alllllllll the way around it.  So of course, that's where we went!  

We saw dragonflies everywhere, swarms of them sometimes!  Their little wings glittered gold in the sunlight.  

The boardwalks that go out over the ponds and marshes usually offer up a few good photos too:

As did the canals that we walked along.  One of my favourite moments was seeing the little duck family. So Cute!

There was something to see in every direction as we walked and my eyes are trying to go everywhere at once! It was pretty awesome.

We just never know what is going to happen on Photo Safari Day!  And honestly, that's one of the best parts about it. Each one is an adventure!  Thanks for coming along ;)