October 08th, 2021

On Wednesday, I decided to take myself on a little morning walk around the island.  It was such a pretty day. Exceptionally nice after a long summer of "feels like" 105 type days with high humidity, a lovely much drier mid-70's felt amazing.  

I noticed the gorgeous-ness of the day when I went out to bring in the newspaper and water my potted garden. It seemed not just a shame but downright criminal to be inside doing chores when I could be outside appreciating the beautiful day.  So I made an executive decision.  The housework could wait.  It's not like the dirt is going anywhere (sad to say).  I grabbed my camera, put on some sunscreen and a hat and set off.

Since I didn't have an actual plan or destination in mind, all twists and turns were strictly arbitrary, as were my photographic decisions.  I just went where my feet took me and snapped whatever called out to be captured.  Very Zen of me, yes?

One of the first things I came across was a sleeping bunny.  Such a surprise.  I crept by quietly then stopped and turned to take the shot.  The air was cool and the grass still dewy at that point and I was walking down a road that, at that time of day anyway, is not especially well travelled, so it was quiet.  As quiet as the great outdoors gets anyway.  Which isn't all that quiet.  There were birds making quite a racket nearby  and the tinkly sound of somebody's windchimes to say nothing of the rusting leaves in the breeze, but the bunny slept on. I've taken plenty of bunny photos but this was my first sleeping bunny. I tiptoed on by.

As it turned out, I walked to the east side of the island first, that is toward the intercoastal waterway which also means I walked under the north bridge, climbed the stairs to the Venice Avenue bridge and eventually walked toward town.  I took photos as I walked: Birds, greenery, buildings that appealed and of course the bridges.  I found terrific shadows on the way and some great angles. I find bridges to be truly beautiful in a very industrial sort of way.

Once back in town, I opted to stroll down residential streets. I wanted to see flowers. And see them I did!  Mercy!  Generally I still associate autumn with colourful leaves and naked tree branches and for flowers, perhaps crysanthemums.  But here there were still a ton of beautiful posies to admire:

Oh and birds!  Just the average around town kind of birds, nothing hugely exotic. At least not for here. There were some mighty cute squirrels.  And lizards. Lots of lizards though I only bothered to take a photo of one.  He was posting, I kind of had to:

I always find myself taking pictures of little details too.  A fancy window treatment or a pretty fountain, interesting yard art or a very pretty door.  I had to hold myself back to be honest because at one point I realized that there were not two doors within my immediate eyesight that were the same colour!  I love that!  Never realized it before. The door variety is amazing! Not just the colour, the variety. Hmmmm.  That may be it's own walk and photo shoot another time.  But I digress.  A few pretty details:

Of course I ended up at the beach.  We all knew that I would, right?

The water was so blue, the breeze felt good because of course the temperature didn't stay in the mid-70's though it did top out in the 80's and that's still an improvement. There weren't very many people so it was especially nice to just walk along the waterline for a bit and  enjoy:

It was a good long walk, almost six miles worth of one foot in front of the other, going where ever the wind blew me. It did me a world of good.

And I saw a sign that struck me as darned good life advice:

Stay on the path.  Make that, "Stay on Your Path". We each have a different one.  Sometime the trickiest part is finding your path. But once you find it, yeah, stay the course.