September 18th, 2020

This is what my shoes look like after a hike.  You cannot really tell how incredibly wet they are, or how filled with sand, nor how disgustingly filthy my socks are.  The socks will require bleach to achieve anything near their pristine state.  There are seeds and sand burrs stuck to the laces oh and I did mention that they were soaking wet, right?  These are all clear indicators of an EXCELLENT photo safari.  If I don't come home with filthy shoes I didn't really go hiking with Joy. And yesterday I came home with these shoes! We had  a great hike.

As per usual, we headed out in the wee hours.  We went north this time to a little unnamed (at least to us) set of trails behind a Presbyterian Church in Osprey.   The trails had not been tended in awhile so the grasses were high and we were soaked to above the knee.  We watched as the sun slowly rose higher and higher and gilded the outlines of the trees and the leaves.

Joy and I have seen eagles there in the past and the one huge eagle nest remained but  we saw none of the birds.  And in fact, there were enormous areas that seem to have been de-forested.  Not sure if it was a fire,  or chemical deforestation or giant bulldozers or some combination. But while there were still pretty things to see, overall, it was a bit of a disappointment :(  

Still there are always pretty things to see. Always and Everywhere.  Here are some of the pretty things we saw yesterday;

Although we did not rush, it wasn't a long hike and when we arrived back at the car we felt very much unfinished.  So we set out once more and  since we started out going north, we continued in the same direction next and ended up at Celery Fields in Sarasota.   Saw a lot more pretty things there.  Dragonflies for one thing. Oh my gosh they were everywhere and in every colour imaginable.  It felt, at times, as if we were walking through a mist of dragonflies!  I managed to capture a few butterflies and I think  a wasp too.  Here is a small sampling

The one thing you will find the most of at Celery Fields is birds.  Lots and lots of birds. Birds of all sizes and colours and personalities.  My favourites were the ducks, but really, I like them all.  I'm not a "birder" and in fact, I don't know the names of most of these birds.   Joy identifies them for me every time but I rarely remember.  She knows not only the names of the birds, but very cool information about them like what they eat and where they nest.  I am in awe of her knowledge even though whatever she tells me doesn't stick in my brain.  But I still like to see them .  This is how I "know" the names of birds.  "Oh let's call the white one, Francis.  He looks like a Francis.  And the blue one?  Oh that's  Georgie."  Like that.   Yup, that's more my style.

And naturally there were beautiful flowers and other pretty things to see.  These places always look so much prettier in person.  No matter how hard I try to capture the reality of the beauty, my camera eye never quite gets it.   All I can do is try, and Try I do!  I always think of Captain Kangaroo who often said, "The best I can do, is the best I can do, and I'm doing the best that I can". I loved the Captain.

​Here's some of the other pretty things:

So there you have it. Another successful photo safari adventure as evidenced by filthy, wet shoes and socks.  Oh and some fairly decent photos.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend however you spend it!  Ya'll come back now, hear?