Nature

Thank you all for your wonderful, caring, and kind comments on my last post.  Though it saddened me to know that so many of you have been through accidents with similar injuries, your thoughts and suggestions as I navigate a new way of doing things were greatly appreciated!

In other news, we are part of the furlough affecting so many government workers right now.  I won't get all political, because who knows what I might say, so instead I will simply say that my heart goes out to people living paycheck to paycheck who will be so greatly affected by the nonsense in Washington.  How selfish for those in power, those with money, to be so flippant about people's lives and the well being of those they claim to represent.  Ok, rant done! 

Instead of lamenting the time off without pay, we have decided to spend it together catching up on things around the house and just enjoying one another's company.

I have also ventured out over the past week and taken a few shots of wildlife in the area, like the gorgeous Egret above who seems to enjoy hanging out on some dead branches of our maple tree.  This tree overhangs the water and is actually not far from our dock, so it's an ideal spot to hang out in between tides, ie. meals.  I was amazed that it let me sit on the dock in a chair and snap away, only looking up when nearby herons would squawk.

This morning there was lots of fog hanging over the fields, so I took advantage of the misty conditions and took some shots of a deer family nibbling on the freshly mown grass.  We have several sets of twin fawns right now, some of which are still fairly young, so I hope they will grow quickly before wintertime sets in and the temps drop.

Nature truly can be a soothing reminder that even under the harshest conditions life goes on.  I hope each of you can find some time to spend in nature this week!

Yesterday, before I got going for the day I noticed a few visitors down by the water...a lovely Great Egret aka Great White Egret aka Great White Heron.  Apparently this species of egret needs a few aliases, hmm makes you wonder why?! ;)

These lovely birds are so graceful and elegant, and after reading a little about them today I realized that I had accidentally captured something exciting...see that green around his/her eyes?   That is referred to as the Lores...or feathers between the eye and bill, and it is normally yellow in color on the Great Egret, except when it's mating season, then it turns the lovely shade of green you see above!

There were actually 3 Great Egrets just off of our pier yesterday, but I only got close enough to one of them to snap a few pictures.  I kept my distance, but eventually it took off with one of the other egrets and down the creek it went.

I just love where I live and all that it has to offer, I consider myself more than a little lucky and oh so fortunate!

To be able to look out my back door and see such beauty, and learn something new...like what color a Great Egret's Lores are during mating season...wow, how cool is that?!

Of course I never leave well enough alone, and have to play around with my images, but by doing so it makes me discover even more about my subject matter, and I love that too!

I also stumbled across this lovely poem by poet Judith Wright (who it seems was not just a wonderful poet, but a great woman!) while looking up info on Great Egrets.

Once as I travelled through a quiet evening,
I saw a pool, jet-black and mirror-still.
Beyond, the slender paperbarks stood crowding;
each on its own white image looked its fill,
and nothing moved but thirty egrets wading -
thirty egrets in a quiet evening.

Once in a lifetime, lovely past believing,
your lucky eyes may light on such a pool.
As though for many years I had been waiting,
I watched in silence, till my heart was full
of clear dark water, and white trees unmoving,
and, whiter yet, those thirty egrets wading.