Some Photographs From Recent Walks

Winter over, spring over half over I find myself needing to be out and about much more, the apartment just to closed in for the energy screaming for release...so, camera in hand I go for walks, some of them short, others longer, and some days even see me getting in my car in need of a grander adventure than a walk in our small hamlet.  Below are a few of my recent pictures.

The Bridge

There is a small red bridge out behind the old abandoned school here in our hamlet...it does not really go anywhere, the proverbial bridge to nowhere, crossing a creek that one could cross barefoot on any summers night. That said, it is a quaint bridge nestled under some trees, the creek and the critters surrounding it serenading visitors who might happen to stop by on a starlit night.   It's a bridge I tend to frequent, climbing the five steps to a have a seat and think as I stare skyward, thinking to myself its the perfect place for a picnic, but would not be so if the bridge did not adorn the space, it's beauty and simplicity completing Mother Nature's masterpiece.

Most of the time the bridge finds itself alone, few bothering the time to leave the sidewalk and meander back to where it sits.  On the nights I sit and ponder I often wonder which of us is keeping the other company.  Standing up I make my way to the bridge's center, looking down at water as it rushes by, always in a hurry to get to wherever it is going, rocks with moss, much like the bridge staying in place, offering seats to anyone who might happen to be walking by.  

I make my way to the other side, sit on the opposite steps looking down as I take off my shoes, the urge to dip my feet in the water too great a temptation to ignore.  I place first one, then the other shoe on the bottom step and let my feet touch the sand as I find my way to the water's edge, feel the coolness like a blanket wrapping itself around my ankles as I bend down to roll up my pant legs so that I can wade out and sit on one of the rocks covered in moss, so that I can sit and admire the bridge from another angle, smiling as the stars wink at me from the sky above.

The Rain

It was a rainy night
More like a deluge
Yet still a rainy night
Like other rainy nights
Or so it seemed

I in my apartment
Lights turned low
Watching it rain
Playing on my computer
Wanting for some coffee

Peering out my window
Saw a chicken
Carrying an umbrella
Unopened, feathers soaked
Odd I thought

I grabbed my slicker
Ran down my hall
Out the door
Into the rain
Slicker under my arm

I followed the chicken
A neighbor soon following me
Both of us curious
Wondering what was about
With the chicken in the rain

Soon our three
Grew to seven then ten
A parade in the rain
All of us following
A chicken with an umbrella

We marched out of the hamlet
Down the road around the bend
Our ten now twenty or so
All of us soaking wet
Murmuring back and forth

Where is he going
Why is his umbrella not open
Can you believe this rain
Questions back and forth
No answers to be had

The chicken walked for hours
Some gave up
Went back home
But a few of us brave souls
Continued following

Suddenly the chicken
Wet to the wishbone
Stopped
Opened his umbrella
Turned around

Good evening all
I hope you are having fun
I just love walking in the rain
Apparently so do you
Enjoy your walk
I'm home now..Goodnight

With that he turned off the road
Heading toward a barn
Chagrined we turned
Put on our rain gear
Started the long walk home

Some Pictures From Afternoon Walk

Find myself taking a lot more pictures these days. Went out today to see if I could get another shot of the Baltimore Orioles that I snapped last week...got a few I liked, and thought I would share that and a few other pictures that I snapped today on my afternoon walk.  Most of these still need cropped and played with, but was a good day to be out in the woods.

Not sure why, but have always loved birch trees, tend to always take a picture or two of them when they come into sight.  There are several clumps along the path I walked today, there along the edge of what some call a lake, but I see it more as a medium sized pond myself.  It's a great area to do a little bit of bird watching, though I seem to be better spotting them with my naked eye than capturing them through my lens.  Saw a beautiful male hummingbird (Ruby Throat-ed) in this birch, but alas he was far quicker than I, and was unable to get a picture, though would have loved too.

 

I enjoy this picture of cattails, the layers of leaves, the contrasting colors of water, last years long dead leaves, and the lush green as again the plant lifts itself up out of the wetlands, a cattail following sometime in late June or early July.  I know, pretty standard fare, the same kinds of picture a lot of us who enjoy being out in nature take, but this, much like the birch above is a great way to get started with my day, let the camera once again settle into my hand as I try to find my eye.

This next shot I really like...its simple singular statement speaks to me, the one stalk all alone, its curled top so graceful that you cannot help but notice it, which I obvious did.  Like the way the tree line blurred out of focus, the almost surreal feel of the water.  I would frame and mount this one, perhaps put it in my bathroom, or somewhere in the hall on a small wall.  Needs to be cropped though.

The red winged blackbird shot just reminds me of how much I really need a far more powerful lens than the one I have.  Wish I could find a serious lens for my Canon used, or perhaps at an auction where it would perhaps be in my price range...the detail is almost, but not quite there, and that at times frustrates me.  OK, I admit it...it frustrates me MOST OF THE TIME.

I got some shots I really like today of this bird...this is just one of them.  There is another one I am fond of as well, and will see if I can find it and share it as well.  I like the one flying as I RARELY get one like that...I know, suffering from a very bad case of LENS ENVY, but one of these days, shall have a chance to go out shooting with a far more powerful lens that is more appropriate for taking bird photographs, a lens that would give me the kinds of shots I see when looking through my binoculars.

Just a couple more for the day...enjoy!  Click on any picture to view the entire set in slide show mode.