“The earth laughs in the flowers.” Ralph Waldo Emerson I did a double take when I first read this quote. But when I thought about our neighbor’s overgrown Forsythia bushes bursting up high above the fence line it made perfect sense. I can now imagine the earth bursting with laughter through the flowers as it awakens from the deep freeze of winter. How about you? Are you bursting with laughter as the flowers begin to come to life? I know I am!
“The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.” ~Wyland
Can’t you just feel all this quote has to say? Is your heart stirred, your imagination inspired and your soul filled with joy when you’re near the ocean? I know mine is!
Winter forms our character and brings out our best.” ~Tim Allen
I don’t know about you, but it’s about this time of year when I begin to long for warmer, sunnier days of winter. But, like life as I push through the damp, cold days I come out stronger as the seasons begin to change.
How about you? Do you find the “winter days” help build your character?
“Be an encourager. The world has plenty of critics.” ~DaveWillis,org
This week I challenge you to be the encourager and not the critic, including with yourself😉! Just one positive word of encouragement can go a long, long way.
Fall is absolutely my favorite time of year. There is something so wonderful and special about the cooler weather and changing colors of the leaves. In the Fall, Mother Nature has a way of nudging us to slow down and pause.
And so, with Mother Nature nudging me to pause last week, I couldn’t help but combine a little bit of exercise with a photography outing. Even though we live in the city we are surrounded by several county and federal parks with the Chattahoochee River meandering through and alongside most of them.
For my exercise/photography outing I was hoping to capture some of the wild birds camping out on the river. But, it was high that day and the rocks where they normally rest were completely submerged. So I had to settle for some landscape opportunities instead.
This particular park is loaded with several little creeks which the deer and other wildlife feed from. This stream is about a mile into the park.
A small creek just off the main path.
I was just making the final turn of the path and had to go back because the path was flooded. It wasn’t deep and I’ve used the stepping stones before (with Michael’s help, of course), but since I had my camera with me I didn’t want to risk being thrown off balance.
I’m actually glad I had to turn around, because I was able to get this great shot of the inside path loop. Don’t you just love how the trees frame the path?
It may not have been a good “bird siting” day, but I did manage to get a little bit of wildlife into my photos. This little, fuzzy caterpillar was just hanging out on the ragweed (at least I think it’s ragweed).
As I mentioned earlier, there are several creeks running through this particular park.
As for the exercise portion of my outing, the path is a 3.52 miles around and my Fitbit tracked me with 4.5 miles. I’ll take it!
Donna Robinson Photography 