I won’t complain about the rain today. We need it, and we have had several delightfully sunny, breezy, here-comes-Autumn type of days. Thursday was one such day. Tom and I decided to take advantage of the break in weather with a break of our own. Off we went to the Little Red School House woods. We were looking for a quick walk-about and ended up spending several hours strolling several miles, stopping to take pictures, to marvel at nature, and to just enjoy the beauty that surrounded us.
Although the parking lot was full, the woods were not. There were long stretches of time and trees and I felt very much at one with nature; the cawing of crows, the swallowtail flitting about, the rustle of squirrels and others we couldn’t see but heard, and the stillness and solitude that held us close.
Would you mind if I shared a bit of our walk with you?

Each bend in the wood brought new delights.
The prairie was teeming with bees and butterflies and prairie sunflowers reaching for the sun and over ten feet tall.

The path meandered at a slow, steady pace.
So did we.

A grandma and her darling little granddaughter crossed our path a few times and showed us where a snake was resting. He wasn’t sleeping, as you can see if you click on the picture, and he didn’t seem to mind the paparazzi, so, I caught him in his coiled repose.

Some bright red flowers caught my eye. There were resting in amongst the green.
Indian paintbrush?

Nearby, a moth was sunning.

This old log reminded me of my trip to the dentist the day before.
Open wide!

Earlier, in the prairie, we saw a large bird coming in for landing at the slough, which we could not yet see but knew it was there.
There he was once we arrived at the slough.
He was hard to find at first as he gazed about in among the lily pads.

Where to next? or, perhaps looking for lunch.

Nature’s knots . . .

. . . and dreams of brighter days ahead.

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