Surprising to me, city girl, to have found so much to love outside of the city – 
I go whenever I can, and am taken aback by the enormity of the quiet, the riotous colours and life teaming so softly – 
Sunset to dusk to deepest dark of night to sunrise again, and another day begins… 
Weekly Photo Challenge – Happy Place
Tag: geese
Enveloped in dandelions, enveloped in trees
There’s a path up to a kind of open-air theatre I don’t often take. Somewhere over the months it has transformed into a dandelion sanctuary, a place for the entertaining of masses of dandelions.
Up and around the corner, looking deep into the ravine, everything is lush, every last tree and bush has become green – 
And amongst the branches the drama of living, of survival, of hunting and feeding and resting rages on – 
At the pond, a small mysterious standoff unfolds –
A lover’s quarrel, perhaps…
Weekly Photo Challenge – Enveloped
Unusual POV – bird sanctuary and more
Today was a bird day. Bit by bit I worked my way out into the folds of the bird sanctuary, knee deep in the water, scrambling on rocks increasingly covered in bird poo, assuring me I was in their territory. Many of them flew away at my approach. Others stared coldly. I waited. I figured if I hung out long enough they’d get used to me.
Wednesday was a mammal day. I biked some 36km to Thornbury and back, seeing bunnies and chipmunks darting across the path. On the way back, the sun going down, I passed through a patch of air so rank and funky I knew there was something big in the bushes, likely bear.
Thursday was looking like it was going to be all cute little bugs – caterpillars and locusts and this very charming ladybug –
But when I looked up from the rock where I’d cornered this poor little guy, a snake slithered past into a small tuft of grasses and a frog bounded away, saving himself.
The snake both spooked and thrilled me – I haven’t seen a snake in years, had forgotten their creepy eerie magic, the way they glide effortlessly along the earth.
Riding out, I had to swerve to avoid a toad on the path.
Insects, reptiles, amphibians.
But today was birds.
Swans, geese, ducks, and gulls by the dozens. Their sanctuary so still and peaceful I lost interest in photos and simply contemplated the sky. And when a heron flew overhead, just 2 meters above me, I didn’t even turn on my camera but just stared at his strange pterodactyl body and listened to the faint metallic whoosh of his wings.
Peace.
weekly photo challenge – unusual POV
