even the birds were asleep or otherwise being quiet about their activities . Saw a three woodpeckers. A few shovel bills, mallards, gulls, pelicans were sited here and there. Cormorants looked glued to their tree branch. A great white egret that flew in to fish and then disappeared, and, of course, the mud hens were at the ready for hand outs that were far and few between this afternoon. Finally figured it out---it's spring break beginning today.
The one thing that really made a difference today was the light. The suns angle has moved up just enough that it is casting that perfect light on the down wind side. In fact, this is the kind of light that I love to shoot nature images. The harsh shadows are gone. Well, at least until the sun gets back to the same location on its way back south.
It was also a moment of discovery to find thing that seem so out of place. Someone had pitched a make-shift tent in a thicket near the Filtration Building. The other one was much less threatening and even caused me to think about my dad's military service when the Americans were liberating France at the end of World War II. I even remembered some old pictures taken in Paris with my Dad and his buddy in uniform at the Eiffel Tower and another on the Champ outside a pastry shop. So, the joy of discovery can be delicious at times and tug on heart strings that haven't been pulled in a while. I'd love to find those pictures for my younger brother of our Dad. My brother mentioned to me just a few weeks ago that he would love to see those pictures. It's been years since I last saw them.
We have three days of rain and clouds coming in tonight with the possibility of golf ball size hail sometime around 2 AM tonight. The front will move on out quickly but then the cooler temps will roll back in. Everyone seems to think that the last freeze we had a couple of days ago is it for the winter. Statistically, March 12 is the average day of our last freeze. It was in the 80s today.
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| I use my old friend, Mr. Sycamore to test my white balance from time to time. |
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| A moment that I never expected to observe all alone at the lake with memories of my Dad. |
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| A woodpecker later was pulling leaves off the tree and dropping them to the ground. I was sitting under the tree at a picnic table. |
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