Late Summer Battlefields

Jim and I love heading to National Parks.  So much, in fact, that for my birthday this year Jim got me a National Parks Passport where I can stamp my passport each park or forest or battlefield I go to (especially with him!).  I love my little passport; it seems like such a juvenile thing, and actually even has places for specific park 'collectable' stickers, but it makes me smile every.single.time I ink up a stamp and thuwmp it into the book.  Visiting as many parks as possible is definitely on the to-do list.

However, we still do like going to the same parks more than once.  And while the local national park is MY favorite place, the battlefields are Jim's.  We headed there two weekends ago and it was a beautiful day despite the overcast skies.


Starting our walk and enjoying the view.  Despite what the picture shows, there were a lot of people at the battlefields that day.  It was a good day to be outside!

And of course, if there are flowers, I WILL find them, and I will most likely try to take a picture of them.  And if they are YELLOW, then that's the icing on the cake.

I am becoming more daring with the fancy new camera - I can get closer to the bumble bees with less fear of them and get pretty darned close.  Still trying to figure out how to get a really crisp shot, but that will come with practice!

After crawling through the woods to take pictures of the multi-cap orange fungus (see the previous post about that one), we were doing a tick check (and removal, yuck) and I happened to look up and Mrs. Doe was watching our efforts.  This is when I really wish I could learn the camera functions much more quickly so I can justify getting a fancier lens to be able to zoom closer in.  Patience is not a strong virtue of mine.

I was really taken with the yellow bits hanging from this grass frond.  Figure they must be some sort of seed.  However, this was late in the walk and I was starting to tire, so I didn't pay too close of attention to the grass itself.

When we were back near the beginning of our walk, the skies had become a little bit molten.  In the distance we could see one of the historical houses on the property.

I am normally the one who's looking down to find things, but this time it was Jim who saw the caterpillar.  If you haven't really taken a chance to get up close and personal with one, I find they are generally quite colorful with some amazing patterns on their bodies.  This guy, while less vibrant than others I've seen, still had a wonderful patterning on him.

When you look out into the distance, what do you see?  Do you see a landscape with some grasses and trees and an overcast sky?  Or do you see the different colors of green in the trees and the different shapes of the trees?  Some are squat and rounded, others more tall and full at the top.  Do you see the swirling colors in the grasses?  The dark red-browns and the yellow-greens?  The slight hummocky topography of the land also shows up pretty good here.  I oftentimes forget to just take a moment and see, really see, what's so obvious in front of me.

Love Nature! :)