Nature Inspires Beauty - My photography blog 

Back to Reality

Sipping Sangria while rocking back and forth in an old fashioned white rocking chair, listening to the sounds of the water rushing up aganist the stones below the porch.  Hours on end, glazing out into the water, watching the sun glissen and dance on each individual ripple and wave, hearing sea gulls speak to eachother in a language that even though was foreign to me, was welcoming none the less.  These images and sounds are what I escaped to.  Resting my overly stressed body and soul on the bay in Fager's Island in Ocean City.  If there was only a way to stay there, hide from the harshness of reality, the cold truth of bills, errands, chores, children, cleaning, working.....if there was only a way to cross over into that realm of sanity, that peekness of euphoria that both my husband and I experience for four glorious days....a twilight zone of sorts......sending us back to fantasy instead of warping us back into reality.

Robins First Flight!

While visiting my moms and her wild life reserve she has set up in the backyard (she has tons of bird feeders, bird houses, a miniature fish pond that serves as a home to gold fish and an assortment of frogs, and several holes that I think hide bunnies and ground hogs galore.

The other day we were up there and a family of Robins decided that , that was the day their little ones were going to attack the idea of flight.  Now whether this was the parents decision, or this decision was thrust upon them when I walked into the back yard, who knows, but I do know this………..they weren’t quite really for the challenge.

As I watched them flutter up and down in the sky and suddenly onto the ground I prayed quietly that they learn quickly.  For this little wild life reserve is also homes to many stray and homed cats, which would look at these little Robins as stumbling meals on the ground.

Quietly my daughter and I watched them as they bounced throughout the yard, taking small little breaks off and on trying to catch their breath.  We were both amazed at their bravery, strength and overall determination to get it right.  Mommy and Daddy Robins up in the trees, following their little babies, and shrieking and calling out (I believe warning eachother and their little ones of us, potential dangers).  We tried to keep our distance, so they knew it was ok.  Little did they know, we were watching out for the furry dangers we knew lurked in the shadows of the yard.

We finally went inside to take a break ourselves.  When suddenly we heard a loud tweeting from outside, as I paniced I ran to the sliding glass door, hoping that one of the wild furry predators had not located our babies.  Instead, I found myself halted at the door. 

Why?

In front of me, was one of the little Robins, standing straight as can be, staring right into the glass door.  Chirping and tweeting it's little heart out.  As if to say to us "look, I climbed up the steps all by myself!!!).  All I could do was laugh, I started to open the door slightly to get a picture of our brave little feathered buddy, but as soon as I did, he looked at me, and promptly hopped away!  lol

Stop * Pause * Admire (A color scavenger hunt)

During our normal daily walks, my little one and I decided to venture around the neighborhood, nothing fancy, just a stroll around to see what new picture worthy sites we could spot.  My little scout, her attention radar set on high, lead the way. She pointed out several things on our walk, before we even got into the street, in our own yard she noticed our little furry friend.

Even though they all look alike, we have a family of bunnies who have decided that our shed was the perfect place for their home, under our shed I should say.  It's quite entertaining in the evenings, they all come out, and play a game of "tag" as my older daugther would say. They jump, scurry, and literally hop over eachother, better than watching t.v. we think.  After my little scout had her fill of bunny watching, we finally made way to the front yard. This too stopped her in her tracks.  For she had found "pretty colors" right in our front yard.

and she was right, when you stop and take a look, a real look, they are very beautiful ! "SPARKLES", she shreeked, it took me a minute to discover that on these little petals, you see something that looks like little sparkles.  I've passed these flowers 100 times, and never really stopped to take a look.  As we finished admiring the amazing colors in this flower, we moved on.  Pasted the driveway, past the mailbox and onto the next amazing color she could find - it turned into an amazing color scavenger hunt.  It didn't take her long to find her next shocking color, and it was a true mixture, and to her, she nicknamed it very loudly "RAAAAINNNNBOWWW !"....

lol I guess it does look like a rainbow, I love kids perception of things.  They are so simple in their observations and yet what they speak, they speak in volumes.  How many times can we honestly say that we stop, look and admire the things around us?

Harpers Ferry Adventure

Seven years it's been since we've made the hike up to Harpers Ferry Rocks, takes about 2 hours (as long as you don't take breaks, or take a rest spell on the rocks once you reach the top).  Such a beautiful hike.

My husband and I finally arranged the planets and schedules to make it happen.  We worked out the schedules, the babysitters, etc.  A whole day alone with only our energy levels and the hike ahead of us.

Before we even offically started the hike my husband creatively pointed out wonderful and unique pictures that caught his attention, my picture scout!  lol

Throughout the whole hike we remembered seven years ago, the sites, the sounds and scenery we noticed back then.  This time around, everything was the same, except for our energy levels.lol  The last time we hiked, we found an old bullet from the battle that occurred there, with Stone Wall Jackson, pretty amazing when you think about it.  This time around, we didn't exactly find another bullet, but we did find some little friends who seemed to keep up with us the whole hike (even though I'm sure it wasn't the SAME lizard, but it sure seemed like it.

As we walked we noticed some very small "waterfalls" that were etched in a little pathway below us.  My husband bravely indicated to me what a great picture that would make, however, it wasn't on the normal "beaten path, and you would have to strategically climb down to find it...I'll wait up here for you"....was the comment that followed. LOL  I scurried down the steep hill until I came across the unique tree waterfall that hide itself amist the logs, leaves and rocks.

  After I climbed back up the steep hill to find my husband waiting for me, we contiued our journey, capturing wonderful little images along the way.  It amazed me in the depth of the woods, you could still find brillant colors speckled throughout the logs, leaves and trees.

  After reaching the top, FINALLY, we noticed what all the climbing was for, the outlook was amazing, the view spectacular, and now we knew that we had to make this adventure again soon.

April 24, 2008 - Nature Inspires Beauty!

This is true, nature is all around us, waiting for me to take pictures.  As my daugther and I get ready for our walk we head out the door, her with her red wagon and I with my camera, ready, willing and able to capture nature at it's best.

As we walk, I have in my bag jewelry pieces that I wanted to take outside, in the midst of nature, allowing natural light to capture their true colors, their nature beauty.  We walk along Baker Park and my little one sees the pond, it immediately attracts her attention.  She walks towards the water and kneels down beside it.  Looking curiously into the green cloudy water that hides an abundance of little water creatures.  As she carefully looks into the water she notices a small tan little fish, this of course delights her and she lets out several extremely high pitched screams of joy !  It was then, that her wonderful idea came into play.  "mommy the fish looks like your fish"...it took me a minute or two to figure out what she meant, since we did not have any fish as pets.  She meant the fish whistle (a piece of jewelry created by DesignedbyDawn.com) I had in my bag.  I took it out and showed her, just to clarify that I knew what she was talking about.  In fact, I was right..."mommy put it in the water, so it can swim"....obviously I could not do this, but I could lay it next to the water...what a neat idea for a picture I thought to myself.  Taking out my camera, and placing the fish whistle in it's place, I started snapping.

The picture was amazing, all thanks to my littlest nature scout.  As we continue our little walk, I browse my surroundings, seeing what nature has to offer that would provide a unique background for my greeting cards, note cards, postcards and even business cards.  "Ducks!"....I follow my daughter's fingers and there before us were ducks, lots of ducks, all waiting for us it seemed.  She giggled, screamed, shrieked, and just smiled ear to ear at the thought of ducks waiting for her to approach them.  "There walking like us"....and then again, another idea, what a great picture for a greeting card, notecard or even post card.

Well, I was right when I stated that nature inspires beauty, but what I should add is that children are the ones that find it !