Sunday, January 15, 2012

A Walk in the Park


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It will come as no surprise to you guys that I have a bunch of very nice things to say about Donnie again today.  He's been the absolute best this week as I dealt with losing the rest of my hair.  It wasn't easy, but no sense dwelling on it anymore than I already have.  He went with me to get a wig yesterday and a few comfy hats, and I'm good to go until my own hair starts to come back hopefully sometime this summer.

Then on the way home he asked me where I wanted to go to take pictures. Can it get any better than that?  I suggested a wildlife viewing spot next to a substation in Cary where I've been seeing folks park and walk at for years but have never made time to stop and check it out.  Turns out it's a  real park with real trails and a very nice place to walk on a moderate winter's day.  It's called Swift Creek Bluffs Preserve by the Triangle Land Conservancy.  If you check out the map at the link, you can see the the trail that we walked.  We did everything but the stairs:-)

I have posted a male juvenile yellow-bellied sapsucker woodpecker picture as my daily.  We spotted him early in our walk, and Donnie helped me track him between a several trees.  I did my best to capture him on the sunny side of the tree and not up too high.  He would move trees, land in the shade, and quickly spiral up the trees...repeat.  30 minutes later on our way back past the same spot on the trail, we saw him again and I got a second chance to take some pics.  It was exciting.  If I'm lucky I see one or two of these guys a year.  I went back and see that I posted another one as a December 2009 Daily.

I have a gallery of textures and backgrounds which I've been adding to for a while now.  However, apparently, in 2011 I didn't add any new images:-(  I plan to start back in 2012, and I added a few from yesterday:  Thanks to Phil Nix for motivating me to get back to this.


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A beautiful creekside HDR:


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Speared!  I couldn't help but think of pitchingwedge33.


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I'll definitely be stopping at this 'park' again!  The boys would love to get their feet wet in the creek in warmer, or not, weather!

A wonderful conclusion to our day was dinner with our friends Debbie and Joe and their friend Martha.  Donnie snapped this picture with his iPod Touch:


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2 comments:

The Vollmers said...

Only because I know you got a wig -- and that you have posted pics of the hair falling out. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known. That's a lovely wig.

Dave and I were wondering if you were going to get one, or simply enjoy some pretty hats. If I were more talented I'd make you one....

The Vollmers said...

I'd make you a hat, not a wig :-)