Saturday Ramblings

(Pleasantries for a change!) 

I decided I wanted to get out a bit today and take pictures but I wanted it to be someplace relatively close. I remembered news stories about an old wooden bridge that they were going to do away with and I decided I wanted to head out in that direction. Who knew there was a whole new world just thirty minutes away from my house? (I knew, I just sometimes fail to appreciate it, and to take advantage of it.)

My twenty year old daughter rode along with me. We were deep in the swamp. Apparently they had just put down a layer of fresh rock on the road and it felt "mushy" so she was crawling along at five miles an hour (or less) gripping the steering wheel. I was worried that if she did not pick up speed we were going to bog down! We kept rounding curves and seeing more of the same stuff. We didn't really know where the road was leading to but our curiosity kept us going.

When we saw this guy, I reminded my daughter that it was curiosity that killed the cat! My daughter snapped the photo from the safety of the car. I really wanted to get out and get a closer shot. I planned on doing that when we came back by. But when we passed him on the way out, something spooked him and he high-tailed it into the bushes. I did not realize these little guys could move so fast!

I only got two photos of the bridge. They recently redid it and are trying to get it listed as a historical monument or something. I'd like to go back another time (if I can remember how to get to it!) and get some better pictures.

This is a photo of a mimosa blossom (with a texture layer applied). I braved it and got out of the car at this point to take a few photos. It is amazing to me how the land changed on this one road we were on. At one point we were driving through swamp and then we were driving on firmer roads with rice fields on the side of them. We were sort of afraid we had somehow wandered onto private property. Fortunately no one shot at us!

And then there is this one. Again I was playing around with layers. I like this quote a lot but I am not so sure I like the "thang" a lot.

My photos do not do justice to how pretty (and how isolated) this area is. Nor can they convey the sounds of the birds singing or the smell of the fresh creosote on the bridge or the smell of the mimosa blossoms. Or was that the smell of the tree with the white flowers on it? I am not at all sure. What I know for sure is that something smelled really good when I stepped out of the car to take pictures.

Another frustration is my failure to adequately capture cypress knees! They were all over the place and I tried to get good photos but no matter how I try, the photo does not show whatever it is I see when I look at these things! Maybe it is because I zoom in too close. When there are so many, it looks like a convention of gnomes or something! I get this crazy urge to sit a while with them and see if they have anything to tell me (or maybe to sit and tell them something)!