I Remember

Remember - Summer’s over and Fall has arrived. Here is a last flashback to warmer days. Memories of the John James Audubon historic house west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are still fresh to me. Daughter, Diane, and I had a half day while her husband, John, was at a conference in the city. North of the house where Audubon had done much of his famous paintings of birds was a bubbling brook. Someone had placed stepping stones across the thirty foot wide stream. Convenient, for now after you tiptoed across you were among flowering shrubs and the multitude of songbirds. I recognized the melodious songs of the Baltimore orioles. Warblers galore but then I knew only a few of their calls. What a glorious day to enjoy this great natural setting. Thank goodness for my camcorder for we have a lasting record. Take a little time to enjoy the past in nature. Recall those gems of the outdoors. Appreciate the work of the Creator, then search out new nature gems.
Ed Teale, late American naturalist, was a well recognized writer and photographer. He has inspired me many times. I share this excerpt from his log for it symbolizes his ability to look closely in nature. “Close to my feet, half hidden in the grass of the brookside, I discover a green frog. Anchored a few feet away to a twig projecting out from between stones of the bridge is the nymphal skin of a dragonfly. Lodged on rocks around which water foams are bright yellow fragments of the wings of a
Tiger swallowtail. It, no doubt, has been caught by some bird, perhaps a kingbird, which stripped off the inedible wings and let them flutter down before its meal began. I look up from these colourful remnants of the luckless insect just in time to see another Tiger swallowtail, buoyant and graceful, come sweeping over the bridge to past above my head and flutter upstream along the brook.”
Teale, observant in nature? You bet. I can picture that scene above in my mind’s eye. Take some time to quietly observe some nature setting this spring. I need to do better observing. To do so I bought another foldable tripod seat. I broke the last one but after shedding some pounds I hope this one holds me up. Take ten-fifteen minutes at one natural setting and use all your senses to simply observe.