A Walk In The Woods Is Never Boring

A morning walk around the same old neighborhood gets boring. So when the forecast was for beautiful weather, I told HD I thought it would be a good day to get back out to Green Valley. It has been more than a month since our last walk there.

I have been wanting to do the grass trail on the west side of the lake starting at the southwest end, so that is where we headed this morning.

That is also the reason the title of this post was going to be: "Almost Heaven, West Virgin Trail", but I decided that was too cutesy even for me. Ha!

I also thought the little bridge we found last year when we started from the north end would be only a half mile or so away. But after 7/10's of a mile I decided that was enough for me as it was 7/10's of a mile back to the car, too. I believe if I keep doing my mile or so a day, I'll be ready to go back and finish the whole distance yet this year - maybe in the fall when the leaves are turning colors - or maybe sooner. We'll see.

This is where we started and we had the trail all to ourselves out and back. Lots of bird song, but no bird photos. 😞

But I did get a picture of a butterfly.

I believe this is a Question Mark butterfly. (Even though that is a statement, I feel as though I should end that sentence with a question mark.)

A mass of meadow daisies in the sun.

There had been a recent murder on the trail.

The spotlight shone on this lone feather, but there was another about the same size nearby.

And a step or two further - clumps of smaller feathers. 

The star of this scene was meant to be the white morning glory.

But I think the entire composition is appealing.

What caught my eye here was the chartreuse of the sumac blooms.

But instead of using one of the close up photos I took, this one wins out - again because of the overall composition.

Woods always smell so good to me anytime, but this morning's walk was perfumed all along the way by the creamy white clusters of Elderberries.

Is there a perfume or cologne that has elderberry blossoms in its distillation? I'd buy it.

Yellow Prairie Grass dancing in the lakeside breeze.

At the start of our walk, I could hear the serene splashing of water.

But I was disappointed when I saw where it was coming from. I was envisioning a pretty little stream not some water running through a culvert.

But I took a closer look on the way back and decided there was more to the scene. Like the shimmer of the water flowing through the tube, the sparkling where it hit below and the milky refraction of the patches of sunlight on the pool.

I realized it had a certain allure all its own.

The raspberries aren't ripe yet, but when they are, the birds will have a feast.

These were at the beginning of the trail but I didn't take a picture until we got back.

This smiling monkey face was in the parking lot. I didn't notice it until we got back to the car. (And I didn't touch it to see if it was an eraser or what?)

I thought it was a good representation of how I felt after a 1.4 mile walk in the woods. 

Happy. Very happy. 

Postscript: From Bud's walk at McKinley Park earlier this morning, he brought me this owl feather he found.

I put the two gray feathers I picked up from 'murder on the trail' and added them for a photo.

I can't help but think it may have been an owl that killed the bird of the gray feathers.

A full circle representation of the day?