My Get Up and Go Got Up and Went ...

... is an old saying I first heard my Grandma Delphia use and then my mother Ruth and now me. If I have anything I want to get done I have to do it in the morning because by afternoon I'm out of energy. 

Yesterday was such a beautiful day - the kind James Russell Lowell had in mind when he wrote: "And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days."

It was the kind of day that said: "get outside and walk". So for the first time this year we headed out to Green Valley Lake/State Park. 

I wanted an area without too many hills so I parked at the beach and we headed down the trail toward the campgrounds.

As we passed this site I said, "If we were still tent camping this is where I would want to set up the tent.

Such a serene scene.

We walked along the lake near the campgrounds and saw one of the new universally accessible fishing piers. Bud walked over to check it out.

While I tracked this Downey Woodpecker until I could get a photo.

There was a lot of birdsong. I could hear the "teakettle, teakettle, teakettle" mnemonic of the Carolina Wren but by the time I spotted the tiny thing and started to sight in my camera, it flew. 

 

I noticed a lot of splashing in the shallows of this cove and waited until I could get something of a picture.

While Bud waited patiently for me in the massively oversized Iowa State Parks chair.

He was watching the splashing too and said it was most likely a carp.

Our local library and the park are again teaming up to post story boards along the trails. This is just one of the ones along this section. 

It says: "Hey Wait For Meeee!" And in the lower right corner: "In the beginning we ran like maniacs."

I didn't run, but I did try to set off at a good pace. At this point on the way back I was feeling as though "my get up and go" had "got up and went".

There were several young boys riding their bikes from the campgrounds over to the beach and back again and again. I could not help but remember how I felt when I first learned to ride a bike. Oh the freedom! 

And I had to imagine they felt the same way - free to ride their bikes and, though they might not realize it, the freedom to ride by themselves without fear.

Perhaps the biggest surprise and the best by far was seeing my first Indigo Bunting of the year. It was calmly sitting right on the road in front of us. I had plenty of time to stop after checking there was no one coming from either direction. This was the best of several snaps I got before it flew. I would have preferred the one of the bird after it flew up into a tree, but that picture was not as clear as this one. 

It was a short hike, but pleasurable. Home to discover these two fungii had popped up after a nice 80/100's of an inch of rain.

   

Next on the agenda - get those "just a few more" containers of flowers planted.

... and look forward to more of these rare June days. 💛💙