Here's the nature walk of the week here in Florida. These pictures are from Ann Olesky Park on Lake Trafford, in the Northeast corner of Collier County. We had some rain last week, but on this day, the sky was blue and it was shirt-sleeve weather.
Lake Trafford
Lake Trafford is about a 45 minute drive from home and we had to drive about half that distance in order to return a couple of packages. When we got to the UPS facility, we found that the Internet in that part of Fort Myers was down and we were unable to make our returns that day. So we did some accidental birding — something that's not at all hard to do around here. Little Blue Herons and Ibis are both fairly ordinary birds here, but these are the first ones of the season. Actually of two seasons, since we weren't here last year and neither of these guys hang out in the Pacific Northwest.
Like its title, this post is a mashup of two of our favorite scenic states. The following pictures are from last month's visit to Colorado.
Aspen trees make wonderful photo ops, whether a picture is a golden stand in the distance or a close-up showing the thin white outer bark, so different from other deciduous trees. And they are a fascinating tree. "One aspen tree is actually only a small part of a larger organism. A stand or group of aspen trees is considered a singular organism with the main life force underground in the extensive root system." This Source article is well worth reading : National Forest Service Tree Profile.
Debbie's Meadow and Chimney Rock
We went along for Max's walk at Debbie's Meadow one day. We had a good view of Chimney Rock. Scenes from the original "True Grit'" movie were filmed here. And although I'm not much of a John Wayne fan, of course now I want to watch the movie again because I don't remember any of this.
On another day Geoff drove us over a Jeep trail to the ski resort city of Telluride. It was a beautiful drive and not anywhere near as scary as the sign makes it sound. We trusted our driver! It was on this drive where I took many of the scenic pictures from the past couple of posts. We enjoyed a good lunch and a walk around Telluride, which wasn't too busy during this off-season time of the year. (I don't imagine we would have been driving that back road if it had been ski season.)
It was almost impossible to stop taking pictures of Colorado gold! We were so lucky to be there at just the right time. But November is a pretty nice time to be in Florida and we're glad to be home. The picture below was taken a couple nights ago from our back porch. It's not the best moon shot ever, not even the best one I've ever taken. But like the birds in the top photo, it's the first one of the season. And we don't have good moon views from our porch in Oregon.
We are grateful.
LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities. Thank you to the hosts.
MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY; WANDERING CAMERA ; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; and SATURDAY CRITTERS
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