The Kid on the Running Board

I want to expand this blog. I will continue to add anecdotes from our very recent ‘Road Trip’ as well as tips on photography and comments on nature. I also have an idea for a segment called “Guess” in which I will occasionally post a photograph and ask viewers what they see. It may be a silhouette to identify or a camouflaged critter to find. Also a “General” category in which you may find a ‘general’  rant. The “SPIRIT”ual Stuff is explained in ‘A New Resolve’. That’s the plan.

Blogging is meant to be interactive, a two-way street. Comments, questions are invited.

I am a sporadic journaller. I started again as I neared retirement this past February. Two days ago I wrote in my little green journal “Once more – a resolve to get into Your word…What to study?”. You see, I am also a sporadic bible student. I now could not say I had no time to study God’s word, I am now retired. The ‘guilt trip’  began.

For several days I have been pondering what to study. Which book of the bible, or perhaps a person, or a topic? Last night I decided on a word study. The word is “power”. The power of God, how it relates to me as an individual, how it dwells inside me as a believer in Jesus Christ.

This time my attempt at studying God’s word will be very public. It will be included in this blog.

I want to expand this blog. I will continue to add anecdotes from our very recent ‘Road Trip’ as well as tips on photography and comments on nature. I also have an idea for a segment called “Guess” in which I will occasionally post a photograph and ask viewers what they see. It may be a silhouette to identify or a camouflaged critter to find. Also a “General” category in which you may find a ‘general’  rant. That’s the plan.

Blogging is meant to be interactive, a two-way street. Comments, questions are invited.

Swallow – tailed Kite

Crested Caracara

Black Vulture

Painted Bunting

Burrowing Owl

Northern Shoveler

American Avocet

Western or Clark’s Grebe (deciding marks not seen by naked eye)

Gambel’s Quail

Oak Titmouse

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Western Scrub – Jay

California Towhee

Spotted Towhee

Dark – eyed Junco (Oregon)

Western Bluebird

Brandt’s Cormorant

Western Gull

I love the desert, I really do. It’s different, I get to see birds and vegetation so different from where I live.

But … after a while I want trees, lots of trees. Tall trees, pine trees, canoe country trees. Today I got them.

Today we drove through the Gila National Forest. Trees on the mountain-tops, trees in the valleys, trees everywhere.

Maybe that’s why it’s called a National Forest?

Our rental canoe on the Estero River.

Tough decision today. Ron and I had decided on a place to go paddling. But our wives were going shopping. Yes I know men aren’t supposed to like shopping (unless it’s a Home Depot or Bass Pro-and the girls certainly weren’t going there). But I do thrive in the retail environment. In fact I’ve had my wife and another girlfriend of her’s say to me late one afternoon at a mall “Can we go home now?”. What to do, what to do?

Long story longer, I decided to go paddling. We easily found the outfitter and rented a canoe. Down the Estero River we went. Shore lunch. Then upstream past the outfitter’s as far as we could go, then back to the dock some four hours later. What a glorious paddle!

Scenery: Stands of bamboo, moss hanging from the trees, roots growing out of the water, branches overhanging the river, flowers in the trees, red berries in the shrubs.

Wildlife: Turtles, Great Blue Heron, egret, Pileated Woodpecker, me in a canoe.

Activities:Canoeing and kayaking, power boats and sea doos, fishing, photography.

A good time was had by all.

The Estero River

Green Anole - brown phase

Years ago on a trip to Florida I went looking for Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. I had done my pre-trip research for the

Green Anole - same one now green

area I was visiting and this place had jumped off the page as a great spot to see and photograph nature. So …, one day I went looking for it, following the directions I had written down. With much anticipation I drove along the access road reading the signs designating the Sanctuary boundary on my right. All I could find were laneways into picnic areas and

people enjoying lunch. No gate welcoming me to this great Floridian wonder, no sign to the visitor/nature centre, no obvious trails or boardwalks. I drove past what I believed to be the perimeter of the sanctuary, turned around and even more slowly drove back up the road, growing increasingly more frustrated with each happy group I saw enjoying their picnic. I never did find the entrance.

Today I let someone else do the driving. He knew where it was. He found it. I was overjoyed. I had a good time. What a great place. I saw native flowers and butterflies (could have spent all my time at the butterfly garden at the entrance) and a Red-shouldered Hawk and lots of White Ibises and watched a ‘chameleon’ change colour and a Painted Bunting at a feeder. Wow!