Exploring – part 1

 

 

 

When we had some nice weather last month I decided to take my camera out and do a little exploring in my backyard. I haven’t been in this part of the backyard in about 20 years. I’m sure that sounds odd, but there are many good reasons. First - this part of the backyard is a river bank so you have the whole RAGING FLOOD thing to deal with several times a year. Plus, after it floods it gets a little, well, MUCKY and YUCKY.  Also I have, thankfully, not lived here for more than 10 of those 20 years. And I’m allergic to practically everything so things like POISON IVY and GRASS and POLLEN and BEES and AIR aren’t all that pleasant. AND things that are also not pleasant – falling down a steep hill and BREAKING YOUR HEAD OPEN because the hill is STEEP and has RANDOM HOLES and LOOSE DIRT from the RAGING FLOODS and you have BAD KNEES. Plus I’m not really an outdoors-y person (although I am trying to get out more since the only time I really got out before was to smoke and THAT’S not happening anymore). Also, part of this little exploration is TECHNICALLY not OUR backyard, but a little TRESPASSING never hurt anyone. At least not me.

Whatever, on with the exploring.

Oh, and if you haven’t noticed – LOTS of pictures. At least I didn’t put all 58 here.

 

Looking down the hill toward the river part (a little trespassing going on here). I didn’t notice until I had taken a couple of pics, but that thing that’s kinda left center in the pic? Dead deer. Thankfully, it wasn’t smelling yet. Be thankful that the close up shot isn’t posted here. Poor little guy. He might have broken his neck going down the hill (SEE?)

 

I was trying to take a picture of the thing that was lodged between the trees, but I like this better. Almost creepy.

 

This couch thing has been here in the same spot for over 4 years. Even though it is right next to the river’s natural edge, it has barely budged during any of the floods in that time.  Now it’s kinda wedged itself so it probably won’t be going anywhere for awhile.

 

I love the terrain here, always changing. We spent many summer hours down here with the neighborhood kids. Building forts, tepees, just having fun.

 

This little lace scrap looked so sad laying there by itself.

 

I don’t know why, but I have always loved this bridge. It’s just a little one-lane bridge at the end of our street. It’s no longer in use, and is sadly now falling apart. The damage (on the left side) happened during a flood last June when the river flooded and covered this bridge and the edge of the street next to it. One of these days (soon) I’m going to get brave and cross it to do a little exploring before it’s completely gone. The neighborhood deer (and cats) use this bridge quite often.

 

This is a sandbar that we spent a lot of time on when we were kids. Lots of great rocks and little river mussels. I’d like to come back down here when I get a rock tumbler.

 

This little guy showed up as I was retracing my route. There was another one with him (or her – I didn’t get a chance to ask), but this was my last shot. I deleted a pic and got him swimming away down the river.

Go here to see all 58 photos.

I’m hoping to do more exploration posts in the future. I think it will be a good excuse to get outside, get exercise, and get inspired.