Nature's Child

The older I get, the more I find myself longing to be close to nature. I first recognized the phenomenon roughly eight years ago, after returning to our home after a summer boating holiday.

 We had been traveling on the boat for three weeks, enjoying the lakes and rivers of the Trent Severn Waterway and getting in some serious relaxation. When we arrived back home, all the pavement, concrete and cars came crashing onto my previous state of . . . . solitude.

A day tied to an old wooden dock had somehow become more rewarding than such mundane things as a house, nice car or any other such material 'things'.

Peaceful settings like this are now what is important. We are working closer to enjoying this lifestyle more and more full time, with plans to travel farther and further and taking in as much of life's beauty as we can experience - all at a slow pace.

Water, trees, wildlife. Awesome. . .

Maybe I can express myself better in this video, in conversation with my buddy, Perry The Penguin;

For The Birds

What a great weekend at the boat! The summer weather has finally arrived and all the birdies are happy :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It's nice to be surrounded by so much of nature when we are at our marina. I've noticed that the older I get (have gotten), the more I enjoy and appreciate nature. It has been our habit for the past three years to go to the boat on Thursday evenings to make a long weekend out of them all through the summer. Even if I have to run back to my work on Friday mornings, it's such a break to get to the boat & the sight and sounds of the birds are truly heartwarming.

 Makes me feel good and I wanted to share a few photos of these pretty birds with you :-)

 There are a large number of Ospreys in the area, with a nesting pair very close to the boat. I'm always fascinated by these majestic animals and stop to watch them in flight. Here's one circling overhead in search of a meal;

I was able to capture some video of this guy capturing his meal - a big fish;

We also have a few Great Blue Herons fishing and flying around. Interesting to watch these guys move along so   s l o w l e y   in search of their prey;

This one looks like the male, as he/it is larger than the one in the previous photo. Either that, or just older? Note the big goose in the distance. I think these guys have some sort of territory thing going on, with the Herons keeping to themselves;

Yet another batch of young gooses. Sure, they look cute when they're little, but grow up to be continuous poop machines :-(

 And they tend to show up in numbers, so their poop droppings can really 'pile' up ;-) Hey! That's not even funny. . .