More about Lake Avalon

The trail around the lake is about a mile and a quarter long. It winds around through mangroves and live oaks, and beside marshy areas, creeks and ponds. With sunshine and shadow and a wide variety of birds, it makes for a lovely walk, especially in our winter sunshine.

The parking lot is adjacent to the butterfly garden, complete with a man-made waterfall and pond. This is where I find the smaller song birds.

Around Lake Avalon

At the end of the trail, I come back around to the pier where Gramma has been sitting and waiting for me.

(I'm sorry - I can never quite get the photos and the words to come out in the right order. I try, though - Lord knows, I try!)

Gramma at the lake

Yesterday Alberta and I went to a nearby park for the afternoon. Here we have just gotten to the pier ... later she enjoyed sitting on a bench at the end of the pier while I walked all the way around the lake.

Red Shouldered Hawk

Isn't this lovely? You can even see his "red shoulders" with the sunlight shining through.

He had been sitting on the top branch, looking like any other hawk-type bird, when I decided to try to get a shot of him anyway. It would've been a boring, probably a throw-away, shot. He decided to take off just when I was squeezing the shutter.

Moonlight Canoeing in the 'Glades

These photos are dark because, well, because the entire trip was taken in the dark, with no lights. Two hours, mostly on a small river running through the Everglades.

I took a throwaway camera because I really, really did not want to dunk my good Canon.

I took very few shots even then because once everyone's eyes adjusted to the almost total darkness any light at all was distrubing and the flash was excrutciatingly painful.

At first we had only starlight. Venus was so bright that when she peeked through the mangroves it was almost startling.

Later, as the moon rose and shone over our shoulders and onto the treetops in front of us it felt like a car was coming from behind us ... or maybe a train, since it came from so high!

As we turned to come back up the river, the moon seemed to burn into our retinas. Amazing!

We had a ranger to lead us, and each canoe had a glow-stick attached to the back so we could follow. A nice, gentle little light which reflected beautifully on the surface of the water. There were only four canoes in our group, and we spent most of the two hours in silence.

It was really a zen-like experience, and we loved every minute of it. When we described the trip to our friends and family later, we were met with quizzical expressions and questions along the line of: "What exactly did you enjoy about being out on the water in the dark?" If they didn't "get it" right away, I suppose they never will.