How can I keep from singing

It's that time of year again here up north when the creation starts bedecking itself with a multicoloured coat. Like so many opportunities that come by in life, you need to grab hold of it before it disappears.

We were having a typical fall day of blustery winds pushing along threatening clouds alternating  with momentary flashes of bright sunshine and blue skies. I set out for what I promised would be a quick trip to a favourite nearby spot to check how fall colours were coming along. I pulled myself away after 'only' two hours, knowing there'd be more opportunities. soon.

It's amazing how such peaceful beauty can be found so close to home. Reminded me of a song from another of my favourite artists (yes, I have many), Eva Cassidy - click the link below the photos and sing along while you enjoy the good creation given to us by our faithful Father:

you might recognize this road if you've visited my blog before

we've had an abundance of rain this summer/fall and the wetlands were, well, wet ...

 as you can see from the first photo, there's still a lot of green, however, there's also lots of fall colour

 while leaves are starting to fall, the grass is still green

 looks like Monsieur Monet also stopped by

Call of the wild

All is quiet on the domestic front late this evening - everyone to bed except yours truly. I'd better not make it too late either since we're forfeiting an hour's sleep tonight and the young 'uns aren't aware of that - I expect their 'wake up call' that much earlier.

Today's main event was a trip to a 90,000+ acre wilderness adventure park where we were taken for a tour on a 'buggy' (a well-past-its-best-before-date school bus with very large openings where windows used to be). We were not disappointed by the denizens of the wild - we saw many, and we even had the privilege of caressing the skin (hide ?) of an alligator ! Our granddaughters also participated in that, although with some initial trepidation. Oh, the alligator was only about 1m/3' long and seemed to be under control of the driver - who doubled as the tour guide.

Near the end of the tour we stopped on a bridge over a cypress swamp - here are photos made of both sides of the bridge. I'll share more shots in future posts.

(both photos made with a 70-200mm lens at f5.6, ISO200 and shutter speeds of 1/100 and 1/500 sec)