Today we were blessed with another Pure Michigan day, just gorgeous with the sunshine, blue skies and puffy clouds, and, once that sun was out full strength, it sure warmed things up.

Mercifully, the rain has stayed away, but water, in another form, has still managed to wreak havoc in my home this entire week, just adding a few more episodes of horrendous homeowner tales from the never-ending water miseries encountered this year.  I do believe there is a black cloud hovering over this house, but thankfully, there are only ten weeks left in this year, and hopefully, going forward, this house will remain unscathed by any problems for the balance of 2017.

In between dealing with the water woes this past week, I have escaped a few mornings to Council Point Park to lose myself there and commune with nature a bit.  I have a few photos to share of these nature nook excursions from the past few days.

Now, if I didn’t want to have a play on words for today’s blog post title, I would have been conflicted which photo to use for “up top” so I used a photo jam-packed with gourds from my archives instead.

I might have called the below photo “High Hopes” as these two fisherman settled in to get their respective catch of the day.  They had three lines between them, those poles propped up and ready to land the big one.  You’ll note that the fellow on the right brought along a rather large landing net, so he had some aspirations for his fishing expedition – maybe a fish fry for his friends?  I hope he was not disappointed.  I heard one of them say there was lots of movement in the water and I wanted to wait and see how much and what was below that was stirring up the murky Creek surface.

Personally, I would have bet he’d never fill that landing net, but, I decided to wait a few minutes to see if they were successful landing a fish.  In the meantime, a male mallard glided by on the opposite side of the Creek near the pond lilies.  As he traversed the Creek, he was not at all interested in the goings-on of the fishermen.  I would have entitled this photograph “Peaceful Journey”.

I circled around the perimeter path a second time, and noted the fishing rods were still in place and nary a nibble, well … if there was a nibble, it had not yielded anything landing in the big blue net.  I always figured there were few, if any, fish living in the Ecorse Creek.

But, evidently I got it wrong, when I discovered there ARE fish living in the murky Ecorse Creek.  Yesterday, as I was walking the pathway that runs parallel to the Ecorse Creek, I came upon a young man standing very quietly and using his phone to take a picture of a Great Blue Heron.  Usually this regal-looking bird stands on the cement precipice, but there he was, wading in the icy-cold, debris-filled Creek water, scarfing down a fish that he caught in its long beak.  The young man saw me approach and slowly draw my camera out of the case to capture the exact same image, as that heron looked at us, feathers still slick and sticking out in places from plunging its head and neck into the water.  I said “well this photo op just makes my day” and he said “mine too” and then we stood there silently, just admiring this bird, who seemed unfazed by our presence.  He put down his phone and turned to leave just as a group of ducks glided into my peripheral vision.  I said “you might want to turn around before you go” so, once again, we stood still like statues, as we snapped photos of waterfowl at the Creek in tandem.   I guess I’d title either of these photos “Morning has Broken” after that great Cat Stevens tune, or maybe even “On the Waterfront” – how’s that?

This morning, however, the heron was at his post once again, still standing in the water, but straight and tall and gazing downstream.  No plunging the head in the water in search of fish, but then it was about ten degrees cooler than yesterday.  I know I hunted for my gloves, popped on the earmuffs and donned a warmer coat before I set out, glad I had heard the early morning weather forecast once I got outside.

The squirrels always provide some entertainment while I am getting in my morning miles and I might have named today’s blog post “Going squirrelly” … now, that might have worked.

Though the frost may not be on the pumpkin yet, the squirrels have finally wizened up that this most-recent cold snap means “get with the program and start bulking up for Winter!”  Every time I drop some peanuts at their feet, they enjoy one, then take the rest “to go” then off they scamper to dig furiously with their front paws to hid their booty.  It’s amusing to watch their antics.

Some of the squirrels are getting really pudgy, so I don’t know if those peanut pals are just skipping the “save” step and eating all the peanuts at once.

As you know, most of the squirrels run to greet me along the path, coming close to my feet, just in case I didn’t catch them streaking across the grassy field.  Others raise up from their digging or searching for food to pose  for their morning treat.

Still other squirrels have decided that dirty walnuts, retrieved from a mucky “hidey hole” suit their palate more than peanuts.  To each his own I guess.

I needed these trips to the Park – communing with the critters and immersing myself in the woodsy setting, now getting more colorful by the day, was the balm that re-energized me and repaired my frazzled nerves from these last few frenzied days.