I saw this image with its quotation when Earth Day 2018 was trending on Twitter. I tucked it away to use for Earth Day 2019. Escaping to Council Point Park, my favorite nature nook, is not only a joy for me, but a necessity. Immersing myself in nature helps keep me grounded. I hope this Park, as well as the others that I enjoy and spotlight in this blog, will be around for me, as well as others, to enjoy for many years to come. My walking regimen was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself and writing about those treks has been equally enjoyable. My blog is a labor of love and I am pleased so many of you take the same delight in nature as I do.
As I celebrate Mother Earth, I’d like to share my favorite nature photos with you.
Enjoy!!
P.S. – I thought Earth Day was always the 3rd Saturday in April. I prepared this post yesterday and twice this morning I heard about Earth Day events for Monday, April 22nd. I figured they were wrong … I jumped on here to check and it turns out I was wrong!
This is my first blog and I enjoy writing each and every post immensely. I started a walking regimen in 2011 and decided to create a blog as a means of memorializing the people, places and things I see on my daily walks. I have always enjoyed people watching, and so my blog is peppered with folks I meet, or reflections of characters I have known through the years. Often something piques my interest, or evokes a pleasant memory from my memory bank, so this becomes a “slice o’ life” blog post that day. I respect and appreciate nature and my interaction with Mother Nature’s gifts is also a common theme. Sometimes the most-ordinary items become fodder for points to ponder over and touch upon. My career has been in the legal field and I have been a legal secretary for four decades, primarily working in downtown Detroit, and now working from my home. I graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in print journalism in 1978, though I’ve never worked in that field. I like to think this blog is the writer in me finally emerging!! Walking and writing have met and shaken hands and the creative juices are flowing once again in Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy – hope you think so too. - Linda Schaub
Very well said Tom. Glad you liked the photos. They are all my favorites since I began blogging – hopefully the weather will cooperate soon so I hope to get some more.
Thank you Clare – I know you enjoy your nature walks like I do and more and more I hear health studies on how walking and being in parks is good for lowering your blood pressure, immediately removing all stressors from your body. We should tell the world shouldn’t we?
Definitely! I too hear more about nature’s benefits and its importance and it’s good that the message is getting out there but too much of nature is being destroyed. Too much green space is being built on near me as an example, and on a wider scale, there are the rainforests being destroyed elsewhere in the world. But I think when we destroy nature, we hurt our own species too.
If only everyone had this mindset, it would be wonderful and unfortunately too much destruction has taken place already. I worry about the weather because of climate change. In the space of just the last 3-4 years, our distinct four seasons have gone awry. We had a hard freeze in late September – never before did I need to bring the hose into the garage or shut the water to the outside tap, we had snow in early November before I put the yard “to bed” for the Winter and we have snow tomorrow night (initially not my part of Michigan, now it is a slushy snow and more on Tuesday in my part of Michigan ). The seasons are just not right any more.
Thanks Anne – all my favorites since I started the blog. Now interestingly, this post I started in Gutenberg, then switched over to “Classic Editor” … the new slideshow required “Jetpack” and I didn’t want to tread there. So this is a hybrid post … I am glad it came out okay. P.S. – Parker certainly rules here doesn’t he? (I am so behind here – I did this post last night and just got here a few minutes ago.)
Yes, once you get into it, you have to click for new paragraph or image at the top. I discovered that all the razzmatazz does not show up in Reader – there are some features like the colored background and colored text only display on the blog site, not in Reader. So that’s too bad.
I’ll have to look for something to click on at the top. I had a new block for a photo, but after dragging one in, it disappeared and I was told there was no data. There was another step that also ended in no data. I ended up having to import the picture into the media area and then insert it. According to your blog fellow and Chrissie, I should have been able to drag and drop. I still think the program is irregular and cumbersome, despite everyone’s praise of it.
I wonder if you need to change browsers – don’t know that doing that will help, but when I switched browsers I could make captions again. And I had something odd happen tonight. I decided to try the “dropped cap:” … now some of these features don’t show up in Reader, just on your actual site. So I didn’t have too much narrative today but plenty of captions – so proofed everything then decided to use a dropped cap for the first word in the very first paragraph. I don’t know how I noticed, but there were some words in there, that I didn’t put – I said I was going to “bop down the bunny trail” and WP put “chow down bits on the bunny trail”. It is a toggle button – not going to use it again. I can’t drag photos… I did the gallery of photos on my blog site home page and I was able to drag them around, but nothing else … nothing happens.
You’re welcome Anne – you would not believe how different it is in Opera versus Chrome. I have to use Internet Explorer for work as that is how the computer guy set it up, but I find it slow and it crashes all the time.
We used Firefox for years and I liked it and they updated it constantly to keep viruses at bay, but our I.T. guy wants Internet Explorer. Opera has been around a while and I’m still getting used to it.
Thank you, I’m glad you liked them. These were my favorite photos since I started the blog in 2013 – I really never took many photos the first year or two. Same to you Sabine. I have to catch up here. I did that post yesterday and just got here a short time ago and am quite behind. Finally Mother Nature turned the spigot off but more rain and fog tonight, then tomorrow will be nice they say. When I got up this morning the “real feel” was 26 degrees!
Thank you Sabine – the same to you. I bopped over to work to do something quickly for my boss, and now I’m here to catch up. Wherever I go tomorrow, it has to be a paved pathway … otherwise I might sink down like quicksand!
Maybe if we all subscribed to the idea that every day is Earth Day then the world would be a better place! Just an idealistic thought. On a Saturday night, even.
You will not get an argument from me on that one Ally. We think one day will save the planet, just like how nice everyone is to one another at Christmas time – good will towards men COULD happen 365 days a year.
Thanks Ruth – my favorite shots of nature the past five or so years. The first year I had very few pictures in my blog. Hoping to get more this year once the warmer (not to mention sunnier) weather gets here. I don’t know how the clouds have any more rain in them … more rain overnight they say. I’m thinking how your roads must look with all the mud.
We were out doing some shopping today and saw a few accidents on the freeway. We have had too much rain!!! It will be awhile before they can fix the back roads.
Hydroplaning with all the water on the road? It had nowhere to go for goodness sake. I figured you’d have issues with the back roads with three days of torrential rain this week alone. This is a repeat of Spring 2018. Good thing you didn’t plant those pansies yet. I remember one year I got mums in the early Fall. I planted them and a few days later, we got rain like we’ve had these last two days – they never looked the same the rest of the season!
Wow Linda, those pictures are simply stunning. You really should be working as a nature photographer. Not sure which is my favourite, that mallard duck one with their reflection in the water, those little goslings, Mamma Robin, or all of them!
Thank you for saying that Joni – they were my favorite Park pictures – I have that cute little Robin baby from the neighborhood who was on the ground looking up but I left this post just for parks. I liked those ducks with the reflection too – that was a year ago in February and there was a lot of ice at Heritage Park that day, so half ice, half water. Those goslings are sweet and then you see them a few weeks later and they bodies that look like canoes and are in the awkward stage … I have called them the “teenaged years” … they are all feet, legs and body. There were three families last year, all in different stages so there were always goslings toddling around for about 8 weeks’ time.
Well I had a post called “The Goslings are now teenagers” but it is when I had the old digital camera with 4X zoom and it is not all that clear – I have better ones where they are all legs … tall and skinny, big feet, big boat bodies, little heads, small wings. They look out of proportion then a few weeks later, they begin to look like their parents. I’ll find a better picture … actually in my Earth Day pics in this post, they are pretty tall following their parents on the pathway. https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/06/09/the-goslings-are-now-teenagers/
Thanks Diane – glad you enjoyed seeing them. They are my favorites from the last 5 years, the first year I didn’t use too many photos. Was your mother-in-law’s all-girls get-together today or next Saturday? Enjoy that new grandson tomorrow and Happy Easter to you as well.
Good idea Diane. My parents threw me a surprise party when I turned 17 at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor. I had five close friends in high school – we were inseparable. And all of them were in on it … one of them blabbed to someone at school that we were supposed to arrive there on a Friday night and there were always a ton of people, lined up halfway to the parking lot. One of my friends in the group (also named Linda), was supposed to say she had to go to the bathroom and couldn’t wait for us to get seated, so would ask me to come along … so that day at school someone said “so you have to go to the bathroom tonight, huh?” I said I didn’t know what they were talking about and they walked away. I still never figured it out – I was so surprised – my mouth dropped a mile!
Happy Easter, Linda.
I love the clean duck picture and the yellow bird drinking from a flower picture.
In fact I love all of them. I am so glad you are there on this Earth- what you do for Mother Earth is important enough to create awareness among a lot of people. May there be more like you.
I wouldn’t have known the red bird was a cardinal if I hadn’t read your past posts.
I wouldn’t have taken care to notice squirrels more until I read your posts.
Susie
Thank you so much for your nice words Susie (and here I am delinquent reading them – I am quite far behind – doing housework all day yesterday put me behind). I fully intended to get here earlier and not write anything today, but I had such a nice walk and it was a beautiful day and I couldn’t resist making a post. Those duck pictures are one of my favorites too as it looks very peaceful and the yellow bird reminded me so much of my little canary – a goldfinch and canary are very similar in size, their mannerisms too … watching that goldfinch just made me so sad. I had lost my Buddy to a stroke and he reminded me of him so much. This goldfinch was eating thistle seeds … that was my favorite picture in that post, but you can see some more pictures of him here. I called him “Golden Boy” – the plumage is so striking. I saw a cardinal today – they are beautiful. He wanted a peanut and was waiting to swoop down to get it. My mom loved cardinals and collected plates and figurines of them. She also liked ducks and geese – there are ducks all over the house in different forms (decoys, plates). The squirrels were very cute today. We had torrential rains for two solid days and I doubt anyone was down to feed them … they were starving and came running right over. I am wondering why they aren’t using their stash of nuts they buried last year? https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/08/09/golden-boy/
Oh today was so beautiful – I would have walked more but I didn’t rack up many miles the past week due to rain almost every day – it felt wonderful out there with the warmth and the sun.
Excellent photos, Linda! I can’t choose a favorite, they are all beautiful. I hope the parks stay nice for you and for all the future visitors to come. Happy Easter, and Happy Earth Day, to you, too!
Thanks Shelley – glad you liked them. They are a compilation of my favorite photos since I began the blog. I hope I can get some good photos this Summer to add to that list.
You have some WONDERFUL photos. some Great color in them and loving those photos of parker and your shoes.. lol
Earth day is Everyday to me so you were not wrong!! 😉 Your right on track!!
Thanks Pril- I am glad you enjoyed them … being a nature lover, I suspected you would get a kick out of them. Parker is a cutie and if I don’t pay attention to him right away, he’s up on my shoe top, begging. I hope you got a hike in yesterday or today to celebrate these long-awaited “real Spring” days. I took pictures on the way home from the Park today of all the colorful flowers and flowering trees in the ‘hood. Happy Earth Day to you too Pril!
Great nature photos, as always, Linda. My daughter-in-law is a forester here in CO. She has a bumper sticker that says “Every Day is Earth Day for Foresters”. Happy Earth Day!
That would be a fun profession in my opinion and what a great bumper sticker. That’s nice you stayed a little extra in CO – hopefully the schools are off for Easter break. Back at you Laurie – I thought of you this morning, as I took some photos of colorful photos around the neighborhood, including the guy with the purple and yellow pansies. Just today the flowering trees erupted.
Thank you Mackenzie – I believe that too … the problem is that too often people only take an interest in the environment on Earth Day, even though it should be an ongoing effort.
Great pics! 🙂
We are the world (not something separate from it).
LikeLiked by 2 people
Very well said Tom. Glad you liked the photos. They are all my favorites since I began blogging – hopefully the weather will cooperate soon so I hope to get some more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lovely pictures. I feel the same about nature. If I feel low or stressed, if I go somewhere natural it makes me feel much better.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you Clare – I know you enjoy your nature walks like I do and more and more I hear health studies on how walking and being in parks is good for lowering your blood pressure, immediately removing all stressors from your body. We should tell the world shouldn’t we?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Definitely! I too hear more about nature’s benefits and its importance and it’s good that the message is getting out there but too much of nature is being destroyed. Too much green space is being built on near me as an example, and on a wider scale, there are the rainforests being destroyed elsewhere in the world. But I think when we destroy nature, we hurt our own species too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
If only everyone had this mindset, it would be wonderful and unfortunately too much destruction has taken place already. I worry about the weather because of climate change. In the space of just the last 3-4 years, our distinct four seasons have gone awry. We had a hard freeze in late September – never before did I need to bring the hose into the garage or shut the water to the outside tap, we had snow in early November before I put the yard “to bed” for the Winter and we have snow tomorrow night (initially not my part of Michigan, now it is a slushy snow and more on Tuesday in my part of Michigan ). The seasons are just not right any more.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love all you photos.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Anne – all my favorites since I started the blog. Now interestingly, this post I started in Gutenberg, then switched over to “Classic Editor” … the new slideshow required “Jetpack” and I didn’t want to tread there. So this is a hybrid post … I am glad it came out okay. P.S. – Parker certainly rules here doesn’t he? (I am so behind here – I did this post last night and just got here a few minutes ago.)
LikeLiked by 1 person
We were out all day, and I finished reading blogs after 6 pm. I am not sure what editor I currently have running. I may find out in a few minutes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes, once you get into it, you have to click for new paragraph or image at the top. I discovered that all the razzmatazz does not show up in Reader – there are some features like the colored background and colored text only display on the blog site, not in Reader. So that’s too bad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ll have to look for something to click on at the top. I had a new block for a photo, but after dragging one in, it disappeared and I was told there was no data. There was another step that also ended in no data. I ended up having to import the picture into the media area and then insert it. According to your blog fellow and Chrissie, I should have been able to drag and drop. I still think the program is irregular and cumbersome, despite everyone’s praise of it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wonder if you need to change browsers – don’t know that doing that will help, but when I switched browsers I could make captions again. And I had something odd happen tonight. I decided to try the “dropped cap:” … now some of these features don’t show up in Reader, just on your actual site. So I didn’t have too much narrative today but plenty of captions – so proofed everything then decided to use a dropped cap for the first word in the very first paragraph. I don’t know how I noticed, but there were some words in there, that I didn’t put – I said I was going to “bop down the bunny trail” and WP put “chow down bits on the bunny trail”. It is a toggle button – not going to use it again. I can’t drag photos… I did the gallery of photos on my blog site home page and I was able to drag them around, but nothing else … nothing happens.
LikeLike
I switched browsers once to solve a different problem. I’ll have to try that again. Thanks for the tip.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’re welcome Anne – you would not believe how different it is in Opera versus Chrome. I have to use Internet Explorer for work as that is how the computer guy set it up, but I find it slow and it crashes all the time.
LikeLike
I’ve used Avast, and something doesn’t show that does appear in Edge. I might try Firefox again.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We used Firefox for years and I liked it and they updated it constantly to keep viruses at bay, but our I.T. guy wants Internet Explorer. Opera has been around a while and I’m still getting used to it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful slideshow, Linda! I loved every single photo. They are some of your finest! Happy Earth Day!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, I’m glad you liked them. These were my favorite photos since I started the blog in 2013 – I really never took many photos the first year or two. Same to you Sabine. I have to catch up here. I did that post yesterday and just got here a short time ago and am quite behind. Finally Mother Nature turned the spigot off but more rain and fog tonight, then tomorrow will be nice they say. When I got up this morning the “real feel” was 26 degrees!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I won’t keep you then! 😉 Have a wonderful Easter, Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sabine – the same to you. I bopped over to work to do something quickly for my boss, and now I’m here to catch up. Wherever I go tomorrow, it has to be a paved pathway … otherwise I might sink down like quicksand!
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
Maybe if we all subscribed to the idea that every day is Earth Day then the world would be a better place! Just an idealistic thought. On a Saturday night, even.
LikeLiked by 2 people
You will not get an argument from me on that one Ally. We think one day will save the planet, just like how nice everyone is to one another at Christmas time – good will towards men COULD happen 365 days a year.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love the slide show Linda. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Ruth – my favorite shots of nature the past five or so years. The first year I had very few pictures in my blog. Hoping to get more this year once the warmer (not to mention sunnier) weather gets here. I don’t know how the clouds have any more rain in them … more rain overnight they say. I’m thinking how your roads must look with all the mud.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We were out doing some shopping today and saw a few accidents on the freeway. We have had too much rain!!! It will be awhile before they can fix the back roads.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hydroplaning with all the water on the road? It had nowhere to go for goodness sake. I figured you’d have issues with the back roads with three days of torrential rain this week alone. This is a repeat of Spring 2018. Good thing you didn’t plant those pansies yet. I remember one year I got mums in the early Fall. I planted them and a few days later, we got rain like we’ve had these last two days – they never looked the same the rest of the season!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes the water was pooling on the roads and people were driving to fast.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s what I thought might have happened, but it was so chilly this morning and the weatherman said in some places there was freezing fog as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow Linda, those pictures are simply stunning. You really should be working as a nature photographer. Not sure which is my favourite, that mallard duck one with their reflection in the water, those little goslings, Mamma Robin, or all of them!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thank you for saying that Joni – they were my favorite Park pictures – I have that cute little Robin baby from the neighborhood who was on the ground looking up but I left this post just for parks. I liked those ducks with the reflection too – that was a year ago in February and there was a lot of ice at Heritage Park that day, so half ice, half water. Those goslings are sweet and then you see them a few weeks later and they bodies that look like canoes and are in the awkward stage … I have called them the “teenaged years” … they are all feet, legs and body. There were three families last year, all in different stages so there were always goslings toddling around for about 8 weeks’ time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
HA! I’ll look forward to seeing the teenagers!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well I had a post called “The Goslings are now teenagers” but it is when I had the old digital camera with 4X zoom and it is not all that clear – I have better ones where they are all legs … tall and skinny, big feet, big boat bodies, little heads, small wings. They look out of proportion then a few weeks later, they begin to look like their parents. I’ll find a better picture … actually in my Earth Day pics in this post, they are pretty tall following their parents on the pathway.
https://lindaschaubblog.net/2014/06/09/the-goslings-are-now-teenagers/
LikeLike
What a lovely post Linda! Your pictures are so beautiful! Happy Easter Linda!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Diane – glad you enjoyed seeing them. They are my favorites from the last 5 years, the first year I didn’t use too many photos. Was your mother-in-law’s all-girls get-together today or next Saturday? Enjoy that new grandson tomorrow and Happy Easter to you as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is going to be mid May.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was a little off then – I thought maybe people (your mother-in-law’s friends) were in town for Easter weekend.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We actually are having it after her birthday or she would figure it out. This way she won’t think twice about it…lol
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good idea Diane. My parents threw me a surprise party when I turned 17 at Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor. I had five close friends in high school – we were inseparable. And all of them were in on it … one of them blabbed to someone at school that we were supposed to arrive there on a Friday night and there were always a ton of people, lined up halfway to the parking lot. One of my friends in the group (also named Linda), was supposed to say she had to go to the bathroom and couldn’t wait for us to get seated, so would ask me to come along … so that day at school someone said “so you have to go to the bathroom tonight, huh?” I said I didn’t know what they were talking about and they walked away. I still never figured it out – I was so surprised – my mouth dropped a mile!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s awesome!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy Easter, Linda.
I love the clean duck picture and the yellow bird drinking from a flower picture.
In fact I love all of them. I am so glad you are there on this Earth- what you do for Mother Earth is important enough to create awareness among a lot of people. May there be more like you.
I wouldn’t have known the red bird was a cardinal if I hadn’t read your past posts.
I wouldn’t have taken care to notice squirrels more until I read your posts.
Susie
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much for your nice words Susie (and here I am delinquent reading them – I am quite far behind – doing housework all day yesterday put me behind). I fully intended to get here earlier and not write anything today, but I had such a nice walk and it was a beautiful day and I couldn’t resist making a post. Those duck pictures are one of my favorites too as it looks very peaceful and the yellow bird reminded me so much of my little canary – a goldfinch and canary are very similar in size, their mannerisms too … watching that goldfinch just made me so sad. I had lost my Buddy to a stroke and he reminded me of him so much. This goldfinch was eating thistle seeds … that was my favorite picture in that post, but you can see some more pictures of him here. I called him “Golden Boy” – the plumage is so striking. I saw a cardinal today – they are beautiful. He wanted a peanut and was waiting to swoop down to get it. My mom loved cardinals and collected plates and figurines of them. She also liked ducks and geese – there are ducks all over the house in different forms (decoys, plates). The squirrels were very cute today. We had torrential rains for two solid days and I doubt anyone was down to feed them … they were starving and came running right over. I am wondering why they aren’t using their stash of nuts they buried last year? https://lindaschaubblog.net/2017/08/09/golden-boy/
LikeLike
I’m glad Earth day is Monday as I haven’t done a thing about it with my class yet!
I’m glad you got out for some nature today:)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh today was so beautiful – I would have walked more but I didn’t rack up many miles the past week due to rain almost every day – it felt wonderful out there with the warmth and the sun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s been beautiful here too but we’re expecting rain all day tomorrow
LikeLike
Bummer for that – time to turn the spigot off … we’ve both had too much rain this Spring!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent photos, Linda! I can’t choose a favorite, they are all beautiful. I hope the parks stay nice for you and for all the future visitors to come. Happy Easter, and Happy Earth Day, to you, too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Shelley – glad you liked them. They are a compilation of my favorite photos since I began the blog. I hope I can get some good photos this Summer to add to that list.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m sure you will.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You have some WONDERFUL photos. some Great color in them and loving those photos of parker and your shoes.. lol
Earth day is Everyday to me so you were not wrong!! 😉 Your right on track!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Pril- I am glad you enjoyed them … being a nature lover, I suspected you would get a kick out of them. Parker is a cutie and if I don’t pay attention to him right away, he’s up on my shoe top, begging. I hope you got a hike in yesterday or today to celebrate these long-awaited “real Spring” days. I took pictures on the way home from the Park today of all the colorful flowers and flowering trees in the ‘hood. Happy Earth Day to you too Pril!
LikeLike
Great nature photos, as always, Linda. My daughter-in-law is a forester here in CO. She has a bumper sticker that says “Every Day is Earth Day for Foresters”. Happy Earth Day!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That would be a fun profession in my opinion and what a great bumper sticker. That’s nice you stayed a little extra in CO – hopefully the schools are off for Easter break. Back at you Laurie – I thought of you this morning, as I took some photos of colorful photos around the neighborhood, including the guy with the purple and yellow pansies. Just today the flowering trees erupted.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love these pictures to remember Earth Day!! And no matter the day- we should always be caring for our Earth so I think you posted right on time 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Mackenzie – I believe that too … the problem is that too often people only take an interest in the environment on Earth Day, even though it should be an ongoing effort.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Could not agree more!!
LikeLiked by 1 person