Taking a Closer look

Yesterday Levonne and I met in Aptos for a walk in the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park.  There are several easy trails thru redwoods and mixed tree forest.  We actually got a bit "lost" because we were talking so much and the trails spit and intersected without much marking.  Our being "lost" was not a bad thing.  It simply meant we were not on the trail we thought we were and had to do a few turn arounds to get back to where we had parked the car.  I guess that can happen when two gabbers get together!

A walk in the park is always a treat.

I took my little point and shoot camera and tried to capture a few interesting images.

When I looked at what I had taken, I was as usual unhappy with the mundane results. When I'm "looking", I do "see" lovely colors and contrasts, but my pictures tend to be cluttered and include "too much information."

After a crop I came up with this fern image.  The composition and angle could be better, but I liked the contrast between the very new fern leaves with the glory and perfection of  old leaf. 

Another picture I took was of a spot of sun on the ground cover.


A throw away image, until I looked a little closer.

Do you see the danger lurking?

POISON OAK  in among the Sorrel and Ivy.  

This was also pulled from al larger picture.  I had notice just a few leaves with a bit of morning dew still on them in the corner of a larger shot.

Just having some fun!

The forest is a beautiful place on all levels.

    

Redwood Walk

A few weeks ago I wrote that I was going to try to get out a bit more and explore some of the beautiful places in my own home area.


Today I did just that, and met a fellow blogger Kate, at the same time.  


She and her husband Terry live almost across the road from one of our beautiful  parks, Henry Cowell State park.

I met her, and we went for a nice walk in the redwood grove. 


 The trees are SO TALL!

The grove is quite a beautiful place. 


 One of the interesting things about redwoods is how they survive forest fires. I guess if you live for hundreds of years you grow around the fire damage. 

There were also some very interesting gnarly tree trunks along the path.


It seemed every where I looked there was another interesting picture.  


After a while I just enjoyed the sights without bothering with the camera.  


The only negative thing about the park is that since California's budget is in such  bad shape, they have increased the parking fee to $10.  A bit stiff for an hour walk.  I guess I have to get used to paying these fees if I want to see the sights.  


We will get a National Parks Senior pass when we are on the road.


This walk wasn't  an exercise walk. Kate had a sore ankle so we kept it slow and not to long. But it sure was a "nature's eye candy" walk. 


I'm looking froward to getting together with her again in the near future.  She has also introduced me to a place that does auction sales of "stuff."  It doesn't have to be high class collectables, just stuff!