Trade Off...

I took the boys to the county park yesterday.  It's a bit of a drive, and very isolated and empty in the Fall/Winter months, but every couple of weeks I like to mix things up, give them different scenery and smells.  And sometimes the emptiness is just what I need for myself.

Because I was having difficulty with the albatross cursed book, it seemed like a good plan to head off into the wilderness for some ear-ringing quiet, let my thoughts unwind, maybe even snag a plot twist or two drifting past in the mind stream.

Driving down to the valley, I turn off the main highway, drive some more, turn onto an even smaller road, more driving, finally enter the park--and find men and machines, trucks and electrical cords, wires and tools, spread from one end of the park to the other.  Buggers. Just my luck, they're setting up for the annual Holiday Festival of Lights, a drive-through event of epic proportions that opens the day after Thanksgiving.  I didn't realize they started constructing everything this early, though it's a huge park, and there are literally hundreds of displays. 

[Later, when I get home, I realize they actually weren't getting an early start on the Festival, because--holy crap--Thanksgiving is NEXT WEEK!]

Anyway, so much for silence and solitude.  Course, the boys didn't care, and hey, after awhile I got used to jumping over cables as thick as my arm.  The only scary moment was when I had to yank Ozzy away from a bank of electrical wires plugged into an elaborate socket board leaning against a tree just as he raised his leg to pee on the whole thing.  Nothing quite like death-by-electrocution through the wiener schnitzel.

Walking along the trail toward the river, I see Nessie down the slope, waiting patiently for the show to begin.  And what this has to do with Christmas, I have absolutely no idea...

Alan and I had a great laugh about Nessie two years ago, having just moved from Scotland.  I took this shot from the car during the Festival.  He actually looks pretty cool at night...

Later, on the river path, I thought I could see something across the water on top of a large boulder.  I wasn't totally convinced it was anything other than debris from the surrounding trees and looking through my camera didn't help much...

So I zoom in...and yeah, there really is something on the boulder.  It's a heron...

Dialing up the telephoto...and there's the handsome chubby fellow.  From his perch, this guy must have had a great view into the water to spot his lunch...

Although I didn't exactly have the meditative morning I was hoping for, the trade off was worth it.  It's not every day I get to see a smiling Loch Ness monster waiting to dazzle, or a very plump heron standing at the deli counter...