Taking a walk you-know-where...

It has been sooo hot here; above normal temperature wise since early June. A walk in the woods had no appeal to me, especially since we have had little rain as well.
Wednesday morning I woke up early and decided I would venture out. Bernie was available to join me, one of the perks of being now officially unemployed.

Once we turned the corner on our street, a deer walked across the road in front of us. I was dismayed as my camera was still tucked away in my pocket and I couldn't get it up and on fast enough before the deer disappeared into the forest on the edge of the road.

Bernie told me to get my camera out anyway and get ready, noting that deer rarely travel alone.

Sure enough, within moments this deer was crossing in front of us.

Then twin fawns came out as well.

We have deer crossing signs on all our roadway; the deer know they have the right away.
As we walked around the corner, I wondered that I couldn't see them in the forest.
Turns out, they were right there waiting to get another peek at us as well!

We kept walking and I spotted some of the blue flowers that had been seen in the drainage ditch elsewhere. They really must be a wild flower; they were blooming deep in the woods where no store bought seed would have been scattered.
I still think they are gorgeous, and was glad to get a close up shot of them this time.

The "girls" are back in force, and many of them are creating webs that are at a perfect height to avoid forest creatures, but not high enough to avoid tall men walking in baseball hats. Bernie darn near had his hat knocked off by the strength of one web!

The lake was especially still and beautiful.

The spiders seem to enjoy the views as well. We fell into the habit of looking for the little male spider on each web as well; he being usually found directly above the female, sitting on the opposite side of the web, tummy to tummy as it were.
We created quite a domestic storyline about how spider couples spend their mornings, chatting over the plans for the day, hopes for dinner....

I do wish you could hear the soft cicada sounds that whirled about us. It was a soft high pitched rattle that went from rapid to quite slow.

This from the edge of what is now being called "Otter Point." I was unaware that Texas had otters!

It is a nice place to enjoy a break in the walk.

White and blue herons and egrets often are seen walking through the edge of the water. I try to capture them in a picture, but they inevitably blend right into the forest edge.

Tadpoles and whirl bugs rippled the surface of the water beneath us.

A canoe would be nice...but it really is too hot to want to exert oneself in that fashion.

Just lifting a camera and snapping a picture is about all the exercise I am up to beyond simply walking.

Love the clouds reflected in the water.

This red flower had eluded me forever. I can either get a close up of the stamen...(and it is interesting stamen.)

Or I can capture the whirled shaped petals.

I need to take a class and find out why that is....a Macro photography one day class is available at the U of U. I think I will try to take that class too.

The water looked especially beautiful this walk. I must have taken a dozen pictures of various views across the lake.

Once we returned home we were pleased to read the local paper's headlines: The housing prices are holding steady in Houston.
A walk and good news: what a great way to start the day.