Jan Allbeck: Back to Nature

As a new professor starting my first semester, I have a lot of things to do. Oh yeah, a whole lot of things. But I also want to find some balance in my life. I don't want work to be an excuse for not doing things that I enjoy or discovering things that I might enjoy or not really living. I tend to feel bad if I have a long list of work things to do and aren't working at them, but this past weekend I set that aside and went for a walk (among other things). I was really happy being outside and walking through the woods with my camera. It seems to give me a sense of calm and peace, but also exhilaration when I see something. Anyway, here are some of the pictures I took.

I got to the lake a little before sunrise...

There were a fair number of geese that seemed to be pretty used to humans...

The lake has a 5 mile trail around it. When I started out there only seemed to be a few people on it, but by the half way point, it got kind of crowded. Here it was fairly peaceful...

There were ducks too...

I'm not sure what this little berry is. It reminded me of tea-berries. I remember seeing one when my family climbed the Roundtop, a hill across from the house, when I was a kid...

I wish they rented kayaks here. I might have spent all day...

This tree had some wild crooked branches. It didn't seem to know which way to go/grow...

Trying to get a pic of the drips. Not terribly successful...

Lots of trees...

And water...

Where there are trees there are often leaves...

It took me about 4 hours to walk around the 5 mile trail. The lake has a pretty odd shape, so when I thought I might be getting close to the end, I'd discover another a bend...

By this point, the trail was pretty busy. People passing by looked at me funny as I was laying on the ground to take this shot...

And where there is a down, there is an up. This was take in the same location as the mushroom...

There were a lot of pine cones...

This was a particularly nice section of the trail...

I was getting pretty tired after a while (I carry a fair amount of gear), so I sat down on a bench for a bit. Before long I noticed this hummingbird. I wondered how many people had passed by and not even noticed it...