Cherish is my favorite word, and I cherish the ability of turning the routine into a beautiful moment.
Nature creates in me, a spiritual and meditative time to bring peace, harmony and balance, into an otherwise ordinary day~
Mary Howell Cromer







Friday, November 7, 2014

Several Herons And a Lone Muskrat~


First is an apology for those on the Wild Bird Wednesday meme.
Due to reasons beyond my control, I was not able to visit any of your wonderful blogs this past week.
***
This post is dedicated to my dear friend and neighbor Judy Bartram and her family.
You see her sister went missing 2 weeks ago today.
She was 49 and she made a poor choice.
An arrest has been made, and her body recovered, as of yesterday.
Now the long wait for healing, if that can ever even fully happen begins.
 Several years ago, I met Judy and her husby, when I was looking for the nest of the Red-Shouldered Hawks.
They are really such very kind, good people.
Their family who lives in Ohio, have already dealt with tremendous loss and grief and now this.
Please remember them this week~
***
The Green Heron images, along with the Muskrat were taken at Draut Park, where the city is allowing the lake to dry up, leaving the waterbirds no longer a place to call home.  
Hopefully they can take up residence at the nearby Beargrass Creek~


Remember to double click on the first image, to view a larger slide show presentation after you have read the narratives~

I will be linking up with Judith for:

www.lavendercottagegardening.com

&

Stewart for:
   http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/



The Great Blue Heron images just above and the one taken with the wonderful Autumn foliage were taken at Crystal Lake.  
There was one at each end of the lake on the day I took them~


















The Great Blue Heron images below, were taken at the Anchorage Trail~













Image below was auto Enhanced by Google~
Have a Happy week and stay always close to those that you love~






22 comments:

  1. lovely herons and cute muskrat. beautiful reflections.

    i am sorry for your friend and her family.

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  2. This is yet another great collection of amazing pictures. Thank you for sharing your gifts with us!

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  3. Awesome series of Herons shots, Mary! Beautiful scenery too, lovely images.. I am so sorry for your friend and her family.. have a happy weekend!

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  4. Mary these are just amazing shots of the herons...I also just posted about a heron in our meadow. Very interesting birds. I haven't seen a muskrat in the wild in such a long time. They are adorable.

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  5. Good to see and hear that you are "up and running" again Mary. What an awful story you begin with. There is so much evil in the world away from our beloved world of nature. You have some lovely images of herons and dare I say it - I think I detect the tones and colourways of your new camera?

    I hope you have a truly wonderful week with no untoward distractions.

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  6. I adore herons ... so "statuesque"! The muskrat is cool, too!

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  7. Wonderful photos! The colouring of the Blue Heron is incredibly beautiful.

    Hugs to your friend and her family!

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  8. I'll keep this family in my prayers...how sad. I love your photos especially that cute little muskrat. I don't think I've ever seen one. Hugs, Diane

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  9. A terrible tragedy for your friend and family.
    I enjoyed the shots of the blue herons, beautiful birds and my first view of a muskrat. Had I seen it, I would have thought it was a beaver.
    Thank you for linking to Mosaic Monday Mary.

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  10. Such sad news for your dear neighbors Mary. I hope they find a place in this world that can help them to heal. Your birds are wonderful as always. Wonderful herons. And I am amazed at the clear picture of the muskrat.

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  11. I'm so sorry to hear about your friend's sister. That is very sad. Your photos and collages and wonderful!!

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  12. So sorry Mary to hear about your friend Judy's sister. Such a tragedy for her and her family. What anguish they must be going through right now. I am sure you will be their for your friend.
    But through that you have given us up another glorious post to remind us of the beauty of our world. If only those that do wrong would stop awhile and see what is good around them, instead of wanting to destroy life. Take care my friend from across the oceans. What times we go through together through blogging. xx

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  13. Oh, what a beautiful Green Heron, it is outstanding.

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  14. Hello Mary,
    Very nice shots!!
    Great to see all these different birds.
    Shot 11 is really great. And the hunting blue heron on shot 26 is very beautiful too.

    Kind regards,
    Marco

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  15. I haven't visited awhile because of surgery but am on the mend now. How sad for your friend and her family … I'm sure you are a great encouragement to them. I've enjoyed your beautiful photos once again, and set against the beauty of fall makes them even more exquisite.

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  16. Wonderful photos! I love the cute muskrat. I'm so very sorry for your friend and her family.

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  17. Dear Mary,

    So very sorry to hear about your friend's sister; how utterly tragic. I know that you will be there to lend your support to your friends, as a source of comfort to them at this most difficult time.

    Your photos of the herons and that lone muskrat are, as usual, beautifully composed. Do I sense some camouflaging going on in some of the pictures? I had to look twice at the photo of the muskrat half-buried in the sand, to confirm that it was indeed, him, and not another piece of gnarly driftwood! Do you see what I mean? And, the same goes for the heron on the beach, between the twiggy pieces of wood, darting out from the sand. In any case, your mosaics are lovely, and the motion of the heron in flight is spectacular.

    Thanks for sharing, my friend. So enjoyed my visit here today.

    Poppy
    P.S. Thank you for your sweet words at Poppy View earlier today.:))

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  18. Great photos of the different Herons and the very colorful foliage behind them. The Muskrat is beautiful coming out of the water like that. So sorry for your friend and her family. This world is not a nice place, unfortunately.

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  19. Hi Mary. That is tragic news about your friend's sister ... hopefully time will heal the family's loss.

    Super set of images, as always, with lovely watery reflections. I'd love to photograph a Green Heron one day.

    Stay well.

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  20. Dear Mary I am so sorry to hear of the sad outcome of Judy's sister. iI will take a long time for her to come to terms with this tragedy if ever. Now these shots of the Herons and Muscat are all amazing and I love the way you have presented them on, some in collages and some separately and the reflection shots of some of the Grey Heron are stunning. A wonderful post.

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  21. So sorry for the loss of your friend. :( ((hugs))
    Enjoyed seeing all your photos and mosaics - thanks for sharing them with us.

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