Scenes from around the Cypress Boardwalk at Reelfoot Lake State Park.
I thought I would also share a bluegrass song that explains some of the history of Reelfoot Lake that you can enjoy along with the photos.
“The Days the Earth Would Not Stand Still” performed by Ralston Station
Words and Music by Larry Holder Copyright © 2011 (Larry Holder Music, ASCAP)
Two Black and Yellow Garden Spiders standing guard over a swampy area of Reelfoot Lake
“Give us clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for – because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.” ~Peter Marshall
Some of the flora and fauna living around the duckweed at Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge
“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” ~David Attenborough
“By being yourself you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” ~Edwin Elliot
“Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful. It is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Each season has its joys to treasure, to lift one’s spirits and bring us pleasure.” ~Unknown
While walking around the boardwalk at Reelfoot Lake State Park, this little warbler darted in and landed on the hand railing about two feet from where I was standing. It gave me a good scolding, and before I could get my camera poised to take a picture, it quickly took off to the shelter of a nearby tree. I waited around a while in the sweltering heat and humidity, watching it briskly hopping about from tree to tree, hoping to get a good photo. Disappointingly, I only ended up with a distant shot of its back before it eventually faded into the faraway trees and was gone. Still, I felt lucky to have seen this beautiful little bird and to have enjoyed its cheerful song that was called out so clearly to another warbler concealed in the woods nearby.
“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
“We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” ~G. K. Chesterton
As I was taking photos of some turtles sunning on a log, a Great Blue Heron boldly landed on one end of the log and very assertively began marching herself right down the middle of it, scattering the turtles as she went.
“Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do.” ~Irma Kurtz
Reelfoot Lake and the Mississippi River were at flood stage this past weekend. This had some of the little critters scrambling for a dry spot on higher ground.
My heart has no desire to stay
Where doubts arise and fears dismay;
Tho some may dwell where these abound,
my pray’r, my aim, is higher ground.
~Johnson Oatman, Jr.
walking on a country road 