While out for a walk on our country road, I suddenly came face to face with a startled rabbit. He was frozen in his tracks and was sitting like a statue with one eye intently gazing at me. Clearly, he had not expected this encounter. After sizing each other up, I proceeded forward, and the rabbit took off like a shot.
“Courage is facing your fears. Stupidity is fearing nothing.” ~Todd Bellemare
“Hello Rabbit’, he said, ‘is that you?’
‘Let’s pretend it isn’t,’ said Rabbit, ‘and see what happens.”
~A. A. Milne
This muskrat was intently feeding upon vegetation on the edge of a flooded farm field near the Mississippi River. His concentration was so focused upon his task that I was able to take several photos before he realized I was there. Finally he looked up, spotted me, dove underwater and quickly swam away.
“Courage consists not in blindly overlooking danger, but in seeing it, and conquering it.” ~Jean Paul
While out for a drive, we came upon this flock of wild turkey foraging for food on the ground out in a field.
“Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow.” ~Edward Sandford Martin
Though I sometimes hear distant group howls late at night — a sound that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck and sparks instant fear in the eyes of the family dogs — it is rare that I see one out in the open during the daytime. This coyote crossed the road in front of our car and quickly made its way to the back of an open farm field.
“Good reputation is the first requirement for a trickster.” ~Unknown
This tiny frog was sitting on a blade of grass in our backyard. I believe it is an Upland Chorus Frog. Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife describes it’s call as “short, raspy and rises in pitch; sounds like someone dragging their thumbnail over the teeth of a comb.” Not a terribly flattering description of this little frog’s singing voice, but I sure do enjoy sitting on the screen porch at night and listening to its chorus.
“Every life composes a song of its own.” ~Jeff Veach
… He sat down close where I could see,
And his big still eyes looked hard at me,
His big eyes bursting out of the rim,
And I looked back very hard at him.
~Elizabeth Madox Roberts
“Sometimes, the inessential is essential.” ~T. L. Rese
“You may seem alone but you are not, for there are always eyes watching you. All the wildlife of the woods, the insects, birds, and animals, are well aware of your presence no matter how softly you may tread, and they follow your every move although you cannot see them.” ~Thalassa Cruso
walking on a country road 