I dream of picture perfect days and some dreams come true. Today was one of those days. I started my day with a walk in the park and the scenes I saw there initially were the normal, regular ones. I reached the park early and it was not very bright then, there weren't too many people either and that was peace enough for me. My walks are a mediation on nature, I stop to admire every little bloom, insect and bird that comes my way. When Nature puts all of those on display it becomes my special day.
This wild passion flower bloom is not cultivated, it grows in the wild. With the first summer rains a couple of weeks ago the seeds which were patiently waiting in the sun hardened Earth suddenly sprung to life. The vines haven't even reached a couple of feet on the fence and they have started to put out these stunning blooms.
Personally speaking I am biased towards these wild passion flower blooms, I just love the colors, white with tinges of pink and purple centers remind me of spring. The lovely fern like calyx just seems to add to the delicate color balance. These are not so prominent in flowers of young vines but they do show up in blooms from hardened vines.
I couldn't stop myself from going trigger happy. I just couldn't get enough of these blooms. I noticed that most people just walked or jogged past these blooms without even as much as giving it a slight glance. What stops these people I wonder, if beauty such as this can't stop them in their tracks what else would it take?
The anther and the pistil, the reproductive parts of this plant look so unique and different from the other flowers bringing it an aspect of curiosity and interest.
There wasn't enough light when I took these images, this seem a little dull, but it conveys the mood of this image. The birds were making random efforts to catch fish. None of them looked like serious efforts. Only the cormorants were very active, they are forever diving into the water gobbling fish and drying themselves. It seemed like the other birds still waited expectantly for the sun to give them the warmth and energy they needed to start another day. There is a painted stork here in the forefront a grey heron (a close cousin of the great blue heron) and a cormorant in this frame.
The painted stork is motionless while the grey heron was looking for food actively. Although he didn't get too far into the lake, he seemed to know where his breakfast would come from.
Here you see he has caught a fish as big as his beak. If you enlarge the image you'll see this more clearly. He struggles with his breakfast as the captive fish fights to set itself fand live another day.
The snake like head which is a cormorant which just came up from the water for fresh air, the grey heron , the painted stork and tiny red headed ducks are all in this frame. It was wonderful to see so many kinds of birds living in harmony, there was peace all around, almost picture perfect peace.
Still with his mouth full the grey heron was hopping about spinning around trying to swallow the fighting fish. The cormorants which kept popping out of the water from time to time also seemed to be successful with catching fish for breakfast. Nonetheless our lonely painted stork didn't seem to catch anything, he didn't seem to really care.
Breakfast is almost done and a satisfied grey heron here poses from the middle of the lake. A depressed looking painted stork seemed to sulk around. No pain, no gain as the saying goes, breakfast doesn't land in your mouth on its own, you've got to put in some effort, I reminded my sad friend, the painted stork.
Taking my advice seriously the painted stork was finally fishing for breakfast. I waited for a long time to see if he caught any fish but I witnessed nothing of that sort. I hope he got to eat something finally. My stomach was growling now and I had to stop staring at this lonely stork and walk the three kilometer stretch before I could get any breakfast myself. The first rays of the sun had started to hit the waters and make it shimmer like liquid silver. The ducks took advantage of it and came from out of nowhere. Time was flying by and I had move on.
A day that starts so perfectly cannot get go bad, right? If you answered positively then you are right, I had a wonderful day and now its almost done. I hope you have a perfect day yourself. Have fun!