Back to nature

In the hustle and bustle of working for a living, it seems my entire life is tied to a computer these days. If not working on the computer, I'm doing a bit of poking around on the internet looking for information, reading interesting news and blogs, or finding the next thing I want to throw money at.

It gets tiresome being on a keyboard all day and well into the night. 20 years ago I was saying I wanted to work on a computer full time. Be careful what you wish for...

At any rate, sooner or later the time comes when I just have to get outdoors, spending time in the butterfly garden or going to a park or even just taking a walk around the neighborhood looking for flowers to photograph.

This weekend was one of those times. The impetus was the incredible photography of Clyde Butcher, inheritor (in my opinion at least) to the crown formerly worn by Ansel Adams. Butcher's black and white work, particularly of the Florida Everglades, is just amazing. After reading that Butcher was having an open house at his Big Cypress gallery, in the Big Cypress National Preserve, I knew it time to pack up the camera, toss it in the truck and get down the highway.

We arrived at the gallery around 2pm or so, a bit late in the day for really good light in terms of taking pictures. After oooh-ing and ahhh-ing at Butcher's work, much of it in very large format, we stepped out the door onto a small nature trail which wound back to a pond practically outside the gallery door, where we'd stopped when we first parked our vehicle.

It was photography heaven. In a very small space was a gator, a great white egret and an anhinga, all practically posing for the lens. Merrily, I clicked away, til I felt I'd gotten all the decent shots I could. We jumped back into the truck and went another half mile down the road, to the visitor center at the preserve. All the while, my husband counted gators on the far side of a creek-like body of water that ran parallel to the road.

We parked, jumped out and strolled close to the water's edge on the far side of the barrier erected to keep cars from going into the water. As Mikal counted critters, my shutter was clicking, each photo opportunity seeming almost better than the last. Some of the gators seemed gargantuan! The egrets, ibises and anhingas seemed not to mind them at all, strolling or wading past. Perhaps they knew it wasn't dinner time.

I particularly enjoyed watching a white ibis, the one whose photo is attached here. Those pink legs, with knobby knees, and that curved beak just make me chuckle. They're so darn cute -- and curious.

A couple of hours flew by, and as the sun started getting closer to the western horizon, we knew we didn't want to drive the two-lane highway back to 'civilization' in the dark so it was time to leave.

As I drove homeward, I promised myself we'd visit Big Cypress again and, more importantly, that I'd try to get some more outdoor time while the cooler dry season is here. The sense of calm which I always find when I spend time away from the madding crowd stayed with me all weekend. I want that feeling to be with me all the time.

Butcher says, in a CBS interview, "Nature is my spiritual retreat." He's got that right, it's mine too.