I am not that much around in the forum, but I found this important to let you all know. No need to comment, just think about it that's all what I ask

The wonders of mother nature

I just want to tell you a little story to think about it.
Every morning I go for a long walk with my dog Django through the forest.
He is still a puppy and need to be trained which cost a lot of patience.
So if I go to the forest I can't bring my camera with me which I miss of course.
But now I tell you what I saw during my walk from about 1 hour this morning.
I stood still by a field where horses graze, and I saw a pheasant that came out of the grass,
just 3 meters from me away,  he caught me as well and turned his head to keep an eye on me,
and jumped away, just so funny to see. I just follow him with my eyes with a smile on my face.
If people would see me they would think "she is crazy" haha, but who cares!!
Then after a while I heard the sound from the green woodpecker,
and I was listen very carefully to see if I could spot him, 
and yes there he was, and landed on a tree nearby.
A shame I had no camera with me, but the moment in time is projected in my soul.
Again I kept an eye on him to see what he would do, and he climb higher and higher in the tree....
so nice to see this in front of me. Later I follow my route, and a squirrel cross my way,
so Django saw it and went after him. I could hardly stop him, pufffff, it is his instinct I guess.
He was sniffing everywhere...lol. So I follow my path, and cross the road to another park I go daily.

What I saw there was a real nature painting, so many different autumn colours, 
the smells, the silence, the mood.
And guess what, I stood there and then there came a buzzard....
he/she flew quite very low, about 3 meter from the ground
and landed in a tree without any leaves in front of me, my heart was beating very fast, 
I was so under the impression and thought:
O MY GOD,
This would make a great shot I never had the chance for!!
He sat in a dead tree, a perfect pose to get a cool shot, but again, no camera with me.
We where eye to eye, and he flew away.
So during my way back home I was thinking to write this little story.
To let other people know how precious the little things are given from mother nature.

What I try to explain is this:

Don't complain about things we don't have:

A blind person would be happy to see these moments.
A deaf person would be happy to hear  sounds
A cripple person would be happy to walk that path I did today

So...just think about it

even without my CAMERA, I have memories I can talk about,
moments in time,
printed in my soul forever

I am blessed, and live day by day
make each day count, what today is, can be end tomorrow

PS: sorry if I miss spell words, I am still the Dutch one

with Love Ilona

"He who binds to himself a joy
Does the wingèd life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity's sun rise."

William Blake

Sometimes it's good to remember there's a life outside the boxes of computers and camera's.

Thanks for sharing.

**Tanchelyn: Exactly, life is not based to use only your keyboard daily,  I am glad that I can enjoy the little things daily and that I live in a huge box outdoors where I charge my innermost battery
**

Reminds me of the time when I made an organized round-trip of fourteen days through Turkey with a group of people on a bus. We were always traveling from one tourist attraction point to another. After several tiring days, the guide told us one morning that we could sleep for an hour as the bus would be driving through uninteresting terrain where there was 'nothing to see'. It must have been somewhere between Cappadocia and Antalya. The guide put on some calming Japanese new-age music (Kitaro) and all of the 52 people on the bus went to sleep. Except one: me... And I'm so glad I didn't.
That uninteresting terrain with 'nothing to see' was so awesomely beautiful that I didn't have eyes enough to take it all in... Every meandering valley, every little water flow, every crack in the rocks, every bare and barren hill top seemed more beautiful that the previous one.
Thinking back, that bus ride was perhaps the most beautiful and inspiring hour in my life. What some people call uninteresting or 'nothing to see' can be so beautiful to others. All it takes is a couple of eyes and a receptive heart...

**girsempa: and this is what I mean, moments in time will never be forgotten. It is so good to read your story
**

This was such a wonderful story and I thank you for sharing it.
Tha last two mornings i had toe pleasure to see deers walking around on the currant field just outside my garden :)  Yes we are blessed.

Ilona, I've had that exact same experience, where all things of beauty unfold in front of my eyes like a planned theme park, only I'm the only one attending.
A bear saundered across the road in front of me no more then 15 feet and no one else was on the road, a buck with a huge rack of antlers stood chest deep in a field of wildflowers staring at me as if to say "I'm posing, go ahead and take my picture", but I had no camera with me.
Sometimes it a simple sunset, so colorful and streaming through the clouds, that it brings tears to your eyes. Shadows of a cloudy sky flowing over the forest terrain .... making the trees look like they are dancing.
Once I saw a rainbow so bright you could barely see the terrain behind it, it looked as if it was solid and by the time I got my car pulled over to grab my camera...... it was faded.
These moments are very vivid in my mind and I think of them as God's gift, just for me to see. Now when those kind of things happen...... I don't even try to get the camera out.... I know these are meant for my eyes only, if I tried to get the camera out I would miss the moment in all it's splendor.
Thanks for sharing your vision and allowing me to share mine!

**
**bentchick: **your story is so alive, I really understand the way you felt. I have such moments very often, and that's why I wrote about it, and I am so happy that I have my "HD" in my soul, and that I can repeat the stories over and over again. Even without power, I will remember them. And you are so right about this "**I know these are meant for my eyes only" **that's how I feel it as well.
It does me good to read such stories like yours!
**

Ilona, some years ago I was walking on a small fire patrol trail in a secluded woodland.  No camera, just a walk in the woods.  As the corner turned in the trail a wonderful red fox was   drinking from a puddle of water a few feet from me.  The fox looked up and turned to go into the woods.  The fox stopped behind some bushes in the woodline and watched as I passed by.

The area was only rarely visited by people and I was likely a rare site for the fox, just as was the fox for me.  My heart felt blessed by a special spirit and a connection of sharing a moment.  No photo could create or replace that moment.  Yes, there are other moments but the fox came to mind this morning.

Yes, with eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to feel we have much to experience in the nature around us.        Tom.

TomDart: I am so happy to read your story, if I close my eyes and imagine what you saw, then I feel exactly the same you described, for sure it was a special moment, these moments we can't buy, these moments are special moments for each of us.

Sometimes what Mother nature has to offer us can never be captured so well in photography or art and is best savoured in our hearts and brain

Danny, I fully agree.  The "dynamic range" of what nature may offer the open senses is surely the stuff of personal joy, beyond the technical to capture.

Some folks apparently do not sense such things in appreciation. I wish they did.   Those of us who do have such open appreciation are truly blessed.