Nature makes me VERY happy!

I used to walk 3 miles a day with my girls but then I stopped for some unknown reason but today we started again...all 3 miles of it too.  I took my camera to show you our discoveries along the way but let me tell you.....it NOT easy to walk 2 dogs on retractable leashes and take pictures at the same time!  Whoa Nellie!
But they are very well behaved and when I get "remote" I take Nitty off her leash and drop Annie's on the ground when I want to take a picture. 

I am lucky to live in an area where there are lots of roads but few people.  I can walk without seeing other houses or people....very isolated and so peaceful.  Yet I don't have to cut a trail through the woods...it's on both sides of me.  The best of both worlds!  I don't mind hiking through the woods but you'd better dowse yourself in Deet and watch for snakes so the fact that I can walk every day and enjoy it without taking a chemical bath for the ticks is very nice or put on my boots to protect my ankles from snakes.  This morning was perfect for taking pictures too as it was overcast but I did notice the knats and mosquitoes were out and about.  So, I guess I'll be needing my spray after all.

I have always been an outside girl and grew up loving nature.  It is one of God's greatest gifts to us and one we don't take advantage of often enough.  The benefits are many...lowers your blood pressure, strengthens your heart and your lungs and keeps your muscles from atrophying and keeps melancholy away.   The plants and flowers I'm showing you were not planted by anyone except maybe some industrious squirrels on occasion! LOL!  Like the Iris below in the middle of nowhere...but prettier than mine at home...maybe I need to hire some squirrels?

 I love daisies.....sweet smiling faces.........and did I mention how relaxing it is to sit near a little stream and listen to the water running over the rocks.......ahhhhh.......heaven!

I have no idea what this plant is but it's getting ready to bloom so I have to come back and see what it's like when it opens up fully........I'm thinking it's a young tree sapling that came from one of the many flowering trees down here.

The one below smelled so good....like cherry blossoms so maybe it's a choke cherry or some member of the cherry family.  Another one I need to revisit.  I should tag them with a ribbon so I can tell where they are after the blooms fade and see if there are cherries or berries later.

There's color and flowers everywhere.........

Even in the mosses and molds growing on decaying trees.........I think they're beautiful and I would like to grow some at home and identify them.....add that to my "to do" list............

 

There are rocks everywhere and not just little ones either!  It makes it hard to garden, farm, and dig period!  I guess you'd call them boulders but they come in all sizes here.  This one is big enough to have a picnic on. 

  

 more wildflowers....I need an identification book.........

 You can smell this before you even see it......Honeysuckle which grows wild down here....lucky us!

 I love this picture of the woods with the sunlight filtering down through the trees.............prettier in person I must say.....the camera (especially mine) doesn't do it justice.

I'm not sure what these seed pods are but I should have grabbed some to plant.  It looked like a red bud tree with the heart shaped leaves but not sure they have seed pods like this.

Nature is such a great landscaper!  Look at that little meadow of daisies in a clearing.......

 

 Two different type of purple wild flowers.  The bottom photo looks like phlox.....

No homes, no people, no traffic................NO PROBLEM!  Heading back home now.....we're all tuckered out but it was a great hike and I hope you enjoyed it along with Nitty and Annie and I.....they're napping now, maybe I should do the same! LOL!  Have a great Saturday and don't forget to stop by tomorrow to take a Sunday afternoon spin with me.