Posts Tagged: landscape
Collins Hill Park
I totally forgot about my day spent at Collins Hill Park a few weekends ago. This is where I encountered my little mantis and ladybug friends. The park is enormous and it took us two hours to walk the perimeter. There’s a beautiful lake whose reflections I’ve featured on the blog before.
Here are a few more shots of the lovely park. I bet it’s beautiful in the spring and summer!
Look up!
A little camera toss fun!
This is pushing the limits of my little cheap $150 telephoto and my skills. :) He was so far away!
It’s as if fall forgot to pass on from the park landscape.
Such a lovely pair of ducks. The low angle of the light allowed me to shoot them as if they were swimming on a black lake. I like the contrast.
Beautiful homes on the opposite shore of the lake. A bit too close to each other but lake real estate is scarce!
Protraction
The birch trees lined the banks of the lake, upright and fiery. I couldn’t help but look down and see the stunning painting-esque effect the almost calm water was having on the scene. Collins Hill Park is large and beautiful with miles of walking trail and this stunning lake in the middle. Jeremy and I are going to try and find the prettiest parks in Gwinnett and this one was definitely up there!
Cabo
I still think of all the beautiful oceanside scenery around the tourist city of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I honestly can’t wait to take off again and find myself back in Cabo. There’s really nothing ‘foreign’ or ‘international’ about Cabo, other than it’s location. Everything is in US dollars, everyone speaks english, and the activities are all centered around tourists. However, all this is super fun so I’d be pretty excited to be able to spend a week hitting all the watersports, underwater activities, and eating myself silly with all the pseudolocal fare.
What a lovely memory.
Autumn Chattahoochee
It’s already been a few days since I’ve been back from my honeymoon but already the atmosphere of normalcy is already separating me from the mental state of that trip. I’m settling back into work, some business is already calling, and my sudden influx of all this non wedding-consumed free time is liberating … even exhilarating! I have started to notice small things around me again which is actually pretty great.
Since Jeremy is now working just a couple miles down the road from where I work, he is dropping me off and picking me up from work everyday. It’s kind of awesome. We start and end our workdays together.
I’m also carrying my camera with me again, everyday. This morning as we crossed over the chattahoochee, I whipped out the camera and grabbed this scene. The fall colors, barely muted, laced against against the river. It felt good to feel the weight of the camera in my hand, and to not be gripping a steering wheel wishing I could take the photo. :)
I’ve felt somewhat distant from who I am the past year. The wedding went beautifully… but I’m ready to realign myself.
Walking
So.. I scheduled today’s other post like a week and a half ago. Nothing tells you how much of a big whiner you are than your past self whining at you today! I’m doing a lot better now. I started the rapid fit program with Dez this week. I have one word for it: brutal. The diet is totally doable, and I enjoy it for the most part but the exercise requirements are a bit crazy. It’s only day 3 but I’m worn out. I’m not going to stop though, mostly because I feel like I am capable of doing anything and having the energy to do so after this kind of day. Yesterday was pretty typical. I woke up, went to work, did one pretty harsh workout at boot camp, and then went to the park for an additional hour of running/walking. Then even though I thought I’d be destroyed, I found myself with the energy to run to Barnes & Noble, JoAnn Fabrics, Publix and back home to cook myself dinner and be in bed by 10pm. I even plowed through a book until 2am or so and then went to sleep. Rousing myself by 8am was actually kind of easy. I even spoke to my mom about wedding finances over the phone yesterday without wanting to go outside, lay on the asphalt and have a tantrum.
This is the power of an amazing workout.
For some reason God only knows, I keep forgetting that adding 1-2 hours of P90x type activity + time alone in the calm solitude of nature adds nearly 4-6 hours of energy to my day. The days I’m most useless and letting my emotions dictate how I feel are the days I haven’t gotten my workout in.
I need to cling hard to my exercise time. It’s the only time during the day that I can clear my mind of everything. The extra hour in the park is like time with God. I am alone, with the birds and the trees and the wind as my only companions and I am drawn easily into a spiritual communion with God. I lay my fears, worries, anger, and solitude out in front of him. I don’t get answers or anything, but I definitely feel a sense of relief, and my sense of aloneness in these situations dissipates. It’s been pretty great. It’s solidified my day so far.
I took this picture with my phone walking up a hill at McDaniel Farm Park, where I was Monday. Seriously, thank you Gwinnett County Parks and Rec.
