Peace, Love and Catfish #ThursdayDoors

 Hi All, 

I’m stepping up my game this week. Two posts in one week is a new record for me. I’d love to return to normal eventually. 

In keeping with what appears to be a theme with me, my doors are often just the tip of the iceberg for my post content and today is no exception. 

We were invited to join family and friends for a camping excursion at the Platte River. In our life raising children we have camped many ways-tents mostly with a few cabin events. As we get older, tenting is less desirable but cabins with primitive setups outside are the best. This place measures top of the scale for me and the cabin chosen was in a perfect spot. It was on a hill overlooking the lake with a short path to a beautiful grassy hollow where hammocks could be hung and there was a cool breeze in the shade. A few more steps to the lake and you could cast your line.  Everyone caught catfish, including moi! It was my first time to actually fish and even though I hurled the rod at the hubs to reel him in, it was a respectable fish. Sadly, it was catch and release only. Everyone kept hooking a fish and after awhile we joked that it must be the same two fish who were thrill seekers coming back again and again. 😜😂

Here are a few images from our Sunday fun day excursion, complete with a hike to a rather small waterfall that was situated in a lovely spot.

For more great doors posts, be sure to visit our host Dan Antion’s place! 

This was a most important door. 

Such a peaceful setting

One of my favorite guys! ❤️

This guy is an ace fisherman.

Our event planner and resident sweetheart.

Haaaaayyyy..

Paw Paw tales

This was a bodacious fire! 

Got corn?

The firemaster! 

She put together an awesome selection of possibilities for our ‘hobo packs’. So yummy! 

This one was mine! Yeah, I had to have a friend set him free. 

Our fishing spot. 

They heard my Cheeze It bag rustle. 🤦‍♀️

Beautiful new winged friend

Okay, more doors. The cabin was ‘modern’ but rustic enough for me.

This is where the coffee and yummies happen. 

My favorite door-the great  ‘out’doors. 😀

Beautiful Japanese beetle landed on the hammock beside us.

We found the trickle-I mean-waterfall! 

Enough to dip one’s toes into.

And such a beautiful place

My hiking partners. 

Lead onward men, lead on…

Going my way?

Going my way?

#1linerWednesday brought to you by Linda Hill

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Photo taken at New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Egret fishing.

Natural Order

I spend a lot of time visiting parks and wildlife reserves in search of the beautiful living things that are found there, and I have hundreds of photos to show that they really are magnificent. We are also very fortunate to have a beautiful neighborhood with a small, man made lake where the ducks and various seabirds visit, hang out and come and go at will. I love them and take photos sometimes. I normally prefer not to disturb the general scene with my presence. The wild birds don’t react much to human presence here near the ocean due to living among the hustle and bustle of city life themselves. The ducks, however, think that anything moving is a potential carrier of food, and come waddling over and disrupting any serenity that exists. It is normally quite mundane and quiet as we sit on the porch sipping coffee on a Saturday morning. 

Yesterday, however, found Nature abuzz with excitement and drama and my hubby-the Spotter-had his eye on the details while I grabbed my camera to try and capture the moments. 

Despite my best effort and good intentions, the dim light and excessive movement of the water did not aid me in getting the best shots. But I think you will be able to get the gist of how the morning events unfolded. 

When any Cormorant or Anhinga begins circling in the water with intent, you can bet they are going fishing. I’ve managed to capture images of both birds fishing and get photos of them with their little silvery prizes; so when hubby alerted me that the Cormorant in question had caught something, I grabbed the camera and started to shoot. But I was soon to realize that this was no ordinary catch. At first I thought it was a snake. Wouldn’t you? 

But as I watched the usual process of my feathered friend trying to position its prey for proper swallowing, I noticed it didn’t look like any ordinary snake. It looked like it had fins! I told my hubby and he began looking this up on the internet while I kept snapping. First we decided it was a snakehead fish. Then we found out there were multiple kinds of fish that looked like snakes. It would only be after I looked more closely at the digital images that we would discover exactly what our friend had removed from the little lake. It was an invasive Asian Eel. 

It would appear our wise fishing friend had succeeded in fulfilling his obligation to the natural order. He was quite proud of himself as well, strutting around the lake for a couple of hours after he had swallowed the treat, bathing in the fountain and drying his wings.

He even tried to break up an attempted Muskovey murder. But....that’s a story for another day. Ducks with ill intentions. 

Have a great week everyone! Keep a sharp eye out for invasive eels in your bathtubs, toilets and dishwashers. 🤣😳

This post sponsored by Linda Hill’s JusJoJan prompt/.