A few weeks back I had a strong desire to see or photograph some animals. So I took off to my local duck pond in the middle of a neighborhood a few miles away from my apartment. It felt great to photograph them. There were lots of baby ducks and geese swimming around and I tried my best to get as close as possible to them without scaring them away. I don't own a professional camera with a telephoto lens or anything fancy. I used my small digital camera and I didn't quite get the results I was looking for. I did have a great time watching them swim around dipping their heads in the water and observing the sunlight glistening on the water. It was wonderful.I'm reading a book right now called Tales of a Female Nomad: Living at Large in the World by Rita Golden Gelman. Its about a 48 year old, newly divorced woman who travels the world by herself. She travels to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Israel, Indonesia, and other places to meet with people and learn their culture. My favorite place so far is when she visits the Galapagos Islands. She talks of her observations of the blue-footed boobies, frigates, marine iguanas, and sleeps a hundred yards away from a sea lion colony.She even swims so close to them that they brush her with their whiskers. Reading about her adventures make me want to be a marine biologist. It sounds so exciting to travel to a place and actually study, and photograph animals with a group of people. I'm still in the middle of the book so I may have other favorite parts later. I still have not read about her travels to Indonesia, New Zealand, and Thailand. Rita Golden Gelman says, "There's more than one way to do life".
Speaking of travel, Joseph and I have decided to visit a farm in Vermont in September. It is a therapeutic work farm. It will be a short visit. It is possible that we might move there to be work crew leaders and advisors for the residents who live there. It all depends on this visit. The thought of leaving friends and family is scary but the adventure of living in a different climate and lifestyle is exciting to me. I've lived in the same place for so long it seems it may be time for a change.
