An enjoyable summer morning

This post is a little out of sequence because there are so many photos involved that I kept putting the project on hold. This is a picturesque tour of one morning in July when Gizzy and I got out early and visited all three of our most favorite places to go (1) Lake Erma (2) Bank's Lake and (3) Roquemore Park, all of which are located right in my town. I feel very fortunate to have these places in such close proximity. As I drove by Lake Erma, you could see the wisps of early morning fog still hovering over the water. At Bank's Lake, the sun had just started to rise and you can see a faint hue of pink shining through the landscape. Gizzy's paying close attention to everything around him as he sits on top of the picnic table that's located at the pier where people fish or just observe, like I and Gizzy like to do. Ever so slowly the sun was rising and the colors of the sky and water grew more vibrant each minute. I don't know why, but Gizzy loves to watch people fish, like he's doing here. It looks like a father/son team are fishing on the opposite pier and Gizzy's paying close attention. As for myself, I kept on admiring the beauty of nature and took one beautiful photo after another... Gizzy watches me take his photo while people fish in the background. My photogenic boy! As we walked back to our car, I stopped to take some more closeups of the water's edge with all the cypress trees and water lily pads. Back on solid ground and into the car to go visit another place in town. When I first moved here, I was told this tiny graveyard across the elementary school was a pet cemetery. Only upon closer inspection, I discovered that it is a very old graveyard that has headstones from the 19th Century. Look at those dates on the toomb stones. They're barely readable, but I enjoyed walking through and reading all those unusual names that are no longer used today. Right next to the graveyard (and across from the school yard) live these rescue horses. When they saw me standing there with my camera, they decided to mosey on over to see if I have anything good to eat. Suddenly, they all bolted away, because the owner was calling them to breakfast. You can tell they love to eat and are well taken care of. At Roquemore park this beautiful crepe myrtle caught my eye as the morning sun eluminated the red blossoms. It seemed to glow! Heading towards the bridge, I saw this lovely reflection. Leading the way, Gizzy's looking down into the water to see what's there. Just sniffing around at the 911 Memorial Prayer Garden and checking things out. This is the attractive foliage of the Lacetop Hydrangea that I failed to photograph this summer. I love this photograph of this weeping willow. There is no editing here and the sun actually made a spotlight for that pretty willow. They remind me of being a young child in Germany because we had lots of them growing on our property near the ponds. One of my favorite sitting spots, right beneath the tree. Gizzy checking things out and enjoying the morning. Here I photographed the water to capture the sun. I'm very pleased with the outcome. A blue dragonfly, one of my favorite insects since I discovered they eat mosquitoes and gnats. I chased this butterfly all over the place before it finally landed up in a tree and I had to crop the picture to get a better view of him. It looks like a Monarch to me. On the drive back home, I saw the Anhinga bird sitting on his usual rock in the middle of Lake Erma worshipping the sun (as I call it.) You may need to click on the picture to see him better since I don't have a strong zoom lens on my camera. A white Heron stalking for food at the water's edge in Lake Erma. Another Heron sitting on the little peninsula at Lake Erma. This pretty moss next to my back porch under the tree is normally nonexistent in the summer, but since we've been having so much rain, it's green and vibrant looking and I simply love it. It looks like green velvet. And since he was such a good boy, he gets a treat...Vienna Sausages cut in little chunks all in a row... My little monkey face and I had a very nice morning indeed!