On Sunday, DnA decided to treat me to a short (short because of GD) hike in Castlewood State Park….and the Park reminded me SO much of the Bannerghatta area that I go to with Geetanjali and co, that I was quite homesick for a bit! One great plus was that there was NO plastic, and one great minus was that there were NO little chai-stalls giving hot little thimble-chais, so delicious and giving us that hot-mouthful boost…

Here’s the scenery; that’s the Meramec River (we went to see the

Meramec caverns

once, and

very beautiful they are, too! )

Here's the River Trail at the park...it's so reminiscent of the paths we walk through on our birding and wildlife trips... Here's the sign for the State Park: We met up with a cyclist with his mountain terrain bike... The only bird which I managed to get a (foozly) photograph of, was this DOWNY WOODPECKER rat-tatting away on the wood, in true Woody Woodpecker fashion: DnA are checking that GD is comfortable in her sling: And GD is ensuring that she has an eye out for everything and doesn't miss the view: Miniature flowers put little molecules of sunshine on some plants: Unknown little fruits looked red and juicy in the grass: A tree had decorated itself with mushrooms: They were frilly,delicately-coloured creations: The grass bent its head to see where it had sprung from: Spiders had spun their gossamer over the leaves: The only three insects that I got on camera (perish the thought of any mammals!) were at the home of DnA's friends; here's a spider bunching itself up, trying to spin a web: I caught it as it swung past the bottom of the hammock-post: I didn't compensate enough for the way the harsh afternoon sun would wash out this horrific-looking insect: But this delicate dragonfly (it looks like our PIED PADDYFIELD SKIMMER back home) cast a shadow as delicate as the patterned gauze of its wings, upon the leaf on which it sat... Coming home, I got this lovely vista of a church, from behind D's shoulder:

A rolling stone gathers no….

but I did gather a lot of lovely mental images of that short outing!