Nature Walk

Today we went on a nature walk, given there are no forests or big wide open spaces near our village, we had to make do with the open lots and the village park. The boys were excited to be out, they had been bugging me to go out on a walk with them for days.

It was really nice out this morning, although we did bring an umbrella just in case it rains. It has been a full week of cloudy skies and intermittent monsoon rains complete with muggy weather. Although, when the rain comes the breeze blows nice and cool, which is such a relief.

We took lots of pictures with my "bring anywhere" Sony digital camera, I love that it is small and can be brought along in my purse all the time and at the same time has a nice wide screen and can take up to 8 megapixel photos. Although, now that I'm trying to develop my own elements and stuff for scrapbooking, I sometimes wish I had those really cool professional cameras. But for now, I'm quite happy with this camera of mine.

The kids kept pointing out this and that plant, flower or insect for me to shoot with the camera, even pointing out different textures of stuff (they know I've been Photoshopping and keep asking me, "Mom, can you use that for Photoshop?". I wanted to show you some photos of the type of foliage we have in our tropical country. I'm not too familiar with the names of the plants (shame on me!) haha, but I promise to look them up (that is why I left blank wordstrips on the pictures - so I can fill them up later). Maybe the same flower or plant grows in your country too? If anyone knows what the plant is called, post me a comment so I can add the name.

What struck me was how very different the foliage and ground cover is here compared to the one in California. I had the privilege of hiking and going for walks near my sister's home (where the hiking trails are practically 5 minutes away!) during the spring time. The hills were covered in tiny yellow flowers, and anything that could bloom was abloom! I remember when I used to go hiking up mountains here in the Philippines (which was ages and ages ago, wah!!!!) how very beautiful everything was, so lush and green, gosh I can still smell the earthiness of the land and it is a wonderful fresh, musty and loamy smell. Both places are so different and yet both so beautiful. I wish the kids will be able to experience and go to more places than I have ever been, the world is so beautiful, don't you just want to give it a **BIG HUG**?

So on to the photos, here are some photos of flowers we saw along the way. Oh, BTW, Enzo took some of the photos, he likes having a camera in his hand (although I almost always for sure end up with gazillions of photos, hahaha, thank goodness for digital cameras).






This is it for today, I will post more photos of the kids and stuff we saw at the park tomorrow.

But before you go, always remember to "Love and Protect Nature" - this is the only Earth we have, lets keep it alive!