A Walk on the Mild Side--and Meeting Nessie's cousin.

Taking advantage of a beautiful spring day, my husband and I went to a park with a nature center and hiking area. We both enjoyed the views of the river and greenery here as the earth begins to waken from its winter sleep.

The trails has steps wherever it goes up and down a hill of any steepness, presumably to stop erosion, so it is a fairly easy walk. At intervals there are also nice flat wooden platforms, which must be really nice for school field trips or other large groups. If everyone stands on the platform, no one is out trampling the foliage and it lessens intrusion on the natural habitat of the animals that live there. We saw squirrels, ducks, Canada geese, and a tiny bird, but the highlight was spotting Nessie's cousin.

In Scotland, there is a lake (loch) called Ness, where there have been numerous reports of a large creature appearing in the lake. "Nessie" as it is called, is undocumented but there are many legends and reported sightings.

As we walked along, I managed to capture several pictures of a Nessie-like creature. Fortunately, it was very still, apparently enjoying the spring sunshine as much as we were.

Can you see our dragon down there in the middle of the picture?  It is a fairly impressive dragon.

No, this is not a boat or a human construction, I promise. It's not a duck or a goose or other waterfowl. 

Fortunately, the sound of our voices did not scare it away, or maybe our Nessie is deaf.  

Or maybe we were just far enough away that it didn't care, but as I said, we were able to get lots of pictures.  

So I'll post another one, this one zoomed in and cropped a little closer.

I confess, I did blur the figure a bit in the first picture.  Here it looks even more scaly and dragon-like.
It is also more obvious that our Nessie is a branch caught in the river with leaves piled up against it.
It is still hard to see in the picture, but I promise, that's exactly what it was.
Pretty cool dragon, though, isn't it?

Now for some other pictures, signs of early spring along the river.

Tiny bright blossoms greet us alongside the water.

A close-cropped picture from the scene at the top.  I like the way the branches frame the river.

Brambles at the  river's edge.

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