Went to church today and other thoughts...

Amy and I got out for our first ride of the year today. It was very badly needed and even though we didnt really have the money we decided to just do it. We needed the time together and the soul cleansing that rides and walks in nature give us. Going out in the woods or to a nature park is to me like going to church. I love nature and it refills my soul to be out and about and among it now and then.

I picked out a park a while back that we both liked and we wound up there today. We stopped and got ice cream on the way and it tasted delicious, and then we made our way through all the traffic to McCloud Nature Park in nearby Hendricks county. We walked two trails and part of another one, it was quite a hike.

We both took lots of pictures and saw a lot of cool stuff. There was a huge Pileated Woodpecker, but he was too fast to get a picture of. I was at a bit of a disadvantage, my best lens for the Canon camera I have has given up the ghost and picture taking today was rough with the long lens I have. Its a Canon lens but its a 75-300 and the closest it will focus is around 6 feet. The fact that its a long lens and also not a very good one also washes out the color a lot and plays havoc with the autofocus.

That said, I did manage to get a few good pictures, which I will share here.Click on the pictures to embiggen them :)

Here is a rather nice picture of a water strider I was lucky to get. He was darting around on a calm bit of water in a stream, there were a few others and a couple of minnows swimming about also.

This is one of a great number of bluebells we saw. Bluebells are about my favorite wildflower, the ones that havent bloomed yet are very pretty I think.

This is an amazing tree near the nature center in the park. I was really drawn to this tree, it had some sort of energy that is hard to explain. It just felt...right...that this tree was right there.

This is the view from the 100 year old bridge in the park. The shale cliffs were amazing, you could literally see backwards in time as you looked down the sides. I wanted to go look for fossils, but the only good cliffs were on the wrong side of the river and very steep, so there was no way to get down to them.

Its springtime in Indiana. The trees are busting out all over. I was about 15 feet away from this branch when I took this shot, I didnt even see the ant until I looked at the picture.

All in all it was a very good ride and a very good day with the woman I love. A day of reconnection for me, both to her and to nature. I needed it very badly and am happy that we got to go.

In other news, the fishtank continues to thrive. Plans for future fish have been put on hold, as Amy lost her job and I havent been getting hardly any hours lately. That situation is about to change though, and once a lot of other stuff is taken care of I have plans for two more tanks. Thats going to be my limit for a while, Im looking forward to having them. I have grown very fond of my albino catfish, and the bumblebee catfish have settled in enough that they come out to be seen once in a while. The betta likes to hide a lot, Im looking forward to giving him his own tank, likely a 5.5 gallon tank with maybe an algae eater or two and some gravel and a nice hiding spot. The other tank is going to be a 55 gallon tank which I already have and need some more equipment to run properly. All the current fish will go in there and be added to and then the 26 gallon will have something new in it, Im not sure what yet.

The rest of life is somewhat of a mess. Job issues, depression issues, issue issues, I have been a bit of a mess for a while now. I think Im starting to pull out of the downward spiral, at least I hope so. Im going to see the therapist I was going to a while back again and get back into therapy. Im also going to rekindle a few relationships with friends that I have let wither a bit and keep them going. I have a very good support network for when I am depressed, I just dont use it like I need to. That needs to change.

Thats about it for now...