Picturesque Spring Easter Walk

Posted byGary FultzPosted inabundant life, adventure, Adventure story, Build Faith, cold, deception, devotional, devotional thoughts, dreamer, end of life, eternal, Faith, Flora, Gary Fultz Blog, Inner Peace, Jesus Christ, Nature, Nature and Inner Peace, outdoor spiritual truths, Photography, purpose in life, quality of life, solitude, spiritual adventure, spiritual concepts, story teller, story telling., walk with God

Spring, with the excitement of warmer weather and a fresh new growth coming, is a season of revealing what once was. The squirrels are out finding their lost seeds and acorns. Animals that didn’t make it through the winter feed the crows, bald eagles, mice and bear awaking from hibernation.

I was looking for old antique machinery in the woods while being watched from above by this friendly red squirrel

Yesterdays woods walk reminded me of this. I have been looking for signs of the old doe (a much loved deer from an earlier blog). She has been missing for a month now. I may never find her as nature is quite efficient at the end game of all things including us. Dirt. Given time even the rocks will be dirt.

For those of you who like old machinery from generations ago, spring is the time to find stuff. I took some piece pictures (like…what is this?) for the imagination. Also piece meaning “what is not hidden by weeds and fallen trees“.

Everything is old and mostly dead in appearance. Grass, weeds and even the lake ice (which is not very safe to walk on in spots). I couldn’t help but notice numerous golden rod bulbs that housed the gall fly larva (a whole story by itself of intricate and complex design).

Goldenrod bulbs
house’s for the gall fly larva

Soon all these magnificent weeds and grasses will be fertilizer for the new growth. The same cycle is happening in the lake. As the shore ice thaws and freezes the old weeds, cattails and clutter blown in to the lake is revealed. Soon the lake clutter will be sediment that is ever so gradually turning the lake into a pond. For now it’s still a great fishing lake as well as nesting grounds for all kinds of birds and animals. I ended my nature walk with a few more pictures before running out of battery. Enjoy.

Edge of the still frozen lake
The beavers await spring as well
A spring melts the ice first
shoreline ice texture
Shoreline weeds
Shoreline weeds under the ice
cattail remnants above and below the textured ice
Melted snow pond in an opening mirrored a nearby tree

I enjoy spring but I cannot miss the symbolism within the realness of death and life. Death happens in the fall and winter for new life to begin in the spring. We die to live in so many ways. Being retirement age many aspirations have died to make way for others. Old habits have died for better ones. Free time died for a job. The old machinery died to make way for the new. You and I cannot escape our bodies going the way of the old doe. A seed dies to sprout life.

The final question of life is “how do we live?” really! Because the follow up question when our bodies are dirt and fertilizer for the next springs foliage is the same “How do we live?” How do we pull an Easter Jesus Miracle and not stay dead after we die? My own life long faith journey has found both gold and fools gold. Walking through the beautiful but dead goldenrod symbolizes nature in so many ways. Everything alive eventually dies. Only one didn’t stay dead.

So, after every winter I venture off the beaten paths, deep in thought, absorbing natures stories of life, beauty, perseverance, struggle and death. This year I wanted to share some private moments in my Picturesque Spring Easter Walk with you. To share my faith in a risen Jesus who says there’s more to life then dying and more to living than being alive.

Gary

*** Looking for more thought provoking content? Check out a sample of my other blog

Published by Gary Fultz

Outdoors Man, Hunter, Fisherman, Guide, Writer / Author, Photographer, Public Speaker, Musician, Song Writer, Story Teller, Follower Of Jesus. Love God and family and total strangers

62 thoughts on “Picturesque Spring Easter Walk”

  3. I’m loving this Spring Walk. Thank you for the pictures of treasures you found, and the revelations of new life you brought out.
    The “piece pictures:” wow. My family moved to an old farm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the ’70s, and most of the machinery looked like some of the farm equipment we saw in “The Wizard of Oz.” Your photos took me back.

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    1. Thanks Kathy
      There is something fun about discovering old pieces of history and antique outdated stuff in the weeds and woods. Some had large trees growing up through them. Lot’s of history and stories there.

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    1. Thanks Bruce. Sorry you don’t get out in the woods much. It’s a bit like a soothing ointment, good for the soul for awhile like coffee for the morning temperament. Not a cure though as you know for really living here and beyond.
      If you ever get this way, I have a nice boat…just saying.

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  5. I’m surprised by the amount of old farm machinery you’ve found out in the weeds and woods–old, but still a pleasure for the eyes. M-m-m. Perhaps another lesson: those ancient but captivating bits of machinery offer a metaphor for the unfading beauty of gentleness and serenity (1 Peter 3:4 AMP). Great post for pondering, Gary. Thank you!

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    1. Yes Nancy, I love the unfading beauty of gentleness and serenity. The local deer even like to hang out there. The ways one could ponder on the old machinery in the woods are so numerous I’d have to take my shoes of to count them. It’s been the bone yard for many things since the land was homesteaded. Many things could be restored easier than many of us.

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  6. I live along a “Rails to Trails” nature trail. In the early 1900’s, this area was a booming place. Right below the house I live in was a railroad station. Farmers brought products to the station; many small coal mines operated in the general area. About 3 miles north of here was a sand plant and somewhere a glass plant–all covered over by the woods now. It’s fascinating for the history buff. Probably most of the people who use the trail don’t know the history of the area.

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  9. Good one!! And the pictures are amazing, if you don’t mind me asking, what do you shoot with? I’m looking to sometime replace my canon rebel t2i, she’s getting some years on her!

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    1. LoL..Thanks Alicia
      I shoot with the 3Ti Canon. It’s the lens that makes a shot good or not. I shot every one of these with canons white 300 fixed lens f4. The bad news its 9x the expense of a 100-300 lens. I get better color and sharpness. I handheld these shots as it was a bright day and gave it some depth of field when I could. The squirrel was about 12 feet away.
      That being said, I usually shoot with a tripod when I can so I can put some great depth of field into the shot and increases sharpness. If I upgraded I would go to the D series but the body is 4k and I would have to get serious about photography at that level.

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      1. Wow it can get expensive real quick!! Reminds me of my husbands hunting hobby so if I decide to breakdown and replace my camera at some point I’ll have to be prepared that my husband will “shoot” back with a gun accessory request I’m sure!!
        Thank you for the great camera info, I appreciate it!!

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    2. Oh yes very expensive, however, the cameras we have have way more capabilities then I have learned to use. It took me a lot of time and playing with settings mostly to get decent sunsets and night time moon shots. Then there are the close-ups for small details. all are different settings for good pictures.

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  11. Wonderful pics & meditations there Gary. Life is indeed cyclic is it not. One of my favorite verses is in Ecc (1:5): The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.

    That is a serious lense you have there. Bought a Nikon D3500 a few months back. Hope to get out like you soon & make some good use of it. Photography was once my passion and did my own film/paper development. Yes, I’m heading towards fossilization. Familiar with Ansel Adams’ photography?

    Always good to read your posts. Always positive & God-centered. Take Care & May God Bless!

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    1. Thanks David. I do like the cycles and seasons of life but I am constantly reminded how short they are and that we have a limited number in each of our lives. I am also a sunrise sunset guy.
      Your D3500 will do well if you get some good lenses that work well for your eye to frame the shots you want. There are so many life application pictures one can frame with a camera…have fun with it.

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  12. Truly a picturesque walk. Thank you for sharing the thoughts and pictures you collected along the way. Walking along with you through this post got me thinking on Jesus’ words, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies it remains only a single seed. But if it dies it produces many seeds (John 12:24).”

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  17. I grew up in Seattle and the woods were our back yard. So many memories of gliding dragonflies, buzzing bumblebees, catching pollywogs out of our little crick, and so much more. I didn’t know God back then, but He knew me, and now I’m found and He set me free.
    Thanks for sharing your Sping walk and delightful photos Gary.
    Susan

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  18. Thank you for taking us on your spring walk! Awesome photos. I like the one with the weeds under the ice. It reminded me of the glass-bottomed boats in Florida when you see everything through the bottom. No ice though! Wishing you a wonderful Easter!

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    1. Thanks, The ice went out on the lake today with high winds but will freeze over again tonight. Winter does take-backs for awhile I’m afraid. And I really am trying to figure out the best way to restore or just display the old farm machinery stuck in the woods.

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  21. All your pictures were beautiful and uplifting……thank you for sharing. It’s April as of today so may you be renewed in your Spirit this spring. GOD brings restoration and renewal. Blessings on your Easter as well.

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    1. Thank you so much Deb. That makes the work going into a post worth iit for me. I am always amazed at what picture, word or phrase God uses in our lives to set a table before us for his presence

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  23. I love your writing, Gary. And I can relate to that you write about. You definitely sowed some Spring seeds. And about rocks turning to dirt like everything else will~do you know a way to speed this up?? {not for but the rocks?) 🤦🏼‍♀️😜. Happy Resurrection Weekend. Truly because of Jesus, I can live. When I fell to rock bottom, he was there. And wouldn’t you know it? I fell flat on my faith. I felt a love I never knew existed and I’ve bet my life on it!

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    1. Thanks Karla. I like sowing seeds. A very hot Fire, freezing and thawing and a seed in a rocks crack growing a tree will break rocks down. I’ve seen a little tree growing out of a house sized rock and the whole rock is breaking in half from the tree root. It’s an amazing process. I have walked across rocks on the lakeshore after a forest fire and an inch of the rocks are like egg shells crumbling under foot. So earthly rocks may break down but Christ our rock will never change.
      I like your statement “fell flat on my faith” that’s quite a picture. Faith from our rock, Christ has a lot of perks like Love, Joy, Peace…and so on.

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      1. You’re welcome, Gary. I really need to be more observant in nature at times. How cool is the house size rock cracked by a root! Our Rock is indeed the best. Blessings!

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  25. Gary, I really love your pictures–you have such a good eye for images that speak. And your writing stirs both the mind and the heart. Do you mind if I reblog this post?
    These pictures remind me so much of my boyhood wanderings on my grandparents’ farms, one on the plains of Kansas, the other in the Ozarks of Arkansas. I used to love coming across those old, rusted harrows, plows and other implements.

    Happy Easter, my friend.

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    1. Thank You Pete. So much can happen in the pauses of life. Trying reconcile (see what life should look like) taking up our cross and following Jesus as well as getting alone on the mountain or in a closet to pray, spending time in the Word, building and maintaining our relationships, body life….and so on

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  27. Love the idea that you “found both gold and fools gold.” I have mined both and sometimes offered both, but have learnt late in life, the fool’s gold just is not worth the effort to create, share or hold onto.

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    1. So very true Beth. I think I do a few of these walks each spring just to focus on the Resurrection and imagine the depths of what Christ did for us to gain new abundant life as well as God’s perspective

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