Winter Glory

A couple of days ago the weather was so beautiful, I decided to take a short drive down the Natchez Trace towards Natchez, just to "see what I could see" to capture with my new camera. I was hoping to see some deer close to the road, but the only wildlife I saw were a few cows and horses, and they were grazing on the far sides of their pastures ... too far away to make an interesting picture, even with my zoom lens. But I was enjoying my outing, anyway, and stopped a few times to capture things that caught my eye ... like this field of sage grass. Its rusty color was striking against the drab winter pallet of its surroundings. And not too far down the road, these colorful wild berries growing along the tree line caught my eye, and I stopped to get a closer look. I especially like the way the broken limb is the focal point of this next picture (you can click on the pictures if you'd like to get a closer look). As I was going back to my car after photographing the berries, I came across this old tree stump and was delighted to see this interesting looking fungus (it doesn't take much to delight me when it comes to taking pictures) ... By this time, I was about halfway to Natchez, and I decided to turn around and save that trip for another day. I had one more stop to make, though. I love moss growing on trees and thought this tree was especially pretty against the brilliant blue January sky. The moss hung like curtains from its limbs ... All of these pictures were taken with my new Canon 5D camera and Canon's 70-200mm zoom lens. My new Canon 24-70mm lens will be delivered today, and I can't wait to try it. Unfortunately, rain and thunderstorms have moved back into the Vicksburg area and are supposed to stay through the weekend, so I'll have to be content with inside pictures for a few days. But that's okay ... at least I was able to get out and enjoy that beautiful day on the Trace, and capture a little bit of God's winter glory ... and, for that, I thank Him.