This is Gap Creek in Tennessee...not very big but was it ever a fun place to play when I was a kid. Two or three summers my nephew spent the summer with us. I think we played in this creek ever single day, unless it was raining too much or something. We caught crawdads and muscles, skipped rocks, shot b-b guns, and stayed cool while doing it. This creek never got even a hint of warmness to the water, even though it was quite small.

And at the watering gap for the cattle, on the neighbor's bank of the creek, there was a big uprooted sycamore tree. I have no idea how big it actually was, but in my mind I remember it as huge. We would take snacks and climb out on it and eat, and laugh and watch the neighbor's black angus cattle.
Our girls did not have access to a creek this good as they grew up, at least not every day. But we did spend a lot of time at the creek pictured below. We fished and they waded and fished some. Every summer we bought one of the cheap wading pools for toddlers and it set in our backyard. The girls would bring home crawdads, pumpkin seed bluegills, and tadpoles and have some all summer long, or until a coon would discover them.

Maybe we should have a day called Buzzard Birdwatch, or something. I just got to thinking about when I went for my drive the other day...everywhere I went I seen buzzards. The above vulture is the first I captured, I missed a good photo of one on top of a barn with its wings outspread. I am not sure why they do this...I am currently trying to find the reason they do this.

If you look close at the photo below, there are two vultures on the roof towards the right side...I didn't notice them till I had done taken the pictures and I was there probably 4 or 5 minutes.

And below this is yet again another covered bridge. It is another one in Parke County, Indiana. It spans Sugar Creek--a place my husband and I plan to fish this summer. We have fished it some in years past but always on the weekend. Canoeing is very popular on this creek so not much fun to fish on the weekends. But husband will be retiring the first week of June so we should have all the time in the world to wade this creek.

He will probably use an ultra light most of the time, but I know he will fly-fish it some. I don't fly fish...I have never tried. If I try to picture myself fly-fishing all I can see is a wad of line back in my face. But who knows, I might give it a try sometime. I have an ultra light rod and reel combo that you could not buy from me--specially the rod. They don't make it any more. I done broke one--no, not on a fish, but during fishing. To make a long story short, we went to the two sporting goods stores in Terre Haute, and to the Kmarts and whatever else carried rods and reels back then. At the last Kmart we went to, they had two rods, on sale because they were the last of them, and my husband wisely insisted on buying both.

I tend to use these little jigs with a weed guard, or Johnson Silver Minnows, and sometimes beetlespins....I never fish in the creeks with live bait...though every now and then I like to take worms and go to a strip pit and throw a line out and just watch it. Though even then, I will have the line and bobber out, but will be casting about with my ultra light.

ETA: Just found that people believe the reason vultures will stand with outspread wings are for multiple reasons: warming the body, drying the wings, and/or baking off bacteria.

Skywatch Friday
from scanned photos...
The photo above may not look like anything special, but it was sure a surprise to me when I picked up my photos. This was a night shot, I am not even sure why I took the picture, I just know it was a total shock when I seen it. I had not realized the sky was like this at all. I remember coming out of the high school and taking it...so that has been several years back. I think I help my camera on top of my van to try to hold it steady, other than that I have no clue how long I left the shutter open or anything.

Sometimes I look at the above picture and like it, other times I think it is sort of boring. Tonight I liked it when I seen it so I am including it. I don't remember if I used a cokin filter on it or not, but I do know I had them with me. I have yet to use them on my digital....

And the one below is another of my rural sunsets....I did not alter the color in any way other than to touch up a few spots of dust with the clone tool.
And for more skywatch photos please visit Tom....