I was out driving through a county park he other day, and it was one that I used
for photography in my past.  It was a great location for both autumn
and winter landscapes. I also used it for flower macros (also great
for this)  and on a few occasions for birds. There is a golf course
that is separated from the remainder of the park. There is a single
vehicular road running through regular park, and the park is divided
into two sections on either side of a county highway.

I first began going there when I was a kid and my friends when we would
take our bikes on the 15 mile round trip to visit what was the nearest real park near us. It was one of my earliest “road trip adventures”. When I was a young married man
(really a just a boy) I would take my wife there as it had become a
spot for hippies (like me). Finally, after living in other parts of
the state and country, I rediscovered it as a photography spot.

The great thing about the park, was that the Pike River wandered
through on both sides of the county road. You could lose yourself along that river just as if you were in the wilderness. In recent years they have been  “improving”  the park by
asphalting a new walking lane. I see now they are paving another new
walking path on the “wilderness” side of the park. I have hated every
new improvement they made. I mean, can’t human beings leave anything
alone?

The more I thought about that the more I realized just how selfish I was
being. Especially because I wasn’t even going to use the park anymore.
I sat and wondered about the people who first knew this as a
wilderness before nearby homes were built. Then how about those
country homeowners when they first made it a park. Then the golf
course. Now this.

We each have our own perceptions of a place, built only on what we have
known and seen. Is it possible, that now handicapped people will be
able to use those paved trails?  Is it likely, that the majority of
the taxpayers prefer what they are doing? I should also had that this
is in another county and I don’t even contribute tax money to this “no
admission fee” park.

Everything exists to us only as we know it. There are others who’s
memories are distant from ours and of a different flavor, although
they are of the same subject. Sometimes it can be difficult to admit, that everything wasn’t conceived just for our own personal use.

On the subject of personal use and perception, there’s not a single remote forestry road in Wisconsin’s Chequamegon National Forest that I have not driven, and I have done so in every season. There is barely a wilderness trail there that I haven’t
hiked. I have taken the majority of the wilderness dirt roads that I
have found in the forests, prairies, mountains and deserts of America.
I have hiked hundreds of total miles from the side of those primitive
roads. No matter what happens to those roads and trails, nobody can
ever take away from me the relationship I have had with them. When it
comes to wildness, we can become separated, but never really
divorced.

Perception is a state of mind, and not always a reality. Our perceptions
can be good and constructive, or bad and destructive. It’s up to each
of us.

Create your own perceptions every opportunity you get, and make your
own opportunities.

A few unrelated pictures bellow. You might say I had neither rhyme nor
reason for their selection.

Celandine with dew.

Colorado sunset

Wetland sunrise

Lake Michigan sunrise

Male eastern Meadowlark

Another one showing his best side. I always photographed animals from
any and every angle.

Noisy but beautiful. Male Red-winged Blackbird

Getting personal. Clarke’s Nutcracker, Colorado.

Winter Goldfinch

Lake Superior (Michigan) lighthouse in morning light.

Scenic, South Dakota old general store with its 1906 sign.

Dew covered Foxtail grass at sunrise.

God Bless,

Wayne