Lens-Artists Challenge #218 – Over The Hill
“When you help someone up a hill you find yourself closer to the top.”
Brownie Wise
The Lens-Artists team is excited to welcome Donna of Wind Kisses as this week’s Guest Host. Her challenge “Over The Hill” gives me an opportunity to feature one of my favorite things, my neighborhood walk. As a beach community we have very few hills; the image above is the slight hill I use to reach our beach at the point closest to my home. The rest of today’s images were all made during my walks over that hill this week.
“Every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written.”
Juansen Dizon
As I’ve said more than once, I’m not much for seeing the sunrise. But this week I joined two friends at sunrise to see if we might catch some endangered loggerhead sea turtles hatchlng. We accompanied the leader of the island’s Turtle Patrol and learned quite a bit about what has been an incredibly successful program (for more info about our turtles click here). It was a glorious morning but alas, no turtles this time. The image below includes( from the left) two Turtle Patrol volunteers excavating a nest and removing/counting unhatched eggs, Kiawah’s Turtle Patrol Leader showing an unhatched egg, a hatchling (from a previous outing) on its way from a nest to the sea. The mothers crawl onto the beach overnight and lay up to 5 nests, each with hundreds of eggs. During 2022 Kiawah has had close to 500 nests. Sadly, only 1 in 1,000 hatchlings will live to adulthood.
“Take a walk with a turtle and behold the world in pause.”
Bruce Feller
I came across a beautiful piece of driftwood buried deep in the sand on my first walk and was amazed at its size – quite unusual for us. By my next walk the driftwood was gone, carried away by the tides. I suspect although fortunately we were not hit by her, the ocean swells were more aggressive due to Hurricane Fiona, which may have contributed both to its arrival and its disappearance.
“Maybe trees do have souls.”
Michael Christie
Although Kiawah is a haven for birds throughout the year, on one of my walks there were more seagulls than I’ve ever seen. In the image below it appears that both the fisherman and the gulls were hoping for a successful catch 😊. Check out the number of birds further along the beach to the left of the fisherman!
“If I have all of the gear but I can’t bait the hook, the fish have nothing to worry about.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
There is always something worthy of note on my walks to and from the beach. In the image below I came across dozens of butterflies feasting on some of the plants managed by Kiawah’s landscaping team. They do an amazing job keeping the island verdant for our residents, visitors and abundant wildlife.
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The image below is one of the first I see on my way to the beach, and one of the last as I return home. Although I’m sure Mr. Nietzsche is correct about great thoughts, I’ll admit I’d not consider any of my thoughts “truly great”. That said, IMHO there are few things as rewarding as a simple walk – either alone or with other like-minded companions. My walks bring me peace, an appreciation of nature’s beauty, and time to reflect on life’s blessings and challenges (helping us to climb life’s many hills as it were 😊).
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius
Sincere thanks (and Happy Birthday wishes) to Donna for joining us this week and for her very interesting challenge. (As an aside Donna, you are definitely NOT over the hill!!) We look forward to seeing your responses. Please be sure to use the Lens-Artists Tag and to link your posts to her beautiful original here. Thanks also to those who joined us last week for our Opposites challenge. The creativity and originality of your responses was terrific! I’ll be leading the challenge again next week with a Treasure Hunt. To give you a head start, here’s the list of any or all of the items you’ll be invited to include:
- A pet or pets (yours or someone else’s)
- The moon or the sun (extra credit for both in one image)
- Clouds (extra credit if you also include rain or snow)
- A reflection
- A child (extra credit if with other family members)
- An umbrella (extra credit if you include a person using it)
- A truck (extra credit if you include the driver or what the truck is hauling)
- Autumn foliage (extra credit if it’s something that only blooms in the fall)
- Something fun you found on a walk
Until then, as always please stay safe and be kind.
Interested in joining the Lens-Artists challenge? Click here for more information.
Travels and Trifles 
Oh, so happy I stopped by. I just miss the ocean shore, and your images brought a smile to my face. I hope that the shore wasn’t battered too much with the hurricanes.
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