Well, I’ve been back to my favorite spot; by hike and by bike, alone and with family, not with the dogs since the last time I wrote about it but maybe sometime this week.
These are some of the things we’ve seen along the way. Above, a Loggerhead Shrike looks over his kingdom. 
Cottontails show very little fear of humans as they hop around foraging for food. I’ve seen about a dozen this week, around trees and along the culverts, sitting right along the trail next to fences.
A pair of Mallards floating side by side on the edge of this pond area. They were not a breeding pair – actually were two males, interestingly enough. Haven’t seen mallards all year, then I see them out of town and get all excited, only to come home and find some in my “big backyard”.
Along my walks and rides out in this area, I have contemplated how much this area has changed. We were out here in September of 2010, before we moved in together. We had borrowed my parent’s canoe for a paddling event, and took it out to the water here to make a find on the island in the middle of the lake. At the time, there was nothing out here. I was having trouble even placing where we parked and entered the water. I thought it was at a school, but I am guessing now it was actually the Lakehouse, a neighborhood clubhouse nearby where my son is taking art lessons now.
It is funny how things change. It makes me think about how everything changes like this; if you look back on your first impressions of something, and then compare it to what you know now, you can feel that sense of change. Like the progression of a relationship with a person, my relationship with this place has changed over time. I am so much happier with it now than when I first “met” it.
