Looking Closely

It is a gorgeous warm St. Patricks Day, perfect day for a hike in the woods. It's too early in the spring for wild flowers or even sprouts emerging through the leaf litter. Bird song was echoing through the trees and the sun was shining brightly. I brought along my camera and somewhere along the path decided I was going to exclusively use the macro-setting today. I was going to look closely, seeing things I may normally pass right by while looking at the large world. I took lots of pictures of moss, tree bark, fungus, last year's leaves and then sat looking down into a small creek and saw a bullfrog who did not make it to spring. Because of the winter there was only minor decay and what I saw was a ghostly image, a death dance beneath the water. But, of course, this is the natural way of the world and soon the frog will decay and the nutrients support new life.