Wonders of Nature

"There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature." 

                                                                                 ~  Aristotle

For about four-and-a-half years, Mike and I have been travelling in our RV around the U.S. and Canada, but for the last 30+ years, we have been privileged to travel to some fascinating places around the world.  We've met wonderful people and have seen some incredible places and things.  In this season of Thanksgiving, we are thankful for the opportunities that we have had to see and photograph beautiful examples of nature, and we want to share a few of them with you.

“You know you are truly alive when you’re living among lions.” 

                                                          ~  Karen Blixen, Out of Africa

  

A mother lioness with her cubs avoiding the noonday sun in Kenya

"I am not the same, having seen the moon on the other side of the world"                                               ~  Mary Anne Radmacher

Moon over the Okavango Delta, Botswana

“Never waste any amount of time doing anything important when there is a sunset outside that you should be sitting under!” 

                                                                                                                                ~  C. JoyBell C.   

       

Sunset over Mobile Bay, Alabama

A Blue-Footed Boobie in the Galapagos Islands

Robin's eggs in a nest in a cedar tree in our back yard

A bee gathers pollen from a flower in Missouri

Butterfly in a flower garden in Missouri

Cactus in the Valley of Fire, near Carrrizozo, New Mexico

"Three things cannot be long hidden:  the sun, the moon, and the truth."                                                                      ~ Buddha

Sunset near Siem Reap, Cambodia

Okavango Delta, Botswana

"Wherever you go becomes a part of you somehow."
                                                                            ~  Anita Desai

Elephant crossing the road in front of our vehicle in Samburu Game Reserve in Kenya

Marine Iguana, Galapagos Islands

Great Smokey Mountains near Asheville, NC on a winter morning

Lion tracks in the sandy shoulder of a road in Zimbabwe

"The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears or the sea."

                                                                              ~ Isak Dinesen

Gulf of Mexico near Santa Rosa Beach, FL

Sunset at Ha Ha Tonka State Park, Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri

View to the sea on Iona, a small island in the Inner Hebrides
chain, off the western coast of Scotland 

A zebra grazes in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.
Like human fingerprints, no two zebras have identical stripes.

"Every mountaintop is within reach, if you just keep climbing."
                                           ~ Barry Finlay, Kilimanjaro and Beyond

Our view of Mt. Kilimanjaro on our approach into Tanzania

Algae growing on top of the still water of a cypress swamp in the
Mingo National Wildlife Refuge near Puxico, Missouri

A pride of lions, led by this big male, sun themselves near the
top of the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania

"There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle." 
                                                                         ~  Albert Einstein

Galapagos Banded Penguins in the Galapagos Islands

Morning Glories in bloom on the shutters on the front
of our house, as fall turns the leaves to golden brown

The complexity of a mushroom growing in Missouri reflects the beauty of nature

Whipple Cholla cactus in the high desert of New Mexico

A Macaw perches on top of a stalk of bananas
in a hut in the Amazon basin in Peru

Queen Anne's Lace in the morning dew at Hidden Valley Farm in Missouri

A mother elephant and her baby in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania.
Their redish-brown color comes from rolling in the red clay soil in the area.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens."                                              ~  Ecclesiastes  3:1

A Cardinal perches in the lilac bush outside of our kitchen
window on a snowy morning 

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." 

                                                            ~  Henry David Thoreau 

  

Sunset over Lake Manyar in the Rift Valley in Tanzania, taken from a high
plateau overlooking the valley.  The fertile Rift Valley is believed by some
to be the site of the Garden of Eden described in the Bible

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”                 ~  Abraham Lincoln   

Roses have long been associated with beauty, and it is easy to see why.
Photographed at the Birmingham Botanical Garden, Birmingham, AL

"You don't have the power to make rainbows or waterfalls, sunsets or roses, but you do have the power to bless people by your words and smiles. You carry within you the power to make the world better."                     ~  Sharon G. Larson             

The mist and spray from the falls forms a tropical rain forest and a
permanent rainbow over Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River,
at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe

Butterflies feed on fresh elephant dung in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe

From the awesome raw power of Victoria Falls, to the serenity of a Missouri cypress swamp, to the sight of yellow butterflies on a pile of dung, there is beauty in all of nature.  We only have to look around and pay attention to see it as we pursue our own Road Stories.

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."

                                                                         ~  Mark Twain