cedars of lebanon state park

look!   i caught a photo of the hummingbird moth again this year!  is this exciting, or what?!  you can see my first ever sighting last year HERE.  the bee balm that he is enjoying is a little past its prime, but this is more of a close up than last year.  gosh!  can't wait till next spring to try for another!  i love this sort of thing.

these were all taken at a trip to one of our local state parks, cedars of lebanon.  we have three state parks just within a 15 minute radius of our home.  how lucky are we?  we are actually going to this one again with our cub scouts for a hike in the morning.  although i'm not so keen on the early hour, i'm trying to encourage myself by thinking of the nice early morning light and the change in scenery due to the changing seasons.  there is always something new to see in the great outdoors.

this is not the best photo of the underbelly of a spider, but i sure loved the bokah in the background.

fascinating foliage.

queen anne's lace is such a trooper.  from early spring straight through to fall it blooms.  amazing.

we found lots of blackberries this trip.

the boys decided it might be illegal to pick them at a state park.  i think they were secretly excited about breaking the law.  they sure were nervous when we had to walk past a park ranger with berry stained hands and clothing.

another thing i like about our state parks is that there is always a bit of history.  this one has more than most as it was part of the state park system formed with the public works initiative program during the great depression.  i'm going to try my best to finally make wpa day this year.  it looks to be a good one!