The last time I was in my hometown of Brockton, MA I was freezing. It was very cold, and not just for this spoiled Floridian, it was COLD. And I was out for the sunrise, taking photos in the lovely local park, when I came upon two swans. I believe I posted a photo of the male, but the female was just a pile of white feathers on the bank of the pond. I focused on her for quite a while, waiting for her to lift her head, but she didn’t. I wondered if she was alive since she was flattened out, looking a bit like a puddle of white, and I eventually gave up, or gave in to the cold, and moved on.
I returned yesterday, on a day of record-breaking heat. It’s not that people who live in Florida love hot weather, it’s that we love the air-conditioning that makes living with the heat possible. I was back to the park at mid-day despite the heat, and thinking about those swans as I drove through the park and stopped when I saw a pair of them, but without cygnets. I assumed that if the swans I had seen had them they had grown up, but I stopped to take pictures. When I continued I came across a lot of Canada geese, young ones grazing along the road, being guarded by several adults who allowed the passers-by to come fairly close to them as they grazed. Almost too close because I had the zoom lens on the camera and they were walking towards me, almost too close for that lens. Only a short way further down the road I hit the jackpot, swans again, but with 8 cygnets, and all swimming close to shore hoping to be fed. Taking photos of them, however, proved to be my un-doing. In my rush for photos I had locked myself out of my car, which was bad enough by itself, but I was in danger of missing the cousin reunion that I had been looking forward to. That’s when I met my guardian angel. If I had spoken to her a little earlier I might have called the local George’s garage and paid a lot less to be rescued, which she told me after I had already called someone, but she refused to leave me by myself until she knew I was rescued and on my way. So Maria, if you are reading this I want to thank you for your moral support yesterday. As annoying as it was to make such a dumb mistake, it would have been much more stressful without you sharing it with me. You were a blessing to me and I will try to pay your kindness forward in my travels… 
