Chance Encounter

Racing past dafodills toward the car and home, I saw pink blossoms shimmer. I stopped, thought a moment about pressing time, walked down to the lowest part of the garden, and lay in the flower bed. 

Every year I shoot the same two plants and every year I can't get a single good shot. Today was no exception. 

But then this happened. 

From behind me, a voice called: "Robley, is that you?"

Without turning my head so I could get one last shot, I aswered: "Oops, yes, and I'm doing something I shouldn't!"

"And I haven't?" she asked. We both laughed.

A walking acquaintance of the best kind -- involving wolf spiders and American watersnakes and dragonflies -- Gayle lives now in West Virginia, where, she says, it's too cold and she can't just walk out into the woods or to a lake as we can here. Like me, she strolls with her camera (a DSLR slung around her neck) and doesn't mind breaking a few rules or getting dirty to shoot the beautiful things we both love.

I still didn't get the just-right shot this morning, but I came home, having enjoyed a far richer "snap."