It's always a blessing to walk a few meters away from home and nature's already waving. In fact, just a look away from the veranda, my eyes would feast on the green lush right in front of me.

I have to also say that a lot of things had changed in our humble town, it is not the same "provincial" town we used to have. There are many establishments that had opened up and given opportunities for the locals to also enjoy.

But the good thing is that most of those things are only available at downtown where the market is located. So here in our area, we still can enjoy the beauty of nature around us. I love seeing trees and green grasses.

Last week, together with my husband and little one, we strolled around the neighborhood, just across our house, we walked into the green grasses going to the ricefield area. Our town is a coastal one but it also is rich in agricultural land mainly growing rice. And so we are surrounded by rice fields and it's almost time again for planting rice, in fact, as of this writing, there are farmers who had already started to grow their seedlings.

But this blog is not about the rice fields, I am going to share with you the different textures that I have captured on my mobile camera while we were walking around here.

Since we have our toddler with us, our pace was slow, we let him walk by himself, the pathway isn't flat though so he was trying to balance himself, actually, it's been a while since the last time we had came here so he isn't used to this slopy pathway but he was able to manage it and while the husband was helping the baby out, I captured this log that had been sitting on this side of the path for months now since Typhoon Rai (Odette). The tree fell during the typhoon and now its bark has dried and the texture shows quite interesting.

I actually wondered why nobody had taken it as firewood. Some houses here still use wood for cooking so maybe this tree isn't good as firewood or maybe it is owned by someone that they haven't used it yet.

The core of the bark looks really interesting! This was obviously sawed. On the other hand, I also spotted a decaying part of the tree and that's in the right photo.

I didn't let the opportunity pass without taking a photo of the grasses. This is what we call as carabao grass. I don't know the story why it is called as such but it is abundant in this area, it covers the entire hill up towards the irrigation area.

On the left photo is some kind of mushroom growing on the dead tree bark. On the right is a certain plant that had many buds in it but hundreds of ants were also feasting on those buds. I guess they are sweet or maybe they can be food and those ants were going to store them.

I was trying to get a macro shot for the ants but I was afraid to get too near, macro shot on my phone requires that I am just three centimeters away from the subject, I was afraid of the ants!

Anyway, I was able to get a flare shot of the wild sunflowers. These kinds of sunflowers are very abundant in our area. In fact, just next to our house is also a land filled with these. If there were no stories of snakes living in that part of the area, I'd be more than happy to lie down and take photos but it's just too dangerous.

What's so nice about these wild plants is that they just grow fast and flower every single day! It's nice seeing them and they add beauty to the surrounding!

After a few minutes, we finally reached the ricefield area. As you can see in the photo, the owner of the field had already prepared it for planting season! But what I really love about this place is the coconut trees as they are tall and very picturesque.

In fact, we had used this area here for many of our family photos! The recent one was when I took my sister-in-law's maternity photos. Check it here: They Spent Zero on Baby and Maternity Photoshoots

Can you see some of the dried coconuts on the ground? I guess the owner of these coconut trees are not very concerned with the fruits that they just allow them to drop. Most of the coconut tree owners here are actually monitoring the fruits of the trees so they can either harvest them and sell them or get the young ones for dessert.

Our next stop was at the river. It's been ages since the last time I had been to the river. I guess I was still in grade school when I last visited it but my husband had been there a few times when he was exploring our place.

But as we pass by this area where the ground was covered with dried coconut shells and husks and other kinds of wood and bamboo stalks, I took the shot. I believe that these were left after the typhoon.

And now we move forward. Can you spot my husband carrying our little one? This is on the way to the river. There were many Mahogany trees! I have to take a shot, the sun was just shining nicely.

I was trying to keep up and now we were just at the side of the rice field. There were plants which are a little dangerous, we have to be extra careful not to hurt ourselves. These plants on the left photo above have blades which will give us a cut if we would hit on them carelessly so as you can see, those who always pass here had cut them, their leaves are supposed to be long. I remember getting a lot of cuts on my legs and hands before when I was younger and naive. I held into those plants never thinking of any harm but as I reached home and washed, I noticed the cuts, they aren't deep though but they are still cuts.

The ricefield is not totally dried as well so we can't also pass by that side. Anyway, we reached the area where we will use to get to the river. There's a cemented wall that prevents the river water from going into the ricefield.

The photo on the right shows the leaves of a group of bamboos in the river. These bamboos are just right next to the river so I bet they are benefiting from the constant water supply that they had grown so much.

Finally, we found ourselves at the riverside. The sounds of the water flowing were so relaxing that I regret not going here often. But it isn't too late because I can come here anytime, it's not too far from home and I can let my little one enjoy throwing pebbles into the water.

The husband went to the farther area of the river to take videos.

I remember back when I was younger, my brothers would bring me with them and we would swim in the river. It used to be a deep river, now, it's totally different but we used to dive and swim here together with the neighbors and other children in the area. It was fun until we get home and our mother sees us with our uniforms drenched in water. You know what happened next.

It's nice to get out and bask in nature sometimes. While I wanted to really do this often, it's not easy especially when you are a mother. But seeing different textures of nature that day was fulfilling.

And so I hope you enjoyed this afternoon's walk to the river not far away from home. Do you also live near a river? What do you usually do there?