Portrait Of The Artist

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

Henry Hartley (September, 2024)

As mentioned in the previous post, we went to Tumalo State Park this evening and enjoyed the sunset as well as the large ponderosa pines. Brian took a few pictures with his phone and was messing around with its ‘portrait mode’. He took this portrait of me and I like it quite a bit. In addition to posting it here, I’ve also added it to my “Who Am I” page. I don’t generally like photos of myself but this one is good. As you can see, I’m standing in front of one of the larger ponderosa pines and leaning lightly on my camera with the long, telephoto lens, mounted on a monopod. Up until now, the photo on my Who Am I page has been from 2003, when my beard was still dark. It’s been quite a while since that was true, so I thought it would be a good idea to update the page with something more recent. My forehead has definitely gotten a bit higher but I still have hair on top of my head. In the last two years I’ve let it grow long for the first time since college and it’s not longer than I’ve ever worn it. I’m not sure how long I’ll let that go, but for now, it’s long and curly.

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Tumalo State Park Sunset

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
Tumalo State Park Sunset

Tumalo State Park Sunset

We had a fairly quiet and restful day today. Lisa’s car is still in the shop, although we’re expecting that it will be ready to be picked up either tomorrow evening or the following morning. After dinner we drove to Tumalo State Park on the Deschutes River north (downstream) from downtown Bend. There were some substantial ponderosa pines and I showed Brian, Lisa, and Cathy that if you smell in the large crevices in the bark it smells like vanilla. Shortly after that we saw a sign that told about the pines and it mentioned the vanilla smell. In addition to the sunset photos, I took some HDR sets of the river which turned out pretty well, although if I had done it sooner they would have had more sunset colors in the sky, which would have improved them.

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California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Photograph taken on Monday, September 16, 2024 by Henry
California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

California Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Because we didn’t have a vehicle most of the day (Lisa’s is in the shop and Brian had to go in the truck to Sisters for work), Cathy and I walked to a small park in the neighborhood. The most prominent plants in areas that are left to themselves seem to be gray rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) along with a few different grasses and some other smaller plants. As for trees, when you get into the hills you find ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), lodgepole pines (Pinus contorta), grand fir (Abies grandis), western larch (Larix occidentalis), and mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). In the flat lands east of the mountains, though, the only tree you see most often is the western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis). In the park, moving around in the junipers, were quite a few California scrub jays (Aphelocoma californica). These are a little smaller than the blue jays we have at home (Cyanocitta cristata). Although it’s not as obvious in this photo, they have quite a bit of a very lovely, pale blue on their head, back, and tail.

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The Moon

Photograph taken on Sunday, September 15, 2024 by Henry
The Moon

The Moon

We went up to Sisters today and walked around a farmers market. I bought some flank steak at the Sisters Meat Smokehouse, which I’ll fix in the next day or two. We also went up Pilot Butte in Bend, which is a nice place to get a view of the town and surrounding area. As for the surrounding area, it was fairly hazy and there were clouds so we couldn’t see the tops of Mount Bachelor or the Sisters. To the north we could see Mount Hood, although it looked a bit more like a dark cloud than the top of a mountain. Late in the evening we looked for Saturn, which was in the sky not too far from the moon. I got a few pictures where you can actually see that Saturn has rings, but they aren’t going to win any awards. This photo of the moon won’t, either, but I think it’s a nice shot, anyway.

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Crater Lake

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 14, 2024 by Henry
Henry and Cathy at Crater Lake

Henry and Cathy at Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake


Crater Lake

Crater Lake

On the Saturday of our first weekend in central Oregon, we drove down to Crater Lake, about 85 miles (as the crow flies and about 100 miles by road) southsouthwest of Bend, where we were staying. When we got there, we found that the eastern half of the circling road was closed until 4:00 PM to motorized vehicles due to a bicycle event. We were told that we might not be able to find a parking spot, but “have a nice visit”.

As it turned out, we had a nice visit and found parking, although not at first. We found a spot on the western section of Rim Drive and walked on the Rim Trail. That’s where we got our first really good look at the crater and its lake. It’s also where the first two photos presented here were taken. The sun was to the southeast and there was a bit of glare on the lake surface, making it seem less blue that it did later, when we were on the south rim near the Crater Lake Lodge, from whence we could see it in all it’s blue splendor (as in the third photo).

The first twp of these photos are three-shot HDR images. The second and third are both composite panoramas, stitched together with Hugin – Panorama photo stitcher, which I cannot recommend enough. If you ever get the chance to visit Crater Lake, I seriously recommend it. We spent the better part of a day there, even driving part of the eastern half of the Rim Road after it opened. It was still closed between Skell Head and Phantom Ship Overlook for construction, so we were not able to drive all the way around.

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Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Photograph taken on Friday, September 13, 2024 by Henry
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)

Lisa dropped Cathy and me off at Drake parke late this morning. We walked up stream and across the wooden bridge at Mirror Pond. Then we turned around and went down stream past another foot bridge near First Street Rapids Park. In Pacific Park, just below the small power station we saw quite a few cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) and I was able to get a few half decent photos. They were mostly high in a tree when not flying so I was looking up at a fairly steep angle, which wasn’t ideal. We do have cedar waxwings at home but we don’t see them often. This is the second time we’ve seen them here in three days, so we were pretty excited.

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Animals at the High Desert Museum

Photograph taken on Thursday, September 12, 2024 by Henry
American River Otter (Lontra canadensis)

American River Otter (Lontra canadensis)


Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)

Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)


Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)

Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)


Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

Bobcat (Lynx rufus)

Lisa dropped Cathy and me off at the High Desert Museum south of Bend this afternoon. Going to this sort of place is always a little bit of a risk because you’re paying to get in before you know much about it, even if you’ve looked at their web site. Nevertheless, we decided to take the risk and I’d say it was the right choice.

The indoor exhibits are nice, with life-sized dioramas depicting various scenes of life in the high-desert area of Oregon. There is also a nice art collection, with some really beautiful works. Our interest, though, was more on the natural history of the high desert. There were signs and exhibits that told us about the plants and animals that are found throughout the region. We had already identified the rabbitbush (Ericameria nauseosa and related species) as one of the most abundant and obvious shrubs in the area, since it is blooming just about everywhere. But there were other plants we were not so sure about or that we hadn’t yet seen and identified (in our short time here so far). I particularly like the manzanitas (various Arctostaphylos species). These are seen throughout the grounds of the museum as well as all over the wild areas around Bend.

Outdoors, we first went to see the American river otter (Lontra canadensis) exhibit. There were three otters and they were very actively swimming around, coming up onto the shore and posing for us. I got a few nice shots of one standing up and looking around, as well as some close ups, like this one. We saw quite a few golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis) as well as quite a few chipmunks (Neotamias species), all running around in the woods.

Back inside we saw Juniper, a female common porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) and a bobcat (Lynx rufus), both of which were beautiful, even if in captivity for whatever reason. The museum isn’t really cheap but for us, we considered it worthwhile, especially if you’re new to the high desert. It’s a nice introduction to the natural history of the region.

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Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Photograph taken on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 by Henry
Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Drake Park, Bend, Oregon

Cathy and I took a late 40th anniversary trip to visit our dear friends, Brian and Lisa in Bend, Oregon. I didn’t take any pictures on our flight day. Our first full day we didn’t do too much, dealing with jet lag and such. Lisa took us downtown and we walked on the Deschutes River through Drake Park. We saw a flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). The river is artificially wide and slow here because there is a small hydroelectric dam just below here. The park has really nice trees, mostly ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa), which is the predominant tree in the area, but there are also some quite large spruce trees (Picea species) and a large willow (Salix species).

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Harmonica Suitecase

Photograph taken on Saturday, September 07, 2024 by Henry
Harmonica Suitecase

Harmonica Suitecase

We went up to the National Apple Museum in Biglerville today for the Harvest Festival put on by The Hartley Residence. There were three groups playing, Chuck Darwin and the Knuckle Draggers, Dream Home, and Public Disco Porch. My grandfather played the harmonica and I always enjoyed his music so I chatted briefly with Billy Jones of Chuck Darwin after their set. This is his suitcase of harmonicas.

The three groups were very differenct, ranging from bluegrass to rock and roll with Hadley of Dream Home in between. I’m not sure how to categorize her music, but I plan to become more familiar with it via her two CDs.

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Cabin and Pond

Photograph taken on Monday, September 02, 2024 by Henry
Cabin and Pond

Cabin and Pond

We went up to Pennsylvania for Labor Day today. We drove and walked around a little at the Gettysburg Battlefield, first stopping at the visitor center and then going to the Peach Orchard. We met Dorothy at Presidents Coffee, getting there about the time she got off work. We went to Home Depot and bought lumber for porch railings and the stairs in the cabin and then went to the property. After unloading the lumber we took a walk through the woods to the big tree and back and this photo was taken then. We had a lovely dinner of salmon with Dorothy and her housemates before returning home late in the evening.

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Red-spotted Purple and Tufted Titmouse

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 31, 2024 by Henry
Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax)

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor)

We went to great falls this afternoon and walked on the Goldmine Loop and then the Woodland Trail and back by the Burma Road, and finally down to the towpath and back to the parking area. The woods were quiet and it was a very nice walk. We didn’t see or even hear many birds in the woods but it was still really pleasant, if a bit warm and humid. We saw a butterfly that I didn’t recognize. Looking it up after getting home I found that it’s a red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax). I think it’s a beautiful butterfly in the genus Limenitis, the admirals and viceroy butterflies.

When we were on the Burma Road over Widewater we saw a cormorant and then down on the canal we saw more butterflies and a few little grey birds in the cattails. At first we couldn’t figure out what it was but then one hopped up onto a blade in plain sight and we could tell that they were tufted Titmice (Baeolophus bicolor).

I would definitely walk this trail again. I think it would be especially nice in the spring.

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American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

Photograph taken on Sunday, August 25, 2024 by Henry
American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis)

We drove out to McKee-Beshers this afternoon. We didn’t get out there when the sunflowers were blooming but thought we might see birds on the seedheads. We didn’t see indigo buntings (Passerina cyanea), probably because they are migrating south. We did, hovever see a lot of American goldfinches (Spinus tristis), like the one pictured here. I got a photo of a blue-gray gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) and an eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe). At one area, where there are shallow ponds, we saw a green heron (Butorides virescens) and down by the river we saw a great blue heron (Ardea herodias).

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Female Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea)

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 24, 2024 by Henry
Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea)

Blue Grosbeak (Passerina caerulea)

We decided to go over to the Agricultural History Farm Park late this afternoon. We enjoyed walking in the demonstration garden as well as seeing the dahlias. Then we walked down to the row of apple trees, a few of which were loaded with apples. On the way back up I took this picture of a female blue grosbeak (Passerina caerulea) on the corn. I thought it was a female goldfinch but when I went to confirm that, both Google and the Merlin app identified it as a grosbeak. I also got a nice shot of a female chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina, which Google misidentified but Merlin got right. And I got two shots of a male eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis), but he had his head turned away from me.

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Clouds over Great Falls

Photograph taken on Sunday, August 18, 2024 by Henry
Clouds over Great Falls

Clouds over Great Falls

We went to Great Falls today. It’s one of those things we used to do fairly often but then didn’t quite so much when they started charging so much for parking. Now that I have my America The Beautiful Lifetime Senior pass, it doesn’t cost us any to get in. That was definitely a well spent $80. The sky was very dramatic while we were there, as seen in this photo taken from Olmsted Island looking southwest towards the Virginia shoreline. As you can probably tell, this is an HDR image, made from three separate exposures.

A little later, as we were walking on the canal towards Wide-Water, it started to rain. We got under the branches of a tree and I put my camera under my shirt and managed to keep it pretty dry, although we got fairly wet ourselves. The rain stopped and we continued on. By the time we turned around and got back to the car, the sun was shining again.

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National War Correspondents Memorial

Photograph taken on Saturday, August 17, 2024 by Henry
National War Correspondents Memorial

National War Correspondents Memorial

We decided to drive up to South Mountain this afternoon. We started out at with a visit to the Washington Monument. It was quite hazy, though, and the view wasn’t much to speak of. Also, the tower was closed, so we couldn’t go up it. From there we went to the three gaps that were the principal sites of fighting in the Battle of South Mountain in mid-September, 1962. They are, from north to south, Turner’s Gap, Fox’s Gap, and Crampton’s Gap.

The National War Correspondents Memorial, shown here, is in Crampton’s Gap in Gathland State Park. It was built in 1896 by Civil War correspondent George Alfred “Gath” Townsend (January 30, 1841 – April 15, 1914), who built a home for himself here in the early 1880s. He also built himself a mausoleum but is buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

On our drive we happened to go by the South Mountain Creamery and stopped for ice cream.

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40th Anniversary Dinner

Photograph taken on Friday, August 16, 2024 by Henry
Cathy, Yvette, Rob, and Susie

Cathy, Yvette, Rob, and Susie

We had a few friends over for dinner this evening to celebrate our 40th anniversary (which isn’t today, but close enough). Yvette and Cathy were at Wake Forest together and was in our wedding. Rob and I have been friends since the fall of 1972. He wasn’t in our wedding because he was in Kenya at the time. We’ve known Susie since she and Rob met, back in the day. Our friend Jean, whom Cathy has known since high school, wasn’t able to come because she was in North Carolina helping take care of two grandchildren while a third was being born. There are others we could have invited but we wanted to keep it simple.

We had a really nice dinner, starting with mushroom and peach bruschetta, followed by bowls of French onion soup. The main course was ginger and soy marinated flank steak and salmon with sugar and mustard sauce. We finished with strawberries and whipped cream. If I say so myself, it was a really good meal. It was even better company. Thank you to all our friends and family for helping us make it through forty years together.

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Battus philenor (Pipevine Swallowtail)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, August 14, 2024 by Henry
Battus philenor (Pipevine Swallowtail)

Battus philenor (Pipevine Swallowtail)

Cathy and I took the day off from work and went up to Pennsylvania today to visit with Dorothy and two of her good friends, Jack and Katie. We had a lovely time with them, spending some time on the Gettysburg battlefield and then going to our property and hanging out a bit. We marked a trail through the woods that Dorothy wants to clear and Dorothy worked a little in the orchard, moving some sticks around. She has a little garden plot that’s the start of something bigger.

I saw this pipevine swallowtail (Battus philenor) on a thistle (Cirsium species) and was able to get a pretty good photo.

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Baby Bird

Photograph taken on Tuesday, August 06, 2024 by Henry
Baby Bird

Baby Bird

I have no idea what kind of bird this is. Given its size, I’m guessing something larger than a sparrow but smaller than a crow. Possibly an America robin, but really, I have no idea. I was clearing around one of my roses today when I noticed the nest. I took a few pictures and then left things they way they were. There’s plenty more to do in the garden and I can come back and work around the rose when the bird has fledged. We see quite a variety of birds in our yard. We have multiple sources of water that we keep filled (and ice-free in the winter). We also have quite a few plants that provide food for birds that like their seeds. We also attract insects, so there are birds that come for those. Finally, we have hummingbirds and we see them both on the feeders and on flowers in the garden.

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Sanderling (Calidris alba)

Photograph taken on Friday, August 02, 2024 by Henry
Sanderling (Calidris alba)

Sanderling (Calidris alba)

Cathy and I went to the east end of Ocean Isle this morning and walked along the beach. Cathy looks for coral on the beach and before today hadn’t found many pieces. Today she found as much as she sometimes finds in a week. I found a few pieces, as well, but mostly I was taking photos of birds. I got a few of a brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) and some of willets (Tringa semipalmata) and quite a few of these little sanderlings (Calidris alba). They are quite numerous on the beach, running up just above waves and then following them back down to dig things up out of the sand.

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Bunting and Egret

Photograph taken on Thursday, August 01, 2024 by Henry
Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Great Egret (Ardea alba)

Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)

Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris)

We found a little nature reserve on the map and decided to give it a try today. It’s a bit further than we’d normally go and I don’t know that we’d go again, given the distance and the fact that we had to pay for parking at $4 per hour, which is a bit steep. It does probably account for the place not having many people, though. We say another painted bunting as well as quite a few herons and egrets, including the great egret Ardea alba shown in the first photo here. If you don’t mind spending a little money and you’re near by, it might be worth a visit.

We could hear thunder rumbling in the distance and the sky was quite menacing to the south but it never got close enough to bother us at all. It’s been warm this week but nothing like what it’s been up until now. This week we had highs in the mid 80s, which is pretty good for the time of year.

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