|
Here and There…Now and Then |
Flower Valley Santa
Santa made his way through Flower Valley this evening. Cathy was visiting her mom but I went out and enjoyed chatting with neighbors until he came. I also enjoyed watching the kids enjoying seeing Santa. I don’t know who, specifically, organized this anymore, but I think it’s a great tradition, eagerly anticipated by most families, or at least all those around us, who mostly have little kids. The parents use it as an excuse to get together and talk, so they like it, too.
Iceland Puzzle
We finished another puzzle in the last few days. This one wasn’t as difficult as some we’ve done, but of course they’re all challenging at some level. The sky, not surprisingly, was the hardest part of this one but the clouds certainly helped a lot. We don’t have any more on deck to do at this point, but don’t be surprised if someone gets one or two for Christmas. The mountain in this photo is called Kirkjufell (Church Mountain) and the waterfall is named Kirkjufellsfoss for the mountain behind it. It’s in western Iceland just west of the town of Grundarfjörður.
Rock Creek Bridge
We parked at the Kengla House parking lot this afternoon but instead of walking upstream as we usually do from there, we went under Muncaster Mill Road and walked downstream. This is Cathy coming out from under the bridge. If the water was much higher it would not have been easy to do, but we managed today. It was a cool, overcast and somewhat dreary day and I didn’t take a lot of photos. There were a few spots with interesting color, mostly red oak leaves or berries on the barberry bushes. We saw a few people and heard a few birds, but that was about all. We got as far as the trail up to the Meadowside Nature Center before turning back and returning to the car.
C&O Canal, North of Great Falls
We went to Great Falls today. We started by going out to the Olmsted Island overlook, as we usually do. The water was quite low. Nevertheless, I took quite a few pictures. When we returned to the towpath, we walked upstream to just above the aqueduct intake and then onto a trail down near the river. We walked that for about a mile before returning to the towpath where a large stream crossed out path. This shot is from around where we left the towpath. Down by the river I took a few pictures of geese but not a lot else.
Puzzle: Van Gogh’s ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’
Our latest puzzle is one of Vincent Van Gogh’s ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’, a wonderful painting and a challenging puzzle. It was easier than some we’ve done but hard enough to occupy us for a while. Cathy was worried that we didn’t have any more after this but her birthday’s coming up so she’ll be fine in a few days.
We were at a friend’s house and he has a board that he made for puzzles that has a slight rim all the way around the edge, which is a good idea. Then he has another board that he can set on that so the table can be used as a table even if the puzzle isn’t finished. We have a card table with a 4′ by 4′ piece of MDF that works well, although the idea of adding a edge pieces is a good one. Maybe I’ll add that to ours. We have, on occasion, lost pieces off the edge of the board and they are sometimes hard to spot on the carpet.
Croyden Creek
We went for a walk on Croyden Creek today. It isn’t necessarily the prettiest time of the year, but it’s great to be outdoors. We’ve had a dry summer and had a particularly dry September, when we normally get a good bit of rain, so the creek is quite low and there’s a fair amount of brown everywhere. Of course by the second week of October, things are starting to turn brown most years, but this year more than usual, I think. Still, there’s a fair amount of green on the trees. We didn’t see any birds or other wildlife, but mostly it’s about being in the woods.
Grand Tetons Puzzle
We’re back from Oregon, having had a really nice time. We enjoyed being with Brian and Lisa, we enjoyed the scenery in Central Oregon, and we enjoyed not being here. But of course it’s a vacation and it cannot go on for ever. Back home, we finally finished this puzzle. It’s a familiar scene if you’ve seen photos of the Tetons. The T. A. Moulton Barn, located in the southern part of Grand Teton National Park, is what remains of a homestead built by Thomas Moulton and his sons between 1912 and 1945 on what is called Mormon Row. I would really love to visit the Tetons at some point, whether or not we actually go to this barn.
Valley Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi)
As mentioned in the previous post, Cathy and I drove up to and walked the Ray Atkeson trail today along Sparks Lake, northeast of Mt. Bechelor. We really enjoyed the walk, although at one point, fairly early in the walk, we came across this valley garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis fitchi). Cathy’s not a huge fan of snakes and although I tried to warn her, I had a hard time getting it out. She saw it, screamed and did a little dance. Although garter snakes have a mild venom in their saliva, which may be toxic to the amphibians and other small animals on which they prey, they are pretty harmless to humans. Also, they are not at all aggressive. This one let me get a few pictures before retreating into the rocks beside the trail.
Henry and Cathy at 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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Great Egret (Ardea alba)
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.
28th Pennsylvania Infantry Monument, Culp’s Hill, Gettysburg
Cathy and I drove up to see Dorothy today, meeting her at the farm and hanging out with her there a while. Then we drove down to Gettysburg and walked about 4.5 miles from downtown into the battlefield. We passed a few monuments for the unit with which Cathy’s 3rd-great-uncle served, including this one between Culp’s Hill and Pardee Field on Slocum Avenue. We also drive to near the recently reopened Little Round Top, stopping to see a friend who works for the Park Service and was stationed there counting cars and busses. All it all, it was a nice, if hot, day.
The Old Stairs
The New Stairs
In late May and early June we had a handyman working at the house on a few things. Saul repaired the molding on the front porch, he patched a drywall hole in our kitchen ceiling where a plumber had to get to some pipes. He also replaced the exhaust fans in the two upstairs bathrooms. Finally, he scraped, repaired, and repainted the Bilco doors on the back of the house. Those have stairs under them to the basement.
While he was working on the doors he asked me to open the doors. I went to the basement and got up onto the fourth step and opened first one door and then the other. As I was opening the second door, suddenly I wasn’t on the stairs any more. I was standing on the concrete floor. It took me a few seconds to figure out what had actually happened but as you can see from the photo on the left, the stairs were not there any more.
So, Saul called someone who fabricates stairs and little over a week later, we have new, steel stairs.
Archie McPhee Glow Chamber Puzzle
Cathy’s brother Jim gave us this puzzle. We thought it was going to be glow-in-the-dark, but it’s just a regular photo of glow in the dark items. The puzzle itself doesn’t glow, which is a shame because that would have been awesome. Anyway, this was a really hard puzzle. Usually you find areas with patters or colors and you can sort of guess the general area where things go. With this, it was similarly colored items all surrounded by black. We had a lot of the individual items put together but it took quite a bit more work before we were able to start placing them in the overall outline. Looking at the box would definitely have helped and this illustrates why that’s cheating.
National Capitol Columns
With how our spring has been going, I really didn’t expect to get to the National Arboretum this year. Yesterday I was nearing my wits’ end and when Cathy suggested we go, I was very happy to agree. It was an absolutely beautiful day. As we often do, we start by parking near the National Capital Columns—shown here—and walk from there to the National Herb Garden, which includes their roses. It was a little late for the peak rose viewing but since I didn’t expect to get there at all, I was definitely happy with what I got. We didn’t spend as much time in the Herb Garden oval as in some years. Then we went to Fern Valley, followed by the Asian Collections and finally back to the Azalea Collections, visiting the Lee Garden pond and the Morrison garden—which I think is my favorite space in the arboretum.
The Pond and Dock
I drove up to Pennsylvania today to deliver some papers to Dorothy (or more specifically to her house, as she was still in Massachusetts). After dropping those off for her, I stopped at our property to see how the pond was doing. It’s got more water in it than before the repairs were done last year and I think more water than it’s had in over ten years. I frankly didn’t expect it to fill as fast as it has, thinking it might not be full before this time next year. Now I think it will have reached the overflow by the fall if not sooner. I have to say, I’m very pleased. There’s just a little more than a foot to go.
Sunfish Pond
We went for a walk today, heading down to Sunfish pond, walking around it, and then coming back. It’s a pleasant walk and there are a lot of things coming up. The water in the stream was fairly high but we were able to cross on rocks just below the large rock that forces the creak to turn 90 degrees. The reflections on the pond were nice and I think this sort of captures them. We’d been quite busy lately and haven’t been able to get out as much as we’d like and for the next month or two we don’t expect that to change much. Still, we’ll go when we can.