Oh Nuts!

On a fall day in early October we took a drive and hike to the bald eagle preserve that is a short drive from our home.  There were no eagles to be seen as many of them are starting to migrate south, and also, during the months when the eagles nest and rest here the preserve is closed to hikers.


We just enjoyed the last of the warm weather sun on our shoulders, the beginning color in the leaves, and were impressed by the very large number of acorns (from all varieties of oak trees) falling through the papery leaves and crashing to the ground at our feet missing our heads by a breath.  The squirrels and deer will be fat this winter and perhaps the woods will be thicker in years to come.  Perhaps this abundance of nuts was due to the long drought in July or the heavy rains in early September or maybe it is an annual dance rhythm of nature.


Hubby in the photo above is pondering the land at his feet for colored stones.  Something his grandchildren taught him to do this summer.  I smile at this, because a decade ago this would have been a big waste of time for him as he was a dedicated one for keeping the engines revved all the time.

Gee......se!

I heard the call of the wild the other afternoon. They have that 'Hoorah' thing going this time of year, and like a military brass band they march across the blue October sky with precision.  They are like old friends returning with their tall tales of life in the ponds of Canada this past summer, tales of making love, raising well-behaved little ones, eating lots of good aquatic grasses, flying high over the prairies, and avoiding deathly two legged and 4 legged dangers, and now they 'hoorah' because they can party like single adults once again.

Purple Beads

While watching the sun scatter its warm fall kisses across the water, across the saltbush feathery seeds and against the underside of the golden tulip tree leaves high against the blue sky, I looked up just over my head and saw this beautiful example of reproduction hanging in the green fall air.  What a nice offering for a fall necklace!

The berries are a deep, dark purple and the leaves had lost their intense green of summer and much of their waxy gloss.  These berries are eaten in the winter by many types of birds and animals including my little waxwings, woodpecker, and raccoons.  This was the noxious greenbriar that I wrote about this summer and which I try to eradicate near any paths.  This one has its feet planted about 12 feet from my dock deep into the trees but has stretched itself over a wild bush just to reach me.


I am glad that I did not remove it all even though it bites like a bee!

Majestic Friends

I was happy see a few of the larger animals on our Canadian adventure. They were not too far off the roadways or hiking trails, and thus, the challenge in getting a good photo was not totally impossible.  I just had to remember to charge the batteries and allow the autofocus to work...I am learning slowly but surely.

Big Horn Sheep

Deer

Bull Elk

Doesn't this planet just take your breath away sometimes?

Larix...Not to Be Confused with Dr. Seuss's Lorax

According to the highly respected Encyclopedia Britannica (you remember what an encyclopedia is...don't you?) the larch is any of 10 to 12 species of coniferous trees of the genus Larix. One species is found only in the Himalayas.  Another is known to grow in Siberia.  It is a plant that, like a monk, seems to need and want the simplest of life styles.  The most widely distributed North American species is the tamarack, hackmatack or eastern larch.  But the Pacific northwest is home to the western larch L. occidentalis which I think was the one I saw planting it roots so firmly in the harsh mountain limestone just at timberline in the Canadian Rockies.  See the golden sprays that look like aspen, and glow in the gentle sun above the evergreens in the photo below?  They cling to the mountain rim with such tenacious life and delicate beauty.

This tree is so unusual because it looks like a conifer and has needles and cones like a conifer, but changes color in the fall and drops its needles like a deciduous tree.  It also is unusual in that the needles are soft as kittens' whiskers when you touch them.  If you want to see this fantastic tree, you must pay your penance by hiking up the mountain past mud, grizzlies and snow into the thin and biting mountain air.  Since you may not want to do that, I will post a few of the beautiful rewarding trees I saw on my hike in their bronze fall glory.

It is no surprise that they inspire poetry from great poets.

Asides

Though the season's begun to speak

Its long sentences of darkness,

The upswept boughs of the larch

Bristle with gold for a week,

And then there is only the willow

To make bright interjection,

Its drooping branches decked

With thin leaves, curved and yellow,

Till winter, loosening these

With a first flurry and bluster,

Shall scatter across the snow-crust

Their dropped parentheses.

by Richard Wilber

Exhilarating Winter

I did write that we had four seasons.  Some people dread the cold and gray of winter, dislike the stark contrasts and the biting air and the lack of warm colors.  Canadians see it as a time to be outdoors even more. They ski, snowshoe, hike, skate and slush cross country to their heart's content. The anticipation of the arrival of winter was almost palpable at the Canmore Nordic Center where the Olympians train when we drove by.  I saw athletes racing with in-line skates and ski poles up the sides of paved roads and up paved sidewalks.  Get out your woolies and make some hot chocolate, because I am bringing you a virtual winter that we encountered as we climbed higher...winter just a little early...below.

Me

ANOTHER waterfall.

Grassi Lakes

Awww!

Hoodoo That Voodoo That Yoodoo So Well?

East of Calgary is the high desert known as the Badlands. It is very similar to our U.S. desert with dramatic erosion, colored soils, rare minerals and those spooky Halloween hoodoos. While traveling in the Badlands east of Calgary I was most focused on finding the famous hoodoos. These are geological features where the softer earth has been eroded leaving a cap of harder rock at the top of the column which does not erode so rapidly and thus protects the remaining column of sandy earth below. The result is a strange formation giving a static picture of earth's time.  Below are photos of some of those haunting hoodoos.
 

Young teenage hoodoos watching the sunset.

Momma hoodoo watching the teenage hoodoos while holding baby hoodoo.

                          Daddy hoodoo looking at the big screen TV in the bar across the road.

Hoodoo Dance Party!!

Reflections on Falling Water

This post is for Joyful Reflections who spends a good part of her life with her husband chasing waterfalls in the Southern U.S.  This post is also for all others who find waterfalls intriguing, frightening, awe inspiring, and breathtaking.  This is for those who are amazed that rushing water can wear away entire mountains with patience and tenacity in the blink of an eon and create a dashing river on the plains, for those who can watch forever dancing water falling happily and relentlessly to the sea, and for those of us who worry about what this will mean when this all comes to a terrifying end as the glaciers melt.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of waterfalls in Canada. In the east the most famous is Niagara, of course. In the west, Canadian Rockies have many junior cousins just as interesting.  For those of you content to live vicariously through my blog, make some tea and then listen to the water splashing, roaring and laughing in Canada in the photos below.  (No I did not set the camera to stop-blur the water...should really do that sometime.   And I didn't keep track of the names except for Troll falls...which I failed to show below!)

Four Seasons in Four Days

We were smart to pack a large wardrobe of layers as we entered the magical land of the Canadian Rockies to the west and Canadian Badlands to the east. We encountered all four seasons during our 10-day stay and not necessarily in any logical order and sometimes two or three seasons in one day.  Below are fall, spring, summer and winter.

The Evening Move

Each evening in late September while sitting at the dock waiting for the sun to set, this migration takes place. This wall of moving water, that ripples the surface, is made by large schools of menhaden that move into the protection of our finger of the river to shelter for the night. These fish are about four to 6 inches in length as they school, hoping to evade bluefish, stripers and other predatory fish, that can still follow them here. Menhaden is considered the second most important harvested species for oil and protein for commercial fishermen on our planet.  The catch is often fed to livestock which we eventually eat.  Menhaden abundance is essential to the ecology of this earth as they provide food for many wild species as well.

As I sit quietly letting the purple evening shadows wrap up the day, these little fellows will glisten like flashes of  silver foil as they flip just beneath the surface of the water weaving so gracefully past the dock. I can also hear their tails flap as they break the water's surface and it sounds like gentle popcorn snapping everywhere in the quiet air.  Fall is when they are beginning to sort themselves out to form large schools by size and organize for their migration south before the water becomes too cold.

This fall gathering also provides an abundance of easy food for the predatory birds such as the osprey and gulls that laugh and cry and whistle their way against the peach-blue skies in the still evening air and grab the surface of the water for the last meal of the day.  Tummies full they then glide home into the setting sun.

Fall is sometimes the busiest time of the year.  ( I am surprised upon my return from Canada that this is indeed a fall as I know it...but not really fall...the mornings have frost there and the leaves are falling!  Here the mornings are still warm enough to enjoy.)

Gentle Reflection on Fall #3

Gentle Reflection on Fall #2

Gentle Reflection on Fall #1

(Since I am now on travel, I have decided to leave a few pre-posts for gentle mental reflection.)  Above is last spring's poppy seed head, a peaceful example of divine symmetry.

Reflecting Another's Beauty

If you look ever so closely and compare the two photos above, you will see that this butterfly's spots reflect the color of zinnia petals on which he rests. That is a really nice ability.  Don't you wish we could so easily reflect the beauty of those around us?

I Told You So.

" I told you that fall was just around the corner.  Cold weather is breathing down our necks!  But, oh no, you have to spend time playing with that stupid muskrat, collecting shells on the shore, and pretending that you can out scream that fat old owl at night!  Now look at our situation!  We have no fruits or nuts tucked away, you missed the harvest on the wild paw paw tree, and perhaps worst of all, you believed that Tabor women when she said that was not a fig tree in her front yard...just a tree with big leaves.  What was she tucking in her apron then?  I ask you!"

"Hurry up.  We don't have all summer.  The leaves are falling."


(I will be traveling in the week or so ahead...please keep an eye on these little thieves!)

Waiting In Line

 This crowd hangs out frequently at the private dock in this cove.  It is a mixed bag of sea birds,  seagulls, cormorants and the rare pelican.

Seems to be some confusion today.

CPR But Not Mouth to Mouth...Eeewww!

We found this little fellow in the crab trap the other day.  Crab traps are supposed to have turtle excluders, and ours does, but this diamond-back terrapin got caught somehow.  We estimate he was held under water for perhaps 5 hours.  This looked like a dead terrapin, but hubby is stubborn and watched and saw a tiny movement....

Here is hubby giving CPR after clearing the water inside his lungs by holding him head down for a little bit.  Hubby would gently press on the back carapace and then wait about 30 seconds or so.  (We could have checked on the Internet for proper procedures, but time was of the essence.)

After about ten minutes of this process the turtle lifted his head and sucked in air. (I think he was also smiling.)  While he remained very lethargic, although degrees of lethargy are hard to determine in turtles/terrapins, he continued to lift his head and breathe in air every once in a while while hubby continued the CPR.

Once we determined he was definitely alive but still weak, we kept him in a cooler on the deck overnight with a little fresh water and some fish food. He was definitely too weak for release that evening.  By sunset he had pooped!  Those of us who have raised children know this is a good sign.

When we checked on him the following morning, he responded as all terrapins and turtles should respond, with total introversion of every appendage.  (Go Away!)

We released him into the grassy edge of the river and he was extremely happy.  He tucked under a stick and would pull his head above the water's surface every once in a while.  We went to check out crab traps and upon our return just a minute later he had disappeared into the river.  Hubby saves another life!

"Reddish" ?

I reduced the size of this photo for memory space issues with Blogger, but I think you can still see how interesting and different this bird is. This is first reddish egret I have ever seen and photographed.  I thought at first that is was a heron because it was so large...but the stabbing bill is supposed to be the give-away if my research understanding is correct.

This was taken in Florida a year or so ago. I am having company so I am posting this just to keep this blog up-to-date.