Today is my birthday so I thought I would indulge myself and post a few photos that I took last month but for some reason or another
didn't include in a previous post.
No we
don't paint our cats, Sophocles likes to sit in the red glow of a stained glass window.
I think I actually posted this photo, these guys were pretty friendly once they warmed up to me.
Im 53 today, feelin a bit like the faded signs on the wall.
I also came across this meme at Hasty Brooks great blog and while I usually don't play writing memes about yours
truly I thought what the hell its my b-day and Ill play if I want to. Feel free to play as well.
Things Ive done ( are in (Red bold).
1. Started your own blog2. Slept under the stars3. Played in a band (does charging the neighbood kids a nickel to watch us lip synch to the Dave Clark Five in a friends garage when I was 8 count?) 4. Visited Hawaii5. Watched a meteor shower6. Given more than you can afford to charity7. Been to Disneyland/world.8. Climbed a mountain (actually hiked up many a mountain)9. Held a praying mantis10. Sang/played a solo (around campfires with a guitar and not too well)11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (and on the high plains)14. Taught yourself an art from scratch15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight22. Hitch hiked (I used to hitch hike to the beach as a kid)23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (I hope no one from work reads this...)24. Built a snow fort (with my 2 daughters) 25. Held a lamb26. Gone skinny dipping (wasnt college fun?)27. Run a Marathon (I guess a two mile fun run
doesn't count)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (both solar and lunar)30. Watched a sunrise or sunset31. Hit a home run (stickball in Brooklyn as a kid)32. Been on a cruise ( does the Staten Island Ferry count?)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Ireland; the house my great grandmother was born in 1867, I would go back in a heartbeat)35. Seen an Amish community36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing ( Ive scrambled around a few rock faces)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person
41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling52. Kissed in the rain53. Played in the mud54. Gone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies62. Gone whale watching63. Gotten flowers for no reason64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check (woops)68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial71. Eaten Caviar (didnt like it)72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (I grew up In NYC)74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone78. Been on a speeding motorcycle79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car ( just one so far, Ive had several used cars)83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper85. Read the entire Bible (hey I had 12 great years of the good Sisters of Mercy and Marist Brothers if we missed a page or two I doubt it)86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury91. Met someone famous (famous is a relative term, for instance my Uncle Johnny is famous for his spaghetti and meatballs but otherwise yes I have.)92. Joined a book club93. Lost a loved one94. Made a baby95. Seen the Alamo in person96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone ( I really do not own one)99. Been stung by a bee100. Gotten a speeding ticket Looks like I need to get busy to
bold a few more..
December Sunrise
Ive been getting home after sunset lately from work, Venus, and Jupiter make a striking sight in the southwestern dusk early in this month.
Big Sky
Old Farmstead Road
Little Pawnee Creek
Reflection with Red leaf
December hillside
We woke up to a frosty Monday morning, ice and sleet with highs in the teens, yesterday afternoon it was 60 and windy. I took this photo a few weeks ago on another cold morning.
When we lived in Western Kansas out near the Colorado border we use to joke we could count the days that the wind did not blow as opposed to Southeastern Kansas where you count the days in a row it does blow. This weekend we had two days in a row of 30 -40 mile an hour gusts out of the south. Yesterday I spent the day repairing and rearranging things around our place. This morning I awoke to wind and grey clouds but I could see hints of blue sky here and there, I decided to go for a ride and hike out at Bone Creek.
I drove out to the south side of the lake hoping to be out of the wind, still gusts blew in swirls on this side of the lake as I hiked down from the car along the shore. I could see white caps on the north side. The sun began to play hide and seek as the cloud flew by overhead like the cars of a slow moving train.
I spotted a lone mature Bald Eagle out in the middle of the lake maybe a quarter of a mile away. I watched through my binoculars for a good fifteen minutes. The eagle sat perched in a dead tree head down into the wind, its tail feathers moving up and down as it teetered on the limb. As each gust of wind made me adjust my stance I though how in the hell does it stay on that limb? I was having a hard time standing on the slightly uneven ground here on the shore . Possibly looking for a meal, I thought, there were few waterfowl on the water here today. Its just a few weeks from the great snow goose migration through here. Fish? maybe but slim pickins, a few fish made hard to see by the white caps below the tree. I turned for a moment and missed seeing the eagle fly across the lake to the point in the above photo, its perched in the tall dead tree closest to the shore, out of the wind for a while. Some day Ill get a scope and learn how to digiscope. For now though Im content with watching the eagle.
I left the eagle and headed off the trail up a hill. I love to hike here in the winter, you see all kinds of things that in summer are hidden , camouflaged by leaves and shrubs and vines. At the top of the hill in some oaks I found several trees that had fallen maybe five years ago and had become overgrown with thorny vines and buckbrush.
In this place just twenty yard from the trail there was a series of den like openings under the trees, fox maybe but not recent as I didn't detect that odor foxes have. Skunk? That thought made me walk a little lighter but there were no signs of them as well. It remained a mystery.
Nests appear in winter as well, protected here in a thorny shrub and shaded by leaves in summer, now a vacant reminder of warmer days. I hiked across the hill top and down the other side and soon I found the trail again and began hiking back to the car. I will try and remember this spot next summer and try to veer off the trail as I hike by to investigate a bit more.
This week I thought I would feature one of my favorite places. The Audubon Center at Wildcats Glades in South West Missouri. The visitors center is a wonder in green engineering.
Inside is a wonderful arrangement of displays and art.
Outside the trail winds along a creek called Shoal Creek, there are bluffs and caves carved out in the limestone.
Looking out of a cave.
My wife and I spotted at least a dozen species of birds as we hiked along on a brisk fall afternoon.
The area represents one of the few chert glades in the country, a unique ecosystem.
Today is my birthday so I thought I would indulge myself and post a few photos that I took last month but for some reason or another didn't include in a previous post.
No we don't paint our cats, Sophocles likes to sit in the red glow of a stained glass window.
I think I actually posted this photo, these guys were pretty friendly once they warmed up to me.
Im 53 today, feelin a bit like the faded signs on the wall.
Last week our family gathered for thanksgiving near the old family farmstead. My wife's family really, nine siblings, grandparents, in-laws, nieces, nephews and some great nieces. I know of a trail nearby that winds down into a creek valley. I took the opportunity to escape and hike down it on one of the early mornings. Hiking this trail is a yearly event for me. Ive hiked it for many years and usually think about the past year gone by as I look for deer sign. The trail itself is a reflection of time. At the top of the hill where the trail begins the geology is recent so to speak, the oak covered hills are glacial till, debris left behind from the last ice age that came this far south.
Near the bottom of the trail is a pond that has always provided some solitude for the few who need it. The dam that holds the pond in looks over into the creek bottom. The sun had yet to reach that far down and the pre-dawn twilight that had ended fifteen minutes ago up here still seemed to hang on below the dam. The temperature was several degrees cooler as well.
Much of the limestone has the remains of the creatures that lived here once, crinoids in particular. It was really very quiet here this morning, a few juncos carried on a morning conversation but that was about it. As I stood and took photos I was very thankful and happy to see all of our family but I was also thankful for the ponds reflection and the solitude. I knew soon in a short time things would be back to..
normal. Card games, conversations, good food, and the sound of laughter would be happening.
I would again be asked to take the family photo. These folks are of good German and Irish stock and are not easily told what to do, getting them together to take a photo is like herding 45 oppositional defiant cats.
But it usually works out.
