Tuesday, November 05, 2013

Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum)


Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) showed up in my basement the other night.  Returned it outdoors after taking a few photographs.


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Thursday, October 31, 2013

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)


I've only seen a few Monarch butterflies this year.  This one was passing through our garden a few days ago.

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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

A Little Mid-Summer Rain


Clouds over Bear Creek Valley




Puffball sprouting at the edge of our road.

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Monday, June 17, 2013

Planting Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes were our last major planting in our spring garden.  Yes, we're running a little behind schedule.  What else is new?


Jo is measuring where the next sweet potato set should be planted.




Digging a shallow hole.




Placing the set (slip) into the hole.




Filling in around the newly planted set with dirt.


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Sunday, February 17, 2013

30-Minute Blizzard



Okay, maybe our snowfall Saturday morning (2/16/13) wasn't actually a blizzard, but it was certainly more than the forecast flurries.  Daybreak was partly cloudy.  Then, more clouds moved in followed by this fairly heavy snowfall which only lasted for about thirty minutes.



The Goldfinches took advantage of  our bird feeder under the porch while the snow fell.

The snow stopped as abruptly as it started.  A little while later, the sky was clearing again.





By noon, sunshine was chasing the fallen snow into the deep shadows.



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Friday, February 15, 2013

Wednesday's Snow

Snow in the pines.

Snow began falling Tuesday evening.  It continued off and on throughout the early morning on Wednesday, and even for a little while after daybreak.  A wet, sticky snow combined with a calm wind quickly "flocked" the trees.  Early morning fog added to the effect.  All totaled, around two inches of snow fell. 



Our neighbors stock pond is about a half mile up the road.

This was an "ideal" snowfall.   The snow fell from the sky.  We saw beautiful snow scenes.  Then, the sky cleared and the sun shone brightly.  Virtually all snow was gone by day's end.  Nice.




The same stock pond nine hours later.





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Friday, January 25, 2013

Buffalo National River


Jo and I decided to take advantage of a mild January day by heading up to the Buffalo National River.  What we had in mind was a hike from the Highway 65 bridge over towards Gilbert.  Maybe we'd hike the whole route, then turn around and hike back.  Maybe we'd only hike part ways and turn around whenever we started feeling tired.



As it turned out, Jo and I did not hike very far at all -- only a couple of miles total.  When we came to the first unmarked fork in the trail, we chose wrong.  We looped back to where we started instead of heading on toward Gilbert.



Instead of hiking we drove down to to Shineye, a swimming beach popular with locals because it's not as crowded as the swimming areas at Tyler Bend or Buffalo Point.   On this winter day, we had the entire area all to ourselves.



Bucket was the only one wanting to go for a swim.  Jo and Rusty thought the lower fifties were still way to chilly for swimming and wanted to keep their feet dry.



And the river flows on.



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