Aurora Surprise!

I had gotten home from work yesterday evening and was pretty tired so after an early dinner I laid down for a nap. I woke at 9:00 PM and decided to check spaceweather.com to see if there were any CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun) recorded during the day. To my surprise, there was a fresh Aurora picture and news of a CME that hit our atmosphere earlier that evening! I then checked the Auroral oval and the kp index which indicated STORM level, so within a few minutes my photography gear was loaded in the truck and off I went to do some shooting.


I spent the next 6 hours making images of the Northern Lights. I went to several different locations and recorded several hundred images throughout the night, including some sequences that I combined into a timelapse video. The most intense and colorful lights occurred between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, with pillars of light dancing sideways across the sky, dominated ultimately by some deep red hues. It was a fascinating night of picture-taking and Aurora-watching!

Is this really necessary?

I know Koalas are facing extinction in some parts of the country, but to they really need to resort to this to endear themselves to the public?
That was one of the sights of yesterday's morning ride to Binna Burra, another day another mountain climb.

The thing that really stands out about this ride, as always, is the stretch across the top of the Beechmont range that offers superb views on both sides. Someone paid $17 million for an apartment in one of the high rises in Surfers Last week, probably for views inferior to what I get for free everytime I ride up that particular mountain. About the only thing I did wrong was leaving a little too late and getting caught in the sun without protection. I didn't get badly burned, but it was enough to be uncomfortable. I suppose it's just a warning with summer only two weeks old.

In other news, I went to Brisbane to see Wil Anderson last night. It was just about the funniest thing I've seen all year. If anyone reading this ever gets the chance to go to one of his shows, take it (unless, of course, you're Shannon Noll).

Tree Quiz

Sauron?

That's my dainty size 6 next to the largest leaf in North America. Identify the yellow leaves on the lower left for extra credit.

A big hint to how this tree got its common name.
Answers below.
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1. American Beech Tree with a personality problem. (Fagus grandifolia.) The smooth carving surface often tempts woodland vandals.
2. Around here this tree is known as the Cowcumber, but more commonly it's called the Bigleaf Magnolia, Magnolia macrophylla. I've read that they're rare, but it's one of those plants that tend to be locally abundant when you do find them.
Extra credit: Sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua.
3. Hophornbeam, Ostrya virginiana.

Thunderstorm Over the Sierra

I watched as tiny, harmless-looking clouds grew into this huge thunderstorm.

Gatlinburg

Nice relaxing day today. Has vacation finally kicked in? Slept until 9:30 am. Beautiful day again, about 59 degrees, cloudy. No rain.

Bob got up and ran nine miles through Gatlinburg and part way on the Sugarlands Visitors Center Trail. I went online, read magazines, ate breakfast.

After Bob got back and got ready to go out, he told me he had planned the day. We drove through Gatlinburg on a side street next to a creek, then parked at the Gatlinburg end of the Gatlinburg to Sugarlands Trail. We walked 2 miles on the riverside trail to the Visitors Center.

Idyllic trail along the river.

I got to go through the museum at my leisure. So interesting to learn all about the local flora and fauna.

Salamanders win for being the most diverse fauna species in the park. The hellbender salamander can grow to 2 feet long! Wow. There are also pygmy salamanders which are about 1" to 1-1/2" long. Tree-climbing foxes, mink, elk, bobcatsand flying squirrels also live in the park, but are not frequently seen.

In the flora department, I was surprisedto learn thata few types of orchids grow in the park. Another surprising fact is that deer, birds andsome other animals eat the berries off poison oak. I then overheard a mother telling her family it's okto eat poison oak berries because the animals eat them. I don't think I'd be eating poison oakberries.

For a long time I've been wanting to buy a National Park (NP) Passport, a book in which you get stamps and stickers from each National Park, National Recreation Area, NationalBattlefield, etc. Today I bought a NP Passport in the gift store. Then I went to theranger and got my first stamp in the bookat Great Smoky Mountains National Park Sugarlands Visitor Center.The beginning of a new hobby starts now--visiting all the national parks, monuments,etc.,to collect stamps and see all that our country has to offer.

From the Visitor Center, we walked back to Gatlinburg on the trail, then had supper at Bennett's BBQ restaurant. I had BBQ beef brisket, corn muffin, coleslaw (outstanding) and green beans (way overcooked). Bob ate hickory-smoked BBQ chicken, BBQ beans (yummy), and potato salad.

After dinner we walked downtown Gatlinburg to look at all the tourist attractions. Notice I said "look," not "do." The crowds had left after the weekend, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We bought some postcards, a souvenir, and then went back to the timeshare.

Gatlinburg, TN at dusk.

Touristy Gatlinburg--evening lights coming on.

We are now eating Great Smoky Mountains National Park Extra Rich Milk Chocolate and drinking Biltmore Limited Release Chenin Blanc...a great combination. We both highly recommend it. LOL.

Tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be VERY rainy. Time to do museums and car tours.

Tomorrow, our plan is set. Up at 6:00 am, eat oranges, buckwheat pancakes and fried eggs, then drive to Oak Ridge, TN, the home of the "World War II Manhattan Project." First will be a tour of the museum to learn about the production of the first atomic bomb and invention of the nuclear reactor. We will go the Convention and Visitor Center to pick up a copy of a 38-mile Oak Ridge Self-Guided Motor Tour, then drive the tour.

After we finish at Oak Ridge, we plan a drive to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park to see the visitor center and learn some more history. Then we will drive back to Gatlinburg.A long day of history is the plan!

Travel Bug out.

McKinney Falls State Park

Easy peasy two-hour drive was accomplished this morning from San Antonio to Austin, Texas. When we reached McKinney Falls State Park at 11:45 a.m., a sign informed us the campground is sold out. Good thing I made reservations four weeks ago!! We will be here for four nights.

Back-in site #27 was assigned to us, but the ranger told us if we didn't like it we could drive around and find a site we do like, then call to find out if it's available. Site 27 had no appeal for us whatsoever. We drove around and found a pull-through site we liked, called the office and were approved for the pull-through site, no extra charge. So nice here; but hot and sunny. Here we are, all set up.

Our home for four nights!

Nice and spacious.

We have a fire ring and no fire restrictions!

Did I ever tell you all how much I love nature? Just a few minutes ago, a deer ran by our 5th wheel and a squirrel is hanging around outside our door.

In our 18 months of full-timing we have never had a campfire. Either we were in RV resorts where there were no fire rings, or there were fire restrictions. Tonight will be our first campfire with s'mores while on the road!! Can't wait. We used to do s'mores all the time when we took the kids camping years ago.

More blog and photos to follow later this evening. We're so happy to be on the road, if only for a short while.

This afternoon we plan to check out the visitor center and see the
waterfalls in the park. Grocery shopping is high on our list for marshmallows, Hershey bars, and campfire sticks to cook marshmallows. We may have to get some turkey dogs to cook too.

Downtown Austin is our destination this evening
to watch Mexican free-tailed bats fly out from under the Ann
Richards Bridge.

Life is good on the road.

Travel Bug out.

Shy Moose

I had a fun encounter with a moose yesterday. After work I went for a drive in the woods and as I came around a corner on a local dirt road there was this moose standing right in the road. As soon as it saw the car it walked off into the brush. I of course got out of the car to try and get a picture, since the moose only walked about 100 feet off into the woods. It was very difficult to see, however, since the brush was so thick. It was definitely curious about me, as it stood at a safe distance but kept staring at me through the trees. I had to manually focus my lens in order to make this shot. Because of all the brush in the way the camera was unable to autofocus on the moose, instead choosing to attempt focusing on every little branch in the way between us. After about 10 minutes the moose must have gotten bored because it finally turned and walked off away from me. This is far from my best shot of this iconic northwoods animal, but still it's a picture of a moose so I figure it's worth sharing :-)

Madopterini

Weevil party at the nearest daisy, pass it on...
I think these weevils are in the tribe Madopterini. Though I might just be leaning towards that conclusion since I like the name so much.
I wasn't even aware that there were such things as tribes, taxonomically speaking, until I started trying to look up bugs. Just as species can be further divided into subspecies, families are sometimes further divided into subfamily, tribe, and subtribe.
Madopterini: More likely to march on Rome, or to perform straightjacket escapes while upside down and underwater?
All zoological tribes end in -ini, apparently. (I would not have been able to resist naming several of them after Italian operatic composers.)
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A professor at the University of Florida has a nice series of pages about writing scientific papers. They include sections on species name formation, Greek and Latin words adopted into English, pronunciation of scientific names, and several other interesting topics.

A day off in the kayak

For many, Labor Day weekend is a time of family getaway and vacation. Luggage gets packed, boats get loaded and countless families drive off to resorts and cabins for a few days away from home.
If I'd of had the full weekend off, I likely would've been among that crowd, going on boat rides and getting my fair share of fishing in at my parents' cabin on Big Birch Lake. I enjoy spending time with my family and it's nice to get out of town once in awhile (especially when out-of-town trips involve heated games of Hammerschalgen).
Alas, it wasn't meant to be. I had two days off out of the 3-day weekend, but they happened to be Saturday and Monday, with a work day sandwiched between them on Sunday. Since my parents' cabin is about a 3-hour drive from Mankato, I figured I'd save the trip for a longer weekend.
However, that's not to say that the two days off weren't enjoyed to the fullest. Saturday was spent doing an 87-mile bike ride that utilized all four loops listed on the Greater Mankato Visitors Bureau's hiking/biking trails map (blog entry and column on that coming soon) and the majority of Labor Day was spent floating down the Minnesota River in my inflatable kayak.
Regular readers might recall that I blogged about my inflatable kayak last year. I've taken it out a few times on lakes this summer and attempted a short paddle upstream on the Minnesota River in the past, but until yesterday, I'd never attempted a day-long float. I always figured the logistics of it (dropping a vehicle off and getting a second person to drive you back to the starting location) made it a bit of a hassle, plus I didn't know how well the kayak would hold up from the rigors of the Minnesota River.
I managed to solve one of those problems with the realization that I could use my bike for transport, albeit transport without the kayak (even deflated, it'd be a little too big to bungee to my bike, plus I have no idea how I'd carry the paddle). So the sequence of events to prepare for the float were as follows:

• I dropped my kayak off at the starting point of the float (Land of Memories Park) and asked one of the families camping there to keep an eye on it for me. (thanks again to that family)
• With my bike loaded in my car, I drove to the end point of the float (Seven Mile Creek), parked my car and biked back to the starting point.

As for the float itself, I was pleasantly surprised by two things about the Minnesota River: how calm it was and how easy it was to navigate (I gave myself more than enough time to finish the float because I assumed I would get lost at some point).
Both surprises can be attributed to the low water level in the river. It is considerably lower than it was this past spring and fall (during flooding) and less water typically means less current. It also revealed some of the damage done by the flooding, with river banks looking like barren wastelands of prior vegetation (pictured right). Likewise, most of the jutting tributaries and pools along the river have also dried up, making navigation a simple exercise in following the current.
Contrary to my worries beforehand, the inflatable kayak also proved to be more than capable of handling the river. The problems I had with steering it in the past were solved by having no wind to deal with and going with the current instead of against it (paddling upstream in an inflatable kayak is like pancakes without syrup: It's possible, but you won't enjoy it). Since the Minnesota River is a sediment-heavy stream (brown from all the farmland soil flooding in), the bottom of it is mostly soft sand and devoid of any sharp, jagged rocks.
Really, it was an great stretch of river to kayak on. The weather was perfect, the scenery varied from the flood walls of Mankato to deep forests to prairie lands (even spotted a few deer along the way) and the float took a little less than four hours (or two Grain Belt Nordeasts, if you're measuring by beer consumption).
About the only thing missing from the experience was a fishing rod to get a few casts in. Well, that and maybe something else to consume besides beer.

A good day to explore the Chicago shore

On a day with strong off-shore winds, the lake looks calm.

Yesterday's marine forecast went beyond "small craft advisory" to "gale warning," meaning winds between 34 and 47 knots (or 39 to 54 miles per hour). Those winds were coming straight out of the west, so the lake looked flat but we knew that paddling on it would be a challenge.

When the wind is out of the west, the waves are in the east.

We have enough experience by now that we know what we can and can't handle. Years ago, we would have stayed off the water on days with such strong off-shore winds, but now we're pretty confident that we can paddle against winds of 40 knots or a little higher, and even enjoy them up to about 35 knots. Since these winds were right on the edge of that range, we decided to mostly stay closer to shore.

There's plenty to do on a near-shore day. You can play in the the harbor, using the dock ramps as an obstacle course.

Sharon sneaks under a ramp, avoiding the hoses, lines and chains.

Alec makes the process look effortless.

We stayed near shore most of the way down to the former US Steel South Works Mill, which was closed in 1983 and is now a strange amalgamation of post-industrial waste and opportunistic greenery. The shoreline looks like boulders, but when you paddle closer you see that it's all concrete slabs, slag and rebar.

The unnatural landscape near the former US Steel South Works Mill.

That's not to say it isn't fascinating and even beautiful in its own odd way. We spent some time taking photos of the material put here deliberately and the stuff that has washed up on shore.



Then we paddled back, taking a more direct route and exposing ourselves to more of the wind. By now, the peak winds were 40 knots (46 miles per hour), and paddling into them required some concentration. At one point, we noticed that we weren't weather-cocking at all, which surprised us until we realized why: we weren't moving fast enough to create a bow wake.

Some days we like to paddle long distances. Some days we like to paddle hard. But some days it's just nice to be out on the lake in whatever conditions arise, putting no pressure on ourselves to do anything more than enjoy the fact that we have access to this local treasure, a lake that is both natural and terribly altered by humanity.

The sea wall

The two faces of an autumn evening. Yesterday's photo looked south east over Portobello enjoying the last rays of the sun. Here, looking north, dark clouds move in over the hills of Fife. I have the beach to myself, apart from the girl with a camera perched on the sea wall.

Construction Along Mosquito Creek

Awesome weather for a bike ride today. Was about 70 deg a little before noon when I headed out from the Wabash Trace Trailhead. Destination was the Western Historic Trails Center.

Had a little problem getting the computer running right. Took some adjustment of the pick-up on the fork.

The last time I rode the Lake Manawa Trail, there was some construction along Mosquito Creek. They have been building a couple of bypassed. Not sure if they are for work on the levee or storm sewer.

Last year, when they had to work on the levee, They detoured the bike trail down to normal ground level and covered it with very coarse rock. This time, the trail level is being maintained at levee height. And, its being PAVED!

Nothing else noted along the ride to the Trails Center. Visited with the folks there. I had not been there for a while. July I was riding at sunrise. The Center is closed Monday and Tuesday.

Good visit, great ride, awesome weather.

Red Dirt!

Took me some time to get moving today. Guess it was the busy day yesterday. Took the Fuel EX7 out to the Mahnoman Unit of Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, MN. Goal was to explore more of the "green" trails.

Pretty good weather when I headed out of the hotel. Sunny, 70s, breezy. Should be a nice day in the woods.

Drove to the Boot Camp parking lot off of County 128. Mounted the bike and rode the Overburden Road to entrance of Little Sidewinder. Took me some time to get used to the trails, again.

Did not take much time before I was sweating. Even with the 10-15 mph winds, the air was almost dead still in the woods. The ground was damp from the recent rains. Trail conditions were what the racers call "tacky). No soft, wet ground, but surely no dust.

When I got junction with Mucker Mountain (shorter route back to the car) I decided to continue on Little Sidewinder.It this part of the trail along ponds between June Lake and Alstead Mine Lake. Tight, twisting singletrack, but not so many climbs and descents. My kind of riding.

Next decision point was at the junction of Little Sidewinder and Grub Stake. I was ready to take Grub Stake, the shorter route back to the car. Grub stake is typical for the Green trails in the area. Mostly flowing singletrack with sections of up and down. The photo with this post was taken on Grub Stake.

In no time, I was at the junction with Mucker Mountain, taking that trail to Overburden Road. Rode the cravel road back to the car. While it was only 2.3 miles and 31 minute riding time, I was exhausted.

Chatted with the hotel owner when I got back. After a shower, I was craving a sub - so found the Crosby Subway. Relaxed over food. Back to the hotel I processed my trail photos and then crashed to bed.

Hoping to meet up with the Mountain Bike Summit folks this evening.

Jake's Peaches

Last April I told the world the story of Jake's peach tree - the saga of a Harry & David peach pit, planted a few years ago by my sister and her husband and son Jake. In its fourth spring the tree burst into beautiful pink bloom and Red and her family hoped there would be peaches.
Next came a photo of the developing green fruit and then in July the photo above showed them beginning to color.
A week ago my sister Red sent this photo of the ripening fruit with the guy who planted the tree and had faith that it would grow and bloom.

And she also sent a photo of some peaches in a bowl. They weren't huge, but they were beautiful peaches!


When a recycled Harry & David box arrived this afternoon - I had to share the joy!


Dear Family,
There's a light fruity fragrance already - maybe Philo and I can sample one of these very special peaches tomorrow. Thank you all - I can't believe you did this!

And Red - sure hope you and sister Josie will have a chance to get to Mamma Mia soon if you haven't already been to the theater together.
I wrote about seeing it this week with my friend MSS over here at Annie's Addendum and don't think there are any real "spoilers' in my post.
I bought the CD yesterday - guess what - the booklet has all the words, so by the time the DVD comes out - I'll be ready.
Now I just hope you are as thrilled with the movie as we are with the peaches!

Anvils under the Hammer

Yesterday afternoon news reached me that our village blacksmith(click the link to read about over a hundred years of his family business in our village) was selling up, everything in his forge and workshops was up for auction - NOW!


He is an elderly man with no one to take over the business, so I can fully understand his reasons, but I also felt a little sad at the loss of yet another traditional trade from our tiny village.


Ninety-six year old John, the beekeeper, recently visited us to borrow a book which I had previously lent to him...an 1898 account book for a village blacksmith's business. He wanted to show it to his friend, the blacksmith.


How could I refuse? Besides, who better to peruse the old entries than these two chaps, both of whom are nearly as old as the book and to whom the old terms and old farming equipment would have been so familiar.


They had a wonderful time poring over the book together and were able to decipher some of the stranger terms and to explain how things were done all that time ago.

The old and rusty equipment, covered in so many layers of dirt and dust was wonderful to behold.


I love the old and worn metal work, the grain of the wood which has silvered and worn.This equipment was used for making wheels.

Keith, our local village pub landlord, found this old knife, it is bone handled and has seen a lot of use.Our wonderful Railway Tavern often gets a mention in posts, here is one.

We havelost our Post Office, village shop, butcher's shop,the village school

and now the village blacksmith.
Luckily,

we still have the pub and the village hall.

As we left, prospective purchasers were pouring in.I didn't want to stay and watch.x