Ice Is Nice

Ice is nice... when you don't have to go anywhere. Which I did not, today!

It made the pine look frosted- we didn't get enough to do damage.

I heard that the driving was bad this morning, but you can't prove it by me.

When I went on the deck to take this picture, I startled three big does. But they ran off too fast for a picture.

It was a very low key day here. I edited, I played my game. I cleaned up the kitchen. I read.

See Ice- Not So Nice Today

Thorne Preserve and Ferncliff Forest

 The day started by going back to the Shooting Club because they have an event each Sunday. We helped with breakfast for two hours.

Then we set off to accomplish one of my personal unofficial goals for this trip, and that was to be up to hiking 5 miles before I got home.

First we went to Thorn Preserve. I believe they are trying to restore it to a prairie, but at this time of year it's just a big mowed field. It's primary feature is the best view of Overlook Mountain in the area. This is part of the Catskills.

Sawkill Creek also runs beside it. Anyway, we walked around on mowed trails and some other places for 2.8 miles.

Then we went back by the club to get some lunch and use the facilites. No work involved. Our next stop was Ferncliff Forest, which has lots of trails. We could have done all our miles there, but Thorne was a new find, and we wanted to check it out. Ferncliff has topography and a LOT of trails. We took the Orange Trail, also called Bridle Trail, but in reality it was a mountain bike trail. That wandered over a lot of small ridges and crossed a small creek. I thought the ice crystals made this log look like a big bug.

That eventually dumped us out near South Pond after we crossed this little rocky ridge outcrop.

You are allowed to camp at Ferncliff with reservations. There are several shelters and some tent pads. This was the nicest shelter.

We took the white/Scout Trail back to the parking, but it wasn't quite enough mileage, so we headed out again on the Red Trail and looped around to the Church Trail. We're glad we did! We found two of these structures. This one was rock, and the other was part brick.

We found out they are root cellars left over from when there was a farm commune on the land. I've never seen them built with curved roofs like that. Very interesting!

Then we came back to Marie's and repotted a huge plant that she needed help with. I think we did all her projects!

Mini health update: I'm down to 3 ibuprofen a day. I haven't have to sleep with an ice pack on my face since I left home. I wasn't exhausted after the working and hiking today. I'm very pleased! The neuralgia isn't gone, but it's manageable.

Now we have to eat an early dinner and then head for the train station. Sigh. I will be glad to get home, but I hate to leave Marie. Probably one more adventure before I get home. Stay tuned.

Miles hiked in 2025: 40.9.

Thorne Preserve, Zena, NY, 2.8 miles. Ferncliff Forest, Rhinebeck, NY, various trails- 2.4 miles, total 5.2 miles

See Falling Waters- Saugerties

Snowy Riverside Walk

 I am determined to do a little bit that will help inprove my stamina. I went for a short walk today at Scottville Riverside Park. I was hoping some of the paths would be plowed but nothing was. I managed to walk around for about 15 minutes, but the snow was crusted and uneven, so I settled for that.

This is the view up the Pere Marquette River that I often take while at the park. The pictures are gray and fuzzy because it decided to start to snow fairly hard after lunch.

I took all of these pictures from the same viewing platform. That's how close all these features were to each other. Sloppy, loose ice floes were gliding down near the center of the river.

Near the bank, some of that slushy ice was being swirled against the edge. It ended up looking like clouds or a reflection of clouds in the water.

Just upstream from these, where the river makes a sharp bend, the current has cut scallops into the icy bank. This seems odd to me, that the scallops point into the river.

Again, I managed 90 total minutes of work computer time before my eye began to hurt. But I seem to be able to look at words on paper for a little extra time. I did more light work tasks that don't require much of my eyes. (Things like cleaning the bathroom- exciting, right?) Medicine is down to the eyedrops and 5 ibuprofen a day. (I will keep trying to cut it, but right now, the 5 is borderline). And I'm still sleeping with an icepack on my face. I think it is helping to promote the healing of the neuralgia.

File this under the heading of "good to knoe." I learned that you can only borrow 8 books a month through Hoopla. I've got a couple more free audiobook options, but the selections aren't as good. I was in the middle of a series I really like, but I'll have to wait till March to listen to more.

See P is for Pere Marquette River

Best Pictures of February 2022

I went through the pictures I took from February 2022. I'm beginning to percolate ideas for the new program I need to put together. I also checked on getting permission to use a song I would like. Not happening. The cheapest plan is $1000. There are other options, but I thought I might as well check.

From Febraury 2022, I've chosen what I think are the 10 best pictures to share. I am calling them "best," not because they necessarily tell the story best, but because I think they are simply the best actual photographs. I've left them full size, so you can click on them and see them larger. That always makes photos look better.

They are chronological, so don't try to develop any meaning to the order! The are all Ohio. You may remember that Ohio was l-o-n-g.

This one is the farm of one of our favorite host families, Jeff and Kathy Crisler.

Denali hiking through the winter landscape.

And some winter landscape. There was a lot of it!

The focus isn't perfect on this, but I'm still pretty happy with it. I'm amazed that I caught the moment and that it's fairly good. A red-shouldered hawk.

This was the morning of stunning ice and blue sky. OK, you can see that for yourself. But it was hard for the camera to see the sparkles.

This one is more subtle, but I like the colors and textures, and the shaded halves of the tree trunks. Shawnee State Forest, I think. Near it, anyway.

Honeycombed rock is everywhere in Ohio. It needs the contrast with some sharp angles to make it stand out.

Next, we have water in the mill race at Stockport.

This is the back of a drying mushroom. No clue what one.

This is the Devil's Bathtub at Hocking Hills. Notice the waterfall, bottom left.

I did shopping and a bunch of errands in the morning, then my energy sort of ran out. I still did stuff in the afternoon, but nothing too physical.

See Best Pictues of January 2022

Ice- Not So Nice Today

  Ice is really beautiful, but today it interfered with things I needed to get done. Here's the mood my backyard was in today. The link below lists all posts with moods of my backyard.

The light was so flat and even all day that I took two pictures of this scene, one at noon and one about 5 pm, and they are exactly the same.

After noon, it warmed up just enough to make things less treacherous, so I did a couple of errands, and one more big bag of recycling went in the car. I finished getting the 2022 financial records in order. We lined up 10 boxes of stuff for Om to take to Goodwill this week. And you still won't be able to tell that any significant amount of stuff has left the house. Sigh.

I have an online meeting tonight. In the morning, I just have to shower and do one more errand. Then I'll be on my way to the first stop, Ann Arbor- stay tuned.

See Moods of my Backyard

Lunch with Ramona

  Ramona and I thought it might have been 3 years since we got together, but it's only been 2. We had lunch together in May 2021. I could not believe I agreed to go out in public and visit with someone, but I did. That's got to be it for a while though.

I knew there would be internal backlash from spending such a social year, but I didn't really expect it to be so severe. I really just want to crawl in a hole and not talk.

Anyway, we did have fun, and she has a draft copy of a book of stories she has written. That should be fun when it's ready to tell you about.

Then we went down to take a peek at the lake. The Ludington Lighthouse in blue and white.

The most interesting thing was the jumbled ice. The water was half frozen, and the lumpy ice was rolling in slow motion. I took a video, I thought, but it's not on the camera card. So, I guess you won't see that!

In other news: Again, I spent most of my work time on two of the big projects. There is some hope that one of them will be finished tomorrow. I'd be really glad to get that off my schedule. The other one- labeling hike pictures- well, that will take forever.

See Congested

Nichols Lake in the Morning

  This morning, I dragged myself out of bed early and helped spot a hiker on the North Country Trail. We met at the north end of Nichols Lake, in Newaygo County. I've been here before, but more often at the south end, so it was a nice change of scenery.

Just another view more to the east. Blue is a good start to any day.

The day did warm up to the 50s, but it certainly didn't start out that way. I liked the ice on these common mullein leaves.

Delivered the hiker to where he wanted to go, and came home. (Well, of course there were complications, but eventually he was delivered!)

In other news: I painted for almost 4 hours and did some editing.

See Common Mullein

Hike 100 Challenge 2021 Complete!

  Finished my North Country Trail Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 today. Plus a couple extra miles. The big surprise was that we awoke to about 1.5 inches of snow. It didn't really make the hike more difficult, but it sure changed how things looked. I did most of this same piece 51 weeks ago (link below) and the trailing arbutus was in bud! We aren't that advanced with spring this year. I think maybe we are now past Fool's Spring, and into Second Winter. One of the things I really like about this section is a stretch of tall hemlock trees. They look fantastic trimmed in white. The ephemeral wetland was drab and not too inviting, but there was an interesting star pattern in the ice. I wonder if something fell on it to create a star crack which then refroze. Every tiny creek was outlined in white- there are several in this secion, all unnamed, but pretty in snow. Lots of evidence of little critters. The thin wet snow was great for taking tracks- squirrel Opossum, even with a tail drag! Absolutely best find of the day-- can you find it? Let me help you a little bit. It's a woodcock! It's hiding behind the tree. Of course I tried to get a better picture with no luck. They are very shy. And it turned out there were two more of them. One was very close to me but I never saw it until it flew away. Then they all flew away. This is not my first sighting, although it's not a bird I've seen often. But it's my first picture. Even if it's crappy, I'm happy. (And there's your poem for the day.)

Hike 100 Challenge 2021 is complete with 102 miles!

North Country Trail, Lake County, MI, 56th St to 76th St and back. Total 12 miles

In other news: Yes, there is other news. I did a little paperwork before I hiked, and then had bell choir practice afterwards. Standing for another hour and a half after walking 12 miles, was not exactly my preferred position, but I did it.

See Nine More Miles

Bowman Lake Loop Again

  Cathy and I did the Bowman Lake loop this morning, and managed to put a slightly different twist on it. We parked at the north end and walked south first. We took the NCT side of the loop first. This loop is one of my favorite hikes, and I last did it with Loren, three months ago.

Then it was halfway when we got to the lake, so we sat on the bench there to eat our snack. Still mostly frozen. There were campers there. They said it had been quite cold in the night. Cathy said it was 16 degrees at her house when she got up. But it was above freezing by the time we made it to the lake.

Then we headed up the west side of the loop, where it goes through this blowout area, sculpted by the wind.

We found a nice patch of Northern Ground Cedar. I'm trying to separate these clubmosses (formerly all called Lycopodium) in my head. I'm quite sure that's whet this is despite the fact that it didn't have any strobili (the stalks with the spores), or annual growth constrictions. It's no big deal that there were no strobili- that's not unusual, but it would have helped me nail down the ID. However, I'm confuzzled by no constrictions, because that's supposed to be quite distinguishing. However, the shape of the stems is correct, so I'm confident in my ID. New taxonomic name is Diphasiastrum complanatum.

Here's a closer look.

My favorite picture of the day is thin overnight ice in an area of the lake that had previously thawed.

We ran into a group of young people out hiking, and one of them took our picture so no distorted selfie today!

Loop total is 6 miles, but only half of those are North Country Trail. There was still snow in some places, but most of the walking was bare ground. Our knees, ankles, and hips are grateful. 46 degrees when we finished!

North Country Trail Hike 100 Challenge for 2021 is at 90 miles.

Bowman Lake Trail and North Country Trail, Lake County, Michigan, 6 mile loop

In other news: I finished the marketing sell sheets for the Anastasia Raven mystery series. Other than that, I chilled and read a book.

See Bowman Lake Loop with Loren