True Confessions - I Shopped

 
Shocking, isn't it? But I swear it was an accident that I darkened a store entry on Black Friday.

I just had to stop at Aldis and buy more of this juice. It's only available at Christmas.

This post also comes under the heading of shopping coups. Every couple of years I mention the shopping find of the year. Consider this one of the 2017 winners.



I had purchased a bottle last week to try. The ingredients are black currant juice, apple juice, clove, cinnamon, orange juice, lemon juice, cardamom, and ginger. It's supposedly based on the historic drink "wassail," as in "Here we come a wassailing," or "and to you your wassail too," in the Christmas songs.

Yup, it's good. Really good. The flavor is a bit dark and dusky. Sort of a cranberry/black cherry flavor. And spiced. It's labeled - best served hot. I like it chilled.

The big thing is, the day I was sick with that whopper of a cold, it was the only thing that tasted good. Since I was leaking liquid from my nose like a hydrant, it was a good way to help stay hydrated. Had to get more before they run out. So, it just happened to be Friday, and I stopped on my way home from work. There you have it.

The sunset today was intense with deep colors.



And it threw light across to the grain elevator in the east. The metal structure often catches the reflected light, and I liked the effect today. It was a little out of the ordinary. I don't really think the "space station" is beautiful, but it's part of my world, so I just take whatever beauty it wants to present.



In other news, I finished the layout for the back cover of the print edition of Dead Mule Swamp Druggist, and I started writing chapter one of the first mystery for young readers. Tentative title of the book is Dubois Files: The Secret Cellar. Tentative title of the chapter is "JIMMIE AND LASZLO."

	See Bar Keeper's Friend
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What's Your Angle?

 
It seemed to me that there haven't been many posts recently about things outdoors, so today I went for a little walk (in the rain), and gave myself a simple photo assignment. I decided to look for angles. The results you see are presented in the order I took the pictures. If you can find meaning in that, more power to you!

Of course, the first thing that pops to mind in the outdoors when one says "angle," is tree limbs. I forced myself to be limited to one such picture. Here's my choice... lichen covered dead sumac branches.



Next, I found three autumn olive leaves plastered together by the wind and rain. The fact that one was back-side showing gave the composition some color interest, and I liked the angles between the points. That rotten plant might as well be good for something, even if it's only an interesting picture.



Beetle bark galleries oddly echo the same pattern as the tree branches!



And there I was at the railroad tracks, with their parallel straight (180 degree) angles.



Angles galore at the space station (AKA grain elevator).



The best two finds were last. I'd never noticed these before. There are some old slabs of concrete that were dumped at the back of a neighboring property. On what was previously the underside, you can see the impression of large equipment tracks left in the dirt before the concrete was poured. Although it softens the impression of the angles, I especially like the encroaching moss on the right. One can almost see those tracks as huge dike or elevated highways with whole neighborhoods of green trees and rooftops in the valleys.



On the next hunk of man-made stone were more tracks with a different tire pattern. These certainly have angles!



So I got a little wet, but I got a little exercise, and although none of these is high-quality art, it was fun setting an assignment and doing it.

	See Crosshatched
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Rail Tales

 
Walked to town today to do some errands and came home by way of the railroad tracks. A train came while I was walking. That always makes me happy.



Before the train came by, however, I was looking at the hopper cars parked along a siding. Freight cars can come from anywhere, and these are marked Winchester and Western. Well, I think I'm a railroad buff, but this one was new to me.



I had to look it up.



Now I feel pretty dumb. It's a short line that runs in Virginia, West Virginia and New Jersey. But it's been in operation since 1916. You'd think I would have heard of it. Probably I have, but the info didn't stick. My railroad fan friend, Irene, will be appalled.



I took a close picture of the Marquette Rail engine as it went by. See the number? This is the same engine I saw the first time I spotted the new paint scheme after it was acquired by the Genesee and Wyoming line. They now own over 120 short lines!



The co-op grain elevator used to be serviced by the railroad. The loading chute still hangs in place, unused and forlorn.



Now, everything comes and goes by truck. I don't know why. The trains run every day.

	See New Owner, New Paint Scheme
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Six Miles, No Car, No Road

 
Today, I walked out my back door, and did a six mile hike without driving anywhere, and without walking on (public) roads. I was on a campground drive, and a service drive for short stretches.

Who could resist going out on a day like today if they didn't have other commitments? It was gorgeous. A tiny bit chilly when the breeze picked up, but with the sun, who cared? And Saturdays (because they follow Friday nights at work) are, for me, a complete crap shoot as to how I'll feel. Last week I had a headache all day and didn't want to move. Today, I felt great. And that's in spite of a very long night at work.



You can come along on my walk.

First, I headed for the Pere Marquette River. That's about a mile south of me. When you reach the bluff along the river you look down to one of my favorite places to sit and ponder the world. I call it Hemlock Cove. At the linked post is a picture of it from river level.



There I turned left and walked along the top of the bluff. This is combination of deer trails and bushwhacking. It used to be an easier walk, but a lot of autumn olive has grown up. Along the way, I passed The Dragon's Backbone.

Next I skirted the closed Scottville landfill. It's just a quiet place now.



Continuing east, as you approach Scottville, you look down on the river flats. At this time of year they are too marshy and flooded to walk, but in August that entire area below the river is filled with lizard tail.



I slid on my butt down the edge of the bluff to get to the parking lot at Scottville Riverside Park docks. Then I crossed the road and the river on the road bridge. OK, I lied. I was on the road the get over the river.

Then I entered the main park. I've often taken you on the loop hike there, although I usually drive there and just do the 1.5 mile loop. However... when the river is high, you can't walk the whole loop. Sometimes you can get all the way around, almost back to the campground, only to discover the channel from the bottomland hardwood swamp is flowing and you'd need to get pretty wet to cross it.

So instead, I went to check that first. The trail would go out on that spit of land from left to right and then continue on the raised ridge of land. But, you can see that the water is cutting off that path. The river is in the background and the swamp in the foreground.



Change in plans! I didn't feel like getting soaked since there were other options. I walked around the back edge of the campsites. At this time of year they are still empty so I wasn't bothering anyone. I explored some places I haven't been before, but was cut off by high water again. So I returned to the camp road, and then skirted the relatively new disc golf course they've installed in the filled lagoons of the old wastewater treatment plant.

When I reached the spot where this connects with the actual trail... that end of the access to the river edge is also under water. In this picture you can see that spit of land that looks like it's going right out into the river. That's the trail. The water there would actually be quite shallow on the river flats for another 150 to 200 feet before you reach the river channel. This bridge used to be at the end of the spit of land. I think the city has pretty much abandoned this trail, now that they've built the golf course.



I looped all around the park, joining the actual trail where it isn't in the river flats. I found a much better way to get up to the top of the river bluff (and down for next time), and walked around the other edge of the old landfill.

The final piece of the walk, before I reach my property, takes me through this stand of red pine and Scots pine. It's south of the grain elevators.



After passing through the trees, I can see my destination ahead. The railroad tracks are down in that cut that divides the picture.



Now we're home again. Wasn't that fun? I have some nice closeups to share another day.

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Where the Deer, Fox and Rabbit All Play

 
The temperature warmed into the twenties, the sun was occasionally out, and so were the critters. I didn't see any of them, but just like my snowshoe tracks, it's impossible to miss where they've been.

Today I did my long loop (except for going down to the creek which doesn't work well in winter). And my long loop isn't as long as it used to be, but that's not a quality topic. Maybe another day for that. Maybe not.

Here's where the deer play. All the time.



Do you wonder why? I have the answer to that.



It's the field next to the grain elevator. They dump the tag ends of grain from trucks out in the open area, and year-round, the deer come for a free meal. I think they are getting a fair amount of dirt with their grain right now, but when pickin's are slim, you take what you can get, right?

Next up is the rabbit. You've seen these a lot, but do you remember which direction it's traveling?



Left to right, of course. Big back feet land in front of the small front feet when hopping.

This one's a little trickier. These are from the day it was snowing so hard. The snow was deep and fluffy. Whatever it is, was coming toward me. It looks like there are leaps from one set of tracks to the next, and the pattern is something like a canter.


Before the leaping, the pattern appeared like this.


I'm going with fox. This is the area where he/she usually runs, and the tracks came out of the cover of the trees where it had been walking beneath the low branches. I looked for a more distinct print to be sure, but will have to go with my instinct here.

I've wasted more time this month than seems possible, but I'm still enjoying my game. Getting out is good too!

	See Where the Fox Went, which is in the same approximate location
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Kitchenhenge - Winter Solstice 2014

 
It's been a while since I did kitchenhenge. Since Spring 2011 to be exact. That may be so long ago that I need to explain it again. Basically, it's a chance catch of a lot of improbabilities. For one thing, I have to be up at sunrise. Ugh. It has to be either an equinox or solstice... or pretty close, because the other thing is that there can't be so many clouds that the sunrise is invisible.

Then... I stand on the top step to my kitchen door and take a picture of the sun coming up. Over time I marked one tree as a reference point, and you can see how the sun has moved in relation to a line through that tree.

And since I last did this, they've put up a huge new bin and the space station, er... grain elevator. That changes the way things look a little bit.

The good sunrise was on Dec 20. I had just arrived at the kitchen sink when it happened. I couldn't get the memory card in the camera and get to the step fast enough. Then on the 21, the actual winter solstice, there was complete cloud cover. This morning, well, meh... I even put a yellow arrow to help you find where the sun actually is. But it's south of the grain bin.



This picture is summer solstice 2009. So if you can line up the red lines in your head, you can see how far north the sun is on the first day of summer.



This post took a lot of time because I had to find old pictures that had disappeared from the blog because I used to host my own pictures. I'm slowly working at getting old posts updated so that the pictures show again. It's an annoying and tedious job. Anyway, some of the kitchenhenge posts are fixed.

The sunrise was actually much more noteworthy before the sun appeared.



And for fun... explain this. Every one of the three mornings this week that I was looking at the sunrise, the flock of pigeons that lives near the grain elevator was flying in a circle to the south of the big bin. They would go out and turn and come back and turn over and over and over. I used no commas there, because they didn't use any in their circling.

	See Kitchenhenge Installment 4 for winter solstice 2009
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Still Looking for My House

 
No, the piles aren't quite that deep yet, that I've completely lost the house.

I got "stood up" on a work assignment, so I had some extra time to wander home. Since it was a clear, crisp day I decided to go over the Mason County high point. We've been there before. Even tried to find my house before. But it was hazy when I took those previous pictures.

The road cut is probably 30 feet short of the height of land, but the view is more sweeping from the road. Not to mention how good it looks in autumn! This is a full long shot.



Then I went looking for my house. It's easy to find the water tower, which is a mile east of me.



I saw the sun glinting off something to the west of that. Aha! It's the space station (er... grain elevator)



Can you find them both in this shot?



Now I worked my way west from the space station. I also went closer to the top of the high point, trying to preserve a sight line to the correct spot, as more trees closed in around me. Something looked familiar. The yellow arrow in the middle of this picture is pointing to our copse of aspen trees that you can see in My Kingdom From On High. Interesting that the leaves were mostly down on Oct 19, of last year.



The arrow on the left is the clump of white pines on the hill just west of us, featured in this awesome sunset Timing is So Important. Those are about 10 miles away from where I took the picture.

From almost the very top (you can get 3-4 feet higher, but it's all filled in with sumac and grape vines, so no view), I pulled in a shot straight north. You are seeing more than 10 miles there, but nothing I can recognize.



That was a satisfactory stop!

	See Mason County High Point for a previous attempt to do this See The Highest Point for a view of that hill from our house
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