water falling, running, or frozen

         I have the idea of going wild about spring this year --- and starting with waterfalls.  This year there's a lot of work to be done to even get to the falls I have shown before, due to the damage caused by the recent ice storm. Getting to see those wild flower treasures we look forward to finding every April may be really hard to manage as well. The clean up priority has to be the nearby fire trail in order to assure access to it if need be. That's why I want to honor the creeks and the falls and the flowers that may be hidden to us this April while nature works to mend itself. I will show flowers in the next weeks.

        First I am going to try to load a vimeo of a creek on a normal day, several years ago. This can take awhile -- even overnight --  but it should work out in the end. I hope you will be able to listen to the water.

         

The creek continues, flowing toward the falls.

 Here's the top ledge of the second waterfall:

summer falls

winter artfulness

the big waterfalls, frozen and fallen

That day we heard the ice crash down just before we got there. Sometimes the top and the bottom touch in the middle!

summer view

        I can't resist leaving the forest's treasured spaces in order to share a long ago happy winter water moment at the pond.  It shows how you can't believe everything concerning water that you see.....

    There are so many more waterfall moods and photos, but these ones give a taste of the joy.

still spring, even though my left foot now is healing a bit of broken bone

post #430
        Ten days ago I didn't get to take a "visit family" trip and still today I didn't get to go to a family 8th birthday celebration nearby, but even so I am lucky. I only have one stop-and-pay- attention injury, to my foot, to deal with, for at least a month. I am not contagious. Just slowed down by a crutch. Learning new skills. Grateful to be in one piece. Still wondering about the meaning of life.
         And I am still watching our democracy either implode or grow stronger in reaction to extreme provocation. Any elected person who can't even say the words "CLIMATE CHANGE" out loud gives me the shivers. What price are we paying for such defective magical thinking. No matter how high or how low, it's too heavy a price.
        So here today are some photos "just because," ones I have taken along the way, from the moments that happen as we are living our lives and trying to be good to our one world.

SPRING 2018:

SPRING 2019:

         

SPRING 2017:

SPRING 2016

          I am grateful for all the help I am getting in response to my current (temporary) period of reduction in mobility. It is definitely humbling to have to avoid weight bearing walking as much as possible. However, I will be well enough on May 21 to go vote, even if it is "just" for statewide offices. As ever, we all need now to "Vote as if your rights depend on it." Which they indeed do.

winter remnants, renewal preparations

Earth Day, April 22, 2018

post #383
       Busy day today -- starting with time in the woods with my daughter and granddaughter. There are some flowers, but not as many as usual, and the trees feel late as well -- not much greenness yet.  It was a rough cold long winter. It seems to me that the world climate struggles to make the many adjustments that are part of the honest-to-gosh climate changes that are happening.

      A few photos from a day that was supposed to be cloudy (and therefore better for photos) but today was, in the end, pretty sunny. Still, it was a good way to spend Earth Day.

starting out, with the two dogs

a loyal Murry moment, by R. 

T. leading the way

wood betony, yellow, along the path, surrounding a single bluet

       

Actually, there were a lot of fiddle heads (new fern leaves) but we didn't pick any to eat.

There were not many trillium out yet! These are white ones, kind of basic, always lovely.

wild yellow violet

photo by R of a mayapple, with its flower still just a tease in the center

photo by R., happy hikers

A girl's gotta keep up with her recording and notes while out in nature.  Does anyone recognize my college reunion hat? now belonging to a better head size than mine? T. prefers the bow in front.

boots in the creek

I was trying for a photo of her upside down so it might look as if she had lost her top two teeth instead of the bottom two.... I know, crazy of me, and I didn't quite get the look I had in mind. That's what I get for trying to pose a photo!!

           So, another Earth Day has come and gone, and I still can't figure out why it's so hard for some people to accept that climate change is happening and could be less of a mess if we'd all pay attention and take responsibility for our one and only world. Is it really so hard to imagine what could happen if we don't rise to the occasion? Soon? Please, everyone, think about it with an open mind.

breaking for spring

post #380
         This time by "spring break" I mean that I'm taking a break from posts featuring my note cards.  Instead, today, I am posting the photos I made in mid March, mostly ones down by the creek. In the time I had I couldn't find any early blooms, even though it was technically spring! However, there are always things to see, no matter what the calendar shows.

         First, to set the scene and to go with last week's duo, here are additional winter photos, also taken in March:

early morning clarity on the 21st

Three days later, where's the driveway this time?!?

blanketed, in the back, nearby the barn

 Celebrating a day without rain, snow or whatever by walking in the woods:

winter feast collections

evidence that the rattlesnake plantain survived the winter, as always. This phrase I lifted from the internet:
This evergreen orchid is a perennial rhizomatous herb of the forest floor. It's an ORCHID! I didn't know!

Later I saw another grouping, this time with the stem left from 2017.  I tried to focus the photo to be mostly on the stem so that it could be seen better.  Even with all the walking that happens on the path to the waterfall, these common plants seem to thrive. In fact, I wonder if we spread them by chance with our walking....

These two photos show the creek when it joins another, all on the way to the waterfalls. I was standing in the same spot for both photos, about to cross over the creek below to follow the path.

All kinds of moss are along the bank on the non-stream side of the path.

And of course there is the wonder of clear water flowing, in the creek.

I wish that all creeks could be so pristine and safe, for the sake of wildlife and for the sake of human beings who live on this planet. I am still shocked that one of first thing negated by the new administration in D.C. was the stream saver bill, which took years of work to get in place, which made common sense, and which would make such a difference in the health of people who happen to live near where mining happens.  Actually, since we all live downstream, the new regulation would have helped generations of families who want to make Appalachia and Kentucky a better place in which to live and work.  I think about this every time I see this little "beginner stream" carrying clean water out into the wider world.

I discovered this collection of treasures on the steep hillside near the first waterfall, in the base of a very tall tree. I would have suspected little creatures at work, but when I asked my granddaughter later about what I found, she told me she had indeed done it! I loved finding it.

And I saw this second sighting on the way back, on the path. As I often say, you just never know.

Am writing this on April 1, so I am looking forward to a month of flowers and surprises. Since moving to Kentucky 45 years ago, April has become my favorite month; it's so beautiful. These photos definitely benefit from being seen larger -- try the click on one, see them all line up in order, and then find the one(s) you want.