bird families, creeks and Cumberland Falls

post #136

       Spring continues, for just a bit longer.  A friend, Mary Camille, sent me a photo of baby robins newly hatched in a flower pot on her deck.  This photo says HUNGRY!  The parent had gone for a quick perusal, perhaps?  (Thanks for this birth announcement!  Please keep us posted on their progress.)

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         On my own recent day of birth, we were visited by not one but this time TWO pileated woodpeckers.  They were checking out our fallen willow tree.  I didn't have my 300m lens on the camera at that moment, but I did catch the following photo as record of the event, with my 25 - 105 lens.  I was pretty amazed to see this pair of pileateds -- from our kitchen window.
  
  
  
       For today's post, I want to share several images of our creek, which is so central to the natural life of this place.  Tonight, after so much rain, it would look very different than it does after weeks of no rain, but, as always, so much of plant and animal and insect life is connected to its ebbs and flows. The first image is what I might see when I first get to the creek, before crossing over it and walking along one side of it.
  
  
  
  
   The next view was taken during a dry spell, looking back at the creek after having gone a bit farther along.  Notice the dark tree trunk in the upper right of the photo:
  
  
  

       This third view is from not much farther along.  I am now standing with my back near the edge of what we call the first waterfall.   Notice the same tree, again in the upper right of the photo:

    
   I have been thinking about this creek and its variations and my many photos of it because this last photo is going to be used on the cover of a book that will come out in October!  However, for design purposes, the publishers have cropped the photo so that only the middle section is shown, in what is almost a square.  I understand their need to do this, but of course I am attached to the image as I took it.  Does that sound like some kind of worn out artist's lament?  In any case, I am so pleased the image will be used because the book is This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012, by Wendell Berry, to be published by Counterpoint Press; I will be saying more about this book in future posts. 


     To end today's post, I want to share two images from today when we returned from the wonderful Farm House Inn in southern Kentucky and stopped at the nearby Cumberland Falls.  It was exciting to feel the energy there after 24 hours of steady rain. I began thinking about how water comes from under the ground and comes from our creeks.  It becomes a river -- and then comes Cumberland Falls and such -- on the way to the ocean. 
      As I will say yet again, we all live downstream, and I just can't understand why we are not courageous enough to preserve sources of clean water, essential to the health and well-being of our planet and of our selves. 

      I enjoyed having my Panosonic Lumix waterproof point and shoot to use in the pouring rain, even though I don't use it often enough to remember all its bells and whistles.  Now someday I would like to see the famous moonbow these falls produce during a full moon on a clear night.  I am sure there is a bigger crowd for that than there was today, despite this spectacular show.

recent photos of spring, from this week

post #135
    Spring still manages to be special with something new every day.  Here are two days from this past week, starting with Friday, April 16, 2013:

These ants are preparing the peonies for those big splashy blooms soon to happen.

Lilacs continue to open up -- and their scent takes over the yard.

The delightfully unexpected: an asparagus stalk within the yarrow -- quite a ways from the asparagus patch!

 catalpa tree buds, for George Ella

A friend gave us two of these bald cypresses, which are deciduous conifers -- just meaning of course fir trees that lose their leaves....  Here are this year's, brand new, and, to me, fascinating.

I also love the light greens of early fern leaves.

another from above photo with my new lens, this time of wood-betony

Both these blossom photos are on the antique apple tree I shared a photo of last week.  Pretty fantastic job, sweet tree!

       Now two photos from TODAY, April 28, 2013, during a road trip to the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Harlan County in eastern Kentucky.  The school is celebrating its centennial this year!  Mist along the mountainside is pretty common there, but there was indeed quite a bit of rain during the weekend.  The building is the chapel, which has an organ in it, where we were treated to an amazing concert by Patricia Griffith, from Frankfort.   Yes, I will add a photo of her during the concert.  The redbuds are still blooming there, even though it is three hours south of where I live.

Thank you, Patricia!  And hats off to all that the school has stood for during its 100 years.

April 21st, one day, spring spectacular

post #134
      I have 15 photos to share, in chronological order, starting at 7:30 a.m. today.  And I didn't even have the opportunity yet to get into the woods! ( I plan to take some there for the next post.)  After the week we have shared with Boston, with Texas, with the world, it is glorious to have spring plunging ahead, doing its thing, doing its best to stay on track despite the derailments thrown our way.  
      Well, the first photo is from a week ago, in Frankfort, from the steps of the Capitol.  I was there for a reception hosted by the Kentucky Arts Council for artists in their Derby exhibit in the rotunda, with the governor's wife, Jane Bashear.  It was interesting to talk with her and with the other artists I met from across the state.  However, I would have liked other artists from eastern Kentucky to be in the exhibit as well!

     Now, beginning this day, before the wind, before the sun, looking out my open window:

redbud branches

looking west from the house, mostly poplars in their spring green glory

early dogwood

violets, wild in the "lawn"

apple blossoms, not hurt by last night's light, low frost

These two apple trees have never produced well, so we kind of leave them be whatever they decide to be.  This year they are full of blossoms and lovely, busy attracting bees.

low lying lilac branch, in the late afternoon sun, but still too early in the day for a really good photo

fascinating redbud, with the blossoms growing directly out of the branch

later-in-the-evening lilac - less sunlight toward dusk makes for a richer photo, plus the wind dies down which allows for increased sharpness

This is our "antique" apple tree, with more blossoms than usual this year, down by the barn. It is still looking good even after 45 years!  Would we could all do as well.

a later blooming lilac bush giving a hint of what's to come

     Gotta stop for now, thanks for sharing in this celebration of an April day.   Ann

Monday night -- a friend sent a wonderful redbud poem, and it is in the comments that follow.

finally, signs of spring from flowers to goldfinches

post #133
      What follows are some photos from this favorite time of year.  We are having a late spring in eastern Kentucky, but supposedly some warmer days are coming soon.  I expect a pent-up burst of leaves on the trees and blooms on the flowers during the next two weeks. 
 

We're not quite to this amount of green yet this year, but VERY CLOSE.

Quaker ladies

wood-betony

same house as above, seen through redbuds

Jason doesn't provide his neighbors with this design every year, but I am fascinated when he does by the art potential of manure spread on a hillside!

a goldfinch going through the change, from winter gray back to summer gold

mayapple

daffodils, eager and ready show off

early lilacs in our yard

redbuds

a worm-eating warbler on her nest, on the forest floor -- a rare sight that I captured without knowing how rare it is, at 8:30 p.m.

pink lady's slipper

    

exactly two years ago, with the sun coming from under early morning clouds!