Trash & Flowers

Posted by Photonstopper on June 30, 2009
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Morning Flower
Morning Flower

New neighbors are not used to having to enclosing their garbage-bearing trash bags in closed cans to keep them from raccoons and dogs that patrol the area. So, lately, every Tuesday morning we are greeted with the sight of trash and garbage strewn across the common lawn areas. No one owns up to it. No one seems to learn from it. No one cleans it up. {Grrrrr….} Shot photos to send to the Association's management for distribution with a reminder. {Update: SWMBO spotted an envelope showing through a garbage bag in one of my photos. I dashed out and jotted down the name and address so we may have a lead on the negligent party!}

Turning my back on the mess, I photographed Her lovely garden. There were more spectacular flowers in the garden this morning, but this pale yellow bloom caught my eye. I'm taking the day off as my July 4th holiday comp. time which will allow me to tend to Tasha who will be going in for teeth cleaning at the vet's shortly. Vets give cats general anesthesia when cleaning their teeth. With all those needle-sharp teeth contained within a ball of claws, muscle, and fury I can't say as I blame them!

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A pleasant morning on Hinckley Lake

Posted by Photonstopper on June 28, 2009
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Expecting not-very-nice weather for Sunday, we skipped our Saturday morning errands and headed for Hinckley Lake to rent a canoe. It had been a while since we last paddled around the quiet waters of the park but we set out confidently, She in front with a canoe paddle, I in the back of the boat with a kayak paddle. We actually did fairly well, pretty accurately controlling the boat and maintaining good speed when desired. Of course wildlife, most especially water fowl, are a big attraction for me at Hinckley so I carried the little Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC43 — I did not want to risk getting the Canon SLR or its expensive lenses wet. Of course there are risks of another sort to not carrying one's best at all times!

Herself and the Heron
Herself and the Heron

Cruising along the shoreline (and trying to avoid morning fishermen) She spotted a smallish great blue heron nabbing minnows from water's edge. Judging by its size and its failure to flee it was a young bird we approached close enough to bean with a well-placed toss of a stone! So we circled out, I retrieved the little Panasonic from my pocket, and we passed by the youngster repeatedly as I shot photos. It's actually not a bad little digital snapshot camera but I have grown used to SLR speed and quality. I missed several shots due to shutter lag, got blurry results from others, and had very little telephoto reach. Still, in all, it was quite an experience to observe a truly wild bird in the open at such proximity. One of the barely-acceptable photos was kind of fun… young heron is apparently wet and all ruffled up, seen nearly straight-on. Kind of comical, in fact!

All Puffed Up
All Puffed Up

We left the bird in peace and continued our travel paralleling the shore. I'd wanted to get a nice on-water opportunity to photograph a water lily and finally got one. Just one. The only water lily we could reach (due to shallow water boating restrictions) was all by itself, floating in dark water amongst the lily pads — no other blooms anywhere. We took the boat in very close, nearly floating over the flower, I made my shots (three, one fairly good), and headed back out.

Lonely Lily
Lonely Lily

It was a pleasant morning on Hinckley Lake.

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A little respite

Posted by Photonstopper on June 26, 2009
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As a pleasant diversion (and out of curiosity) I left early for work Wednesday morning and made a trip out to Letha House Park in Medina County, the site of the Cuyahoga Astronomical Association's observatory. I wanted to see what progress had been made on the new driveway and parking lot for the park. I also figured I could enjoy a little nature walk around the pond and wetland area there, a little respite before the workday –and night– began. There was no progress on the lot except that a giant digging machine had been removed. The day was sunny and surprisingly hot. Walking slowly, dressed in shorts and tee shirt, I sweated as I moved along the path to the wildlife area. Dragonflies (yes, again) were everywhere so naturally I started shooting photos of them.

Dragonfly Diamonds
Dragonfly Diamonds

I also encountered a bird that flitted from perch to perch obviously trying to evade me but not wanting to go very far. I figured it was a mother and didn't want to tip me off about the location of her nest. Later I was able to confirm that it was a female red-winged blackbird. This particular bird was holding an insect in her beak, obviously a meal for her offspring, as I photographed her watching me.

Redwing Mother
Redwing Mother

Time passed all too quickly and it was time for me to go. Despite the heat I could have spent hours more there watching the bugs and the birds. Duty called, however, so I packed up the camera gear and headed north. Windows down to help me dry off, I piloted the thrifty Insight cross-country pushing the gas mileage to nearly 54 MPG as I went. Lunch at Chipotle, then to the office. A fine way to start the pre-work day.

Note: At home that night I found my camera no longer wished to talk to my PC. Haven't yet fixed it but I can do what many others do… offload the photos from Compact Flash using a media reader.

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Save Ohio’s libraries!

Posted by Photonstopper on June 22, 2009
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Save Ohio's Libraries
Save Ohio’s Libraries

This past Friday, Governor Ted Strickland proposed a cut of $227.3 million {from library funding} in fiscal years 2010 and 2011 as part of his plan to fill the $3.2 billion gap in the state’s budget. This will mean a more than 50 percent cut in funding for many of Ohio’s public libraries. Libraries could close or face significant reductions in operations as a result of the Governor’s proposal.

With about 70 percent of the state’s public libraries relying solely on {the state for funds}, the reduction … will mean that many will close branches or drastically reduce hours and services. Libraries bring critical services to the community, such as early childhood education, job help, free Internet access, and a place for everyone to come together as a community.

This budget will be finalized by June 30th so the time to act is NOW!

* I've quoted all of the above from the Save Ohio Libraries Web site but I wholeheartedly agree that this is a real threat to public libraries and the important services they provide. The cuts would be especially devastating to those libraries serving rural and lower-income communities who depend heavily or entirely on the state's support.

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Lunchtime expedition

Posted by Photonstopper on June 20, 2009
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Smile Pretty!
Smile Pretty!

Today was a work day for me and, as I sometimes do to get some stress relief, I paid a brief lunch time visit to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center in nearby Bay Village, Ohio. It seems like this is my "Dragonfly Summer" as I took advantage of several opportunities to photograph the insects. The creature pictured above posed at the end of a twig anchored in the Center's lovely water feature. This was a "super-macro" shot, not telephoto, so the camera lens was mere inches from the subject. Yes, it almost appears to be smiling for the camera! The 15-minute break helped me a great deal.

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Yes, Virginia, there is an Einstein!

Posted by Photonstopper on June 19, 2009
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Happy Meal Einstein
Happy Meal Einstein

Breakfast out at McDonald's this morning was especially rewarding. After placing our food order I asked the clerk, a woman of a Certain Age, did she have any Einstein Happy Meal toys? Without doubt or hesitation she checked the toy box and said no, she did not have any and that today was the last day of the Night at the Museum movie promotion. I thanked her and went to our table.

As I sat munching my Egg McMuffin sans Canadian bacon, I saw a staff member removing the display containing the Museum toys and installing a display of Ice Age movie items. {Sigh!}

A few minutes later our clerk, Virginia, came to our table and presented me with my long sought-after Einstein figure, taken from the display that had been removed! Thank you so very much!

Breakfast, Quest, and cultural experiment complete, we left the eatery smiling.

To top it all off, a copy of The Plain Dealer newspaper was found at our table and She Who Must Be Obeyed made sure to give me the comic section. What should be on the first page of the comics but a single-panel Bill Whitehead "Free Range" cartoon featuring a caricature of the famous genius. Whoa! Pictured at a cocktail party, we see, under his "Hi, I'm A. Einstein" name tag, an imprint on his tee shirt reading "I'm With Stupids."

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QotD: What is it too soon for?

Posted by Photonstopper on June 17, 2009
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What is it too soon for? *

It's still too darned soon to expect President Obama to have fixed all that's problematic in the country right now, even as if he could do all that. For gosh sakes, there were people who were impatient for his solutions 30 days into his administration! Messes created by outside forces, the times, and previous administrations have tremendous force and will take time to resolve. I'm heartened to see even small progress at this point, almost half a year in. It's too soon to expect a fix, and it's too soon to give up!

 
*Question of the Day Submitted by Design Shark.

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Ride of forest and frogs

Posted by Photonstopper on June 16, 2009
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Wood Frog
Wood Frog

Today we ventured east to try out the Maple Highlands Trail — a rails-to-trails conversion that stretches from Headwaters Park to Chardon in Geauga County, Ohio. The facility is beautifully designed, provisioned, and maintained. It is paved with asphalt over its nine miles, and is of gentle terrain for those of us who have not been riding our bikes enough lately to be strong as we once were — we know who we are! Shallow slopes, slow curves, woodlands, wetlands, and few road intersections make this a good ride. Many birds and dragonflies flew across the trail as we cruised from one end to the other and back again. Along the way I steered to avoid what I thought at first was a dead leaf, then maybe some poo… at the last second I could see it was a smallish frog. I stopped and turned around to take a portrait of the little amphibian before urging it off of the trail. We encountered one other frog, of another species, on the pavement but it was a little shy and refused picture-taking. It was a good ride on a warm and sunny day. Forecast for this week is cloudy with rain chances so we're glad we fit this in.

By the way, I shot the frog photo with Her older model Panasonic Lumix camera –Her first digital camera– and am very pleased with the result. We're offering the point-and-shoot to my mother as a replacement for single-use film cameras she has found disappointing of late. We'll see how it works out for her.

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Dragonfly summer

Posted by Photonstopper on June 14, 2009
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Dragonfly Summer
Dragonfly Summer

Today we ran clean across Medina and Lorain Counties in the Insight to check out a far-flung, undeveloped natural area in the Lorain Metroparks System. The area was a bit too undeveloped and buggy for Her taste, so after a short time we headed back in the general direction we came to pay a visit to the Caley Reservation –a National Wildlife Area– which we have explored from time to time. When we first visited there some years ago, Caley was just a dry pit dug out by bulldozers in a former farm field. Today the pit is a lake surrounded by prairie grass. A smaller pond lies nearby. As we strolled around we became fascinated by the many dragonflies flitting about. Some were good enough to stop and pose for photos. Seen here (above) is just one example; it's a female Widow Skimmer. I've also got a nice portrait of a red dragonfly — a Calico Pennant (seen below). Technically it won't be summer for another week but, as we hiked around the pond and lake at the Lorain Metroparks' Caley Reservation, dragonflies were all around, it felt like a warm summer afternoon, and I keep humming the Michael Franks song, "Dragonfly Summer." It was a good day.

Dragonfly Red
Dragonfly Red

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Sorry steamer

Posted by Photonstopper on June 14, 2009
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Sorry Steamer
Sorry Steamer

We did a bit of exploring Saturday and wound up passing through the Wellington, Ohio area. We had seen the yard of the Lake Shore Railway Association a couple of years ago; back then we paused to shoot some photos of a diesel locomotive attached to restored passenger coaches. Yesterday, however, I glanced towards the other side of the road and saw the unmistakable profile of a steam locomotive! We turned the Insight around and whipped into a neighboring business's driveway. Hiking closer to the old engine we could see it was in very sorry shape, indeed. The old Nickle Plate Road engine was missing its cab and some miscellaneous parts, other components were dangling from the still massive hulk, and it was missing road badges, engine number, and goodness knows what else. Seeing the sorry steamer parked on the siding reminded me of a (formerly) recurring dream I had years ago: Hiking along railroad tracks near a woods, I came across a relic steam locomotive and (in the dream) set about trying to get it to run. I can only hope the old loco we saw parked outside Wellington is waiting for restoration and not to become a late arrival on the scrap heap.

Note: This excellent photograph was made by She Who Must Be Obeyed. I shot photos but, due to an accident in settings, all of my shots were terribly overexposed — so much as to be uncorrectable!

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