California Newt

California Newt, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

While hiking, I came across this interesting California newt, right in the middle of a relatively dry trail. The newt's eyes were surrounded by an amazing green.

The stream in the ravine 100 feet down from the trail contained many newts, as well as their young.

Anybody else seeing amphibious creatures around?

More recommendations

There is always a Friday Ark over at The Modulator - go there for links to critter pictures of the week. And if you've got a blog, be sure to submit your photos too.

And then there's Caturday, a newish blog about - cats, what else! They were nice enough to include one of my recent pictures.

I know, I know, I need to update my blogroll! In the meantime be sure to check out the Firefly Forest Blog. Besides the great nature pics, I enjoyed the recent Light Trail Photographs:



And thanks so much to Gnumoon for letting me know about Pandora. You can create your own online radio stations, and "train" them to play what you like, based on your own recommendations. I'm currently building:

Karen's Alternative
Karen's Folk
Karen's Bluesy
Karen's Minimalism
Karen's Alt Country

and several more. You can build a station based on just one artist or song, or list several for an interesting mix.

Yucca & Mesquite

Most of the native trees or brush around my sons home is mesquite trees seen in the first 2 photos and the yuccas shown in the next 2 photos. Both are very drought resistant but the drought that is going on now is about to do in a lot of the native plant live in the southern New Mexico area.

Colchuck Peak

Colchuck Peak, in the Stuart Range, was to be our first real climb of 2007. We camped near the trailhead the night before and then got a 4:00am start on the climb. The road to the trailhead was closed due to a mudslide that needed to be cleaned up. We pushed and rode bikes for 4 miles up the dry gravel road.




Mark crossing the bridge over Mountaineer Creek.



Doug, Mike and Dave enjoying the view.


Dragontail Peak is on the left, Colchuck Peak is on the right and the Colchuck Glacier is in-between. Our route would start directly below the summit as seen from this angle. Colchuck Lake was still frozen. We were able to save a lot of time by going straight across the lake.



Our route was the North Buttress Couloir (NBC). It is the snowy strip going up the left side of this photo. This is the NE side of the peak.





Heading up the lower part of the NBC. The snow was in great shape on this side of the peak. We could easily kick in steps and they were solid.





Dave, the moraine and the end of the lake.






We made it up to the notch and crossed over to the NW side of Colchuck. The snow on this side was loose dry powder.







Mark with Colchuck Lake in background.








Mark, Doug and Dave on top of Colchuck Peak with Mt. Stuart and Sherpa Peak behind us.









The Colchuck Glacier consisted of hard icy snow. We were numb by the time we finished glissading down to the lake!








Dave takes a lot of flower pictures. Here is just one. We hopped back on the bikes, made good time coasting down to the pickup, ate some real food and headed for home.

Attention lovers

I keep hearing about how stand-offish cats are and wonder where people get that idea. Mine always want attention. They want to be petted, loved, and fed. They want to sit in my lap and reward me by purring and helping to keep me warm. Each and everyone of our cats has had a very different personallity. Some want a bit more attention than others. Some try to get into more trouble than others. Some are more adventurous than others. Some want one kind of food, others won't touch that kind and want a different food. Murphy is a great mouser, so is K.C. but Jade would rather be in the house in my lap. But if Murphy sees me when he is outside then he is under my feet begging to be petted as in this photo. Cats have always been known for helping people type. First on old fashioned manuel typewriters and now on computer keyboards and laptops. Sometimes it make you wonder if a cat didn't find a way to encourage people to make typewriters and keyboards simply for their amusement.Cat also have a love of laying on papers on desks, especially if you are reading or trying to sort them. Any time I am reading a book or newspaper one of my cats will be trying to read with me. Hummm---- I wonder if cats are able to read. The next thing I know a cat will be writing a bog.

Failure to Yield and Crosswalk Design

In Somerville, MA we have this community path for bicyclists and pedestrians that stretches all the way to the neighbouring town of Arlington, grazing Cambridge along the way. The path is great, except that it is frequently interrupted by busy roads and the crossings can be challenging. We had this one particular interruption, where cyclists had to make a complicated series of turns and negotiate a major intersection in order to get from one stretch of the path to another.Then sometime last year, construction began at that intersection. Rumor had it they were making a crosswalk that would cut through the series of islands - a straight line connecting the disjointed stretches of community path. That is exactly what they did, and the new intersection was unveiled a couple of months ago.






It's hard to capture the whole thing in photographs; it is vast and consists of 4 separate crosswalk segments. But the pictures above each show a chunk that should give you an idea of how it's designed. In 3 of the 4 segments there are traffic lights with clear red and green signals. And there is another small segment not visible here where there is just a crosswalk without a traffic light. In theory the design is great, because it creates a direct line of travel connecting the community path, without forcing cyclists to make an elaborate detour. In practice however, there is one big problem: Drivers don't yield. Some drivers make right turns on a red light at full speed without even checking whether anyone is in the crosswalk, others make U-turns on a red light, and others still simply run the red light altogether. In some instances the drivers obviously see me, but proceed anyway, forcing me to stop abruptly in the middle of the intersection or to speed up if I am already in their line of travel.






Roughly half the time I go through this intersection, something like this happens - to the point where I absolutely do not trust it anymore. It's a shame that all this work was done, and drivers' failure to yield ruins it. It is also frightening that the crosswalks look so nice and friendly, while in reality it is quite dangerous. I cannot really think of a solution, but it's clear that something needs to change in the local drivers' mentalities in order for attempts to create decent, convenient infrastructure to be truly successful. The infrastructure itself is not always enough.

Howard's Tall Farewell

The left half of our back yard had an open area in the middle that was mainly grass until this spring. This space is irregular, approximately 22’ X 25’ at the widest points. You walk through it every time you enter the gate, or exit the house, or go over to the mixed border and the vegetable garden. We cross through that area many times a day and also see it from the breakfast room, from the patio and from the shady bench under the peach tree.

Because this middle area was so sunny, the grass needed regular watering, unlike the grass in shadier areas. If I’m going to water, I want something more than grass! Last year we planted a ‘Little Gem’ Magnolia at one end of this space, adding the gloss of dark green leaves and a few fragrant white flowers, but at barely five feet, it will take a few years for this tree to make any vertical impact or cast shade. This spring, we made a new long bed that includes the magnolia, a Texas Mountain Laurel, salvias, Lemon verbena and other plants.

In April, we added instant height to the bed when Philo and I found a 7 and ½ foot-tall obelisk at Howard Nursery on Koenig Lane. Howard’s has been a great source for shrubs, flowers and fun gift items. Although the new structure is taller than anything else on that side of the yard, it was rapidly climbed and entwined by the second Snail Vine.

When we bought the obelisk in April, we passed up some tempting roses. Now I really regret that lost opportunity. Our most recent trip to Howard’s was for their closing sale, where I bought a one-gallon Weigela as a sort of souvenir. It will have to be in a container for now, but it may live and someday bloom, reminding me of a loved-and-lost Austin nursery.

Spring Bittern

Spotted this fellow the other night while driving around the backroads of Grand Portage. I consider myself lucky for spotting this guy as we drove by this meadow, as these birds are NOT easy to see when they are standing in the tall grass like this!

Photographing ice at Cutface Creek Wayside

This morning I met up with my friend Bryan Hansel (http://www.bryanhansel.com) near Grand Marais to photograph the sunrise. The shoreline we visited was littered with these large "mountains" of ice, pushed up by wave action from Lake Superior. The temperature was even cold enough to have some nice sea smoke out on the lake. Along with the fascinating ice, we found several otter "slides" in the snow along the shoreline. Otter slides are trails made in the snow by the otters as they slide down slopes on their bellies. It sure was a fun morning!

An Ageless Subject - Age - COG 52

Lisa has posted the Carnival of Genealogy, 52nd Edition over at 100 Years in America. The topic is "Age" and as Lisa says " This is a collection of tales and trivia, stories and statistics. Thanks to these contributions by various family historians, we have a look into the lives of others who stand out from their family tree (and society in general) because of their age." There are some new contributors as well as the "regulars" and a wide variety of tales that have been told. As always, I'm amazed at the quality and variety of the posts contributed to the COG. Check them out! Lisa has done a wonderful job of putting it all together. I for one know that it is not an easy task to come up with a good "lead" for each of the posts. Well done, Lisa!

The next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be a “carousel” edition. Just as carousels have a variety of animal figures so, too, will the next edition of the COG have a variety of topics. All subjects are welcome but please limit yourself to one submission. Submit any article you’d like (genealogy-related of course!) and if you'd like an introduction for it, please write your own. Jasia will be hosting the next edition on the Creative Gene blog but she won't be writing any introductions this time around. The deadline for submissions is August 1.Submit your blog article using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found at the blog carnival index page. Want to know more about the Carnival of Genealogy? See Jasia's Frequently Asked Questions page.

Kudos to footnoteMaven for the Carnival of Genealogy posters.

For numerous reasons, I neglected to post something when the last two "issues" of the COG were published. So, in case you haven't read them yet:

• The 50th Carnival of Genealogy : Family Pets was posted by Bill West at West in New England.
• Carnival of Genealogy, 51st Edition on the topic of Independent Spirit was posted by Thomas MacEntee at Destination Austin Family.

Green chair frog

Have you ever heard of a dog who doesn't like to eat?

Jasmine has to be forced to eat, most days. Otherwise she'll sit and guard her food all day, protecting it from everything except ants. Then she won't want to eat it later either, because the ants bite her nose.

So now we have a game, in which she has to eat her food before a mean old stick gets it. One of us mans the stick, which constantly tries to sneak up and grab her food when she stops eating. She gets annoyed, snaps at the stick, and eats a little more.

Sometimes this game takes a while to finish, so I pull out a chair.

Guess what greeted me the last time I did that?


A green chair tree frog (Hyla cinerea).

I just love how he aligned himself with the green stripe, for camouflage!


His profile.

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For your weekly critter fix, visit the Friday Ark.

NEW PA alpine route at Sunday School Crag

Tom Thomas engulfed in PA alpine sending this new line

Tom Thomas, Andy Shriner and myself decided to go out climbing. As per my last post conditions looked fickle at most SWPA ice areas. I didn't check Sunday School figuring its usually one of the first to come in. Neither Tom nor Andy have been to Sunday School making it agood choice as a first stop towards getting some climbing done. We had a fourth lined up for the day, but he bailed at the last minute making us an uneven 3 man team... Not the best way to go out when conditions have been so limited and everyone wants to climb as much as possible. We made the adventurous hike into the ice. It's fairly steep going and... well to make this readable, I'll just call it "alpine" in style.

Tom and Andy approaching our destination

Those that have been here know exactly what I'm talking about. After our approach, we stood before the ice laden walls. A little boney, but definitely climbable. In the recent years though, boney has become the standard, thus making todays conditions "in" I guess? Either way Tom was amped up and anxious as a high strung cat to start clawing at the walls. Understandably so having climbed here for 15+ years. How can't one get excited with all the various options of ice between chossy, usually protectable, rock sections. Its alpine climbing heaven (in an easily accessible, miniature form ;) I always find the climbing reminiscent of The Black Dike in NH. Not nearly as long, but harder, similar pitches in abundance and concentration. Tom racked up an arsenal of screws, gear and pins while Andy flaked the rope and set up to give Tom a belay. It was at that instant that I realized the predicament of having 3 climbers. Tom and Andy were paired up to have a go at a surely fun line. The reality that our ice climbing has been ultra limited and I could be picking a plum as well. It really bummed me out to say the least. I WANTED to be climbing too. May sound like a childish thing to some, if so, I guess our passions for ice climbing differ. Its pretty high on my list of fun things in the world... Here's one of a handful of days being wasted all because of a backed out partner. It made me realize how valuable my wonderful "better half" Laura really is. I can't stress how much of a trooper she is. I just wish she could've been there. We make such a great climbing team and having her there is priceless! So cutting my losses on climbing and being totally bummed about being partnerless. I decided to take advantage of the great climbing talent and work on some photograpic opportunities I seldom get. I started hiking and worked my way up around to the return of an adjacent cliff to click off some shots from different angles, hopefully documenting a first ascent.

From a distance, Andy is in blue at the base of the climb

The route looked awesome and Tom did a great job leading it for a first visit to Sunday School. He described the opening rock section to be quirky as do most other climbers. I found it took a few seasons to learn to read this odd style of climbing. The rock isn't as friendly as other local rock for hooking, etc. Slopers are the norm with some odd fractures here and there for a "thank god" moment every so often.

Tom enjoying the opening moves

Either way after a quick introduction he was into the business and working up through the rock to a steep snowfield which appeared to be in good condition.

Snow covered choss

The snow led to the base of a vertical ice section that offered some reasonable ice screws and three dimensional climbing around thin columns.

some ice...

Then more ice...

The ice ended at a steep rock cleft that offered up a piton placement before another snow ledge. Another section of ice was above, but extremely poorly bonded.

The rock cleft finish

Tom wisely opted to end the route at the base of this ice. He built an ice screw anchor and Andy followed the line in fine style. He seemed to be enjoying himself the whole way up, pulling his first "legit" pin and getting some V-thread practice in lean conditions. I snapped quite a few photos of all the action. Here's my photo highlight recap of the guys in action on this new unamed line at Sunday School Crag. Congrats go out to Tom and Andy on the great new addition.




Here's Andy in action seconding...

Sunday School partial crag overview

Andy starting up the ice

Tom belaying below the delaminating upper section

Crazy Angle, could be rotated 90 right?

Andy Shriner enjoying a wonderful day in PA

My artistic attempt

Mountain Top

Eternal Dancers

1. My sister, Sarah, got into belly dancing about 30 years ago to loose weight. It worked and she loved the dancing. She still does it and teaches classes in gypsy dancing, belly dancing and simular styles several times a week in her home. On the day I was there her group called the Eternal Dancers were doing a performance for one of the retirement homes in Las Cruces. I went with them and took photos. Sarah is the lady in the black and orange custume. Denise is the lady with the long curly hair and Jennifer is the lady with straight hair. The seniors and employees at the home loved the show. It was the second time they had danced there and they have been asked to come again. On this day only 3 of the dancers were able to preform but there are several more in the troop. This was a free preformance but they do dance for other events for a fee.