Life in the fast lane continues

These are just a few more pictures of our little trip down to Eastern Neck Wildlife Refuge last week on a dreary day. And then, I promise you, I'll stop, ok?

As I write this, it's rainy and cold. And dark too, because it's nighttime. George is asleep at my feet after several rousing hours games of toy fetching. Reading your comments on yesterdays post made me happy and frankly, surprised. I want to welcome all the new faces here!

After the Boardwalk Trail, we walked across the road and north a little bit to Boxes Point Trail, which is a nice hike through a little forest. Can you spot the bird in the photo above?

At the end of the trail is a nice little beach with a park bench to enjoy the view. I liked this cool piece of driftwood.

A lot of you asked what I do to my pictures and I'll tell you that I rarely use one that's Straight Out of Camera (SOOC). I'm a sucker for a good action and for the two lower photos above, I used Pioneer Woman's Soft & Faded. PW has two sets of actions that are absolutely free and available for download into your Photoshop program. All you have to do is visit her website and click on the Photography tab. Then do a search for free actions.

I also used TRA's actions, and the one above is called Technicolor Dreamworld. It's available in Set 2 (The Revenge). Please note that this is not a picture of my husband's back.

When I open up my pictures in Photoshop and begin to play around, I'll look at it and try to recreate how it looked in my mind when I took it. I know that sounds weird, but it's how it works sometimes. I wanted the water to look blue because it actually looked blue that day as the sun was just beginning to break through the clouds. But the SOOC was not what I expected. And adding the burnt edge to the photo above made the water more blue.

For the one above and for many of these photos, I used a slight edge burn, also available as a free download. It's from MCP Actions and there's several more to try out on her website.

These two trees are a silent testament to the ravages of time, aren't they? This was taken at Boxes Point looking north.

I liked how these reeds looked against the sky and water. This photo also has a burnt edge to it as well as an action called Rusty Cage, which I purchased in a set from TRA (Totally Rad Actions).

The sun made a valiant attempt that day but nothing ever really came of it. So we called it a day and headed north for home.

Hope all this talk of actions and burnt edges hasn't totally put you to sleep!

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Oh, and that's my new favorite hat that I bought in NYC last month. I love it!

A walk in the woods

Today dawned a bit colder than yesterday and because I still have off for the week, I luxuriated in the flannel sheets, sleeping in until nearly 9 am.

Oh, my! Very unlike me.

After a breakfast of coffee and some oatmeal, we departed for nearby Fair Hill Nature Center in Maryland.

Fair Hill encompases nearly 6,000 acres and is bordered by Pennsylvania to the north and lies less than 1/2 mile west of Delaware. It's known for its natural beauty, woodlands and pristine fields. It also houses the Fair Hill Training Center, so horses are everywhere.

At one time, it was one of the largest private land holdings in the East and was formerly owned by one of the DuPonts. It was purchased by the state of Maryland in 1975.

When we lived in PA long ago, and my husband was competing in mountain biking, he regularly trained at Fair Hill. We took trails today that were familiar to him and believe me, it's beautiful there.

We could hear the hounds in the distance, as a fox hunt must have been going on.

When we got home, we looked at some of the pictures I took. Or rather, I loaded them onto the hard drive and my husband looked at them.

Here's our conversation:

DH: You didn't take that many pictures today, you know.

CG: Hmmm.

DH: And of the 51 pictures that you took, 15 of them are of my back. 15!!

CG: What are you talking about?

DH: Look at this. My back. There's my back again. Oh, there it is again. And again. I'm only up to 8 here.

CG: Well, um, your back is mostly what I see since I'm always behind you.

DH: Yes, but there's rock formations you could have taken. And more shots of the stream. The stream is nice. And there was that fox.

CG: The fox was gone before you even told me it was there.

DH: Well, I'm thinking that the next time we go for a walk, I'm giving the dog to you to hold and I'll take the pictures.

CG: YOU'LL WHAT?

DH: Well, I can take pictures as well as you can.

CG: What?

DH: You heard me.

CG: Hmmm.

DH: You heard me, right?

CG: I said hmmm, didn't I?

I said Hmmmm. But what I was really thinking as I was silently seething was "who do you think you are? I am the picture taker!! I can't believe you just said that!"

But I said nothing. I didn't want him to know how miffed I was. I think it's best not to let him know everything.

And this is of the side. The side is not the back.

I rest my case.

Help a worthy cause!

Head on over to Mental Pause Mama's site where she's celebrating her One Year Blogging Anniversary by donating a dollar to the Humane Society of the US for every comment she gets on this post. It will be open until the 30th, so go ahead and spread some comment love.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Monarch butterfly chrysalis

I came across something interesting today to share with you. School starts today where I work and I'm excited for the new year to begin. So, in the spirit of all things educational, I'd like to present you with three butterfly chrysalises.

The jade green one is such a beautiful color!

In the picture above, the chrysalis on the right opened this morning. The monarch butterfly rested for a bit and then took off. If you look closely at the chrysalis on the left, however, you can see the wings of the butterfly inside. This one will probably open either later today or tomorrow.

These were on the porch of the main house on the horse farm on which I live. The owner was given them yesterday as a gift from a friend. Adult female monarchs lay their eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. The eggs hatch in 3-12 days, depending on weather conditions. The larvae feed on the plant leaves for about 2 weeks, developing into caterpillars about 2" long.

After a little while, the little caterpillars attach themselves, head facing down, to a twig as they shed their outer skin and begin the miraculous transformation into a pupa, or chrysalis. This takes a few hours. When the caterpillar's done, the pupa looks like a waxy, jade vase (like the photo above) and becomes increasingly transparent as the process progresses.

And in about 2 weeks, voila! A beautiful adult butterfly emerges. But they have one more step until flight. The butterfly will inflate its wings using a pool of stored blood in its abdomen. When done, excess fluid is expelled and it rests, waiting for its wings to stiffen and dry before it flies away to begin the process all over again.

Aren't you glad you come here? Because I'm certainly glad that you do! If you'd like to see pictures of the process happening, or would like to show them to your children or grandchildren, visit the monarch picture story site. It's specifically designed for young ones. Um, and people like me.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the chrysalides!

Mighty Oak

Yesterday afternoon, I took a little walk down to the entrance gate to take some pictures of the roses that are growing there. Using my macro lens, I snapped this one while walking back up to our house. It captured the sky incorrectly, as it was blue, and the only thing I did with the pic was to run PW's Lovely and Ethereal action on it real quick. There's George, looking a little deflated, after the squirrel he was chasing ran up the oak tree.

This oak tree is the first thing you see when entering the farm. It's majestic and this picture isn't even doing it justice. Some day soon I'm planning on getting another photo of it that showcases how powerful it looks. But for now, here's the mighty oak, taken with my little macro lens. It remined me of a poem that has to do with self-esteem.

The Oak Tree

A mighty wind blew night and day

It stole the oak tree's leaves away

Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark

Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground

While other trees fell all around

The weary wind gave up and spoke.

How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you

Can break each branch of mine in two

Carry every leaf away

Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth

Growing stronger since my birth

You'll never touch them, for you see

They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn't sure

Of just how much I could endure

But now I've found, with thanks to you

I'm stronger than I ever knew

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr .

Hoping you're all having a wonderful Sunday. Until tomorrow, my friends.

A fox sighting today

No, it wasn't this fox that I saw today. I searched flickr for quite some time just now for a fox picture to use, but they were all copyrighted. I took this picture last winter and used it in this post when I first began this blog, and I'm just going to use it again.

Today, George and I went for the first of our two daily bike rides. I've grown tired of picking ticks off myself and the dog after walking through the woods, so I've curtailed them for now. Besides, I've had Lyme's before and I don't need it coming around again. I've been sticking to the open paths around the paddocks, and riding my bike down the farm roads while George jogs beside me.

That's what we were doing, George and I, when I spotted what looked almost like a cat, but it was trotting like a dog. When I got closer on my bike, I saw that it was a very young fox all by itself. He was jogging down the edge of the road and the breeze was coming towards us, so he had no idea we were there. George was still behind me some distance, sniffing at one of the telephone poles. I got to within about 10 feet of the little fella until George came up next to me and the fox heard me telling George to heel.

It turned around and looked at me but kept on its little jog, oblivious to the dog. But George wasn't' having any heel today, so he took off at a trot and chased the little guy until it went under the fence. Then it came out again and they had a bit of a chase around some bushes at the edge of the woods. I called George off and he came to me and we stopped to look at the little guy. He'd come from under the fenceline and was sitting on the grass betwen the fence and the woods just watching us.

I remembered that last week, I'd seen a dead fox along the road. Perhaps that dead fox was the little one's mother? He did look a little scruffy.

I rode on, remembering an incident that happened years ago when my boys were small and we lived on a huge breeding farm in southeastern PA. I walked all over that farm and thought I'd never again live on such a wonderful place. One day, I came up a small incline, the top of which sat a beautiful specimen of a fox. It was just sitting there and cocking its head, watching something below. I came up right behind it, almost close enough to touch it! The breeze was in my favor and it had no idea I was there. Then in a flash, it noticed me and ran away, stopping to look back at me.

When I looked down on what the fox had been gazing upon, it was the farm workers turning out the horses in the morning. The fox was just watching the routine and the hustle and bustle of a horse farm waking up and getting to work.

Another time, on the same farm, and probably with the same fox, I had an even better sighting. Back then I was young and loved to run and bike. My knees can't do the running anymore, but I remember jogging along the edge of the woods. And the next part is true because it's hard to believe. I was in my zone, just jogging and noticed something off to the left. Glancing next to me, I was startled to see a fox jogging not 10 feet away from me. A beautiful, red fox with black stockings running next to me! It glanced over and I looked back as we continued to run parallel to each other. After about a minute, it tired of the game and took off to its left and ran across the field. Now that was exciting!

Maybe you don't think so, but to me, being that close to such a beautiful creature left me breathless and smiling! I couldn't wait to tell my husband when I got back home.

I am not stressed out. Really.

This is one of the busiest times of the year at the school where I work, and the students are finished on May 29. Graduation is the first Sunday in June, and the stress levels are at a high, with exams, grades, end-of-the-year activities. I've been so busy printing the hundreds and hundreds of award certificates that the students will receive on two separate prize nights, the first of which is mid-week. I do them in a mail merge, but still, it's very time-consuming. And today, something happened with my report card system that had me in a near-panic. Luckily, we have a good IT guy at school, and disaster was averted. I was so involved in getting everything finished, that when I looked up from my desk, I saw that it was 4:30. And my day ends at 4.

I know I try not to post about my work, but I'm not really revealing too much here.

So I'm driving home, my hands tense on the wheel, and I'm thinking that what I really wanted was a drink. But, you see, I make it a point not to drink during the week. I have all these stupid rules, and this is one of them. And, for me, it seems to work. So unless I'm celebrating something, or at a nice restaurant that warrants a glass of wine, I don't drink to calm myself down. Well, not during the week, ok? Well, it makes sense to me, and that's what matters.

Anyway, I'm thinking I need to calm down, calm down. And I start to think about getting home, and seeing that dog of mine and how happy he will be just to see me come through the door. And then we'd go out for a walk, and suddenly I started feeling quieter. And calmer. And then I looked up and that's when I noticed the clouds. The sky was full of them. Driving over the canal bridge was simply beautiful. It was a crisp afternoon with bright skies and many well-defined clouds.

By the time I drove down the main driveway of the farm, I was even more relaxed, because it's just so darn pretty here.

And then I came in the front door and there was that beautiful dog, who was so happy to see me. I quickly got changed and grabbed the camera and headed out to get pictures of the amazing clouds. The wind has been blowing at a good clip most of the day, and by the time I got outside, the skies were clearing. So I didn't get the cloud-filled skies that I wanted, but I'm ok with these. I sat down by the pond after our walk, and marveled at how much better I felt.

Ok. All is well now. So, until tomorrow, my friends . . .

Up, up and away

I've finally ditched the dial-up and have faster internet! I'd love to say I'm thrilled, but I'm kinda confused. Maybe it was just Blogger tonight, I don't know. I had to reboot my computer about 3 times and when it works, wow! My pictures upload at the speed of, well let's just say it's a lot faster than the dial-up that I've had for too many years.

While I was outside talking with the installer, who had just arrived and was unloading his truck, I happened to look down towards the pond and saw a great white heron wading at the edge on the far side. So I went inside and grabbed the camera and switched to the zoom lens.

I had just come home from work and still had my good clothes on, and I probably should have changed, but I walked down there anyway and sat at the edge of the pond for a while and snapped a few pictures. Ok, well 44 pictures. But I ended up deleting a lot of them. And even though I got a little goose poop on my Jones New York slacks, I managed to get a couple of decent shots.

Do you notice how the water is so blue in this last shot? It started out gray/green at the top, then green for the next two shots, and now blue. I noticed when I was looking at them on the computer. I think it's the way the light was hitting the water as the bird moved from the right to the left.

And look at the second picture. Do you see the trail in the water that was left by his legs trailing it during take-off? I just found it interesting and had to point it out to you.

So here's to faster speeds, and flying high. And yes, tj I'll give you that raspberry iced tea recipe. It's really really good! I'll post it here later this week. I'll take a picture or two. Or 42.

Welcome to Shangri-La

Today dawned cold and damp in Maryland. Later this afternoon, however, the sun came out and by the time I got home from work, the sky had become a beautiful blue with puffy clouds and the grass had turned a luscious green from all the rain we've had for the past several days.

So I grabbed the camera and George and I headed out.

As I walked, I remembered what a reader said to me recently in a comment. She said that it looked like a live in a Shangri-La of sorts. And today, when I looked in the viewfinder of my camera, I thought the same thing. George is way up this fenceline, almost to the barn.

You see, I see these fields and this driveway, and the horses, and the whole picture every single day. It doesn't always look wonderful, but some days it's downright picturesque. And when you look through the viewfinder at the little bits and pieces that I've captured today, it truly does look like heaven on earth. To me, it does.

That's George standing on the loading berm on the main farm driveway. Horse vans pull up to this little loading dock of sorts and it makes it easier to load and unload the horses. This is right in front of the breeding shed. George probably likes the view the added height affords him. Don't the trees look almost ethereal?

And here's what it looks like to stand under one of the ornamental cherry trees. This is someone's front lawn, and when we used to live along this driveway, years ago, we had these same cherry trees in our yard. My youngest son loved the 'pink snow'.

I used Pioneer Woman's actions on a few of these pictures, either Lovely & Ethereal or Boost. But what I was most excited about was the cloud trick I learned in this month's Popular Photography magazine. It looked a little complicated at first, but after practicing it several times, it's actually a breeze. Oh, get it? A breeze!

I used the cloud trick on the 1st and 2nd photos of this post. The trick involves a total of about 8 different steps with a layer mask and use of the multiply blending mode and so on and so on and blah blah blah. Like you really want to hear all about that!

Well, that's my walk with George. I know that when I get home, the house will smell really good and it will feel wonderful to be there. And it's not that I really really hate to cook. It's, well, it's one thing that my husband really seems to enjoy doing and providing for me. And I think it's really nice of me (don't you?) to let him do it. Um, yeah. That's it.

UPDATE: About that cloud trick, I need to tell you that these are REAL clouds. All I did was boost them to make them look what they looked like to me. I did NOT put fake clouds in there! Thanks to those who contacted me to ask.

Mystery tree has truly been identified now

In the interest of journalistic integrity, I must admit that I had incorrectly identified this tree the other day. I had thought that this was a Red Maple, but wasn't truly sure, because I couldn't find my husband's dendrology book.

Enter my friend, Katie, who not only surprised me with her knowledge, but who was only too happy to help solve this mystery.

What we have here, according to Katie, is a Striped Maple (Acer Pensylvanicum). Katie says:

Look how the three tips of the leaves are almost the same length. And the flowers, pendulous, drooping, dare I get to say it: a raceme.

I have helped resolve a mystery, and I got to use a word I never do. Raceme isn't as good a word as frolic or whatever your favorite equivalent is, but golly. I feel fufilled. Happy day, thank you. ~Katie

So thanks to you, Katie, for letting me know what this tree is in such a prolific way with your vocabulary featuring adjectives such as pendulous, drooping, and dare we say yet again, a raceme. And raceme is an excellent word, Katie. You have truly shown your inner geek and I applaud you!

A birth announcement

Today I took George for a walk and decided not to bring my camera, knowing that after the walk I'd probably be spending hours on the computer looking at all the new pictures. So ix-nay on the amera-kay today. However, after walking down to the pond and seeing what I'm posting here, I walked right back on up the hill and got the camera, with the zoom attachment.

My husband and I can't believe the goslings are out already. This Canada goose pair brought their 3 just-borns into the pond today for their first swim. We think they've been living in the upper swamp area just below the pond berm because this is the first time we've seen them.

I managed to keep George at heel all the way down the hill, and had him stay and sit next to me while I crawled along the edge of the pond to get these photos. Oh, the lengths I go to just to share my pictures with everyone. Oh, if you only knew.

Hope you enjoy these. Have a great Monday.

Mystery flower is identified

Regular readers of this blog may remember a post I did last week about yellow violets. I had originally gone out looking for a tree with little tiny white flowers that my husband had told me about. I couldn't find the tree, however, and I kept going further and further until I stopped and looked down and saw a yellow violet.

Oh, excuse me for a moment. If you've arrived on this blog for the first time, this is about as thrilling as it gets, okay? I warned you in the masthead of this blog to not get too excited. So if you're looking for excitement, you still have some searching to do. But if you're looking for some quiet and some nature, with a little bit of inter-species love and slutty broodmares thrown in, well you have arrived, my friend.

Anyway, back to the weird flower tree.

I went back the next day and found the tree and took some pictures, bringing a little branch home to help me identify it. And just this morning, we think we've identified this tree. Unfortunately, we can't find my husband's dendrology book from college, which is a really good source of information. So we're going with The Audubon Society's Field Guide to North American Trees. Not so good, mainly because it's a field guide, but by jove, I think we've got it.

The Latin name, Acer rubrum is also known as Red Maple, Swamp Maple, Soft Maple or Scarlet Maple. The tree we found is growing on the edge of the field, near a swampy area. I love how the little seed pods hang and if you look closely, you'll see the white that my husband was thinking of when he mentioned a little white flower. You can also see why I just passed this tree by. I was looking for white flowers and didn't see any.

I learned so many things from Wikepedia, too. The Red Maple is used for the production of maple syrup, although a harder maple is preferred. Red Maples are considered soft woods in the lumber industry. The wood is close grained and as such it is similar to that of other maples, but its texture is softer, less dense, and has a poorer figure and machining qualities. High grades of wood from the red maple can be substituted for hard maple, particularly when it comes to making furniture.

One thing we did find out which was a little alarming was that the leaves of the red maple, especially when dried or wilted, are toxic to horses.

Well, that's my little lesson for today. I just think the seed pods are an interesting subject.

It's a damp day here in Maryland, as we had some rain last night. The fields are lush green against the dark wood of the fencelines and trees and it's absolutely beautiful. Have a wonderful Sunday, everyone.

Update: See April 28 post for correct identification on this tree. It's actually a Striped Maple.

Oh, humble yellow violet

When beechen buds begin to swell,

And woods the blue-bird's warble know,

The yellow violet's modest bell

Peeps from the last year's leaves below. -

Excerpt from

THE YELLOW VIOLET -

by William Cullen Bryant , 1814

Today was a beautiful day in Maryland. After work, I came home to find my husband busy in the garden. He didn't need my help, so I started off on a walk through the woods with George. I was only going to go round the pond, but my husband told me about a tree with an unusual flower that he saw and suggested that I change my lens.

I tried to find the tree he mentioned, and kept going further because I thought maybe it was at the end of the trail he told me to take. Finally, I just gave up looking for it and concentrated on the beauty all around me. While I walked, I thought quiet thoughts, of my sons who are at the beginnings of their adult lives and then of my father, who is getting very near the end of his.

I knew that my father was going to an appointment with his physician today. He lives in California and is being cared for by my sister, Ginny and her husband Jay.

My father will be 90 years old this August. I posted about him once, in this post. My father is a wonderful man, and quite handsome! But he's getting more confused and now suddenly, not well at all, and I just want to be near him. I want to help him feel better like he did for me when I was a child. I want to help my sister and her husband and share the burden of caring for him. They have some help, but I want to be there, too.

I plan on flying out and spending a week in June when school is finished for the year.

Anyway, I was out walking and suddenly, I realized that I was walking in the woods and I haven't done that since March 26 -- the day before my knee surgery! And it didn't hurt very much! However, I realized that now I had to walk all the way back, so I suddenly stopped and right then I looked down and there, among the old leaves and the new shoots trying to push up, was a yellow violet. I don't see them much and I can't remember the last time I ever noticed them. When I looked closer, I saw there were several yellow violets. So I got down on the ground (after checking for poison ivy) and started taking pictures, crawling around from violet to violet. I didn't have my macro lens with me, but this lens was fine on the setting I had it.

George was with me and because it was a little warm today, he had his tongue hanging out again. He'd already been on a good walk with his dad, so this was his second of the afternoon.

When I came home, I looked up yellow violets and found that they arrive in April and thrive in a dry woodsy setting. And I also found that William Cullen Bryant wrote a poem about them; the first quatrain is above.

Hope you enjoy the beautiful violets and this tree I came across that wanted to be in the blog. It was whispering to me while I was walking by and I just had to oblige.

Turtles and swamp-rot: perfect together

Yesterday, I ventured out for a walk on (gasp) uneven surfaces, which means a walk on grass and trails. I wrapped my knee in my Ace bandage and took the happy pup down and around the pond on a simple little hike. When I got to the ditch on the far side, I turned around and headed back home. Coming around the pond, I saw what at first looked like a rock just sitting there.

It was a turtle, hiding in its shell. So I ran (read: walked) back to the house to get my camera . When I got back to the spot, the turtle was still there, apparently waiting for his photographic debut.

Although he wouldn't come out of his shell, even when left undisturbed, I managed to get a couple of pictures. For those who get grossed out over graphic nature scenes like this, I apologize. It really isn't that graphic, though.

I looked up turtles in one of the books we have at home, and found that this is a young snapping turtle. That was my husband's guess, as well. Snapping turtles love our pond and this one was coming from the wetlands and over the berm, heading for the pond.

He kept sniffing, or so it seemed, and his nostrils were huge. I put him back and George sniffed him for a bit, then went and treed one of the cats who had come down the hill to investigate.

I put the little turtle down and sniffed my fingers and what an awful smell! I thought I'd smelled something bad. Now my fingers smelled like swamp and muck and I had an urge to run home and wash my hands before touching my camera again.

But I'm not that kind of girl. I can handle the scent of swamp-rot for a little bit.

I looked up the hill and saw my husband working in the garden. It was a beautiful day yesterday, but later in the afternoon, the wind picked up and we had some gale force breezes going on. It blew like that all through the night and we had a little rain and some thunderstorms. Hope all is well in your neck of the woods today.