Monday Monday
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Posted:Oct 19, 2015 9:35 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:10 am
38779 Views
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I've worn reading glasses for twelve or fifteen years. I got a new prescription in June, and liked the reading glasses I got for reading a book, but I had to hold my laptop under my nose to see the small font on a lot of pages, so went back today to get computer glasses- calculated for a bit greater distance. I'm a night owl and I had to crawl out of bed at eight, three hours before I usually wake up, to make my appointment. It was worth it, but I was tired all day from not getting enough sleep. I'm spoiled these days! It's nice now that the keyboard isn't directly under my chin!
Tired as I was, we hiked three miles at Al Sabo- slowly. It was another perfect autumn day- windy and cool, but it warmed in the afternoon to sixty five. The trees edging the swamp are getting quite bare of leaves, and many of the bright reds and blazing oranges have fallen in the little valley of the West Branch. On our left, walking north, were grey and brown trunks and on the right the land rises sharply upward to the Upper Lookout Trail. This is a forest of oak and beech, much of it still green There's a good deal of yellow hickory in there, and pale rose dogwood that's past it's prime color.
Nearing the landbridge we spotted swans in the channel, and a pair of mallards who flew off as we approached. They were on a mission- we weren't close enough to startle them. We took a long break there- my knees were protesting the lack of rest- and Gracie took a dip in the pool east of the bridge. I've been wanting to take longer hikes lately, to look at the colors of the forest, and PD has been grudgingly consenting, but today I was ready to head home, so we climbed the hill to the Upper Lookout and headed south and west.
The Lookouts, both Upper and Lower, are a bit of hype these days. The forest has grown up in front of the lookout platform and you can't see far. There aren't many hills around here to provide long sweeping vistas. This is gently rolling country with some short, steep slopes, but our hills aren't even foothills. That was just as well today- I was bushed. There will still be color to see for the next few weeks but down by the Portage Creek swamp the show is nearly over.
We trudged home for supper and a nap.
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The is in the closet
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Posted:Oct 14, 2015 6:28 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:09 am
34081 Views
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The sun came out today. There were large fluffy white clouds alternately shading and passing to bathe the earth in bright October sunshine, so we took the trail to the north shore of Atwater Pond again. The trees along the Lookout Trail at the edges of the swamp and marsh are already dropping their leaves. Cold settles in the low places and those trees are the first to change color and then to shed their leaves. They were dropping and fluttering to the ground all along the path. We can see more of the swamp and marsh now and there's also less to see except for increasingly bare trunks. This is the time of year when you dicover where those hornets were coming from all summer. I found an intact nest today, empty, along the north bank of the marsh, upstream from the pond.
The upland forest is still bright and colorful and in many places still green. The beautiful twisted and leaning dogwoods are fading from delicate rose to pale and are beginning to lose their sheen in the marshy areas. Dogwoods are beautiful year round. In the spring they sprout lovely white blossoms, they crawl and lean and spread out in the understory all summer and are among the first to turn in fall, with a pale underside and a rosy red top leaf. In winter they'll catch the new snow and it will highlight the convoluted limbs craning about the trunks of the larger trees.
I had to be patient to get my photos today. The forest would be dim and muted for minutes and then as the cloud passed by overhead sunlight would burst out and light up the trees. I had to wait for pictures. We took the trail near the edge of the marsh walking to the east end of the pond, and sat for a while looking at the lake. Gracie was having a ball today, chasing squirrels and trying to interest us in games of "I got it-you don't" with sticks and limbs.
On the return we climbed to the top of the ridge that runs between the north border of the preserve and Atwater. You can look down through the trees and catch glimpses of the bright blue of Atwater Pond sparkling in the sunlight. The ridge is forested with hardwoods for about a mile and then transitions to pine, tall and spindly and only sprouting limbs in the canopy. This trail is easier. It adds a bit to the trek but is flatter and quite straight. We don't hike the length of it often, usually veering off on one of the side trails either down to the marsh bank on the south or north to the channel next to Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Ninth Street.
We hiked just under six miles today, and we were tired. We took the most direct route home and Gracie immediately headed for my closet, where she takes her best naps, using my boots for a pillow. Doesn't everyone keep their in the closet? She's very convenient.
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A cool mist
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Posted:Oct 13, 2015 8:42 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:08 am
33124 Views
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That's what we had today. Cool weather and a misty rain. The temperatures were in the fifties but with the moisture in the air it felt a bit cool. I actually put a thin glove on my left hand. I sawed the fingers of that hand in a tablesaw years ago and it gets cold easily. The first winter afterward at fifty five degrees my left hand was freezing! Over the years it's gotten better, but when I wear a mitten in winter you'll notice I only wear that mitten on my left.
The wind today was light- a relief. I don't want a high wind coming along and knocking down those gorgeous colors just yet.
The raindrops look like jewels studding the leaves and grass. Everything is wet and shiny. We took the Lookout Trail along the east side of the marsh, our favorite, and then after a break for Gracie to jump in the pool at the landbridge we headed out on Mandala Trail which leads to the south shore of Atwater Pond. The colors were sparking in the damp and we debated walking all the way to the pond, but PD voted no. She was cold, damp and tired. Being the accommodating spouse that I am, I acquiesced rather than continue on my own, alone and friendless in the cold damp woods. Gracie would have gone but PD out ranks the two of us.
We were hungry when we finished and went out for gyros and beer. The food was hot and delicious and so were the waitresses. We went to Main Street Pub, a sports bar, but they serve pretty good food in spite of that. The wait staff is overwhelmingly composed of young coeds from Western Michigan University, a party school among party schools. I did not get invited to any parties. Sigh. PD would have outvoted me on that anyway.
Did I ever mention how much I love those black tights all the young women are wearing these days?
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Color!
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Posted:Oct 12, 2015 7:49 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:07 am
32647 Views
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Before we get started here let me say right up front: I took all the photos in this post. These however, are NOT my trees. I claim ownership as a resident of the county, but it's ownership in common with all the other citizens of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo County. You will see the back of a woman in a photo here- the woman is my wife. I have documents to prove it.
This weekend we hiked at Asylum Lake. Sunday we took a trail across the tallgrass prairie to the other entrance on Parkview Avenue and from there down to little Asylum Lake. It was warm- sixty nine degrees and sunny and I had to take off my longsleeved shirt. As usual we had a grand time. Gracie played in the creek, I saw beautiful co-eds frolicking in the forest and PD enjoyed being in nature with her beloved. Oh, and did I mention, I was there too? We trekked back by way of the bigger lake and stayed in the forest nearly all the way. I took some nice photos, but at this time of year the colors change dramatically from day to day, and are different in different forests. Asylum Lake is dominated by oaks, and they will change color later and hold it longer, while not being quite as brilliant as the woods elsewhere.
And so today we went back to Al Sabo, and having been away for a couple of days the difference was breathtaking. This isn't even what the tourist bureaus call "peak" color yet. That will come this weekend or even next week. Walking in these woods is like immersing yourself in a Renoir, like melding into a Van Gogh. It is simply magical to once a year be able to just stand under that magnificent bright foliage. Every where the eye turns is riveting and you don't want to turn away, but you see something brilliant out of the corner of that eye and are drawn to look.
Gracie does not care. She is very Winnie the Pooh about it all. "Yes. I think today is a very nice day! Let's walk." She senses far more with her nose than we do, and far more than we see. Her ways are not our ways, but we see eye to eye enough to form a partnership of sorts and it works. Now and then we quarrel, but we're still in this together. We compromise.
It was a grey overcast day. Had the sun shone it would have been even brighter in the forest, but today felt like a gift. I felt quite Pooh like myself today. It was a very good day to be alive, and walking through such a marvelous landscape. The world here is a special place in October. The one time of year we are grateful to see the lush green fade and give way to yellow, gold, red, rose and brilliant orange. In a while we'll be in the monochrome of winter, white and black, brown and grey. But for now the forest is literally ablaze with color, and I love it.
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Asylum Lake 10 October 2015
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Posted:Oct 10, 2015 6:19 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:05 am
34316 Views
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Just under a year ago I started a hiking journal of sorts in my blog. I didn't know I was starting it at the time, but people kept coming to look at it, so I kept it up.
Thanks! It's been fun!
So today we hiked Asylum Lake again. It was a gorgeous day again, and we left earlier than usual because I wanted chance to watch Michigan demolish Northwestern in the Big House.
It was fifty eight degrees and sunny, perfect hiking weather and we did a two and a half mile walk, round trip, to the east end of the big lake, and the creek that feeds into Little Asylum Lake. Gracie loves that creek and she likes taking a dip in the swimming area on that end of the lake.
There were buzzards circling overhead, and when we got to the lakeshore, several redtailed hawks were circling too. I don't often see them in groups like that, and it was beautiful to watch them floating , and climbing, and closing back in.
It was homecoming weekend for Western Michigan University so there weren't as many students as there might have been, but we did have the company of several luscious coeds. (I wish I could post THOSE pictures.)
The plants here are at different stages than at Al Sabo. This is a forest of mostly oak, with a large area of oak savanna, and a tallgrass prairie restoration. The grass is six feet high, as it was when the first settlers arrived here, and as it was for thousands of year before that. The Native Americans used to burn Prairie Ronde regularly to keep it up.
Prairie Ronde was named by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle when he passed this way in 1680. There were tribes along the St. joseph River who were hostile to the French on LaSalle's return from the Illinois, so his company took an overland route to Detroit from the ancient portage between the Kankakee and the St. Joseph in present day South Bend. Ordinarily the traverse would have taken them down the St. Joe to Lake Michigan and around the lower peninsula into Lake Huron. They passed through Little Prairie Ronde south of Decatur and Prairie Ronde in Kalamazoo County, and left us this lovely name.
And Michigan won, 38-0, their third shutout in a row, a streak not repeated since 1980! Vive Harbaugh!
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...like jewels shining...
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Posted:Oct 10, 2015 5:43 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:04 am
30698 Views
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When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.
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22
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Blue October Skies!
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Posted:Oct 10, 2015 5:36 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:03 am
30536 Views
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O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather
Helen Hunt Jackson, "October's Bright Blue Weather"
Last year I posted on the 28th of October about a hike at Asylum lake, and a friend was reminded of this poem.
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About the messaging change
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Posted:Oct 8, 2015 8:55 pm
Last Updated:Oct 11, 2015 2:35 pm
30313 Views
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NaughtyInSO posted a link in her own post-Am I Wrong- leading to a Site Support post about the change in standard members' messaging privileges. The Site Support link is [post 3707543]. Read both posts! NaughtyInSO had some interesting things to say about a change in the kinds of messages she's receiving that are thought provoking. I won't repeat them here because you really should read what she had to say in her own words.
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18
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8 October 2015
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Posted:Oct 8, 2015 8:22 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:02 am
30144 Views
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We've been back on the trail for a week and had another gorgeous autumn day- sixty nine degrees, sunny and breezy, so we did the five mile round trip hike out to the north shore of Atwater pond. We haven't been there in a couple of months and the leaves are beginning to get colorful.
Every day shows the changes now. The forecast is for continued sunny weather, but in past autumns it has turned cold and damp, the wind blowing the leaves down with never a chance to watch them, so we don't want to miss a day in the Preserve. Today could always be our last chance to see the change of seasons at its best.
It was warm hiking and Gracie took a dip in the pond at the landbridge. We didn't carry any water for her and she was thirsty. PD and I are feeling the hikes- after two months off we have to get in shape again, and we were getting tired legs before we reached the fence near the edge of the preserve.
I always try to get some special pictures, that I can't post here, for a good blogger friend. There are some cute hikers and runners out there, so I usually snap some shots of them, often as they're walking or running past. I made a rule that I'd never post the pics here, on a sex site, but I got lucky and there's a cool photo of some tail here for him, the first picture posted. Hope you enjoy it, my friend!
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Milkweed
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Posted:Oct 8, 2015 7:37 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 11:01 am
29713 Views
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We're back on a daily hiking regimen again. The meadows at Al Sabo Preserve have quite a lot of milkweed growing in them, and on a breezy day like today the hairy seeds are blowing about and catching on everything. I started snapping shots of them in the meadow right by the parking lot.
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All hands on deck!
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Posted:Oct 6, 2015 7:09 pm
Last Updated:May 10, 2018 11:53 am
36702 Views
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[post 3707442]
Do You Want To EFFECTIVELY Complain About The Standard Members Losing Their Email Privileges????
As many of us come to expect, the most excellent and well venerated [blog wordsmith6900] has weighed in on the current hoorah about the restriction of messaging privileges on the site, which weighs as usual most heavily on the poor but affects us all adversely. His advice is sound and is the result of years of service blogging and researching the intricate history and convoluted workings of this site. He has a voluminous capacity for memory storage and can pull it all up at need. It is the best post I've read on the topic and I think offers the most sound approach. Read his post [post 3707442]-Do You Want To EFFECTIVELY Complain About The Standard Members Losing Their Email Privileges???? and leave him a comment, and then act!
And I'll also take the time and space (Please, no discussion here about quantum physics, string theory or the nature of reality. Save that for another post.) to say that this blogger [blog wordsmith6900] never fails to impress me with the clarity of his thinking or his command of the facts. He is in my opinion the go-to guy for all matters site related. If we had an Elrond, he would be portrayed by [blog wordsmith6900].
Take a couple of minutes and give him your attention. He has important words of wisdom to impart!
[post 3707442]Do You Want To EFFECTIVELY Complain About The Standard Members Losing Their Email Privileges????
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If you're not a fan...
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Posted:Oct 3, 2015 5:09 pm
Last Updated:May 10, 2018 11:53 am
30596 Views
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If you're not a fan of cheap plastic toys, wander on over to Life2belived and take a look. It's fun and it won't take long. [post 3705574]
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25
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Our Friday Hike
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Posted:Oct 2, 2015 5:18 pm
Last Updated:Nov 12, 2015 10:59 am
31332 Views
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Just ten more photos....
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To link to this blog (kzoopair) use [blog kzoopair] in your messages.
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