A Walk at Charleston Falls with Tom...July 23, 2019

Tom and I loaded up Tom's old power chair and headed off to look at flowers.  His new chair is   wonderful but it is not as powerful as the old one.  Since Charleston Falls has hills, power is important.

We saw butterflies at the new entrance to the trail. Tom took photos.  Our first thought was that they were Pearl Crescents...

But then Tom enlarged the photo and we could see that they were Silvery Checkerspots.

Then we moved a few steps further and he got to see the Rain Garden for the first time.

The Queen of the Prairie that I saw had finished blooming but Tom spotted a Cardinal Flower and the Rattlesnake Master..

and a lavender blue one that we think is a Monkeyflower.  I didn't know until I was looking through my wildflower field guides at home that I should have checked for a square stem.

We were off to a good start.

Tom stopped to take a photo of the falls through the trees.

We turned off toward the Octagon Prairie...

Tom with his camera...

Me with my camera.

Tom stopped to take a few close-ups of Gray-headed Coneflowers...

He looked at the other side of the trail and said,  "Look, there is a Viceroy butterfly."

I took these pictures.

And Tom took this one.

Deptford Pinks are an alien species but I have never seen more than a couple plants in any one spot.  They don't appear to endanger the native species.  They are tiny.  I never knew they were spotted with white until I took a photo of one and enlarged the photo.

The Rain Garden at Charleston Falls, July 13, 2019

I sat down to write this and realized I hadn't taken notes or pictures of everything to tell this story.  When I saw the prairie plants flowering in the Rain Garden near the entrance to the trails at Charleston Falls, all I thought about were the blooms.

I know Rain Gardens, whether planted in a a natural depression or in a dug out depression, are meant to drain water and are usually wet only seasonally or after heavy rains.  The flowers that grow on tall grass prairies are adapted to land which is wet in spring and dry in the summer so prairie plants and Rain Gardens complement one another.

A section of the Rain Garden at Charleston Falls.  The rock covered dip to the left of the photo slopes down from the paved gathering place for groups.

And in the depression, I saw....

the round flower heads of Rattlesnake Master and Queen of the Prairie.  The yellow Black-eyed Susans, (Rudbeckia hirta) are on the higher ground of the rest of the planted prairie.

I usually have to go to Garbry Big Woods Preserve to see the Rattlesnake Master and to Aullwood Audubon Center to see the Queen of the Prairie.   Seeing the two plants made my walk one to remember and I hadn't taken a step into the peaceful woods.

Closeup of the Rattlesnake Master, (Eryngium) ...

Each bud will open exposing a tiny flower.

A closer look at the Queen of the Prairie (Filipendula rubra) ...

Last of June, First of July...A Busy Time

We have had a good summer...

Our son, Ray, and his wife, Gretchen, visited with us the last week in June.  They have been in London, UK for the last year.  It was good to see them.  Afterward, Tom said, " Do you realize that is the longest visit Ray has had with us since he started college?"

I think that was a bit of an exaggeration but it is true we haven't had him stay overnight for an extended period for a long time.

We didn't do much over the Fourth of July.  We did watch the traditional People's Fourth of July on PBS.  I realized I do not know the popular singers of today.  I did recognize the Muppets!

The prairie flowers are blooming.  Tom's little patch beside our driveway is beautiful.

The same kinds of flowers but about a million more of them, and other flowers, too. are blooming at Huffman Prairie.  The butterflies are enjoying both places.

I saw a bobolink at Huffman Prairie.  I like walks by myself but when I see a bird I don't see often, it is even more special when I share the experience with a friend.  And Jeanne was with me.

Happy Birthday to Me...The Rusty Bucket, Huffman Prairie, Hofbrauhaus, Cincinnati Art Museum

I count the short visit with Ray, our oldest son, as the start of my birthday celebration this year.  He was here to pick up his youngest son, Steve, and take him back to London, UK for a visit.  Tom, Ray, and I had lunch at The Rusty Bucket where Ray's oldest son is the chef.  Afterward, Ray continued on to Steve's apartment.

Tom and I drove to Huffman Prairie where the Wright Brothers conducted many of their flying tests. This is the time of year when sometimes we are lucky enough to see bobolinks on the prairie.  We saw two.

Tom didn't have his camera with him so I used my little Olympus Tough to get a picture.  Seeing the bobolink made me smile the rest of the day.

June 13 was alternately rainy and overcast.  Since we were inside during most of the rainy times, the rain didn't  stop our plans.  We ate lunch at the Hofbrauhaus in Newport, Kentucky which is across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.  Both of us enjoy German food.  Tom bought a piece of German chocolate cake to take home for a late afternoon snack.

Newport has been building a lot of expensive-looking high rise condos and apartments in the area.

The Newport Aquarium is near by and so are other restaurants and shops and entertainment.  

We always admire this beautifully carved cabinet just inside the front doors of the Hofbrauhaus.  The dining area is set up for friendly, casual meals.

After lunch we drove back across the Ohio River to Eden Park.  The Cincinnati Art Museum is high on a hill there.

The Burning Man exhibit has been at the museum for some time.  It was in the special exhibit galleries for several months but now the various sculptures are spread among the museum's regular exhibits. Coming up on the sculptures is a bit of a surprise.  There is no mistaking them.  They are unique.

The first one we found was The Five Ton Crane.  It reminded me of an old-time movie theater set up in a street car.  It was an interactive piece of art.  People could climb up into it, sit down and watch movies mimicking the silent films of the twenties.

Since Tom is in a power chair we watched the movies while standing beside the structure. The movies were projected on a screen beyond The Five Ton Crane as well as on the screen with the green curtains framing it.

A "professor" instructed us via a blackboard on what might cause a woman to float into the air after a discreet kiss from a lover....

                                             1. Gravity Allergy

                                             2. Electro - Magnetic Polarity

                                             3. Blood Holds Helium 

This was just one of many silly demonstrations continually flipped through as we watched.

Tom and I stopped to look at some of the museum's regular exhibits, too.  Tom especially liked a painting of sailing ships in a harbor because it was so precise and true in the details.  I liked this one by Robert Henri.

One of the Burning Man sculptures that has been used a lot in the publicity shots is this one.

The dancer is made of triangles covered by a translucent skin. Here is a close up of her thigh.

This photo gives you an idea of her size.

The Burning Man is a temporary art installation set up in a desert between two mountain ranges.  It's name comes from the effigy of a gigantic man which is traditionally burned on the last evening of the exhibit.

This is an facsimile of the effigy.  It is bigger than life size, but not as large as the one that is burned.

The day following the burning of the effigy the entire art exhibit is taken down and moved away.  The goal is to leave the desert exactly as it was before the exhibit. If you google "Burning Man" you can find out much more about the mindset of those who participate in the exhibit each year.

Tom and I wandered around the museum for a little less than two hours.  By the time I have looked at exhibits for a couple hours, my brain is stuffed full.  So many ideas, so many ways that art can be presented.

The drive home was sometimes drizzly. Sometimes rain was pouring down.  We were happy when we arrived home. 

In the mailbox I found birthday cards from my sisters.  Better still were the letters enclosed in the cards.  I am glad I am part of the generation that writes letters.

Tom and I ate our piece of chocolate cake and I enjoyed reading the notes. 

Memorial Day, 2019...A Memorial Day to Remember

Steve visited with us on the Memorial Day weekend.  The morning and afternoon of Memorial Day Monday were beautiful but a trifle humid.

In the morning, Steve and I went to Herrlinger Park, a little park in Troy where he celebrated several birthdays when he was younger.  A railroad track runs beside the park and everyone who knows Steve knows he loves to railfan.

This year he has a short-wave scanner so he can hear the railroad dispatchers and engineers talking as the trains pass various points along their routes.  The scanner was a birthday gift from his dad.

Listening to his scanner made railfanning much more interesting to me.

After lunch he was picked up and headed home. The afternoon was a quiet one for Tom and me.  And so was the early part of the evening.  Tom was already in bed when our evening became more scary than our evenings usually are.  Our cell phones blasted out warnings.  Tornado warning.  I turned on the local TV channel.  A tornado had touched down north of us.  Later in the week the National Weather Bureau listed it as a EF-3

The meteorologist could barely keep up with what she was seeing on her weather displays.  Tornado after tornado.  Tornado to the west, to the east, to the north and to the south.  All this happened Monday evening.  It took until Thursday for the newspaper to report what the National Weather Bureau had decided had occurred.

Below is an enlargement of the diagram of where the tornadoes hit and their strengths.

Since this newspaper was published one tornado has been upgraded to an EF-4.  The number of tornadoes has been increased to at least 14 after more checking by the National Weather Bureau.

We haven't had a severe tornado since 1974 when one destroyed a portion of Xenia, a nearby town.

Unfortunately our granddaughter's house was one of those severely damaged.  She and her pets are temporarily staying with friends.  She thought one of her cats was lost but it showed up on Saturday.  It was hiding among the debris in her damaged attached garage.  Friends have been helping her clean up the trees and utility poles and the rest of the mess.  She called today.  She says there is a lot of cleanup still to do but a lot has been cleaned up and a lot taken to the disposal site.  She says she is alternating between feeling lucky she still has a house and feeling overwhelmed by the entire experience.

And despite severe weather  in all directions, Tom and I never lost electricity  and no branches fell from any of our trees.

May 16, 17, 18, 2019....Lake Erie...Howard MetroPark, Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Magee Marsh

Tom and I spent three days at Lake Erie birding in some of the parks along the coast.  Howard MetroPark has been open since last year.  It is part of the Toledo MetroPark system.  The park personal are in the process of turning the Howard farm back to its natural marshy state.  Already, the birds have found it.

Tom and I have seen Horned Larks in the past but we have never seen one as close as this one.  For a while it perched on a big rock and sang its beautiful song.

Later, it, or another one, sat on the gravel beside the van as we ate our lunch.  We looked at it and it looked at us.

We got really good looks at its tiny "horns".  

Another bird we rarely see up close is this Caspian Tern.  Usually we see them flying.

We saw lots of Trumpeter Swans. Trumpeter Swans are one of the successful Conservation projects  in this area. For many years there were none in the area.

Tom is good at spotting Snowy Egrets. If you click on it, you can see the red between its bill and eye which only appears in breeding season.

This Great Egret has the distinctive green patch between its eye and bill. The patch and fluffy feathers tell us it is in breeding plumage. This one has wet "fluffy' feathers so they are stringy, not fluffy.

The bird I was elated to see was this Yellow-headed Blackbird.  They nest in the area but they are not often seen.  The last one I saw was years ago at Cheyenne Bottoms in Kansas.  Tom had to take this picture through the front window so it is not as clear as it might be.  The situation was beyond Tom's control.

Our next stop was Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the most noticeable birds was the Eastern Kingbird.  Tom took some photos that showed the entire bird better but this one shows the identifying white band across its tail best.

We drove the Ottawa dike drive on Thursday and again on Friday.  On both days we saw many Eastern Kingbirds and also large numbers of Trumpeter Swans and Great Egrets.  We heard Yellow Warblers all along the drive and toward the end of the drive we came across this one in its nest.

The boardwalk at Magee Marsh is the place to see a big variety of warblers.  Sometimes the warblers are close to the railing.  Other times they are further away.

Sometimes they are high in the trees.

Below are portraits of some that were close enough to see without binoculars.

Bay-breasted Warbler (male)

Chestnut-sided Warbler (male)

Magnolia Warbler (male)

At all three locations , we saw families of Canada Geese.