April 6, 2016...A Walk at Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary (before the next onslaught of nasty weather)

 Spring Beauties (Claytonia virginica) Purslane Family

We weren't sure the day would be bright enough for the Spring Beauties to be open. They close in cloudy weather and before rain storms.  The day brightened just enough when we walked into the woods. Their petals were spread wide.  These were older flowers so they were pinker and the "bee lines" the bees and other insects follow to the nectar were visible.

Sessile Trillium (Trillium sessile) Lily Family...also called Toadshade

This was the first day we saw Sessile Trillium open.  I like this photo because the veins in the petals show in a delicate pattern.  The petals are very dark so often the veins are hard to see and even harder to photograph.

Rue Anemone (Anemonella thalictroides) Buttercup Family...sometimes called Windflower

This was another first flower for us for this spring.  The Sessile Trillium  petals are dark maroon in the photo as they usually are, especially in the shade.

Trout-lily (Erythronium americanum) Lily Family...sometimes called Adder's-tongue

These were the first we have seen this year.  Their blooming span is very short, shorter than most of the other ephemeral flowers of spring.  I was glad we chose this day to walk.

Cutleaf Toothwort (Dentaria laciniata) Mustard Family

Once we found the first Cutleaf Toothwort, we found many more.

Bloodroot leaves

We found lots of these leaves, their flowers gone.  We kept looking and we found a few still blooming.  This is another flower with an extremely short blooming span.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) Poppy Family

Drooping Trillium (Trillium flexipes) Lily Family

We were pleased to see the drooping trillium beginning to show themselves.  We found the leaves of the Large-flowered or White Trillium, too.  This sepals of this one had opened enough so we could see the white petals.  In a week or so the Drooping Trillium and Large-flowered Trillium will carpet the sanctuary.  The leaves of the two trilliums are somewhat different in shape.

Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) Lily Family

Tom spotted one small cluster of Blue Cohosh flowers.  He decided to wait until there were showier clusters but I took this photo with my little camera.

Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides) Barberry Family

Finally Tom found what he wanted most to photograph...

Dutchman's Breeches (Dicentra cucullaria) Poppy Family

April, 2016...When Will Spring Be Here to Stay?

March 30 was a beautiful day.  Tom and I walked at Charleston Falls.  Both of us took photos.  Tom snapped this Eastern Comma Butterfly as it sat on the trail in front of him.

Eastern Comma

March 31 started with a two hour loss of our electricity when high winds blew power lines against one another and that blew out a major transformer for the Tipp City area.

April 1 brought a variety of weather...sun and balmy weather followed by wind, cold, and rain.

April 2 brought us 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the late morning followed later in the day by falling temperatures, gusts of wind, heavy rain, and tiny flat squares of snow, (I've never seen precipitation like it in 77 years),  For a short time the snow was flying horizonally.  A branch, three inches in diameter, landed on the eaves of a neighbor's house.  Its twigs touched the front sidewalk.

I decided to cover the Bleeding heart plant and the Flowering Viburnum with its bright buds since there was a  freeze warning.

Bleeding Heart, close up of tiny developing hearts

Viburnum buds

April 3 at 7 AM...

Behind the platform birdfeeder is the covered Flowering Viburnum.

Later in the morning, I uncovered the viburnum and the bleeding heart.  Both seem to be fine although the bleeding heart looked a bit forlorn, as though it had a rough  night.

 
April 4...55 degrees Fahrenheit at 8 AM

But...freezing temperatures are expected again tonight. Ugh!  Is this a prolonged April Fool's joke?

Saturday Morning Walk...March 19, 2016...Wildflowers in the Rain

A gentle rain was falling but we wore waterproof coats and the temperature was warm enough, above freezing.

Jeanne pointed out a colorful log...green lichen and brown fungi trimmed with cream.

Two weeks ago, the last time we walked here,  the Ohio Buckeye tree buds were tightly closed but now they are opening.  Their tiny new leaves are rosy now but will turn green as they mature.

There was enough water flowing over the falls to make a pretty picture.  We have had a lot of rain lately.  The river floodplains are full of water.

Just beyond the creek that feeds the falls, Jeanne saw her first wildflower of the season...Purple Cress.

At the bottom of the Thorny Badlands Trail, she spotted a spring flower that I hadn't seen at Garbry Big Woods a few days earlier...Dutchmen's Breeches.

The park staff has begun burning prairies, which is one of the maintenance tools for keeping the prairies in this park.  If the prairies were not burned at regular intervals they would revert to woodlands since the prairies at Charleston Falls are planted prairies.  Ohio has natural prairies but not at Charleston Falls.

As we returned to the parking lot, the rain was turning to wet snow.  But, we had had a taste of spring and it is still March, that month  of changable weather in Ohio.

Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary, March 16, about 3 PM...Feast Your Eyes on Spring

Harbinger of Spring or Pepper and Salt

Hepatica

Purple Cress

Red Cap (Fungi)

Sessile Trillium or Toadshade

Spicebush blossom

Spring Beauty

Troutlily leaf (also called Adder's tongue or Dogtooth Violet)

Waterleaf

Wild Hyacinth leaves

Spring Explorations...C.J. Brown Reservoir and Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary

Tom and I started our spring nature explorations this past week.  On Monday, we looked for ducks at and around C.J. Brown reservoir and on Tuesday we walked at Garbry Big Woods Sanctuary.

Tom didn't have his Canon EOS T-3i on Monday.  Of course, we saw a pair of Hooded Mergansers so close I could get pictures with my little Olympus Tough.

We also saw...

mallards

a swan near the far bank

and an immature ring-billed gull beside the driver's side door.

There were the usual pairs of Canada geese and flocks of mature ring-billed gulls as well.

Tom took photos on Tuesday although he hasn't downloaded them so the following photos are mine as well.

Our mission was to find Harbinger of Spring.  We found them.  Because they are tiny, we had to search hard over the leafy cover to find them.  They were fresh blooms which I know because one of the sites I checked on the Internet says the anthers are red when the blooms are new but change to black very soon.  The black anthers give the plant its other name, Pepper and Salt.

I put the key to the van beside these blooms to give you an idea of the size.

On the blooms to the left was an early pollinator, a fly.  Flies have a bad reputation because of those we find around barns and in our houses but there are lots of flies who never come near our homes.  They are part of the cycle of life in nature.

The Hollow by Agatha Christie March 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 2016 at the Troy Civic Theatre Barn in the Park

From left to right--Robert Wilson as Sergeant Penny, Mike Rousculp as Gudgeon, Chuck Fox as Sir Henry Angkatell, Beverly Dines as Midge Harvey, Niccole SueAnn Wallace as Gerda Cristow, Jessica Suba as Veronica Craye, Steve Dietrich as John Cristow, Tanya Bundenthal as Henrietta Angkatell, Robert Hyer as Edward Angkatell, Sandy Ehrlich as Lucy Angkatell, Joan Smoke as Doris, and Gage Emerson as Inspector Colquhoun.

Tom, Pat, and I attended the Sunday Matinee of The Hollow.  The performance was within a few seats of being sold out.  The actors and actresses succeeded in creating more and more tension as the audience tried to pick out, first, who would be the victim, and second, who was the murderer.  The tension was broken at intervals by the comic relief of Doris, the apprentice maid, played by Joan Smoke and Lady Lucy Angkatell, played by Sandy Ehlich

The director, Jennifer Kaufman, did an excellent job of coaching the cast, shaping the cast into a cohesive group and fine-tuning the nuances of their lines.

In the lobby, The Hollows, a game similar to Clue was set up.  During intermission the audience was encouraged to guess who the murderer was.  There were cards with the characters' names on them they could take as their choice.  I didn't take a card because I had researched the play and knew the solution but  Pat made a guess.  The game was part of the fun. I was sorry I had "sneaked a peek" on the Internet.  I didn't expect to find the game in the lobby.  My advice to you...if you go to the play this coming weekend, don't check the Internet.  Have fun, instead.

I didn't go on line to find the solution.  I went on-line to learn whether The Hollow was the original name of the mystery.  Pat likes Agatha Christie Mysteries and has read most of them.  She didn't recognize the title.

The Hollow was published in 1946 as The Hollow in both the United States and the United Kingdom.  However in 1954, a paperback edition was published in the United States as Murder After Hours. Pat said she didn't recognize that title either.  She plans to go back and check through her collection.

Agatha Christie adapted the book into a stage play in 1951 and omitted Hercule Poirot who was in the book.  The version the Troy theatre presented is a classic version which is different from Agatha Christie's first and second versions and also different from the television movie version of 2004 which features David Suchet as Poirot.

Community theatre is fun for me partly because members of my family participate. My grandson, Robert Hyer, was Edward Angkatell in The Hollow.  And over the years I have come to know many of the other cast members as well.  I look forward to seeing their interpretations of each new character assigned to them.  The Troy stage veteran performers are Chuck Fox as Sir Henry Angketell, Sandy Ehrlich as Lucy Angketell, Mike Rousculp as Gudgeon, Joan Smoke as Doris, Niccole SueAnn Wallace as Gerda Cristow, Steve Dietrich as John Cristow, and Jessica Suba as Veronica Craye.

 Nearly always, there are some cast members new to the Troy stage.  They add freshness to the plays that would be missing if the cast always consisted of the same members.  In this play, the new to the Troy stage cast included Tanya Bundenthal as Henrietta Angkatell, Beverly Dines as Midge Harvey, Gage Emerson as Inspector Colquhoun and Rob Wilson as Sergeant Penny.

The next two performances are Friday, March 11 and Saturday, March 12.  Contact The Troy Civic Theatre by phone at 339-7700 or go to their Facebook page for information.

March 2, 2016, March 3, 2016 What a Difference a Day Makes

Picture of early crocuses in my neighbor's yard yesterday.

Picture of early crocuses in my neighbor's yard today.

And that's the way our weather is in March.

On the bright side, temperature is supposed to be  60 degrees Fahrenheit next week. (15.56 Celsuis)