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.

Walks at Garbry Big Woods, April 10 and April 16

April 10 Bloodroot.  Tom and I saw Bloodroot on April 16, also but a lot of them had lost their petals.

April 10 Harbinger of Spring...We didn't see any on April 16 but that may have been because we were looking at all the new species that had begun blooming.

April 10 Spice Bush...Tom noticed one bush in full bloom at the entrance to the woods but we didn't see any other blooms.  I think we missed their showy season.

April 10  Blue Cohosh...Maroon flowers were still blooming on April 16.

April 16, Blue Cohosh...I found the yellow version, too.  I didn't see those on April 10.

April 10 Mayapples...The Mayapples were emerging.

April 16 Mayapples...Lots of Mayapples as tall as they ever get.  The two-leafed ones had plump round buds.  Looks like this will be a good year for Mayapples.

April 10 Yellow Trout Lily (Dogtooth Violet)...This was open as far as any I saw on April 10.

April 16 Yellow Trout Lily...The entire woodland floor was sprinkled with open Yellow Trout Lilies (Dogtooth Violets)

April 16, Yellow Trout Lily...Lots of the Trout Lilies nestle among the roots of the trees.

April 10  Large Flowered Trillium...Tom and I were pleased to find this Large-flowered Trillium showing its white petals.

April 16 Larged Flowered Trillium...Still not a lot of Large-flowered Trillium completely open but there were a lot that were close to fully open.  In a few days the woods will be white with them.

April 16 Large Flowered Bellwort...We didn't see any open on April 10 but today there were enough that their paler yellow was noticeable even though there were also lots of the brighter yellow of the Trout Lilies.

April 16  Wild Ginger...The leaves are beginning to emerge.  The fuzzy buds were visible on some of the plants.

Wild Blue Phlox...I found this as we were heading back to the van.  After I saw this one I saw several more.  None of them were showing buds, yet.

And that is why the early flowers of Spring are called "Ephemeral".  Here this week and gone next week.

April 6, 2019...A Walk at Brukner Nature Center

I came to Brukner Nature Center to see the Snow Trillium.  They were scattered about at the foot of Short Step Hill.  They were growing among clumps of Hepatica.  It was a beautiful hillside.

Here and there, single Spring Beauty flowers bloomed.  There will be clusters of them, soon.

With my walking stick in my left hand, my binoculars strap around my neck and my Olympus Tough camera in my right hand, I headed to the swamp to see if the Marsh Marigolds were blooming.

On the way I made more discoveries.

The first completely open sprays of Dutchmen's Breeches that I have see this spring...

Purple Cress in bud....

Another photographer was focusing on a tree trunk as I headed up Wren Run.  I didn't get a picture but we saw a Red Admiral, a Mourning Cloak, and an Eastern Comma sucking the sap running down the bark.  All three stayed on the trunk the entire time we admired them.  So nice to see three different colorful butterflies at the same time.

And onward toward the swamp...

The boardwalk on the floodplain was still mostly covered by water.

But as I looked down on the steps to the swamp section of the boardwalk I saw the Marsh Marigolds...

and Skunk Cabbage leaves unfurling its leaves throughout the swamp.  In a few weeks the leaves will cover the entire surface.

The boardwalk in the swamp was not flooded.  It rarely floods.  I followed it out to a little rise where the Harbinger of Spring and the Squirrel Corn grows.  I found the Harbinger of Spring but not the Squirrel Corn.  Maybe next week...

But I found one blooming False Rue Anemone (Isopyrum)...

and this pretty Waterleaf leaf.

I was pleased to get a good photo of a Crayfish Chimney.  I find them hard to photograph.

As I was climbing the hill out of the swamp,  I spotted a Bloodroot fully open.

And I was surprised to see the leaf of a Mayapple that had just broken through the ground.

As I hiked up Hickory Ridge, I found a few more signs of spring.

The Buckeye buds were opening, showing their clusters of  leaves.

There were many more Snow Trilliums and Hepatica in white, lavender and pink.  There were Purple Cresses in bud...

And after much searching I found a Purple Cress blooming.  A pollinator had found it, too.