Category: nature

The Desert Bloom

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Death Valley Bloom

We were at a birthday party last night, our first night in Nevada, and heard about the bloom. Some of Kevin’s friends were taking a trip the next day to Death Valley to see flowers, of all things! It’s true, when the desert blooms, you had better go see it. This year’s bloom is being called a superbloom, the best of the decade. Kevin’s brother and sister-in-law are still with us, so we decided to be tourists and head to Death Valley today. 

Death Valley is about 2 ½ hours from Boulder City. I am glad to finally be visiting some national parks and getting some value from my Senior Pass. I was surprised to learn that the Death Valley National Recreation Area is the largest national park in the U.S. There was a nice Visitor’s Center with a great historical gallery. I got lost in the displays there and kept the others waiting and wondering where I was. I got a T-shirt and a hiking medallion. I was a good tourist.

The only “hiking” we did (but don’t tell anyone) was to walk around the remains of the borax processing area. In the 1800’s a businessman tried to refine borax from the floor of the lake. The business didn’t last long. Death Valley was a hard place to work. But we still have 20 Mule Team Borax on the shelf in stores and that’s where it started. 

It took 20 mules to pull these loaded wagons.
Kevin is a tall man – gives you an idea of the size of these wagons!

We started looking for flowers right away but there was a lot of dessert that wasn’t blooming yet. We might have found more blooms if we had gotten out and hiked off road, but that wasn’t the plan. Several times we got out of the truck and took pictures of every flower we could find. One called Desert Gold is the most prevalent right now. 

Desert Gold
Desert Five Spot (five red spots inside)
Heliotrope phacelia
Large drifts of flowers in some places.

We traveled out of Death Valley and had a late lunch in Parumph. The Dry Creek Saloon gave us a bit of local color and taste. Our chef was very attentive to our requests and I considered him worthy of a photo. So were his smashburgers.  Back in Boulder City we took a walk along the main street and stopped in at Mr. T’s for refreshing drinks. I’m enjoying everything southwest.

Dry Creek Saloon in Parumph
Smashburgers with potato and macaroni salads.


Out My Window

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The first night after arriving in Boulder City the weather news was all about the full moon for the month. A special lunar eclipse was due to occur in the early morning, around 3 am. It didn’t have a very attractive name, Worm Blood Moon. I understood the blood part, because in the earth’s shadow, the moon always looks red. The Worm part doesn’t make as much sense to me and doesn’t sound pretty either. I didn’t plan on seeing it. I’m used to disappointment when there are clouds or trees in the way. To me, it’s not worth interrupting a much needed night’s sleep.

August 2026 full moon over Round Lake

One time last summer, Kevin and I went out to Round Lake to look at a beautiful full moon. It was a clear night and we both admired the way the moonlight made a path across the water. We talked about how many songs we remembered that had a moon in them. (How many can you think of?) We were both pretty high on the romance scale and decided to get together every full moon. We had looked forward to this March full moon knowing we would be together on our trip. We gave it a good looking over before we retired for the night. 

I don’t know why I woke up at 3:15 am. I didn’t know where in the sky the moon would be. I don’t know why I lifted the shade to look out the window. But it was there, in the perfect spot for me to view it. The sky was clear and the moon was about 45 degrees off the horizon, red and round.  I’m shy about waking other people up at night so I watched it alone. My lounge chair was like having a front row seat for 45 minutes. It was changing very slowly so I decided not to wait until it was completely over.  I went back to sleep.

My first look
A different setting, still in shadow
Eclipse about half over
Moon was lower now, behind a tree branch

It was a unique way to start out the time in Nevada. I had never photographed a lunar eclipse before. 

I Found Some Spring

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Ever since about age eight or nine, I have been outside in April looking for spring to start in the northwoods. What I look for is a flower so small it is easily missed, but it is usually the first one to appear here. It has a special place in my heart. It’s called hepatica, mainly because of the leaf that has lobes like a liver (the prefix hepa refers to the liver). The leaf often turns dark under fallen leaves and snow but doesn’t completely deteriorate, which is probably why its flowers appear so early.

Mostly brown with a few pine greenery thrown in

I walked this week in the woods, hoping to get some inspiration from my friends, the trees. The woods are still pretty barren. The buds on the trees aren’t prominent and the landscape is pretty brown and grey. But I am delighted to have seen some spring – the flowers are here.

We always called them mayflowers, but I think that was descriptive of when they bloomed, not their actual name. White, pink, purple, blue are their usual colors and their stems have a delicate fuzziness to them. Sometimes a plant will have multiple blooms, sometimes just one. But they are life in the forest and I get a little thrill when I start finding them. It’s still April, so they are a bit early.

The leaves are from another plant, not hepatica

Maybe it’s because I am getting older that I notice aging in the forest more than I used to. I notice the older pines that are losing their lower branches, the ground around them littered with boughs that wind and snow brought down. I notice the dead trees, with bark peeling off and holes where birds have been hunting insects. Sometimes it’s a large tree that lost its hold and crashed down to the forest floor, its root bed sticking up in the air. There is a lot of destruction and death evident as a natural feature of the ecosystem. The woods looks quite messy at this time of year.

Sometimes it looks like there are more dead trees than living ones. Sad.
The woods can be a violent place of damage, destruction

Soon though, the ferns will be up, hiding much of the mess on the ground. Green leaves will cover up the mess above. Everything that died will continue to make its way back to the soil and nourish other life. It’s a beautiful pattern and has many lessons embedded in it. The patient, ever changing forest…

Maybe I was inspired out there, to record what I saw. It is a comforting thing, that spring has come at its appointed time once again. And I imagine that summer will come soon after. Seasons can be counted on, at least for now. This season, spring, is all about new things coming to life. Look for them. Just sayin’…

The early beginnings don’t shout to be seen, but they are there for those who will look.

Adventures at Julia’s Farm: The Haw

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There are quite a few things that fascinate me, among them are recreational fires (not forest fires!) and rivers. They don’t have to be big rivers either. As a child, I discovered a small creek at my grandparent’s farm and you would have thought I’d discovered a new ocean, even though it dried up completely in dry years. Just the thought of water coming from somewhere distant and flowing past me in seemingly endless supply was so alluring.

That is now one of the most exciting things about being in North Carolina, where there are rivers and creeks EVERYWHERE. You aren’t here long before you notice that most of their roads are named after churches or rivers and the mills and bridges connected to them. Indeed, Riverbend Farm where I am staying with my daughter’s family is on Brooks Bridge Road, and Brooks Bridge crosses the Haw River. The Haw borders the northeast boundary of Riverbend Farm and the riding trail that follows it is one of my favorite places to explore.

Pre-flood, the Haw has some whitewater stretches
The black line shows the river trail. Arrow 1 was our first try, arrow 2 ends at the junction of Shanahan Creek and the Haw where the lake was.

I get to look at about half a mile of this 110 mile river. It used to have quite a few dams blocking it, providing power for early industrialization of the area. One of the dams is along this half mile, just north of Brooks Bridge. There are projects planned to remove some of the dams and restore the river to a cleaner, more recreational use, but there is nothing like that happening on the stretch I see. I feel sorry for this part of the Haw, especially when there are heavy rains like we’ve had this winter. It is swift, muddy and choked with uprooted trees and debris.

The dam at Brooks Bridge

But it is still fascinating to see what a river does, when it is the recipient of a large watershed. “I should go down there and check it out”, I said to myself after our last two day deluge. I had heard reports of water high enough to cover the road, although I could hardly imagine it could happen.

Kevin, Julia’s husband, creates the riding trails through his property down to the river and through 30 acres of land that was clear cut a few years ago. The forest will grow back, but right now it’s treacherous with downed trees, undergrowth of berry bushes, holly and other thorny plants. I followed the trail down a steep hill to the path along the river. Did I mention that GwennieRu was with me in the buggy? Yes. And the hill was steep enough that I turned the buggy around and backed down it. I didn’t plan on having to go up that hill again. So much for plans.

We eventually came upon places where the river breached the trail. Even though the backwaters were not flowing, there was no telling how deep and muddy they were so I had to go back the way we had come.

We tried another trail accessing the river and at the bottom of that one there was a lake where there’s not usually a lake. A small creek drains much of Riverbend Farm and it enters the Haw at this junction. The banks are usually four or five feet above the creek but on this day there were no banks.

The trail down the hill
The muddy Haw at flood stage
Part of the flooded trail
Junction Shanahan Creek and Haw
Flood stage erosion

This ever changing nature of the river, along with the power of its moving water is both eerie and fascinating. Although not in danger ourselves, being close enough to hear the rapids, and see huge trees that have fallen in and been carried along – it’s breathtaking. I can’t get enough of looking and imagining.

Log jams like this are not uncommon and difficult to clean up.

I would love to see this part of the river cleaned up and made navigable but it is far too big of a project for an individual landowner to tackle. Fortunately, most of the time the river is much lower, the trails dry out and life along the river returns to normal. It’s a beautiful place to walk or ride horse, and I feel blessed to finally have an interesting river in my life.

But you will not catch me down there when it’s chigger season, no, no, no. Been there, done that. Just sayin’… (Click here for that story.)

God’s Best Color

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Recently I was invited to an evening of discussion. I think it was planned primarily to expose people to differing opinions and give them experience talking about those opinions in thoughtful and civil ways. Gathered around a long table in a candlelit room, we were representing a wide variety of age groups, political opinions, and faith backgrounds.

One of the opening statements was “we have lost the dinner table, and we have lost the front porch”, places where people used to find each other and talk. That in itself was worth thinking about and acting upon. It sounded true to me. The evening got more interesting as we worked our way through a good meal and numerous topics.

One of the discussions started with this proposal.

Blue is the best color in God’s creation because it is calming in all its hues.

Many of us present may have been thinking that it was a very superficial subject to discuss when we could have been solving world problems. In addition the proposal had words like “best” and “all” and “God’s creation” that begged for dissent and wasted time. Looking back, I see it as a clever proposal because of those very characteristics. Blue was going to become more important than I had expected.

You see, I like blue. A lot. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite color, but as the moderator pointed out, most of us in the room were wearing something blue. We talked about what makes something “best”. We talked about the effects of certain light waves on the physical body and emotions associated with color. We talked about hues of blue that might not be calming (does the phrase “black and blue” calm you?). Were there some strong opinions on the subject? Yes, there were.

I had already talked enough on other subjects that I was feeling a little self conscious. I wanted to say some things about this one too, but decided to listen. Instead, I am writing now to tell you what I think about that proposal.

Oddly, I have thought about that very subject many times because I am outdoors a lot, in places where there is a lot of blue sky and blue water. My outdoor world is overwhelmingly blue, green, with snatches of grey, black and brown, all colors that I find easy on my eyes and psyche. They are, for the most part, colors that calm me, and add to my comfort level. Green is my favorite. I have often been thankful that blue and green are so easy to look at.

It is autumn. Here in Hayward, Wisconsin, there are a few weeks in September and October when there is still a lot of blue sky and water but most everything green becomes something else. There is blazing orange, glowing yellow, and vivid red among the dark green pines. The contrast is breathtakingly beautiful.

Green, yellow, green, orange… over and over again.
Seemingly on fire!

But the thought always occurs to me, what if the forests were that color all year long? What if I had to live under an orange sky continually? I have to question what the world would be like if it were full of colors that make us hungry and aggressive (they say…). Wouldn’t it feel kind of hot?

And then I am thankful for blue, and I think the choice was probably on purpose by a wise Creator. Blue is the best color for the places where he put it. All the other colors are best for where he put them. He made a beautiful blue planet for us, but also gave us other colors to make us happy, because he could. That’s pretty cool.

And now I’ve said my piece about the color blue.

My brother’s beautiful red maple, every year. It makes me happy.

Winter Talks Back

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Rage, winter, all you want. The sun is on its way out.

You don’t have to be a person to have a personality. No, you don’t.

Winter saw me buying seeds at Walmart this week and decided to throw a fit. I was awake numerous times last night, listening to the wind howling outside, coming down the fireplace chimney. Sure enough, this morning there was new snow, and drifts everywhere. Window screens were flocked with wind driven whiteness. Hungry birds and squirrels were trying to find the sunflower seeds they knew were there yesterday. It would be another day of shoveling and plowing in our community.

I got this far before the handle on the shovel broke.

I feel sorry for the geese I’ve seen flying around, looking for nesting places in the marsh. I’m a little sorry I had the car washed this week. I’d like to see green out the windows instead of white. But I am not at all dismayed by this fury. I know that the fight often intensifies because someone or something knows it’s going to lose.

Apparently winter also knows its days are numbered and wants to get in as many punches as possible before wandering off to a different hemisphere. I’m hopeful that nature is giving us a metaphor for the craziness in our world – it could be. The natural world is God’s spokesman and his creation. He came up with the plan for seasons and they’ve been happening ever since, in nature and in the history of man.

“Blessed be the name of God, forever and ever.
He knows all, does all:
He changes the seasons and guides history,
He raises up kings and also brings them down, he provides both intelligence and discernment,
He opens up the depths, tells secrets, sees in the dark – light spills out of him.”

Daniel chapter 2, The Holy Bible

So today, I am walking in snow, but also planting some seeds and putting the pots in a south facing window. I intend to wait winter out, and I think I’ll win.

Every step brings us closer to spring.

Thinking Kindly about Winter

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Sometimes when you pay attention to something it becomes satisfied and goes away…

The snow blower (and my brother) have had more than enough to do this winter.

I was sitting with Mom this morning in our usual places – looking out the window at our small street. My brother was out blowing away the latest snowfall, even as it continued to fall. Suddenly huge clumps of the stuff came flying through the air and hit the side of the house. But most of it landed in the yard where it has been accumulating all winter. The lilac bush that is only slightly shorter than I am is buried once again.

Yesterday I thought it would be fun to play in the snow for a change. Mom has been pointing out how the snow is so high in the yard that she no longer can see which cars are coming and going. She takes her job of monitoring our neighborhood seriously and the snow was cramping her style. I decided to shave off a foot or two of the bank in front of her window, so she could see better.

The view down the street, with no lilac bush in sight.

I was surprised to be able to walk on top of the huge drifts without sinking in. There have been so many layers of ice in between snowfalls that I was supported wherever I walked. It is so strange to be standing on top of a bush that you know is probably at least four feet tall. I carefully picked chunks of snow from around the tender branches and twigs of the bush until the top of it was exposed.

And then last night’s snowfall…

Our furnace has gone out twice in the last two weeks. Since we have a boiler that heats the cement slab floor, it takes a while for it to cool down (and a while for it to heat up again). It is a beautiful way to have even temperature and nice warm floors. I don’t usually notice something is wrong until it gets down to 67 degrees inside. I pulled out the small space heaters from storage and tried to keep the husband comfortable while my brother called the repair man. After a good cleaning, the boiler was back in operation and a day later all was normal.

A week later it happened again. I couldn’t believe it – so soon after having been fixed. This time I was surprised to hear the repair guy up on the roof, shoveling snow. The exhaust stack, which is about two feet tall, had been buried by a huge drift. Uncovering it fixed the problem. Thank you winter.

So it is still definitely winter in March, as well as January and February, well… and December, and probably November. And possibly April. Yeah.

To live up here in northern Wisconsin, it is best to patiently make peace with winter, and even give it a little attention. As long as we aren’t in danger of freezing, or having to drive on ice, it can be exciting to see how extreme conditions can get.

This has been a very snowy winter, one in which I have been more restricted to being indoors, have skied less, have been less social. On the somewhat brighter side, daylight savings ends next week and we will have longer afternoon light again. I will also have one more full moon this week and one more chance for a moonlight ski. There’s always something to look forward to. (Like winter being over… shhhh, don’t tell it.)

Layers upon layers

Wisconsin Winter in Progress

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All photos are of my back yard. A lovely fountain area crowned with lilac bushes, a central maple and a line of evergreens along the fence.

Winter in Wisconsin! A magical, frosted fairyland.
More winter. The magic is getting kind of heavy. Poor bushes.
Magic is fading. Bush survival measures needed.
Bushes? What bushes? Need less magic, less winter.

And so begins the FIRST MONTH of a long season. Enjoy.

Another Autumn Walk

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I have to say that there are some stunningly beautiful , peaceful, quiet, memorable moments available to us, even in hard times. We must chase them down and live in them whenever possible.

This was actually an accidental take but I find it gets me into the walk quite nicely. Come along…
The place, Duluth MN, the Western Waterfront Trail (or Waabizheshikana if you have trouble pronouncing Western Waterfront) along the St. Louis River. At Indian Point Campground the Parks and Recreation Department is hosting a Glow Hike. The half mile trail is marked with glow sticks. It is dusk and light is fading.
The trail is not crowded, but there is a steady stream of couples, families with children in wagons and strollers, singles like me. People are talking quietly above the sound of feet on the gravel and leaf covered path. There is an almost reverent feel to it all.
It is the perfect time to catch the last light as it turns from warm orange to cool blue. Flocks of ducks fly low and glide into the sheltered marshes along the river. The sense of peace and grace is almost overwhelming.
Even the children, decked in their glowing accessories, find a place to sit and watch.
And we all take pictures because we think we will never again see something so beautiful. We don’t want to forget.
Don’t forget, eyes! Stay and look carefully (and take a picture).
At the campground there are fires to roast marshmallows, cookies and treats for all, quiet conversation, smiles, extra glow sticks.
On the darker side of the peninsula, the lights of Duluth in the distance are almost like glow sticks
The wood around us is darkening, but the silhouettes of leafless branches still catch my eye. The trees are like living beings, exposed against the wide sky for the last few minutes of twilight.
But one last gift comes – a crescent moon among the tops of the pines. Could the world be more wild and beautiful in this place? I have to say that I don’t think it could.

Hiking the Birkebeiner: Part 2

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Most of the leaves are on the ground now and walking in them is fun and “autumn-ish”.

Tomorrow Gwen and I will finish the last section of the Birkie Trail, and it’s good timing because we are starting to get snow flurries and temps in the teens. Hiking this northern section of the trail has been quite different because we have used the actual Birkie trail rather than the single track bike trails. Another difference is that it’s about the busiest place “out in the woods” that I’ve ever seen. We are always crossing ATV trails, bike trails, logging trails and fire lanes and more than once we have been confused. Often we are telling ourselves to just enjoy the walk in the woods and see where we end up, because we have no clue where we are. Backing up, here are the finished sections.

September 12, 2021 Hatchery TH to Hwy 77 Bridge

I explored this short section myself one afternoon because I’ve been curious about the bridge ever since it went up. For years the Birkie ski race used to cross Hwy 77 near this spot and the road actually had to be covered with snow and closed while thousands of skiers crossed it. There was even talk of tunneling under the road, but the eventual decision was to put a bridge over it, making it much more convenient and safe. I’ve gone under this bridge countless times, and now I’ve also gone over it.

Down the road is the Namekagon River valley and the town of Hayward.

September 17, 2021. OO TH to Firetower TH. 5.53 miles, 12,410 steps

We had some logistical help when we hiked the section of OO to the Fire Tower trailhead. My brother dropped us off at the Fire Tower warming cabin and picked us up a couple hours later at the Johnson Center on OO. He rode mountain bike trails in the area while we hiked. In fact, there were quite a few bikers riding the trails that day. I guess some of them got hot and sweaty and had to change clothes, at least that’s the story we told ourselves as we passed the warming cabin at Boedecker Road where a guy was standing naked by his car. The things you see in the woods… I did not take a picture. It was a beautiful fall day in all respects!

September 30, 2021 Firetower TH to Timber Trail TH 6.9 miles, 15,484 steps

A couple weeks later we did the next section ourselves, doing a loop from the Fire Tower TH to Timber Trail warming cabin on the classic trail and back on the skate trail. It was another beautiful afternoon, but we had a later start. We didn’t make it back to the car until 6 pm and the sun was nearly down. Our days are getting noticeably shorter. This one got us a little tired. We did extra steps looking for trail signs and my real step count for that day was 19,172.

This map does not include logging roads and single track bike trails. We were often surprised to find out where we were. Thankful for the red arrows.

October 26, 2021. American Birkebeiner TH to North End TH. No idea

I could hardly believe we had taken almost a month off. It didn’t seem like that long a time because both Gwen and I started going to Ski and Tea. It’s a ladies ski group coached by some amazing, experienced cross country skiers. We’ve been getting together nearly every week for training on the Birkie. Since there’s no snow, we practice various ski techniques while hiking – it works. On the afternoon of the 26th we drove to the far end of the trail, the Birkebeiner TH in Cable and walked in some kind of a weird circle until we got back to the car a couple of hours later. Too many intersections, too many maps, too many trails. I think we set foot on enough of the Birkie to say we did a good section. My total step count for the day was 15,464, about 7 miles. Have I mentioned that there are lots of hills? There are LOTS OF HILLS.

No, not confusing at all…

And as I wrote, tomorrow we will hike our last section, Lord willing. I hope to post about our triumphant finish. Excited! Check in to see if we made it (and find out about our planned reward).