Nature & Outdoors Blog Posts

We’ve had a very welcomed cold snap for the past few days up here in Maine. For a while there, I was getting nervous. We had a fairly warm November, then a cold week somewhere between then and now, followed by a fairly warm December. Our lake isn’t even frozen yet. Compared to last year, this winter is nothing. Of course, now that I said that, we’ll get blizzard after blizzard for the duration. At least we’d have some snow so all the snowmobile riders can get out of the house.

Up until a few days ago, the stream at the side of our property was running like it always does. No ice. Then, as the cold air pushed in, the stream began freezing up. And as I poked around the area a bit yesterday, I discovered some interesting ice formations. It’s weird when running water freezes. It sort of freezes, then runs over itself and freezes again. It does this until the ice is thick enough to hold all the running water underneath. At least, that’s what I can make of things.

I brought the camera outside this morning to grab some pictures of what’s going on. I guess this one describes it most clearly:

Frozen Stream With Running Water Underneath

That’s the furthest shot I kept. Anything further than that didn’t really come out all too well.

After a while, I started to look more closely at the ice and decided that up close was a heck of a lot cooler than far away. That’s when I took a whole slew more photos. Out of everything, I kept these four. A little taste of what’s shaping up to be a (hopefully) cold winter.

Small Ice Shelf in Stream

Side View of Surface Ice Over Running Stream

Tiny Icicles Touching Running Water

Lumpy Ice Growth in Running Stream

UPDATE: The above pictures were taken from the upper part of the stream, near the house. Later on in the afternoon, Laura and I went on a hike to the back of the property and took more photos. Below are the best ones.

Water Dripping From Ice

Melting Ice

Ice Covered Branches

Ice in Mid-Air

River Running Under Ice

Water Running Under Ice

Ice Crystals

Just so you know, the bug season in Maine starts around July 1 and continues until August 1. Before July 1, things are still fairly cool outside and you can do what you want. When July rolls around, you have to go hide inside. The bugs, coupled with the humidity will make you want to visit Iceland for the month. But when August arrives and you get your first glimpse of the zillion or so dragonflies, you can rest assured that the good times are right around the corner.

A few weeks ago, I’d stand outside in the pool area, and lean up against the fence to watch the dragonflies do their work. I have no idea how many there were zigging and zagging up and across the back yard, but I can tell you they were in the hundreds. They start flying around in the hunt for food (flies) around dusk and continue into the night. When it gets really dark, they go to sleep. It’s amazing to watch the dragonflies do such a wonderful job at getting rid of all those other bugs out there.

It’s not terribly noticeable when you don’t have to swat flies from swarming your face, but when you do realize there aren’t as many as there used to be, you start to wonder why. It’s the dragonfly, my friend. They eat everything. And if you watch them fly around, you’ll see that they travel in rows and columns with almost perfect precision. It’s the 90 degree turns that get me.

Laura just took this picture. She doesn’t know I stole it from her camera. Nothing is sacred around here.

You’re in for a real treat with this post. If this doesn’t make you smile, I’m not sure what will.

Since this spring rolled around and plants and flowers began growing, we’ve been splendidly surprised at what’s been left behind for us to marvel at. If you’re curious as to what I’m referring, take a look at my Flowers category. That category will give you a taste of what we’ve got growing here around the property.

A late bloomer to the party, but in no way any less relevant or beautiful, is our many shades of pink Phlox bushes. It seems that these guys have grown up in a wide variety of places – next to the pool fence, at the front of the house, in the small garden in the back yard. And wow. I’ll tell you that – what a sight they are for a striking September flower. They range from light to dark pink and are a real attraction for the ultra-interesting Hummingbird Moth. If you’ve never seen a Hummingbird Moth, just think Hummingbird, but not. It’s an insect that acts just like the bird. Strange, I know.

You’re going to like these pictures – I just know it. When I took them off Laura’s camera, I instantly became excited to post them. First, I’ll show you the Hummingbird Moth.

(Do you know how lucky – or patient – or good – you have to be to get a picture like this?)

And now, I’ll show you some pictures of our pink Phlox. What a flower.

There was a month or so during the summer when we had to save between 5 and 10 grasshoppers per day from drowning in the pool. I’m not sure why we chose the grasshopper as a more valuable creature over the japanese beetle (we find these in the pool as well), but we did. Perhaps it’s because we hate the japanese beetle. Yeah, that could be it.

Anyway, when we pull a grasshopper from the pool, we tend to enjoy looking at their workings – you know, their big eyes, their long legs, their folded wings. They truly are magnificent creatures and many of them are seemingly unique. The colors and sizes change between almost all of them.

During one of Laura’s rescues yesterday, she was able to remove a grasshopper from the pool skimmer to allow it to dry on top of one of the fence posts. This, of course, was followed by a photo shoot, where I suggested she start playing with my magnifying lenses. Basically, these lenses, or filters, give you the option of closing in on your focal range, instead of being bound by what your current lens offers. You really can get close up.

It was fun to watch Laura experience these lenses. She took a whole bunch of pictures, almost all of which I had to discard because I simply can’t post them all. I kept the one I liked and will post it below. Take a look at it. Click the picture for a large view. I have a funny feeling we’re going to start seeing a lot of macro-photography on this blog.

Even the frogs are hiding in the water. As the season moves along, my morning visits to the pond reveal fewer and fewer frogs. I wonder where they are going. Did the giant Heron eat them? Or perhaps those ducks that fly in every now and then? I know those birds are sneaky, so I wouldn’t put it past them.

Yesterday, before I pulled Laura back into the woods to show her my new trails, she hung out at the pond for a few minutes with her camera. She was able to locate a few of the now elusive frogs. I guess that these days, instead of bathing in the sun ashore, they chill out in the more evenly tempered water. Frogs ain’t stupid. I’m just wondering what they are going to do when it gets really cold out there. Where do frogs go over the winter?

Now that the cooler weather has arrived, I’ve been getting outside much more to take care of some projects I’ve been thinking about all summer long. Cutting trails in the woods is one of those projects.

Actually, I’ve been thinking about cutting trails a lot longer than just this summer. I’ve been thinking about it pretty much forever. I love doing it. I can remember cutting trails up on our mountain back when I was a kid. I’d make paths all over the place through those cedar trees. Well defined paths too because cedar trees are thick and when you take a few out, you can really start to see what you’re doing.

The trail I cut yesterday and today isn’t through any majorly tough terrain or brush. It was just through our maple forest, but that doesn’t make it any less cool than any other trail. It’s cool.

I got the idea a few days ago while walking around taking pictures with Laura. I found some open type areas that I thought I could work with and began clipping. Here I am thinking about things.

Basically, now that I cut a new trail, you don’t enter the woods the way you used to. You now get in right past the pond. I cut the first trail to the left of our bench.

This was easy to cut because it was all high grass.

I decided that it would be really neat if once you get past the beginning of the trail, you can take a left or a right. The left brings you into the woods and the right brings you around the backside of the pond. Here is the fork in the road.

To go left and into the woods, you take this trail…

And if you wanted to walk around the back of the pond, you make a right down this trail…

The trail is a loop, so you really can get anywhere from either trail. I’ll show you a few more spots around the loop.

I took these pictures as I walked around the back of the pond, so I took a right. When I got to the stump from the maple tree I took down over the winter, you make a left.

And if you continue on, you walk the entire loop back to the area you would be if you made a left in the beginning.

Pretty nice, right? All I did was take down a few small trees with my clippers and then buzz through the area with the push-mower. What I was left with was a sweet new walking path I can use for my morning coffee walk. Let me know what you think.