Weed-eating and rainbows. Catching up.

Today has been a day of weed-eating. It’s out of gas now, and I’m out of energy, so I’m done for now. Tomorrow I’ll take up where I left off and maybe in one weekend I’ll have gotten all I wanted to do, done. There’s never a shortage of things needing to be done, but I try to break up the list into manageable bites I can do in a weekend and still have time to feel rested before starting the work week again.

Sitting here at the keyboard is an interesting experience while my fingers are still vibrating with the ghosts of weed-eater side-effects. Feels very odd.

A few weeks ago I took pictures of a double rainbow. I didn’t post it yet because I’d intended to use it on my writing blog as a prompt on one of the Fridays. Did that the other day, so now I’m posting it here. Lots of people wrote lots of stories.

There’s a faint second rainbow to the left.

I haven’t gone out taking pictures lately just for the sake of taking pictures, so that might show up on my list of things to do tomorrow if I get the rest of the yard work done.

The ginseng might be putting on flower stalks by now. Black cohosh already bloomed and some might still be lingering behind. Goldenseal might already have fruit on it.

I’ve been out of touch with what’s going on in the plant world because I’ve been spending all the free time I have working on a book I want to be finished with by the end of this summer. So I haven’t had much time to get into the woods to check on them.

Short Herb Walks

Several people have asked lately, so…I’ve come up with an alternative way I can have an herb walk or two through summer.

We’ll meet Wed 5/16 at 6:00 pm at the Sinking Stream trail at the Van Winkle park off scenic Hwy 12.

If more than 5 want to participate I’ll also do one on Thursday.

The fee will be $10. Fill out the form to sign up:

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If this contact form doesn’t work (it’s the first time I’ve tried embedding one to a post) just copy/paste my email addy : roxann @ ancientearthwisdom.com. You’ll have to remove the space before and after the @ sign for it to work.

Ticks are out in force, so be sure to use a spray if you’re inclined. I’ll have my camera, but the pace will be slow enough to allow it if you want to take pictures with yours, too.

Supermoon 2012

Barbed wire, setting sun.

Just passed by this when the sun was setting and thought it made a good pic.

Identify this tree

When the days get long enough that I get home before dark I like to park down by the campers and walk up to the house. It’s a good uphill hike, but not too long and it gives me a little exercise I’d otherwise not be getting for the day.

Today I noticed a tree. Now this tree looks like it’s at least ten years old so I know it’s been there every other time I walked up the driveway since we moved here seven years ago.

I have no idea what made me notice it today. Ordinarily I know what trees are beside me in my walks. This tree surprises me because I do pay attention and somehow it slipped my notice all these years. It intrigues me because I’m not certain of it’s identification.

Here’s a picture. I think it’s an American Basswood, but I’m not sure. If you have an idea, let me hear it. The leaves are alternate on twigs, the leaves are not smooth. It reminds me of the same coarseness of witch hazel, and although this is alongside the creek it is much too large and solid a tree to be witch hazel and the leaves are just not the same exact shape or size. Could be a mulberry, but not quite like that one either and there are no other leaf shapes on the entire tree (mulberries are like sassafras and can have a few different leaf shapes).

It may flower or do something interesting soon to give more clues, so I’ll be watching.

Horses and photos

The horses have been very well-behaved lately. I have to keep them penned because the fences on the east end aren’t good and they keep finding ways over to the hunting club’s corn feeders. So I let them out a few hours a day and call them back when it’s time to go up for the night. Usually they stay right around the house, but over the weekend they went across the creek and into the field on the other side of the valley. When I went to get them both days, I brought the lead rope but didn’t have to use it. When I found them in the field, I called them and their heads popped up out of the grass they were eating. Then they just followed me back home.

Here’s a few pictures I’ve taken lately. I have a lot more on my hard drive but just haven’t had time to reduce the file sizes so I can load them here. Maybe later this week I’ll get a chance.

Sounds of Spring

The spring peepers are really loud at this time of year. It’s one of the first sounds of spring, but they’ve been at it already a while so far this year. I just thought about recording them tonight: Spring Peepers

Sound bites

Not sure if this link is going to work, but this morning I recorded the sound of a whippoorwill. You’ll have to turn up the volume to hear it because I just used my phone recorder to do this.

It’s not a sound a person can hear just anywhere any more. Habitat for the bird must be important because I only hear them in places that still have dirt roads. Sometimes there are so many of them here the sound can become irritating – especially when they are cranking up in the wee morning hours on a Saturday morning.

Sunrise at War Eagle

I heard the whippoorwill for the first time this year this morning before sunrise. I left the house intending to stop and snap a few pictures when the sun came up, hopefully of a barn I’ve had my eye on for years waiting for the right time. Well, I didn’t time it right this morning either. Sun was up by the time I crossed the bridge at War Eagle near Withrow Springs. But it still made a pretty picture.

Stolen moments

Life has been hectic lately. Some of the projects I’ve had on the back burner for a while have suddenly hopped up to the front. A short story I had accepted needs to be revised so they can publish it (this is a good thing, I’m working with an editor from the trenches of New York City) and I have postcard orders to fill.

If you are curious about the postcards, here’s a link to what I’m doing over on my writing site: http://madisonwoods.wordpress.com/Postcards/ It’s combining photography and very short fiction to make collectible postcards. My first test run made it home today and it looks good! No tears, rips or scrapes – and they didn’t add the extra 0.25 strip at the bottom for the barcode scanners (this was what worried me most).

After a day of fighting my instrument at work and finally throwing in the towel after figuring out it just wasn’t going to light, I called tech support to request a part I think will do the trick. This is an ICP-MS and it uses a plasma – the plasma wasn’t igniting (grounding error, I think).

So it takes me quite a while to get home from work, which is good. This gives me time to unwind so I don’t bring home my work issues. I try not to bring home issues to work either, but sometimes that doesn’t work as easily as the other way around.

I decided to stop along the road home to snap a few pictures. Here’s one of my favorites from that set.

Old Chevrolet Apache

So if you know the make and model of that old truck just by looking at this picture, let me know and I’ll update the caption. Ha. Truck identification is not my thing – Okay, so Rob told me what it is, but he didn’t say what year…therefore it is just “old”.