Today's Brief Sunrise . . .

Today's very brief sunrise through the tree line at the back of the 'ranch.'

Had a great bunch of Night Blooming Primroses this morning, but none of the pics came out.  For some reason my pocket size camera has spells of taking blurry pics.  Anyways, Night Blooming Primroses begin opening at dusk.  You can sit and watch them open.  When daylight hits them, they shrivel up and are gone.  They repeat this process all summer.

Gotta go make sure my hatches are battened down.  I'm hearing 'Dericho' mentioned by the weather people.  Weather is gonna get interesting this afternoon and evening. 

Bored . . . Already . . .

Yep, that's right . . . bored already.  Four days off and I'm bored already.  Probably won't be back on the mower till the latter half of next April, so I gotta get used to it or quit bein bored.  And to think I was perfectly content to have a few months off, just a couple days ago.  I think the cold, dreary, November-like day had a lot to do with my mood.  Only got to about 50 degrees today.  

Mid-afternoon, I made myself take a drive to Goll's  Woods for a quick hike.  

On the way, I noticed this old mower.  I've taken pics of it in the past, but never in the fall.  

I hiked the 1-3/4 mile path. 

Some rapidly fadin, light blue flowers.

A single red maple leaf.

The sun came out for a few minutes and brightened things.

Once I got home, I wasn't quite as bored.

Catchin Up . . .

The weather change got to me the past few days.  That cold wind knocks the heck out of me.  I began Monday with a brand new razor blade . . . and didn't bloody my face with it!! When that happens, I spend the rest of the day wonderin if I've used up all my luck for the day or if everything is gonna be goin well.  


Monday was a bright, cold, windy day.  I was impressed with the high cirrus clouds and jet contrails.

I mowed the same area Monday as I did last Monday.  Last Monday I picked up 15 golf balls.  This Monday, I picked up three.  


The hickory nuts are plentiful this year . . . and the squirrels are gettin them cleaned up.  It is my belief that the ground would look something like this if I didn't stop and pick up those lost golf balls.  


This is what happens when ya plant a hickory tree next to a tee box.  Someone hasta blow it off every mornin this time of year.  We are blowin leaves off the greens and tees every day too.  Happens every fall.


Can't say for certain, but it seems like there are more walnuts on the ground than in past years.  

I finished mowin the rough on Thursday and had myself a three day weekend.  If I don't have a breakdown tomorrow, I'm gonna have a 3 1/2 day weekend.  I may need it.  Been feelin pretty rough this week.  I feel like I'm tryin to get a sore throat this evening.  

Train traffic seems more plentiful this summer.  I've noticed a lot of 'extra' locomotives goin west.  Must mean more freight is comin from the west than goin east.  I saw a short train of twelve locomotives and maybe two dozen freight carts goin west this week.  An hour or so later I saw a train with 9 locomotives goin west.  When I see multiple locomotives, I think of the guy who gathers up the grocery carts and takes them back into the store.  The railroad people must have someone gather up their locomotives too.  

Today was one of those 'ISH' days.  It was foggish, darkish and drizzlish.  At least there was no wind.  I thought I had enough clothes with me when I went out to mow, but I got cold and wet and went back for a sweatshirt.  Usually when there is drizzle, you can see it fall.  This was a real fine mist that seemed to hang in the air an I drove into it, gettin wetter than if it was fallin in the regular size droplet form.  Yes, I was wearin all my rain gear.

Heard this on the radio this AM.  Didn't catch where this took place.  A McDonald's manager called the police, sayin there was a suspicious person in his store.  The suspicious person turned out to be a Burger King, king who was passin out BK sandwiches.  I love it.  Gonna ask the local BK manager if he has enough nerve to do something like that.  If he does, I'm gonna offer to be the BK king passin out the sandwiches.  He's gonna hafta promise to bail me out of jail though. 

Trilliums . . .

The Trillium is Ohio's official state wild flower.  The carnation is the state flower.  The only place I've seen them is in the Goll Woods tween Stryker and Archbold.  Late yesterday PM, I decided to see if they were bloomin.  They usually are peakin around Mother's Day, but everything is weeks early around here.  


They are at their peak this week.  I shot plenty of pics.  Close ups of flowers is one of my favorite subjects.  











The rest are shot of wild flowers that were all over the place.








Please feel free to critique my shots.  I'm curious as to what others think of these.  I took some time to set up my camera and compose these.  The wind was a bit of a problem the whole time I was there.

Tree Bark . . .

Besides spending much of my time starin at grass, I look at a lot of tree bark.  I shot some pics from my mower of some of the more interesting lookin bark. 













The last two pics are dead ash trees.

Tuesday, March 13 . . .

I'm a day late gettin this posted.  Just never got around to it yesterday. 

Gas dropped 3 cents, so I topped off my tank.  I had just swiped my credit card when the boss at the golf course called to see what I was doin.  Wasn't quick enough to come up with something different and/or exciting, so I told him about the credit card.  Anyway, he wanted to know if I would come in tomorrow (Wed) and help start cleanin up the course.  One of the guys isn't comin back, so I'm pickin up his hours and tasks.  


Later on, I went to another local park with a lot of wooded area lookin for antler sheds. 

 


On the way there, I spotted this house and barn.  It is one of the nicest lookin places I've seen around here.  This pic doesn't do it justice.  Don't think I'd mind livin there at all.





Wasn't five minutes into the woods when I spot this old golf ball.  Still have a pretty good eye for golf balls.  This ball has been there several years.  It was in pretty bad shape.  A few minutes later I saw a garter snake that must have been close to two feet long. 





Then there were the remains of this dead bird.  Didn't find any antlers, but I did have a couple 'false alarms' that were tree branches.  If I keep doin this, I'm gonna need a 'hikin stick' or whatever they are called.  The mud is slippery in spots!! 





I pretty much followed this creek to the end of the park.  Saw plenty of deer tracks. 

Huntin For Deer Antlers . . .

Went hunting for shed deer antlers today.  I make ink pens from antlers.  March and April is the time of the year that buck shed their antlers.  Since the day was dry and warm, I saw 73 on my thermometer, I went hunting.  





Since I don't hunt, I've been readin up on shed antler hunting.  I figger that if I follow a trail, my chances should be greater.  Good chance of snaggin an antler on a tree.  Of course if there are any layin around, one has to see them.  Could be hard to spot with all the leaves and branches layin around.  





I did manage to find some relatively fresh tracks, but I didn't find any antlers.  I'm thinkin there is some luck in this, just like one article I read said there is.  

 

Looks like someone marked a spot.  Didn't see anything else similiar, so I'm assumin that it isn't a trail marker.





Came upon this structure . . . Not sure if it is for people or bears.  Well the woods is a county park and there is a sizeable fishin pond nearby . . . and I haven't heard about any bears bein sighted lately . . .

A Sunny, Windy March Day . . .

It has been a clear blue, sunny, windy day.  The temperature has finally made it into the low 50's.  





It wasn't as windy has it has been the last few days, but windy enough to blow clothes off the line. I decided to I had to get out of the house, so I figgered an inspection tour of Goll Woods would be a good thing to do. 




The high winds of the last few months has blown overand/or broken trees of all sizes.  

 


No matter how many times I hike the woods, I always notice something new.  This tree is probably close to a hundred feet tall.  It is probably dead, but I couldn't get over the size of those limbs up there.  It must have been a monster before it broke.  





Looks like the moss is beginning to green up a bit. Wonder how many years that tree has been on the ground.

The frogs were out and very loud.  I was kinda surprised to hear them.  It was in the mid 40's when I was there.  I tried to pick up their croakin in video mode, but by you can barely hear them.  You'll hafta believe me that they were very loud.

 


The date on this barn said 1892.  It has been modernized a bit with an overhead door.  Wonder if it has an electric opener . . . 





No date on this little old barn.  It was in the middle of a corn field.  At one time there may have been a house and a few more farm buildings around it.

Never Shoulda Read The Paper This AM . . .

Never shoulda read a newspaper this morning . . . but I did like I usually do almost every mornin.  It seems that the feds are goin to shoot barred owls in Washington, Oregon and Northern California because they are gettin in the way of the  northern spotted owls.  Makes sense to me ???? Eradicatin one type of owl to save another type of owl.  I suppose that in a few years the feds will be cryin about the low numbers of barred owls. 

Then there was this article on tornado forecasts.  They expect fewer than last year, which may have set records, but still above normal.  I read another article recently that there were something like 95 tornadoes during January of this year compared to 32 last year.  I'm wonderin what their track record is on this type of predictions.  

Myself, I'm gonna stick with the Farmer's Almanac and the NWS 5 day sever storm prediction maps (Click here to see today's map).  After followin them last summer, they are reasonably accurtate.

Amaryllis and Clouds . . .

This is my first amaryllis bloom of the year.  I have another that will probably bloom in a few days.  Over the years I have purchased only three bulbs.  Would you believe that I have 16 bulbs in 7 pots??  I just do what ya hafta do to keep 'em bloomin year after year and they do what they do to multiply.  Nice to see some color in nature this time of year.  

Comin out of the Y late this afternoon, the sun attempted to make an appearance.  

These photos were taken less than a minute apart.  The wind has been blowin pretty good all day.  It was really pushin the clouds around up there.

Stroll Through Goll's Woods . . .

Monday was almost 'spring-like.'  I decided to take stroll through Goll's Woods.  I had not been there since spring.  

 

I noticed some changes and I like them.  Someone added some signs on some of the trees identifying them.  I never heard of Red Pine (aka Norway Pine which I have heard of). There are pines on the north side of the woods.  Since they are planted in rows, I don't think they are native to the woods.  

 

There are plenty of 'numbered' posts along the paths. They identify areas and some significant trees.  The only drawback is that you need to have the info pamphlet with you. 

In addition to the various species of Oaks, Maples, Sycamores and Beeches, there are a few species that I am not familiar.  I don't think I saw any walnut trees marked, possibly because there aren't any near the paths.  

I'm guessin this ash is probably dead or dyin by now.  Most of the dead trees in the area are probably Ash.

I have no idea if this Elm is alive or dead.  They don't remove dead trees in a nature preserves.  

I'm pretty sure you know if you have any nearby Cottonwoods near you.  Cottonwoods bother my eyes when they are goin to seed in the spring.  I feel like I have sand in my eyes and bags of sand under my eyes.

Ohio's state tree, the Buckeye.  I didn't spot any buckeyes on the ground.  The squirrels probably have them by now.  

I saw a couple new benches here and there.

 

Don't think I've ever heard of the Spice Bush.  I'll have to come back in the spring and check it out.  

Guess 'Mom' isn't good enough to warn ya about poison ivy.  The government has to get involved.

I've heard of Paw Paw, but didn't know it grew around here.  There is a Paw Paw, Michigan.  Charlie Maxwell, an outfielder for the Detroit Tigers during the '60's was from Paw Paw.  He was known for hitting home runs on Sundays.  

I've heard of bladdernut.  I think there are some on the edge of the golf course. 

 

These are new ones to me. 

Wood carvers like basswood.  

Hackberry is a new one to me also.  

I'm sure these species are all around the area.  I just didn't know the names.  I wish the markers were more weather resistant than the cardboard that was used.  I think it is a great idea.  They are small and unobtrusive and don't detract from the natural atmosphere at all.