chitown2beantown

Nature Photo Monday: Signs of Spring

Over the course of the week I'm going to post a series of photos, rather than load up this one post.

I brought the Sunday hike back into my life yesterday after taking a break from the woods at the end of March and beginning of April when weariness from winter's long stay set in.

But now, water is flowing and green is beginning to show up in small places. It was time to head out to hunt for signs of spring. 

This was an especially meaningful activity for Easter Sunday, where thoughts of hope and renewal were on my mind. Passover and its lesson of deliverance was also on my mind as my school observes the Jewish holidays. Whatever holidays people are celebrating, the season and its accompanying observances (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) are synonymous with starting anew.

With messages of economic despair ever present, it helps to take a break from NPR and its likes, and instead, head out to watch the earth return to life as she's done for millennia.

If you have photos with signs of spring this week, I'd love to see them. Leave a link in the comments.

Nature Photo Monday: Volunteering Outdoors

Matt and I ventured out this Saturday to volunteer for the Sierra Club's Inner City Outings Program. It's an all volunteer-led program that partners with youth organizations to take kids on outdoor trips. This summer I went canoeing with the group, and this time around, we went snowtubing.

When we arrived, the kids jumped up to look out the windows of the bus at the biggest sledding hill I'm sure they've ever seen. Their screaming, gasping, and squealing was reward enough.

I admit I was scared the first couple times down. That initial drop was steep. But, by the end of the morning, two other girls and I were linking tubes and flying down the track together.

 

They had a blast and said many thank yous during the day.

If you are interested in heading outdoors with some appreciative kids a few times a year, Inner City Outings has groups in various cities around the country. Including cities our friends and family frequent...Ann Arbor, Chicago, Austin, Baltimore, and Boston.

Nature Photo Monday: Ice Back Into Water

Yesterday I should have gone outside for my Sunday hike but I was in a stay-in-bed-and-suffer-through-my-graduate-school-reading type of mood. Matt made me breakfast in bed, complete with toast, which was very selfless because the very thought of crumbs between sheets makes him shutter.

My mood would have improved if I had ventured out before sunset, because it's been in the 40s for a couple days. That is a veritable heat wave this winter.

Today I sang 'Manic Monday' as I headed out the door. I gave two presentations by 2pm, and feeling much better about life, I came home and took Kaia out for a walk in the woods. I was hoping to find my lost keys. I imagined seeing a glimpse of the bright orange key chain popping through the slush. Unfortunately, no luck.

But, I did see several signs of melting, which warmed my mood further. Since the groundhog saw his shadow this morning, these photos will be my sign that the final thaw will happen eventually.

I was so surprised to look down and see green. I breathed in and the musty smell of earth reworking itself filled my senses.

Tomorrow we are due for another snow storm. But for today, a little bit of melting was precisely what I needed.

Nature Photo Monday: Holding on to the Wonder

When I heard it was going to be in the single digits this weekend, my plan was to post pictures of the beaches of Puerto Rico for this week's Nature Photo Monday. I couldn't take it anymore. We seem to have gotten a couple more feet of snow this weekend. Me, even me, the one trampsing around in the snowy woods every weekend was so - over - it.

But, Matt wanted our dog to get in her weekend exercise so he convinced me to head out to our favorite extra large dog park where Kaia could chase critters in the brambles in relative safety. He sent a text message to several of our dog loving neighbors, and a couple of them, those who did not think we'd lost it for wanting to drive during a snowstorm, joined us after digging out their cars. We loaded up the dogs and headed across town.

As we were driving across town, we felt like we were back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This much snow is typical there. Back when we were young and courting, Matt and I spent several winters crossing bridges to see each other. Probably not a romantic image to most, but it is to me.

As we drove, we felt a little bad for coaxing our neighbors out onto the snowy roads. And we joked that Michiganders take to the snowy, icy roads without too much hestitation because life goes on. Yet, once on the roads, they (we) are reminded of when we spun off into the ditch under similiar conditions. We were happy we made it to the park without incident.

You won't see pictures of our dog Kaia in this set. When she wasn't on her leash, she was darting through the woods, emerging every few minutes to check in with us before darting away again.

She came back when called better than most trips. She even ran down to the water, stood on the edge of the ice, and turned back when we sweetly sang her name. 

Eventually, the magic of our energetic calls to her and the promise of treats wore off. I ducked in to look for her.

 

She worked herself into such a hunting frenzy that she had to go back on the leash, while her canine companions continued their frollicking.

While we took a final loop around the park, I disappeared for a bit with the camera. I don't have a telephoto lens, but I've been hoping for a decent bird shot.

As I stood looking for birds, I stopped for a minute to consider just how incredibly snow covered our world has been this winter.

After I'd been gone a couple minutes, I thought that I heard Matt in the distance, teasing me, "Come Sara Come!". 

I headed back, and he swore he said no such thing. 

Nature Photo Monday: Breaking Out the Snowshoes

We got a fresh batch of snow last night, so I decided to pull the snowshoes out of the storage locker and make use of them. Following our Sunday tradition, Kaia and I headed to the woods.

After strapping on the snowshoes, I got a good workout while Kaia pulled me up a hill. When we reached the top, I took a round of photos then promptly deleted them. On accident, of course. I was trying to change the file size so I could take more photos, but instead clicked "Ok" to "Format" and was greeted by a "No Photo" message on my camera screen. Sigh. A little lesson on letting go. We were having too much fun to dwell on my loss too long.

We found ourselves an outlook and sat down for a rest. Apparently Kaia likes checking out the view as much as I do.

I don't think she was contemplating the beauty of nature. I'm pretty sure she was looking for something to hunt.

I called her name to get a better shot. She likes burying her entire face in snow piles, trying to sniff out mice or anything else tasty, so for most of our hike she was sporting a snow mustache.

*Did you really break my concentration just to take another dang photo of me!?*

Okay then. She's such a teenager right now.

Back to the view. I have to deliver at least one nature photo without the dog! All winter I've been looking forward to climbing a hill to catch a view of the trees all dressed up in snow.

*Uh oh, I hear someone coming!*

Far before I heard anything, she sensed a pair of snowshoe-ers headed down the hill. That was our cue to head back down too.

As we were leaving the reserve, a cross-country skier slide by us on his way down a different hill. I was jealous. I want to train Kaia to skijor. Skijoring is a sport where dogs pull people on cross-country skis, although I learned just this weekend that skijoring is also done with horses! Now that sounds dangerous. Interestingly, equestrian skijoring was a demonstration sport in the 1928 Olympics.

The major roadblock, besides Kaia's limited attention span, is that I've only cross-country skiied a few times. Before I train her, I need to train myself! So my next winter challenge is to practice skiing, so that maybe next year we can ditch the snowshoes and glide through the snowy woods in style. It might be a pipe dream because she definitely hasn't been the easiest dog to train, but it's always worth dreaming.

Nature Photo Monday: Behind the Ice Rink

I've been feeling quite low about winter this year, what with the regular snowfall and the subzero windchill and the muddy-salty roads not fit for puppy's paws.

All I had to do was head to the woods behind the ice rink down the road to rediscover that winter is magical. Once I was moving, I was not cold anymore. I planned to stay for half an hour, but I stretched the hike to an hour, just past nightfall. I think I heard two types of owls out in those woods.

As I was taking photos and editing them, I kept thinking that there can be such a fine line between a black and white and a color photo when snow and ice are the subject.

Our first week of December with nature photos

It's finals week peeps, and I shouldn't even be posting at all. But, I guess I can't help it. Procrastinating that is.

I've been doing a lot of baking and cooking right before bed. Sustanence is important during hard times. These wild blueberry muffins were delish and helped me through mornings all week. The first night I wanted to take a shot at baking these, I realized I was too tired to make the crumble topping, and if I was too tired to toss some butter, oats, flour and sugar together, I was best off just going to bed. Turns out the crumple topping was key. The recipe came from a grocery store flyer, so if you want the recipe, leave me a note and I'll email it to you sometime next week.

By far the big excitement of the week was getting "the hottest tickets in town" to go see a premiere of Nothing But the Truth, with a post-movie Q&A with Alan Alda. And his co-star, Kate Beckinsale, who I didn't recognize on the posters until I read that she was in Serendipity. She was lovely by the way. But, the fact that we were so over the moon excited to see Alan Alda in person is further evidence that we are getting old! I'm pretty sure all the people there under 25 were there for Kate. Little known fact about us is that M.A.S.H. is our favorite re-run as of late, mostly thanks to Matt but I like it too. Some days it feels like it's all we watch anymore. Fuddy duddys.

I confess to being a true Alan Alda fan because I have even bought and read one of his books and I've watched my share of his program on PBS. Wednesday night he was as entertaining and as insightful in person as I expected. He actually said something that made me remember why I'm even bothering with this PhD business - that unchecked power in the hands of government can do a lot of harm so someone - he was referring to the press - needs to keep watch. Such reminders are important during finals week. Anyway, the movie was very good so go see it! They are both on Oscar short lists.

{Photo credit to Matt, editing by moi}

In other exciting news, it's been cold here, so we've been doing a lot of snuggling in sweatshirts and under blankets, with the dog when we can convince her. Cuteness.

Early this morning, Kaia got me out of bed just in time to get outside for the very first snowflakes of the season. I know they have been getting snow in the Midwest and even some of the Northeast for awhile now, but today was our first day of snow in Boston. We got a lovely, mild dusting.

We came back inside, and after some more snuggling and snoozing on the living room floor. I got up and tried to make apple pancakes when I should have been working on a paper.

Not sure what the problem was since I followed the recipe, but they were gooey inside. All 4 rounds. We dusted them with powdered sugar and ate around the edges. And of course, our bad dog jumped up when I wasn't looking and snatched a hot one for herself.

I'll be gone from here for a week, maybe two, as I finish finals and we head to Austin to visit my new niece. I'll be back with crafts and Christmas celebrations. Have a great mid-December y'all!

Nature Photo Monday: Ice and Leaves

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we went together to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, just north of Boston, for an hour-long hike in the 20 degree weather. Upon arrival, we were surprised that a whole pond was already frozen over. With no snow yet here in Boston, and leaves still on the ground, the seemly sudden appearance of so much ice reminded us that fall is over and winter is upon us.

These photos, taken mid-day when the sun was high in the sky, are a little washed out for my taste. Still they capture a moment in time, when fall first made its exit, and winter, its entrance.

Along the trail, there were patches of ground that froze very quickly, creating these beautiful ice crystals that reminded us of glaciers in miniature.

There are miles of trails to explore in the Fells, and last time I came with a friend a couple years ago, we hiked completely different territory. Because no maps were available, we got lost in a crisscrossed maze of trails that circled several ponds. We found our way to a main road and hiked back to our car. This time, Matt took the lead and we stayed on the well-marked Skyline Trail.

The Fells to the north and the Blue Hills to the south are oases just outside the city. I am so glad people had the foresight to preserve these lands for our enjoyment and escape. Scrambling up these rocky trails is one of my favorite things about living in the Boston area, and make urban living all the more bearable.

Nature Photo Monday: Taking a Walk to Cool my Jets

Finally, after 4 years of using Typepad, they have installed an auto-recovery function and my post was saved when my computer froze. You don't know how this brightens my evening.

Today marked the second failed attempt at the Sunday hike. I had a low fever yesterday (hopefully not from lyme disease - I have a stiff neck tonight and I'm starting to get paranoid), so I slept in this morning to shake the sickness. Around 2pm I made sandwiches for Matt and myself, and through a series of unfortunate events, sandwich number 1 fell on the floor and got soaked in Mountain Dew, sandwich number 2 was half eaten by the dog, and for the finale, a glass of ice water spilled down my back, soaking my jeans, sending me to change while having a bit of a temper tantrum.

I wasn't in a great mood before all this transpired, since I spend most of the weekend trying to understand my statistics homework while fighting off some unknown sickness. Such a bad combination. As I'm writing this, I now realize that I have every right to be a bit grumpy. Especially since I've been trying to wade through pages and pages of sentences such as this one in a failed attempt to come up with anything intelligent to say about my homework: "It turns out that we can estimate the hazard by taking the steps of the Nelson-Aelen cumulative hazard and smoothing them with a kernal smoother."

Matt's educated guess, "Can't you get a kernal smoother at KFC? On the 99 cent menu?"

By the time I got myself together to walk Kaia, it was after 4 and nightfall was setting in. A little photography tip -- if you want to get pictures that are in focus, try not to take pictures right before sunset while walking a dog that is pulling you down the street.

These were the 3 best relatively in focus photos I shot this evening. I decided to go with sepia, to match my mid-November mood. Plus, I think the texture in these shots is what makes them interesting.

   

I noticed this bird's nest last week, as all the leaves were stripping off the trees. This project is making me much more aware of the quickly changing seasons and is providing a few much needed moments of pause at the end of my weeks, so I thank you for taking the time to check in here. I hope it is worth the visit.

Nature Photo Monday: Leaving Campus

This time of year, right after daylight savings time, I get sleepy. It's true. I guess you could call it seasonal affective disorder. I don't know. I don't necessarily get depressed. But I do want to take naps and I've been feeling excessively drowsy all week. As a remedy, Sunday afternoon I took a nap after picking Matt up from the airport instead of going out for my weekly hike with my pup. When I woke up at 4:00pm, it was too late to venture out.

So today instead of pictures from the woods, I'm bringing you my Nature Photo Monday from campus. I started leaving campus at 4:30pm, dawdled a little on the way as I took pictures, so when I reached my car, the sun had set. That's how it goes here on the east coast, when you live near the ocean. Your 5:00pm commute is under the cover of darkness.

 

It's also that time of year when some leaves and color are still to be found, but the wind has blown the tops of the trees bare.  

  

 

 

By 5:00, the moon is high in the sky.

 

  

And it's time to go home to cuddle up on the couch.