Nature, Books, and Gardening

The trails have been busy lately.  Of course, the weather has been decent, so the people come out.  One day I was irritated by 2 large groups of high school kids running the trail for track.  Of course, they took up the whole width of the trail, not leaving any room for hikers or walkers.  To top it all off, their adult chaperons were keeping up with the groups by riding bikes...there is a sign posted at the beginning of the trail "foot traffic only".  Luckily, they were on their way out as I was on my way in.

There was another group of 3 who were walking and doing the exercise stations along the trail.  Two guys and one girl.  The girl was so loud just talking, you could hear her all over the place.  I tried walking faster so that I could get away from the sound of her voice.  I really didn't want to hear everything she had to say.  Haha.  Well the next two days the top of my foot hurt, I guess I overdid the pace.  Oh well, it's all better now.

The following are a few pictures from my last hikes.

The deep blue color doesn't show up very well in this picture.

I've seen quite a few bunnies lately on the trail.

Another pretty flower.

I'm always on the lookout for my turkey friends too.  This guy didn't want his picture taken, I guess.

This last video is from daughter's house.  Our flowers look nothing like hers...that's a whole different story.  Love the butterfly!

An update on our book clearing out.  Herb managed to sort through his books and rearranged them on the shelves.  Some of the older books that are outdated etc., he didn't get rid of.  He packed them in boxes and took them to the basement.  Sigh.  Soon we are going to run out of room in the basement.  Disappointed he didn't get rid of anything.  We still have a box and a stack still sitting in the room upstairs...and there still isn't any empty spaces on the shelves.

I am disappointed in him, he is disappointed in me because I did it once again.  Over the years, while trimming bushes with an electric trimmer, I have cut more wires than I care to admit.  I am always super aware that the wire is there and I try my darndest not to nip it.  Well, I did it again yesterday!  Yikes I was mad at myself, and I wasn't the only one.  I guess I just shouldn't work in the yard anymore.  It's not my favorite thing to do anyway.

Some Changes Being Made and Back to Hiking!

I took some time off of hiking recently because I had a small growth removed from my back.  I wasn't worried about it, and it turned out to be benign.  It was a seborrheic keratosis, common in older folks.  However, once it was removed, I didn't want to get really sweaty and cause it to get infected, so I took some time off until the area healed.

In the meantime, I decided to start making changes in the house...nothing major.  However, the last several years I've been wanting to get some extra seating for our family room.  It seems during the holidays our family never has enough places to sit.  Our rooms are quite small, and I promised myself this would be the year for a new sofa.  It always seems that some other bills come up and I put off the purchase of the sofa.  Well, it's now in the process of being made!!  Yay!  It should be here within the month.  Can't wait!  I'm sure our cats can't wait either...but I will be watching them closely and making sure the sofa stays intact.  With this extra sofa, we will have more places to sit.

My next project was to clean up our bookcases.  We had books stuffed everywhere!  I started with my books.  I recently bought a new bookcase to hold all of my dvds.  Once that was all organized, I moved some of my books from one room to a second room, utilizing the older smaller dvd stand for the books I want to read first.

Here is the new dvd bookcase.  Yes, those are Santa pictures hanging on the wall to the left.  I like Santa.

The following is a picture of the original "bookcase" after I organized it better.  There are cookbooks on there too.  Herb still buys cookbooks...I don't know why.  I don't like to cook...I guess he plans to, some day.

This is a picture of my old dvd stand.  This is in what I call "The Quiet Room".  I sit in here a lot when Herb and I want to watch different shows on TV.  I crochet in here, and now the books will be in here too.

And to my surprise!  Herb is off today and he has tackled ALL of his books!  I have asked him to at least box up some of them so that we will have some room on our bookshelves.  I'm hoping once he gets started he will decide to throw them away!  Fingers crossed!

His progress so far.

Today was also my first day back to hiking.  I know I posted pictures before of how the area  looks now where the bridge used to be.  I was hoping that a new bridge would be in place, but this is how it looks today.  Pretty much the same.  Still too treacherous looking for me.  Maybe I'll take my hiking poles tomorrow and give it a try. We'll see...

This is how the parking lot looked today...just the way I like it...just my car.

Update on the "Bridge" and Testing 1, 2, 3

I've been kind of busy lately with church activities, a visit with our son from Florida, and trying to catch up on housework.

I'm usually busy with church activities 2 times a week (not including Sunday Mass), but recently I signed up for something extending that to 3 times a week.  I think that's beginning to be too much for me...I'm missing some of the other things I like to do at home.  So, as soon as the third activity takes a break, I think I'll eliminate it from my schedule.  There are just so many days and evenings in the week.

Our son came up from Florida because he needed to renew his driver's license, so he was only here 3 days.  He always wants us all to go shooting, but because of Herb's work schedule and our daughter's work schedule we never seem to be able to coordinate.  It just so happen that Herb was off on Saturday and our daughter didn't have to work because they were doing electrical maintenance where she worked.  Here we are at the range.  It was nice to get a picture of the twins together again.  We, of course, have a lot of them together when they were growing up.  It's nice to have just them in a photo together.

I've also taken a break from hiking for awhile.  I had a mole removed from my back, so I think it's best to let it heal without irritating it with sweat and additional exercise.  I also seem to have an allergy to the adhesive on the bandage.  That's more annoying than the mole removal.  It itches.  I go back in two weeks and hope all is well by then.  However, I did take a hike yesterday because I was missing it so much...but that irritated the allergy.  Oh well, I'll just be patient until I don't have to wear the bandage any more.

The bridge has still not been replaced, and this is what is now in it's place.  It's hard to tell in these pictures, but the hillsides on this ditch are quite steep, muddy, and looked too slippery for me to attempt.  I don't want to hurt either one of my knees...the good one or the bad one.
The rocks are at the top of the hill and then it slopes down to the left.

This picture is kind of hard to see, but there are rocks at the bottom and up to the other side.  I'm not sure if they are helpful or not.  I wouldn't want to slip and fall on them...I think I'd rather land in the mud.

On the drive back from the hike, I saw these two turkeys along the side of the road.  Not a great picture, as I was in my car and not very close. Sorry for the dirty glare on my windshield.

And now, for the Testing 1, 2, 3.  I've tried to add a new thumbnail picture for my blog when I post on Facebook.  I know nothing about HTML coding, so hopefully, I did it correctly.  If not, I guess it will be back to the drawing board!

Fungi Time!

Still trudging around the trails.  It seems on days that I'm not really motivated to hike, those are the days I see rare sightings.  Unfortunately, I'm never prepared or quick enough to get a picture.  Just recently, a red fox darted across the trail about 6 feet in front of me!  Of course, as the old saying goes, "The quick brown (red) fox jumped over the old lazy dog (lady) who wasn't prepared to get it's picture."  Oh well, I did get to see it, and I was excited!

Now that school is out and the weather is definitely warming up, the trail is getting busier.  More moms and kids, couples, joggers, and even a guy who brings his clients to the trail to do some personal training...and I mean personal training, nothing more, nothing less.  Haha!  So sometimes my peace and quiet is not so peaceful and quiet.  I must strive to get out there before the rest of civilization wakes up.

One day, I did see the following fungi growing on the trail.  They aren't real exciting but I do think each one is pretty in it's own way.

On this picture, I not only like the fungi, but the different colors and textures also in the picture.

This is a different kind of fungi.

This next one is my favorite.  I didn't realize when I took this picture, that I had the fungi encircled in a kind of leafy frame.  Kind of looks a bit like a white flower.

Sightings Along the Trail

I haven't been seeing a lot of deer lately, maybe I hike too late although it's usually between 8:45 and 9:45am.  Maybe I need to get up and moving earlier.

One day Cincinnati Bell was coming to work on our fioptics and I wanted to get out of the driveway before they showed up and blocked me in, so I got out the door a bit earlier.  This was my view of one of the hills I climb on the long loop.  You probably can't see the deer, but he is on the left side of the picture about half way up the hill.

 These next two pictures are a bit fuzzy but all I had was my phone camera and I zoomed in on the deer.

Some pretty little flowers alongside of the trail.

These are some shots along the portion of the short trail I hike.  The next picture, is a shot I take often.  I like the way it looks during various seasons of the year.  This one looks so peaceful and serene.  I love it!

Again, I zoomed in with my phone camera and captured a Great Blue Heron in the water (on the left)...a bit fuzzy.  These last two shots are right near the bridge that is closed, so I still like to hike there to see what wildlife might be enjoying the water.  Many times, I see deer there as well.

New Birds to Me!

I've been "counting" birds for Cornell University every year for about 9 years now.  I keep records of the birds that come to my feeders from November through April.  However, I think this was my last year counting birds.  It just was too time consuming.  You have to pick 2 consecutive days to count birds, and it has to be the same 2 days throughout those months.

There are so many other things I enjoy doing, I just didn't want to commit 2 days every week to counting birds.  The weather was always terrible when I needed to fill the feeders too.  I love feeding the birds, but I want to do it when it's convenient for me...not when it's raining buckets or the back steps are full of ice.

So, I've been watching birds now when I have time, and recently I saw some birds I had never seen before!!!  I took a bunch of pictures, and even though I've posted a lot here, there are many more I didn't post.

After identifying the species, Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, I discovered they are migratory birds where I live.  These pictures were taken 2 weeks ago, and since then I haven't seen them again.  I'm so glad I got to see them.  They are so pretty.

The brown bird in the next two pictures, are of a female grosbeak.

The following day, I saw another bird I've never seen before, a White Crowned Sparrow.  So, it looks like I'll be watching birds in the warmer months more often...to see what I've been missing all these years!

The following is not MY picture, I wish I had taken one!

The Bridge

I've finally gotten around to posting a new entry.  Though I haven't taken a lot of pictures lately, I do have some that I want to share.  They are all of different story lines, so it may take a couple of entries to post them.

I decided to start with a few of the trail that I normally hike.  Depending on my mood, the intensity of the heat, the number of people on the trail, and how much time I have, I sometimes hike the trail 3 times around.

There is a short loop and a long loop.  It's ideal when I can do both, and go around two times.  Back in March we had a lot of rain, and the rain actually moved a foot bridge on the short loop.  The movement wasn't too serious but it did move it enough where you'd have to step up to get on the bridge.  I was managing just fine with that, until they decided to "close" the bridge and it looked like this.

As you can see there are some "caution" tapes that have been torn off.  I want to make clear, I DIDN'T DO THAT!!  But, apparently, other hikers did.  I always duck under the tape and did just fine.  I also want to say, I didn't jump up and down on the bridge either...I wasn't taking any chances.  😊There is a slight dip in the center of the bridge, but I think that was there before the bridge was moved.

So every day I'd plod over to the short trail to see if I had to duck under the tape, or if the tape was torn down.  It made my hike much more adventurous.  Then one day, I heard some hammering and I was so excited that they were actually working on the bridge!!  Yahoo!!  Two months later they are finally repairing it.   So, I stayed away so as not to get in the way of the workers.  I hiked the long loop 3 times that day.

The next day I returned and was anxious to see how the "new and improved" bridge would look like.  To my dismay, this is what I found!!!

What??!!  Are you kidding me??!!  All the time and effort they spent blocking the bridge even more, they could have spent repairing it!!!  No side rails!!!  This old lady can't jump over or crawl under that mess!!  I'm sure someone will give it a go....but not me!  Two months and they still haven't made it accessible.  I'm really bummed.

I still hike the short trail when I have time, but I have to approach differently.  I walk the top of the trail down to the bridge and then turn around and go the other direction...hence, it is no longer the short loop, since I walk it twice.

This is the road block they have at both ends of the short loop.  I just walk around it.  I'm such a rebel!