4 posts tagged “cuyahoga valley”

I stayed up too late last night hosting a Public Night at the Observatory. Could have used more sleep. Sunday dawned cool and beautiful. It was a good day for a hike so we decided to head down to Brandywine Falls and the Gorge Trail there, a beautiful place inside the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, northeast from Peninsula.

Brandywine Creek

Tree Rock

I shot a good number of photos and was disappointed with a great many of them. They look pretty good at smaller size but enlargements show focus problems. It looks like my fancy Canon 17-40mm, f/4, L-series lens may suffer from a deficiency I read about in reviews of that product.

The lens is too expensive to let this flaw go uncorrected so now I'll need to figure out just what to do. Maybe first some more testing.

We had a very pleasant hike, it was just challenging enough (1.1 miles, says the GPS, with one very steep climb near the end), and a nice evening at home -- the film Trekkies 2 is recommended! Back to work tomorrow.

We're holding our breath waiting to see what will happen at our fine institution when state funding details become established and known. Painful cuts are expected.

The trees will grow, the waters flow, the stars will shine, and life will go on.  Goodnight!

Evidence of Human Activity

Today we decided to try out the Salt Run Trail in the Virginia Kendall area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's just outside the town of Peninsula and we've visited that area often but never tried that trail. Park materials said it was "moderate to difficult" hiking and they were not fooling. The warm, humid air quickly brought out the sweat in us as we hiked rolling to hilly forest pathway covering a little over three miles. Along the way we stopped to photograph plants and animals we encountered, shooing away far more mosquitoes than I would have liked to have dealt with... including one little biter who actually tried to enter my ear canal! I swear, I didn't mean to kill it... it was an accident! I saw my first scarlet tanager (bird) and, at the end of the walk, we had a close encounter with a beaver that was gathering reeds on the banks of a stream. The hike was a lot of work but the exercise was good, the woods were beautiful, and the wildlife surprises a treat.

Fritillary Butterfly on Clover

We sighted this great spangled fritillary butterfly visiting flowers in a prairie area of the park. It moved between plants at just slow enough pace to allow me some photo opportunities.

Fritillary Butterfly's Tongue

I didn't notice the detail in the head-on shot of the butterfly (it actually rotated for me as it sat upon the clover flower) until viewing my photos at home. Digitally zooming in we can see the insect's nectar-gathering tongue or proboscis  at work probing the flower, seeking sweet drink.

Scarlet Tanager

I don't believe I've ever seen a scarlet tanager before. This one was very shy ... I had to hide behind trees and brush to simply look at the beauty. The best images were captured with the bird in shadow where, apparently, it was most comfortable -- very difficult conditions for photography, however. Four frames exposed at long distance and that was it... off, deeper into the forest, it went!

Beaver Leaving

As we were emerging from the woods, finishing our hike, we crossed an automotive bridge spanning a stream. There, to my surprise, was a large, deep brown beaver gathering reeds from the bank. It finished its work, slipped into the water, and swam under the bridge with a bunch of green plants trailing from its mouth. I couldn't think of an appropriate pun based on the old TV series, so let's just say we'll Leave It to Beaver.

We had a very nice, quiet Fourth of July. After sleeping in --a rare pleasure for this sleep-deprived fellow-- we headed out for a four-mile hike on the Cuyahoga Valley National Park's Boston Run Trail. It's a woodland trail with paths ranging from packed earth to river gravel surface and terrain from rolling to hilly. Though it was a cool morning, the climbs quickly warmed us and we covered, probably, four miles. The photographic highlight came as we crossed a wooden footbridge over a quiet stream. There, flitting amongst the plants, were several damselflies. The lace-winged beauties alighted on green leaves, sat for a while near each other, then zipped off in singles or pairs possibly in a mating dance. This gave us many opportunities to photograph them. The "one that got away" was a beauty bearing a green iridescent abdomen. My photos just were not clear enough to show. I think the floater in my right eye is interfering with my manual focus and I can't trust the camera's auto-focus in situations like these: razor-thin depth of focus with sharp-edged objects surrounding the actual subject. The hike began under mostly clear, intensely-blue skies but when we emerged from the forest the sky was mostly cloudy.

Damselfly Fourth

After lunch at Burger King (a pretty fair BK Veggie) and a stop at PetSmart to stock up on canned food for Tasha, we headed home. Camera at hand, I shot a few photos in Her garden: flowers, a ladybug, and this tiny, really, really tiny, bee on the petal of an Asiatic Iris. For this kind of "wildlife" photography one needn't always go far.

Tiny Bee

She is making a dinner of veggie barbecued ribs (yes, it can be done), corn, and red, white, blue dessert (tapioca with strawberries and blueberries). I'll enjoy a glass or two of wine. Hoping for a fine, relaxing evening.

Saturday was our day to take the old Honda Civic Hatchback in for service. It needed an oil change but had also developed a nasty squawking noise in its rear end. After the oil change, strut replacements, and a new radiator hose (a leak had been accidentally discovered) we stopped by the dealership to pick up the car. It drives great again. While we were there we took a look at the Honda Fit cars parked in the lot. We're planning to replace our 1997 Civic and have been looking for a suitable candidate. We'd wanted to buy a mileage champ but discovered, to our dismay, that the premium for a car that meets our transportation and mileage needs comes to something over $10,000. So we've pretty much decided to "settle" and purchase a new vehicle that turns in performance no worse than what we get now. The Fit's 27 miles per gallon city and 33 MPG highway matches our minimum. A sales guy saw us peering through the windows of the locked cars and, smile and all, came out to see what we were about. We got to sit in a car, fold down the rear seats, check out the very large rear door, and we have become very interested in that car! Reviews of all sorts give the Fit high marks so we'll test drive the car soon. I'm concerned about freeway acceleration performance and how well it climbs the steep hills around here -- the engine's a little smaller than that of the Coupe. It would also be nice if the next car could easily transport my telescope gear and I think it would fit in the Fit. Whatever we purchase, She will delightedly take my Civic Coupe (seriously, She's lusting after that car) and I will receive the new vehicle. We also hope to get a crack at the soon-to-be-released "new" Honda Insight -- our last chance at hybrid ownership on this go-round (it's supposed to carry a lower price than comparable cars).

All day long I watched the skies and the forecasts: Saturday night was the "rain" date for the first Observatory open night of the year, rescheduled from the week before. The day began with some sunshine and for most of the day it was sunny and mild. As the hours passed, however, the skies and the forecasts changed. As evening arrived so did an opaque layer of clouds blanketing the region with no clearing expected until after Midnight. I canceled the event and we cocooned in front of the TV, catching up on some recorded shows. After She retired I watched a very entertaining movie, Out at the Wedding. Then it was off to bed with me. 

Engine #365 in Peninsula

On Sunday we lounged around the house a bit but felt compelled to get out... the weather was sunny and mild, and altogether too nice a day to spend indoors. Out we went to a yummy lunch at Subway in a neighboring town. Then we drove to the Observatory to generally check on things and empty the always-filling dehumidifier bulk tank. With a little help from She Who Must Be Obeyed, I toted the very heavy tank out to the Observatory's front yard and dumped it on the greening grass. I reset the wall clock for Daylight Saving {ick!} Time. Noted birds were again nesting in the dome slit and dropping nesting materials inside the telescope chamber. Then we headed out, and back towards home.

Along the way, however, we made a planned stop in Peninsula, Ohio. It's a dot on the map but a hub of activity for recreational tourists visiting the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Friends own an extremely popular bicycle rental place there. She visited the bike shop. I stayed outside to greet and photograph the afternoon's first run of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train which stops in town.

She finished up in the shop. I finished up with the train... er, really, it pulled out of town and then I was finished. We then took a very pleasant walk on the park's Towpath Trail. It's still late winter. There is some greening in the woods and some very early spring flowers blooming here and there. The River, however, was muddy and cold looking. Still in all, it was wonderful to be out of doors, taking in the fresh air and feeling the warming sun on our faces.

Winter's grip is loosening and not a moment too soon!

Mossy Rock