Winter Has Fled (at last)?

Well, it looks like Old Man Winter finally has the worst of his claws out of the local weather. It's supposed to be rather chilly tonight, and we have had to actually close the windows, but I think we'll see no more sub-freezing temperatures and frozen precipitation for the rest of the season.

We went to Carole's mom's place and did some stuff to get the Casita ready for our next trip. Still a few weeks away, but it's good to get these things done in good time. I walked around the yard and took in the sights. Carole's dad, Frank, did a really nice job with landscaping the place when he was here. In the years since his passing we have moved out a few dead azaleas and cut down some dying dogwoods and replanted new shrubs and trees where we could. I noticed today that the grounds need some TLC, which we can give them in a couple of weeks--removing dead limbs, raking out some rough patches, and removing some invasive plants. But by and large, the yard is going to be gorgeous in a couple of more weeks when the azaleas burst out in full bloom and the dogwoods show off their white color.

Looking forward to the dogwoods and azaleas in full bloom behind the Casita.

Some of the azalea beds need some work.

The pink blossoms are preceding the white ones.

 And some macro shots of mainly wildflowers in the back yard:

Walk in the Park

 I went for a short walk in a nearby park today. I wanted to take photos of the birds, and there were plenty of birds there, but far too many humans. Every time I got ready to take some shots of one bird or another, some one or some crowd would go blundering past and ruin the shot.


So I got out the new macro lens and mucked about with that for a while. But my heart wasn't into taking photos of flowers today so I packed up my camera and journeyed back to the house. I have a novel that I need to finish anyway.

Pathway at Freedom Park.

 Small yellow flower

 

 Good ol' honeysuckle.

  

 I have no idea what these are, but they were flipping everywhere I looked.

 

 Another little yellow blossom. Flowers must like yellow. Or bees do, anyway.

Tryouts

I took both of these with the new macro lens. Not great, but an improvement over the basic lens system with which the manufacturer equips the camera. As I learn how to use it, I'm sure I'll be able to capture some decent photos with the new lens.

 

 

Details:

Just some photos I took of the little things on my last hike into the Mackey Mountain Roadless Area. That hike was in 2009. That year we also had an early Spring and some flowers were coming out early. This year, I expect it will be even more advanced with some flowers already having blossomed and faded.

Snail shell along the trail.

Blossoms. Someone told me what these were, but the ID went in one ear and out the other. I need to do something about that.

The forest in this area is well known for its wealth of native wildflowers.

People tend to like this photo. I've posted it before.

The rhododendron was blooming really early that year. I feel like we may see some already out on this backpack.

Some Wildlfowers

I don't know much about wildflowers. Almost nothing. But I often take photographs of them when I'm hiking. Here are a few I saw on my way to see the big cottonwood tree in Boone's Cave Park. I can't ID any of them, so if you know, post here.

Very small. These blossoms were on a stalk about a foot high.

These delicate blossoms were on a plant growing out of a spray of moss.

This one was pretty much alone in the sun beside the trail.

This was another very tiny flower that grew in bunches close to the ground.

Wildflowers Along the Appalachian Trail

I don't know much about wildflowers. I have friends and some hiking pals who are very good at identifying most of the wildflowers that we see on our hikes. Spring is just about the best time to see wildflowers in the Southern Appalachians. Summer is good, too, and even Fall has its share of wild blossoms here and there along the trails and valleys and summits. But Spring is fittingly the best time to find the colorful blossoms that grace our mountains and gorges.

These were just some of the flowers that I encountered during four days of hiking and backpacking along the Appalachian Trail between Pearisburg and Mountain Lake. If you can ID any of these, feel free to post here, or to correct the few that I took a stab at and which I may have gotten wrong.

Newly blossomed Mountain laurel. Just about everyone's favorite!

Flame azalea. One of the heath plants and one of my favorites.

Indian paintbrush. Another of my favorites.

Spiderwort.

Flowers

Andy Kunkle, Jack Thyen, Joel (sorry, I forgot Joel's last name), my son Andy, and I gathered on Sunday for a hike in the Mackey Mountain area near Curtis Creek in the Pisgah National Forest here in North Carolina.

Jack Thyen, My son Andy, and Joel hike through a dying hemlock forest.

The area's a good one for hiking with lots of impressive peaks, some good waterfalls, and patches of virgin forest here and there. In fact, we hiked near some old growth forests, but as our schedule and trail conditions would have it, we didn't actually get to take a close look at any really big trees.

The main purpose of the hike was to get a look to see how this year's crop of wildflowers was doing. We did see a fair amount of wildflowers, but nothing really spectacular, except for some very vigorous and colorful patches of Dwarf iris. There were other flowers popping up, but nothing that particularly impressed me.

We bagged one peak, that being Buckeye Knob, which tops out at a bit over 3,200 feet. Not very high by North Carolina standards, but the long hike to the summit was tough. The weather was hot, dry, and the ridgelines were parched out from lack of rain. One thing that I learned, to my horror and disgust, was that these woods are PACKED with ticks. This seems to me to be a good indication of the effects of global warming. I've been hiking and backpacking the southern Appalachians for well over thirty years, and I'd only ever gotten a single tick on me while in the high country--that being on Pinnacle Mountain in South Carolina a few years back. But on this trip I pulled eight ticks off my shins and thighs!

The guys on the hike who used Deet, however, didn't get any ticks on them. I didn't use any, and pretty much got covered with them. Next time I'll use the Deet.

This was a very tough hike for me. Once again I was reminded of my age, and of how out of shape I've gotten over the past year. I felt every ounce of the twenty pounds I gained after walking away from the diet in early 2007. One realizes the extra poundage as you labor up a steep slope on the way to a summit. It sucks! I keep telling myself that I'm going to shed those twenty damned pounds of lard, but then I go back the flatlands and eat fried chicken. Alas!

Oh, well. I'm going to give it another shot. Twenty pounds--I can lose that much.

Early azalea. We found a few of these opening up.

Violets.

I have no idea what these are. But there were lots of them.

I'm told that these are called Dwarf iris. Probably the prettiest flowers I saw all day. We'd pass large patches of them making wonderful color upon the forest floor.

More unknown. A small, delicate flower.

I am ignorant of this one, too. But it made for a great photo.

The first waterfall, with Boone pausing between splashing time.

Andy Kunkle taking a photo of azalea while I take a photo of Andy taking a photo of the azalea.

Some tree beginning to blossom. Another mystery for me.

My son, Andy, at a small waterfall along the trail.

These looked like tiny white bells. Very pretty. I don't know what it is.

I was told what these are, but I've forgotten. These were also on the forest floor in great abundance.

Violet.