HAPPY NEW WEEK!I hope everyone has a wonderful week!I don't have a picture this week, but I thought I'd include these two links for anyone who wants to look at them. (1) This is aerial video photography of the autumn foliage at Turkey Run State Park, which is just down the road from my house. The water is Sugar Creek. The video is 2 1/2 minutes, but the nicest footage is shown at about 1 minute 45 seconds in the video. (2) This is aerial video photography of the autumn foliage at Shades State Park, which is only a few minutes from me. The Shades is very, very special to me because that's where my grandfather was a Park Forest Ranger. I spent a lot of time there when I was young, as did my Mom when she was little. The bridge is the Deer's Mill Covered Bridge, which was built in 1829 over Sugar Creek. The photographic drone even goes inside the bridge. Swallows and other birds nest in the rocky canyon cliffs. The video is 3 minutes. Here are some videos showing the outside and inside of some of the other bridges near my house. (No one is obligated to look at them.) Every year, over a million people come to my area in October to attend the Covered Bridge Festival. These videos were taken this month, right after the end of the festival.Jackson Covered Bridge, built in 1861 during the Civil War. In the 1800s, at times of high water, people launched flat boats at this point on Sugar Creek to float goods over to the Wabash River, where they travelled to the Ohio River and then to the mighty Mississippi River and on to the markets in New Orleans. Video is 2 minutes.West Union Covered Bridge, built in 1876. This bridge and its earlier versions were used by stage coaches on their way to Lafayette in NW Indiana during frontier times. The famous Wabash and Erie Canal was east of this bridge. Video is 2 minutes. Cox Ford Covered Bridge, on the west side of Turkey Run State Park over Sugar Creek. Video is 2 1/2 minutes.The Narrows Covered Bridge , in Turkey Run State Park over Sugar Creek. It's one of the most photographed covered bridges in the nation. The local Native American tribes and settlers from several countries had various names for Sugar Creek, but they all knew the Sugar Creek valley for its maple trees, the source of maple sugar. Video is 2 minutes.
LOL Rosy!!!
Our Eldest got back home safely this afternoon. We enjoyed having his company and we all discussed plans for the coming festivities. Now I must get lots done this week, so as not to have too much left to do at the end of December, when we will be busily trying to enjoy ourselves.
Must get off to bed now, as I feel tired again. I don't seem to have the stamina I once had. Goodnight All.
Hi, Rosy! I'll bet your plants are lovely. Palm trees are beautiful. You seem to have the gift for nurturing plants. I don't. They always die in my house, so I don't even try anymore.
Clare: Your photos were lovely. I enjoyed the mallard. That photo is very, very good. I've had a pair of mallards on my creek for the last couple of years. They've returned after decades of being absent.
Diane: Aha! Horses, not people have to a walk, eh? Love it. I knew most barns, etc. back east were red, so couldn't figure out who'd "gone rogue" (as Sarah Palin used to say) and painted one of them white. I can imagine - but really I can't - what was involved in curving those pieces of wood for the bridges, I think it has to be green wood and also has to be wet, but I'm basing that on nothing at all...
Clare: What on earth do those birds do with such huge feet!. Your single bird close ups have definitely got much crisper over the last year... Mute swans pic was very evocative of the time of year...
Rosy: Smiled at the image of your OH whacking his way down the hall with a machete. Does he swing from the branches and wear a loin cloth too? Me Tarzan; you Rosy. :-) I've given up on house plants and have outdoor pots with succulents, but now I seem to have a glut of tiny pots with tiny succulent babies and really not sure I want to deal with them - at least the common ones. I think I'm going get rid of them and just keep the larger ones. I spent the last week (just an hour or so a day) doing a major clean up of all the big shrubs that were so neglected last year in preparation for the biannual pruning of our giant Chinese Elm this Wednesday. This year we're also getting our three Olive trees thinned out for the first time too..... where's that checkbook......?
LizLFW: Hope you're surviving the non-osprey season.
Speaking of migrations and all that, got a TxGiving e-mail from Mike of the Gray Whales Count saying Hi and advising us all that the next season's count will start February 14!
Our Cooper's Hawk (or offspring) has been in the garden a lot this week. Yesterday, I stood up and there it was, under the tree on the ground, eyeing me suspiciously and mantling over something. It was only about 10ft away - I tried to sneak behind the tree for a closer look but he/she was gone in a flash and without a sound. Lots of feathers in that area today. :-( Also, we have a frog (did I mention that?) It's somewhere under the plants by the patio door - or maybe living in one of the pots. It croaks several times a day - early and mid-morning, then early and late afternoon. I keep wondering if he (she?) is lonely. Can't seem to spot anything and don't want to freak it out by rummaging around.
About to have a quick shower and examine this evening's puny offerings on TV.
Have a good Monday everyone.
Did anyone see the large fireballs over England, Wales, and northern France?!!!
Oh that's exciting Diane. What a thrill (or scare, depending on your disposition). Thanks.
Diane – I have had a wonderful explore via your video links. Love the autumn colours. Thank you.
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Annette – I expect they bent the wood using heat & water. I have seen demos on TV for boat building. Oh, just Google “bend wood” and you will be busy a while!
A few weeks ago OH noticed Lizarda hiding under our wheelie bin. I’m sure there are more salubrious places in the garden! OH has even placed rocks & tree stumps for encouragement. On the weekend a wee skink sneaked inside front door, faster than OH LOL. I’m not sure where s/he is now. What’s a common garden skink doing inside? Too cool out? Weather has been warmish but heating up for next nanny day. Yeay, only 3 more weeks of school, hence only 3 more weeks of nanny duty. Although I did offer a day before C-mas if Dau needed last minute alone-shopping. Our C-mas lunch is at OH’s niece’s this year, outdoors with the flies <sigh>. It will be quiet as Dau#2, having come to her family for 3 years says she must go to his family this year. They can bring Little People to visit us a day or so after. We are popular in summer as we are only 2 km from beach.
Watching 60 Minutes, a current affairs program that has a segment on the island of Eigg. All very folksy, but I was wondering if those gorgeous blue skies were filmed at the same time as the interviews. Sure looked lovely. :-)
AQ: I knew water was involved somewhere in that procedure. Sorry you'll have to deal with outdoor critters over Xmas dinner. Maybe you should give niece one of those mosquito nets to drape over the patio umbrella (or yourself).
Annette: 60 Minutes has a follow-up to the Island of Eigg segment, called 60 Minutes Overtime, plus the original segment HERE. I thought that piece was fascinating!!! Such a beautiful place.
AQ: Wonderful to hear that Lizarda is still around. I always enjoy hearing about her. Had to laugh about the skink getting indoors. Hope it finds its way back out. It's a gorgeous critter.
Good Morning, All. Not raining at the moment, but it has been doing, and the garden has wet puddles which can't soak away, as the ground is saturated now.
Please keep us informed about Lizarda and her offspring, AQ! Fascinating!
Today's pic: (I think I forgot to do one yesterday)
"Are you going to write about ME?"