CLOUDLAND CABIN JOURNAL - SEPTEMBER 2004 Click here to go to Part A, Sept. 1st - 13th All photos in this Journal are available as Fine Art Prints
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UPDATED 9/28/04 Shooting three at once 9/16/04 Looked and smelled and felt like rain this morning, but not a drop, and the sun is up and burning off any trace of that sweetness now, so we will continue to be dry. COLORS are moving in the right direction these days in the Buffalo River area - an overall shift in the hue of the landscape is on the move, heading towards yellows and reds and oranges. There is a noticeable change in Boxley Valley - more so every day. Seems like that place always is ahead of the rest - just one valley over is still completely green, although we are seeing the same shifts up in our area as well. Sumacs, sweetgums, sassafras, and black gums account for most of the color right now, although there are a few maple trees already turning between our cabin and the main road. Some of the trees and bushes are getting a little burnt on the edges from a lack of rain. I've been busy with mostly indoor chores of late. Spent one entire day figuring up and placing orders for the mounting, matting and framing materials for an upcoming print exhibit at John Brown University in Siloam Springs in November. There will be 30-40 prints in the exhibit which will hang most of the month. I will be on hand to give a slide program for the grand opening - the date is not firm yet, but I will let you know when it is. The materials for those prints are costing me about $5,000 - want to buy a print? (the special glass/acrylic for the frames cost $1,100 alone.) All of these framed prints will be for sale during the exhibit. As always, the materials are all first class, archival, museum-quality, as will the prints be. It should be a great exhibit, although it is going to take about a month of work for me to select, process, print, and frame all of the prints - good grief, I had better get started! Oh, and one neat thing about this exhibit - several of the prints will be special panographic prints - my first to go on display. Several days ago Fed-X delivered my new baby - a 60 pound, water-cooled, duel-processor, Macintosh computer, with 1250 gigabytes of hard drive space, and 4gb of RAM. Apple sent it overnight because they were two-weeks late getting it to me - 60 pounds of priority overnight shipping - yikes! I was in the middle of something else when it arrived and didn't have time to even open the box until yesterday. This is a little cherry for you PC users - new Macs these days have a special setup deal - all you have to do is plug in your old computer, and with a couple of mouse clicks ALL of your files, applications, user settings, preferences, and, well, everything from your old computer is transferred and setup on the new computer - the entire process took less than 30 minutes! And then presto, you are DONE! This was really amazing. I've spent days in the past making all of the transfers and reinstalling the applications, but now it is a snap, with a new Mac that is. My new big screen is not available yet - it won't be here for another month (a gorgeous 30" Cinema Display), so I am stuck using the old 22" screen, although I can't really complain too much. Yesterday afternoon I got to escape the cabin for an hour or two at the insistence of my wife. Loaded up the infrared camera and hiked down to Hawksbill Crag just to see what it would look like in IR. The trail was really nice, although it was criss-crossed with about a million spider webs. It was warm and dry and dusty, but it felt great to be out in the woods. I shot a few photos, returned to the truck, and then drove out to the main dirt road to pickup Amber from the bus as my bride had a pastel workshop to attend in town. While I was waiting for Amber I got a neat shot of a mimosa tree up against the blue sky, also in infrared. This tree was growing right next to the dirt road - its branches hanging out over the road a little bit. My best vantage point for a photo was actually underneath the tree, down low. I never mind getting down on my belly or back for a photo, but this was not a good situation - the branches were covered with a thick layer of dust from the road, and so was the ground. But being the trooper that I am, I backed on in there, beating the dust off as best I could, then got the tripod down real low and waited for the wind to die down. I was sort of hidden back in under the thick mimosa branches (it was a small tree with most of the branches arching up from the base of the tree), and my tripod legs were sticking out into the road a couple of feet. While I was in there waiting, a pickup truck came by, stirring up a cloud of dust. I quickly covered up the camera, but I got hit pretty good myself. The driver never did see me or my tripod. Anyway, this IR stuff is pretty neat I think!
This morning I went out for a quiet hike around the loop. The sun was trying to peek out through the early-morning clouds, and the light in the forest was really soft and diffused. The main thing I noticed about this deep, dark stretch of forest was the fact that the ground was really yellow and red - as far as you could see in all directions the poison ivy and Virginia creeper covered the forest floor in shades of red, yellow and orange.
The East meadow was very damp, almost like it had rained - what, surely not! Must have just been heavy dew, although we haven't had much of that lately, and it was even warmer today than normal. The meadow, like all the rest around here, was really colorful - lots of reds and yellows and blues and oranges. The goldenrods were really impressive, especially in the soft light of the early day, and the fact that they were moist, which always brings out rich colors. Sumac and other bushes and grasses and flowers were looking pretty rich too. I hiked slow, looking around for critters (did not see anything), and got to enjoy the sights and sounds of the place. Speaking of wildflowers, I counted more than 14 species this morning that were in bloom! You don't normally think of wildflowers in the fall, but there sure are a lot of them out there. Many are very small and have delicate color, but still always worth a look.
There were quite a few fresh paw paws on the ground, so I spent some time gathering them up, and munching on a couple. I decided to hike on over to Bob's and see how his paw paw patch was coming along as well. When I got there, I could only find one tree that had any on it, and this tree was loaded, with about a dozen paw paws already on the ground underneath, which for this tree the ground is the road to Bob's. The rest of the trees didn't have a single paw paw on them - don't know what the deal is. I snatched up one from the first tree to snack on during my hike back home.
On the way back to the cabin I came across what must have been a really large pile of bear scat - now probably two-three weeks old - it had melted down flat, leaving behind various seeds from berries and other fruit the bruin had eaten. And YES, I will admit, that I placed this poison ivy leaf in the middle of the bear poop - sorry, but the two just seemed to go together this morning!
I'm taking Aspen into town today for a haircut - the boy needs to look his best. Amber has ball practice in town tonight, then a game in town tomorrow, and again on Saturday. Yesterday was her only day in a nine-day stretch without an additional road trip (besides going to school, which is three hours on the bus each day) - it's a busy season for her as well. 9/17/04 Sunrise lasted for about two hours this morning - or at least the photo ops lasted that long. For some reason we had a large cloud bank down in the canyon early this morning - normally that would only happen after a good rain, but we've not seen a drop in many weeks. It was nice and cool like it had been a week ago. We could see it down there well before first light, as I guess the white clouds were reflecting ever little bit of starlight from above. As daylight began to creep into the landscape, a hint of color raced across the southern sky, and I grabbed my camera. I shot a few photos with the little point and shoot, then put on the big gun camera, then also started using the infrared camera. I ended up with all three cameras going at the same time, all on tripods, all crammed in right next to each other. This is a dilemma I find myself in more and more these days - which camera to use, and what photo to take? It was especially tough this morning. My bride found it all amusing, and she snapped a great shot of the old man at work.
Just about the time I thought I had enough photos, I thought about hiking over to the Crag to shoot a few more. "Pam, grab your boots and let's go hiking!" I really wanted to get someone on the Crag for scale this time. And since my bride has been starting her day off by doing yoga (after getting up at 5:30am to get Amber off to the school bus), I thought it would be great if she just did it out there on the Crag, silhouetted against the rising sun and what was left of the cloudbank down in the canyon. We spent about an hour there shooting, this time with only two cameras. I don't know if I will run into the same photo limit on the Journal page this month that I did last month, but until I do, I'll just keep on posting. Goodness, what is the October Journal going to look like? (OOPS, while trying to post this today I DID run into that limit! I had to make the page wider for now - I will see if I can correct the problem. If not, we will have wider pages...)
By the way, on my way home yesterday from town (and by the way #2, I brought home yet another Canon digital camera for those of you who are counting - the very brand new 20D - still in the box at the moment), I stopped in Boxley and shot some photos of the old steam-powered saw mill there. While I was out of the truck taking pictures, I could hear the sounds of big bull elk calling out to prospective mates - it echoed up and down the valley. I never did see the elk, but knew they were back in there somewhere. Such a delightful time of the year here in the Ozarks, and it is just going to get better and better...
9/20/04 Wow, we have been busy beavers here these past few days, although I'm not exactly sure what we have been busy with. This evening is about the first real hike I've taken in a while, and it was just around the loop, although it was a very nice hike with my lovely bride. It was just before dark when we set out, leaving Amber and Lucy behind (Lucy was busy down in the meadow sniffing out some bear I'm sure. The wind was blowing cool breezed through a forest that had already darkened on our side of the hill. Just quite delightful, no other words for it. When we snuck into the East meadow we found six deer grazing right on over there under the big enclosed deer/bear stand at the edge of the meadow that the Woods Boys built last year. The meadow was aglow with brilliant yellows, oranges and reds as the last rays of sunshine streaked across it. And al that color was waving in the breezes, as the bright white tails of the deer waved goodbye when the deer bounded into the woods. When we reached the paw paw patch I enlisted Pam's help to gather up any paw paws that were on the ground - she happened to dislodge one from high above as well, which wound up in my hand and soon disappeared as we continued on our hike along the lane.
It was a relaxing hike all the way back to the cabin as the last rays of sunshine slipped away, and the 1/4 moon began to light up the dark blue sky. One of the chores I worked on today was to install a new dog door. The old one was a nice thick, insulated one that we could lock with the flip of a switch. Problem was that the cats were able to come right on into the cabin anytime we were not watching. I've spent much of the past couple of years running up and down stairs to either lock or unlock the dog door to keep the cats out at night and allow the dogs in/out during the day. This new dog door - suggested by a Cloudland visitor - is supposed to keep the cats out while allowing the dogs to come and go. Unlike previous doors we have had here, the dogs had to learn how to open this one with their noses - they can't just barge right on through. But, of course, we have pretty smart dogs here, and it didn't take them long to get the hang of it. So far, so good. We have super cats out here as well, so I am a little skeptical about the door actually working as planned, but we'll see. Only one of the cats ever gets in - the Trail Cat - and she normally only comes in at night when I forget to lock the door. Then she ALWAYS goes for any bread on the counter.
Another chore was to try to figure out how to get this web page to accept more photos - I have run out of room for the second month in a row. Turns out the maximum length of the "window" where this stuff resides is about 18,000 pixels tall. Text is OK beyond that point, just not photos. After a number of e-mails during the past few days with the software support team, it is apparent that I cannot go any longer than 18,000 pixels. So, my solution is to split the Journal up into two parts - Part A (the first half of the month), and Part B - the second half of the month. I'll have to do this anytime the monthly Journal begins to run past the limit, but hope to always make both parts easy to navigate to. The CURRENT part will remain at the CURRENT JOURNAL link, so if you just bookmark it you should always be up to day, but you might have to go back via a link for the rest of the month. Technology is great, but not always unlimited. (And for those of you who were having trouble printing out the Journal, the width is back to normal now so you should be OK.) We've been on the road a lot - mostly going into Jasper for b-ball games and practice, and into Fayetteville for other chores. Amber's team scored a record number of points one night and won really big, but then the next morning got wiped pretty good - Amber scored ALL of the points that the team scored in the first half, and was also the high scorer for the game - she really needed some help from the other girls! Remember, Amber just scored her very first points in a sporting event just barely over a week ago! And she now has scored in three of the last four games. She is mainly a defensive player, but will become more of a scoring factor as she gains confidence and gets a LOT more practice. Seems like many of the trees are drying up and dropping their leaves - at least some of their leaves. We REALLY need some rain in a bad way. I still think we are in for some really spectacular color this fall, but no telling when it might happen - it will all depend on the rain, if we ever get any again. Speaking of rain, I am sad to report that the outdoor shower at our friend's beach house near Gulf Shores, Alabama got wiped off the map last week - their beach front home is still intact, but much of it is gone, and now the beach has actually engulfed the entire building - it must be one horrific scene down there. That shower is the one that finally pushed me into building the Ray Scott Memorial Outdoor Shower here at Cloudland, after many years of procrastinating about it (Ray is very much alive and well, I just wanted to give him something to look forward to after he has gone up to the great shower in the sky!). One of these days I must post a photo or two of our shower here - the red berries of the surrounding dogwood trees are getting pretty bright, and the leaves are deep red all over. I just got back from said location out on the side deck, and had a wonderful shower out there in the swaying trees and the moonlight and stars. I have five road trips to make between now and Friday night; Pam has six between now and Sunday. I hope to be able to take a little bit of time now and then to get out and away from the computer and into the woods - early fall is just magical here, even if it is dry. And now I have all this new space to post photos in! Here is some paw paw info that was sent to me from a Journal reader who spends his day upstairs in a chopper, taken from a paw paw info web page: Why have most paw paws, that were plentiful throughout early U.S. forests, virtually disappeared from their natural habitat today? That answer may lie within research results (Peterson 1991), that showed that the paw paw is sensitive to ultraviolet light, thus, paw paw seedlings may not grow back after the forests have been harvested, and there are very few virgin forests left in the United States. Paw paws can be found growing there abundantly, but once the forests are clean-cut, the paw paw will not usually become re-established. 9/22/04 It was out the door long before first light for me this morning. Temp was down in the upper 50's in Boxley Valley. There were enough clouds in the east that there was no sunrise, although there was a little bit of color. I had a meeting with forest service and other folks at mid-morning, but first needed to do a couple of other chores. The sun was just beginning to break through the clouds when I arrived and parked along the western edge of the Hurricane Creek Wilderness area. I needed to hike in an old pioneer road and see if it was still blocked by downed trees that a landowner had cut a couple of years ago. We have been getting conflicting reports about whether this old access road into the wilderness was open or not. My first indication was that the forest service trailhead had been removed. I hiked through thick, wet, brush, and crossed a bone-dry Hurricane Creek - I've never seen it this dry in all my 25+ years of going into this area. Come on hurricanes - we need you! What I found out was that the road was indeed still there, and mostly open, but hikers had been using an alternate route on part of the road where many downed and rotting trees lay. I hiked out a different route, and got to see a number of deer browsing in the thick brush right at the edge of a steep hillside. And more dry river. Lots of dry river. But where I emerged from it all about 1/4 mile from the truck, the river was WIDE - I thought I had gotten lost somehow and wound up on the Big Piney River! But it was Hurricane Creek, exactly where it was supposed to be - the water had surfaced there, and it was indeed wet and wide, but very shallow. I stopped and took a few infrared photos of the Big Piney River, then motored on into Haw Creek Falls Campground, which was at one time my most favorite campground in the state. Today it was quite wonderful - not a soul there. And believe it or not, the falls were running! Well, I guess it was more of a trickle, but there was water. So I shot a few more photos, then drove on out of the area and back up onto Hwy. 7 for my meeting with the forest service brass.
This meeting was for them to show us "partners" what their plans were for a 7,000 acre timber sale to get rid of some serious infestations of the red oak borer. Part of this timber sale will go right on across the Ozark Highlands Trail, and in fact the trail will be closed to hikers for a month or two, so I was anxious to see what they were up to. It was a good group, about half forest service folks and half folks from conservation organizations. Lots of questions and answers, and I think a good time was had by all.
As I drove back towards the cabin I found a neat barn-and-puffy-clouds scene that I just had to stop and photograph, and also a highway scene with the same clouds. Shot them both infrared and normal. These days I am packing not one or two but FOUR digital cameras with me - that is insane. And I used every one of them today, and it wasn't even a photo shoot.
When I got home I finished up my dealings with the folks who wrote the web-building software that I now use for this site. The guys are really something else - they actually downloaded this Journal site, rebuilt it from scratch using some different techniques, and sent me the new site to look at. There are a couple of problems with their software we were trying to work through, but in the end they were unable to solve them to my liking. That means I will still have the length limitation, unless I either have the photos as separate links, and/or split up each month's Journal into several pages (and have the width of the window be fixed, which I don't like - the way it is now if you have a large monitor, you can make it wider and see more of it). I don't like either of those options. But at the moment I think what I will do is what I am doing right now - continue to put everything on one page until the page gets too long, then have a "Part B" for those months where I run on a little long. You might see me posting smaller photos, although I really hate to make them too small. Of course, one problem with the photos is that I think they look larger on your monitor - more so than they do on my Mac (or so I am told). My goal is to make the site easy for me to write and post, but also for you to navigate to and read. Stay tuned! It is quite dark outside tonight as I am writing this - oh, unless you count that BRIGHT half moon way up there in the sky. (I hiked up to the office last night in the moonlight and I could see just fine.) It is very noisy outside tonight - the usual hoard of night summer bugs and frogs (hey, isn't today the first day of AUTUMN - yes, happy fall to you!). But we also have a vocal pack of coyotes just across the canyon, and they are singing out loud tonight. I sat down on the lower deck in the moonlight for more than ten minutes listening to them sing. And then a barred owl struck up his own band over on Beagle Point, and they went back and forth, each one's voice echoing up and down the canyons. Amber is fast off to sleep, and my bride is in town at a pastel workshop. I think I process a few photos from today's shoot and post them to the Journal, then wander on back outside and wait for my bride to return, and listen to more of the music of the wilderness. 9/24/04 When I went for a hike around the loop today I found that the paw paw grove had quit dropping fruit - none on the ground, none up in the trees. My paw paw buffet is finished for this year! It was a nice hike though, with a cool breeze blowing, overcast skies, and muted colors all around. When I returned to the cabin I decided to go on ahead and hike down to the river - something neither Aspen or I had done since we both were injured on this trip a couple of weeks ago (my knee and Aspen's shoulder). I knew it would be no problem for Aspen, although I did insist on carrying him down the ladder instead of allowing him to jump over the 12-foot ledge as he normally does. He still has stitches in his shoulder and I didn't want them to rip out. I felt like a baby or a cripple as I inched my way on down the steep slopes. After what seemed like an eternity of carefully placing each and every step, I look up and realized I had only made it half-way down the first bench! I had thought about turning around and going back up to the cabin, but didn't want to disappoint the dogs, and I knew they really wanted to go swimming. Took me nearly 30 minutes to get to the bottom. Once I got to the more-level terrain hiking was easy. My knee complained a bit up on top, but seemed to handle it all OK. When I reached the river some suspicions were confirmed - the mighty Buffalo River had gone silent - it was BONE DRY all the way across the big flat just below the mouth of Whitaker Creek, something I had never, ever seen before! First time ever to see the water not flowing here. Well, at least in the years that I have been coming to this spot anyway (I'm sure it has been dry before). The long, wide, and shallow pool upstream remained full of water, and the good old swimming hole just downstream was nearly full. - probably still six feet of really cold, spring-fed water. But everything in between was dry, parched, about ready to vaporize into dust and blow away.
The dogs splashed around a little bit, I took a few photos, then we headed on back up the trail. Oh yea, there were some pretty nice colored trees along the banks of the river - dogwoods and some yellow tree. The colors were muted, but certainly they were coming along. About half way back up the slope I realized I had made a mistake in not taking any water or snacks on the hike with me - normally it is a very quick trip down and back, but this time I had already been out hiking for a while, and then it took me so long to get down the river. It was hot and humid, and this fat old boy was sucking wind pretty bad. I was soaked with sweat, and not feeling too well. Just when I thought I was going to kill over right then and there, a bright green object came into view - there was a fresh, ripe, and soon-to-be-devoured PAW PAW right in the middle of the trail! Yippie coyote away! I reached down and grabbed it and gulped it down in about two bites. Man that sure was good. And I do believe it saved my life - would have been bear bait for sure if not rescued by that sweet paw paw! My outdoor shower continues to be wonderful, but something sort of odd happened today after the hike. When I finished my shower and shut off the water, the water didn't shut off - it kept right on coming down. But the temp of the water did change - the new shower of water was cold. It took me a moment to realize exactly what was happening (must have been the altitude, you know) - it was RAINING!!!!!!!!!! Holy hurricane we actually had water coming out of the sky and hitting the ground! It has been more than a month since we've seen a single drop. Pam and I sat out on the back deck and watched the storm roll in, but it really wasn't much of a storm - just very soft and glorious rain. And then right in the middle of it all, one of the strangest-sounding crashes of thunder rang out and nearly broke our eardrums - a very odd BAM, CRASH, SLAP! And that was it - no other thunder at all. It sent both dogs running for cover, and took us about 30 minutes to calm them down. That was about an hour ago, and the rain continues, only now it is heaver and there is some thunder. How sweet it is! I only wish I had been caught out in it during my hike before - nothing as wonderful as being caught out in a summer thunderstorm. Oh yea, it is fall now. We've got lots of baby clouds being born in the canyon below, and they are quickly rising up and moving on out to parts unknown. We won't get to enjoy it for long though - Amber has a b-ball game in Cotter tonight, and we'll be headed out of here soon to head that direction. Please keep your fingers crossed that this little storm continues to sit on top of us for about another week or two! It will take a lot of rain before the river begins to flow again...
9/26/04 We ended up getting about an inch of rain the other day - plenty to settle the dust, and I do believe it smoothed out some of the parched landscape too. Not nearly enough though, but we were happy to get it! I spent most of yesterday at the computer working on a new OHTA "frequently asked questions" web page that is now online. We got so many silly phone calls here for trail information - oops, I guess no question is silly if the answer is unclear. I'm sure we'll continue to get the questions, but now we can direct them to the web site for a lot of answers. Today was a classic fall day in the Ozarks. It was cool at first light, with a heavy bank of clouds just down below the cabin - it filled up the entire canyon below, and only a few tips of the highest ridges stuck out above it. After I spent some time on the computer, and shot and posted the daily web cam shot, I realized that it might be a good day to get out and take some photos - that cloud bank was moving ever so slowly! I knew that Glenn and another photographer were going to be down in Boxley Valley taking elk photos this morning, and I wanted to catch up with them and run some camera test shots - they have two different cameras than I have, so we would get to shoot with six different cameras (same exact scene and lens), then compare the results. So I loaded up and sped off. Before I could get off of the mountain I was stopped in my tracks by a wonderful sun-breaking-through-the-fog scene that was right on the road, and in fact the road was part of the scene. I pulled over, got out, and started taking photos. Another photographer was parked nearby, taking photos down on the bluff below I figured, and he soon appeared out of the mist and set up in the middle of the road next to me. Turns out he was a photographer of note (has a photo in the Ark. Game & Fish calendar) - always good to exchange notes with other photogs! (Just as the fog began to disappear I realized that I should have taken some photos with the IR camera to see what it would look like - next time!)
The fog didn't last too long and soon I was on my way back down towards Boxley once again. There were some nice elk roaming around down there in the fields, and they had put on quite a show for the throngs of photos who had been there early. I never did find Glenn, but was happy to drive around - Boxley Valley is a very nice place just about all the time. On my way back up the hill the fog bank was STILL hanging around, so I parked and hiked to one of my favorite photos spots on the top of a big bluff that overlooks the lower Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area (there are two of them you know - one on park service land and one on forest service land). I spent about 30 minutes shooting both infrared and normal photos - sometimes that infrared stuff is just wonderful, and I am still trying to figure out what it will and won't shoot, and when. I did some macro shots for the first time today. Sorry to bore you with so many photos!
On the way back to the cabin I stopped and shot more photos of a group of brilliant cosmos flowers that were flowering at the edge of the garden next to the Faddis cabin. It took me a couple of hours to download and organize all of the photos from the mornings' shoot, but now they are all safely tucked away with their own little names and keywords attached.
This evening the dogs and I struck out for a short hike around the loop. Pretty cool all day long, but a little warm in the direct sunshine. We hiked through deep forests and across wide open meadows. Lots of hickory nuts on the ground, and raining down too. Never did see a single critter the entire hike, but I guess that happens a lot when you have two fast dogs out ahead of you! Speaking of nuts, man oh man it is getting crazy around the cabin - I bet there are hundreds of acorns hitting the cabin each day and night now. Once today Pam was outside doing something and I at the computer when it sounded like a machine gun going off out there. She said a limb must have come down and hit the top roof, sending acorns raining down from everywhere, including on top of her! Not a cloud in the sky all day today or yesterday. It is just after sunset now, and the bright blue sky that I have gotten used to all day is now fading into a dark blue sky, and soon will be darkness. It is very still outside - I can see silhouettes of the trees just outside the window and they are dead still - not a wisp of wind anywhere. Guess I need to get out under the bright red dogwood tree that is full of plump red berries now and take my evening shower while I can still see to find the soap. 9/28/04 HAPPY HARVEST MOON! I got up early to go outside and water the flowers while the girls were getting up and ready for school. Goodness there was a BRIGHT SPOTLIGHT up in the sky, and the trees out in front of the cabin were really lit up! Of course, it was the full moon - the Harvest Moon - hanging low in the western sky. I returned to the cabin and loaded up my camera gear and headed out to find a good spot to photograph said moon - no real open views to the west from the cabin. I wound up on top of hill with great views of both the setting moon and the rising sun. It was chilly out, down in the 50's, but no wind at all, and the grass was dry - normally you would find it wet with those conditions. I set up the tripod and fired off a few shots of the full moon. We all think of the moon as being full for several days, but in reality, it is only officially full on one date, although that date may be at 1am. And today is that date here in the US, and the name of the moon is the Harvest Moon. I have added a couple bits of info that I garned from web sites to explain a little about the moon today. While I was waiting for the moon to drop lower in the sky, I realized that directly behind me the eastern skyline was beginning to light up - a band of clouds were over there, and I hoped to see and photograph a pre-dawn firestorm. In the meantime I wandered around a little bit there in the twilight and found a bare tree where the moon was setting behind it. So I moved the camera gear and shot a few photos. Just as I was taking those shots I realized that the moon was setting down behind a dark band of clouds - hum, that would make a neat photo, but not with the lens I had on the camera. So I raced back to my camera bag, camera and tripod in hand, switched lenses, and shot a few photos of the moon. Right in the middle of all that, the eastern sky really began to light up. What to do, what to do! You should have seen me running around up there in that meadow - not only was I trying to capture THREE different scenes from THREE different locations, but I also had THREE different cameras that I was trying to use with THREE diffrent lenses! It was an amusing sight I'm sure to all the critters that were no doubt gathered around to watch the show. All I can say is that Momma Nature sure did put on a show for me, and here are three of the images I got from her:
Good news and bad news about the 2005 ARKANSAS WILD & FREE CALENDAR and ILLINOIS WILDFLOWER BOOK. Yesterday we got the "advances" of them both - a few copies of the actual books and calendars that were overnighted to us from Korea. WOW, they both look TERRIFIC! I'm not going out on a limb by saying that Don's new wildflower book is far and away the best wildflower book ever published - you should see the cover! Not to mention the photos inside. And the entire book is laid out to be SUPER user friendly - you will be able to use colored tabs and Don's organization by color and blooming season to find your flower quickly. Don's other wildflower book was just reprinted (it's a Falcon guide published by Globe Pequot Press), and I hear the publisher refused to make any corrections - part of the problem is that some of the photos turned out the wrong color, making it difficult to ID the flower - duh, isn't that what the book is all about!? Don's new book that we published has the CORRECT flower colors! And the 2005 ARKANSAS WILD & FREE calendar looks just great too! All of the photos in it are brand new and never published before - of course, you Journal readers have seen them, but never in print, until now. The bad news is the darn unions in California. Looks like the dock workers are up to no good again (or their companies), and they are holding the American consumer hostage as they delay unloading of ships at port. Greedy bastards. Two years ago our products were delayed by over a month because of this BS, and we are headed in that direction again this year. I was going to announce to you today that the new books and calendars would be available in mid-October, but no we just really don't know when they will arrive. Stay tuned. | |||||||
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