Seen on a Walk

Saw this view on a walk on our friends' place in Ozone.

Here is the actual picture. 

Skinny Dip Sunday

It is amazing how fast an old man can get in and out of the water. Last night, in a wine fueled moment around a campfire, we said we were going to get our January swim in the creek today. It was cold. It stung. Now that we're dry and warm, it was glorious!

Yes, that is ice on the far side of the pool.

Through the Window in the Snow

I took these through a double pane window. Until it warms up a bit, that's probably what will happen so I apologize for the depth of field and clarity in advance. If that's a problem to you...so be it. Cornell has some nice pictures.

Actually, I've been taking pix of the brand spanking new granddaughter and birds, not so much right now.

Purple finch et al...

Pine siskins...

Photos by an Old Friend

Rare that I recommend photos but this is a must see. Click your way through John's work and be amazed...

Amazing work, John!

Snow Walk

Walk on Black Mountain

This may be the most amazing spot in East Tennessee, and possibly the most under visited for all its wow factor. Unfortunately my batteries blanked 20 minutes into a three hour tour. Renamed for Justin Wilson and now crossed by the Cumberland Trail, This wondrous geological fairyland is only a few miles off I 40 at the Crab Orchard exit. Oddly enough, the best trail is not marked. If you stay in the rocks and just wander around you'll find most of the best stuff in an easy amble that can be done in a half hour. I have no idea why anyone would cut a visit here short, though.



The Official Word

Bouncing Foxes

My friend Carolyn sent this from Minnesota.

Then You Shake It To The Left

Just follow the easy steps

Listen to the music playing in your head...

And do the Kinglet Boogie!

Sunrise

When we laid out the foundation of our house we used a compass to get the correct orientation for passive solar gain. Oddly, the compass simply wouldn't work on the west end of the house. We figured it was because of the nearby heavy metal machinery and used the direction for south that the compass showed on the east wall. It was wrong by 13 degrees. It turns out that this ridge has large iron deposits and was surface mined heavily at one point in time. When we laid out the driveway we cut into one of the iron seams. One happy consequence of this is that the winter solstice sunrise comes directly and exactly through this window.

I should mention that this window was a work by the talented artist, Glenna Alderson, working in stained glass for this piece. It is a treasured gift.

Today's Walk

After 20 years here I see new things every day. This is a "clamber" up the steep side of Walden Ridge staying on our property. I followed deer trails and decided that whitetail deer must be closely related to mountain goats. The trails went up some fairly impressive pitches and are well used this time of year. The round leaf catchfly in bloom was a surprise, although the leaves on this one are not even close to round. The humidity is rather high even with the low temperature so the smoky mountains don't show up in the shot looking over Jackie's farm.

Scariest Canoeing Video Ever

Today's Walk at Whites Creek

Every winter we get ice and it is different every year. I never tire of staring into some of the formations.

Brown Creeper...Got Him!

Finally got a rough shot through the window of a brown creeper at the suet feeder. These hyperactive little birds fascinate me but they sure don't sit still long enough to get much of a picture. 

Swinging

Pine siskins and goldfinches swinging on the thistle feeder.

This pleases me.

Firefox cam, live 24/7 at the Knoxville zoo.

Now if we can only get the Darter Cam adopted at Conservation Fisheries.
(Warning! Graphic fish sex may occur)

At the Feeders

The Magic Log is bringing in the usual suspects and a couple of favorites that didn't come by last year. Once again the red breasted nuthatches are hanging around. I'll work on getting a better shot but these guys are odd in that they will take off if they see movement within the house but will land a few feet away if you are replenishing the empty feeder. 

We have a very shy brown creeper and the odd mystery warbler I'll try to get pictures of as well. Over at the sunflower seeds the doves work very hard to get through the spikes that are intended to keep them out so that the smaller birds can feed. I keep thinking about the dove and rice dishes we used to have as a child.

Purple finch

Titmouse flashing his crest.

And I need some help with this little guy. Who is up on their winter warblers? Is it a Kinglet?

Piggies

The adults were solid black except for one silver tipped old lady. I expect full blooded European boars to be black, even as babies. These may have some domestic hog in their lineage which is likely, or  I could be mistaken, which is somewhat less likely but known to happen on rare occasions.

We saw these beasties yesterday on a neighboring farm. They are definitely not completely wild.

(Great?) Gramma Hog

Tale of Two Thanksgiving Birds

OK, Three if you count the parrot.

We had five eagles playing above the house most of the day. They were loving the wind direction and apparently have a carcass close by to feast on. They aren't having to spend any time hunting at the moment, so they can play fight and talk to each other starting very early in the morning. 

Where I've Been For the Last Few Days

Just another southern blackwater river flowing through a swamp with owls, turkeys, otters, and near as we can figure it, a bear. 

This is the Black River near Kingstree, SC. We were stopped at one of the bridges over it and looking at our maps to figure out where we should put in, when a guy in a pickup stopped on the road and rolled down his window. That is either a good sign or a bad sign on trips like this. Mr. Kirby wanted to know if we would like him to open the gate so we could get closer to the river. "I just close it 'cause some people trash it out so bad," he told us. I know exactly what you mean. Mr. Kirby.

The beavers were apparently mad at us for camping in their dining hall the first night. It sounded like they were throwing refrigerators into the water for most of the first half of the night. I've never encountered that kind of sustained tail slapping. Usually it's one big "pow-ka-thunk" and they are gone.

We misread the guide book, which turns out to be somewhat suspect anyway, and set our shuttle vehicle 8 miles closer than we intended but we still covered about 30 miles in three days and two nights, a pretty laid back trip for us.

More pictures later.

The canoe I used is called a Sojourn. It's a solo touring boat that is the perfect choice for this kind of paddling  with a load of gear. I've had it for ten years and finally got it out on a trip worthy of its style.

Yeah, well...You put up tarp lines your way and we'll put up tarp lines our way. We did scare the rain off and an 80% chance of thunder storms turned into a ten minute shower under the lunch tarp. We don't usually take ultralight trips. All of us have done that and now prefer to camp in style with fine dining and appropriate spirits. This trip was sponsored by LaPhroig Scotch, a 23 year old rum, and some other delicacies. I think we should write the culinary guide to canoeing in the South.

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I couldn't do it unless I was starving and had  run out of nuts, berries, twigs, and insects.