Osprey at Nimi

This nesting osprey is one among the pairs at Nimisilla Reservoir (the southern most of the Portage Lakes south of Akron). Click on it to enlarge. It's a beautiful bird. I snapped it from my kayak as the stiff NW wind was pushing me toward the nest closer than I wanted. The bird flapped off just after this shot. It's a spectacular sight to see them drop into the water to capture fish. Years ago, while windsurfing there, we saw lone birds fishing once in awhile. For the last several years, they have returned for nesting. A few minutes after taking this picture, I rolled my boat (unintentionally). Fortunately, my camera was in a sealed bag. I had to make a decision whether, after righting the kayak, to deploy an oar float and climb in (difficult) and then pump the gallons of water out with a small pump or swim the boat to shore. I was a quarter mile or so off shore and decided to swim it. Filled with water, it felt like a barge and when i finally hauled it out, I felt like I had run a 10k.

Garden Time

This morning I went to Crown Point Ecology Center in Bath, Ohio for the big plant sale. The attraction is organically grown heirloom varieties of plants difficult to find in these parts. I arrived at the opening time (9a.m.) and there were already a couple of hundred people there! The picture shows my haul along with a flat from a local nursery (these are not cheap) which will take up about 1/2 my vegetable garden. I go heavy on peppers and like the longish Italian peppers that are great fried in olive oil or grilled. I also have a few varieties of bell peppers (chocolate, for example–they're brownish). I have a low fence around the garden which discourages the groundhogs but they can burrow under and have in the past. It takes just a few minutes for one of those guys to eat the tops of several dozen pepper plants. I must be vigilant! The tomatoes are various and sundry but our favorites include Moby Grape because they are indeterminate (just keep producing) and we can pick a handful each evening for the dinner salad and some of the sweet yellow varieties.

Banff Mountain Film Festival

Last night Linda and I met our daughter, Stephanie, and her fiance, Matt, at the Allen Theater in Playhouse Square for the Cleveland stop of the Banff Mountain Film Festival. Before the films, there was a wonderful array of light food and sponsor exhibits in the rotunda. I have missed this touring event in the past but this experience has me hooked. I will try to make it an annual event. The films are all outdoor settings with focus on adventure sports, often less than ten minutes long, but the best was a feature about a former mountain runner turned wildlife biologist who set out to encounter coastal wolves in British Columbia. The visuals were stunning. The only downside is that the Allen does not have a big screen. On the other hand, the theater is beautiful, comfortable and huge. The place was pretty packed which surprised me in that this was the second night. The crowd was enthusiastic and raucous at times which is fitting. Outdoor culture is alive and well in NE Ohio.

Snug at Smuggs

Seems silly in a way that I fled the beginning of Ohio spring to return to winter here at Smugglers' Notch in Vermont for two and a half days of skiiing. (The picture of purple crocuses was taken in the front yard and edited in on Monday after my return). The map is the Smuggs Trail Map. The mountain has great conditions considering it's early April. There is a little sleet here at the base but a few hundred feet up it will be all snow. Yesterday I had some great runs and am about ready to head out for some fun right now. Last evening the local news we listened to was a Montreal station. Made me want to plan a trip there some time soon. These trips have me missing my wife and dog! I have a WiFi hookup connection here and heard from the guy with a ruler in the grad office that my thesis only needed one tiny formatting change. That was good news. Upload the electronic copy next week and then on to the defense. Now for some fun.

snow (thesis) madness

The first picture is out a back window. The second is out the front door. The drive is in there somewhere between the trees. Snowbound is a great way to try and finish the thesis. Got up at 6 and started writing. The MFA thesis is due this week. My stories are in the can (figure of speech) but I am trying to close out my novella. More writing, some shoveling, more writing. Trouble is, I keep thinking of that Stephen King novel that was made into a movie starring a guy named Jack.
"All work and no play makes Rick a dull boy. All work and no play makes Rick a dull boy . . . . . "

Family

A family is a thing that evolves. I'll start with the losing part. I try to conjure images of of time spent with my grandparents, now gone, and it is easy as some of those times, so rich and vivid, fuel my aspiration to create space in my life for events that replicate the good feelings. I have written of the loss of a Brother and will some day write of the loss of my Dad and another Brother. Actually, I have written of those losses but have not found a way or reason to share it yet. But a wonderful thing about family is that, if you are lucky, it is a living thing that changes and grows. Here is a picture of part of my evolving family. You see my daughter, Stephanie, sustainability professional, and her high energy fiance, Matt. He's a social worker and a martial arts expert. I like that combination. He makes a living providing assistance to folks who have been swatted down by the system and/or their own dysfunctional decisions but also has the competence to fend off a gratuitous attack. People are safer when he's around. You also see Casey, our Benji-looking mutt, who has the amazing skill and talent necessary to train a couple of adults, me and my wife, Linda, to look after his every need. He's a good dog and his pack instincts make him an integral part of the family. Whenever we bring him along to a family event, he races around the array of humans to greet those he knows and to test the bonding possibilities of the less familiar. There's a lesson there. He recognizes the immense value of a pack (family).

Too Soon to Think Spring

I have a mantra that one should wait until March 1 to start yearning for spring weather here in Northeast Ohio. Any long stretch of springlike weather before then is perverse I have learned causing buds to sprout and then freeze. Warm days in March are gifts to be appreciated and savored because they are invariably followed by revisits of winter. However, in this post-postmodern, global-warmed early 21st century such sentiments are probably ephemeral. Who knows how the carbon load is changing the seasonal cycle. It's bound to be chaotic. But there's nothing wrong with musing over memories of what the warm weather brings around here. Each spring, we have anticipated a doe showing her fawn the way to the salt lick in our myrtle patch. Imagine our spring delight when last year, a relatively small, probably yearling, female brought triplets out of the woods ( 12% occurrence). This picture was a little later in the summer. We were amazed but gratified that this mom was able to feed and protect all three.