Snow snow snowshoeing

Frozen Fern "growing" out of the snow. I found a bunch of these lovelies!

Yesterday, I noticed my brother left his snowshoes in the back of my car. For the first time in weeks, it was above freezing outside, so I just had to get out into the woods and try those shoes out. I went to a long disused logging road across the pond from some well established beaver brook trails.

Today, I'm still divided on my opinion of them. True, they kept me above the 3+ feet of snow in some places. But in other places, I plummeted hip deep and then had the grueling struggle of picking those cumbersome metal frames out of the tight holes they made. The snow quickly turning to 3 feet of slush in the 40 degree weather, I couldn't just kick through the snow to pick myself back up. This would have been fine albeit annoying, normally, but I was making my way to a hill topped with a rather large bobcat ~ and had I noticed him sooner, I would have been worried he was scoping me out as injured prey ripe for the picking and probably would have been a lot less collected in my struggles.

These tracks are from the beginning of my trek - when the snow was still frozen from being in the shadow of the valley.

While I did not manage to snap a pic of the bobcat who took off as soon as locked eyes with him, I did take some other interesting photos. My hike reached a literal apex when I crested the very steep hill that the bobcat had claimed earlier where I found not only his tracks, but deer and opossum tracks too.

Witch Hazel Flowers. The only forest blooms of winter! Reminding myself that witch hazels are in flower when there is hip deep snow on the ground makes winter seem a little less overbearing.

This is an opossum trail. The little hand prints inside the trail were muddled together making a bad picture, but the trail itself was whimsical, in my opinion. A well used thoroughfare, it snaked all over the hill, curving tightly in places where I couldn't see any obstruction to case such twists. The trail could have easily been a straight line with half the distance from point A to B. When inspecting the 6 inch wide trail, I noted fresh coyote tracks pacing after the latest opossum tracks.

And lastly, these are the bobcat tracks. Keep in mind, I'm a piano player - my fingers aren't short. These are definitely the largest bobcat tracks I've ever seen. From the back side of the hill, I measured 4 feet in between each pair of side by side prints to show he was bounding away from my direction through the snow. Thank goodness he was more afraid of me than I was of him or else, with my clumsy shoes and tiny switch blade for protection (its more for plant cuttings, but I like to pretend it affords me some protection on my solitary hikes) I would be bobcat chow by now. XD

Wild Winter Cleaning - Some pics from 2010

Metta (pronounced May-Tay), one of my eastern painted turtles. She swam around the reeds at Melendy Brook a bit and came back to my backpack on the ground to come home. Summer.

Wildlife Pond at Beaver Brook
I just loved how the setting sunlight reflected on the ice. You can 'see' the overwhelming silence and calm. During the windless days of winter, being there in person is lot like looking at the photo - silent, solitary and peaceful (without the discomfort of the freezing cold of course!) End of Winter.

Bronze Copper Butterfly
I was out looking for milksnakes and black racers in the powerline corridor near my home when I chanced upon this lovely little butterfly. I loved the colors against the dried grasses. Summer.

Lower Purgatory Falls
I took this picture while at my dog walking job. All that ice is usually a copious, gushing waterfall over moss strewn rocks. Winter.

Beaver Brook Trail
I'm feeling the chill and blandness of winter right now and wanted to see some green on my blog. Summer

Great Blue Heron
This young heron wasn't as skittish as most heron I've come across. As such, I was able to get within 15 feet or so to take a decent picture. This was taken at the former Benson's Zoo in Windham NH.

Pawtuckaway State Park Boulder Fields

This past weekend found my brother, father and me in Deerfield at the expansive Pawtuckaway State Park. My brother has been bugging me for at least a year to get out to see the boulder fields, but the drive and the tales of a dirt road with so many bumps and pot holes at the end of the long ride always put me off. Let's just say, I was feeling adventurous this past weekend.

The boulder "fields" were amazing. Huge remnants of an ancient ring dike formed by volcanic activity... and so hard to capture on film in a way to do their magnitude justice. Luckily, my brother makes a decent scale for perception and you'll spot him in a few of these photos.
To call this place a boulder "field" is a little bit of a misnomer on sight. The first run of house sized boulders is in a deep, lush, apparently old growth forest. The place feels like its crawling in trolls... and maybe Orlando Bloom. But on closer inspection, I found it packed with college aged climbers with big mats and chalky hands as they moved from one boulder to the next to conquer them.My brother's head can be seen peeping out of this rocky cropping of boulders. This is the first real biggy you see after cresting the small glade. What I found lovely about this boulder, aside the fact that it was about 2-3 stories tall (aren't photo's deceptive?) is that a stream ran smack dab into one side of the granite and stopped in a pool there, then it bubbled forth happily on the other side, seemingly coming from solid rock. Such a granite couldn't stop a little stream from sticking to its agenda!
This is my brother poking in from a cave in the second boulder field. It was sunnier here because this field was the result of a landslide from appearance and was skirted by a peaceful, open wetland. It was nice to watch the sunlight rippling on the cave ceiling, reflected by the wetland.
That's my dad. I wonder how many other people have thought to take the same picture? :)
Colonial New Englanders had an infatuation with naming things after the devil. A wonderful cave in the 800 ft granite cliffside here was no exception. This is one of those shots where the sheer magnitude of the cliffs cannot be captured as we make our way to "The Devil's Den". Inside the large enclave, I felt more like this was a place where Native Americans must have sought shelter or performed seasonal rites - it had that feel to it. It also had a green fungus which glowed neon green without any light on it whatsoever.
And just to prove I was really there... I tried to get a shot of me with dad in the background at the middle boulder field.

Birds of Prey Show

Eastern Screech Owl

Smallest owl with ear tufts in North America
~

This past weekend was the annual Beaver Brook Fall Festival. It was rather pathetic compared to past years filled with vendors and more people. This year, the only real highlight (aside sipping my first hot apple cider of the year - its tradition for me to only have my first one here each year) was the Birds Of Prey show put on by a nonprofit raptor rescue: Wingmasters They rescue injured, orphaned or sick raptors. They release to the wild when the birds are ready, but some are handicapped for life and must stay.

I took pics of all the birds they showed and educated us on, however the bright sunlight and white tent made for poor quality images. However, here they are with one fact I took away from the show for each (my favorite fact/story is for the Barn Owl at the bottom);

Northern Saw Whet Owl
Adults only weigh up to 3.2 ounces.
~

Red Tailed Hawk
When you hear "eagle calls" in movies - its usually the call from this hawk they dub in
~

Peregrine Falcon
Can travel between 100 - 200 miles per hour! (160 - 321 kph)
~

American Kestrel
Worlds smallest falcon. Yes. It's a falcon.
~

Great Horned Owl
Has no natural predators. Deaths usually are caused by man.
~

Golden Eagle (Lakota) with Wingmaster Julia (Lakota thinks Julia is her mate)
Has a wingspan of 6 feet

~

North American Barn Owl
Often found hunting voles in cemeteries back in colonial times because they would live in bell towers (and barns obviously). They would stop voles dead in their tracks by shrieking and stunning the vole. Couple that with a ghostly white face flying over the headstones, and many ghost stories around cemeteries arouse from the hunting techniques of this lovely owl.
(also.. I've seen Labyrinth... this is possibly a goblin king)
~

Lovely Autumn

Monarch on New England Asters

With the exception of the random tropical storm that came up the coast yesterday and today, autumn has decided to make its entrance for the year. Apples, pumpkins, corn - all at least a week or two early. The deciduous trees are changed for the most part, but it will be a short lived fire of color this year. We only had about 6 days of rain in over 2 months.

Beaver Brook Maple Tree Because of the lack of rain, I was rather surprised to even see any decent foliage this year. I'm sure when I leave my home tomorrow, after the tropical downpours and winds, all these orange and red oaks and maples and yellow birches and beeches will be branch bare.Maple Leaves at Beaver Brook

With autumn comes lovely asters, mums, sunflowers and a forest load of busy chipmunks and squirrels.





White Mums at Maple Hill Gardens







Most of the time, chipmunks are hard to capture with my little digital camera. Between their size and speed, my basic 5 year old camera can't deal with it. However, lucky in one way and tragic in another, I came across a sick chipmunk. This poor chipmunk actually came out of its hole in the ground and ran into my foot as if almost about to attack. I examined her and found there was nothing I could do for her - she was in the last stages of distemper. I took a picture of her, and put her back in her hole, careful not to come in direct contact with anything but the end of her tail. I'm sure she's gone by now, and wanted to include her here.

Cow Birds... lots of em

Ruggles Mine in Autumn

Grafton New Hampshire

Ruggles Mine, in Grafton NH is located on the top and side of Isinglass Mountain. Over 150 minerals are found here including beryl, mica, amethyst, rose and smokey quartz, garnet, etc. It also has uranium minerals like as gummite. I was lucky enough to mine near one of the owners and his workers right after they found a fresh deposit of this rare mineral. Now I'm the proud owner of some glowing green specimens that sadly didn't photograph well. Needless to say, I'm expecting my super powers or extra fingers to grow in any day now from the radioactive material. :D

This is the entrance tunnel that leads to the actual mine itself. The walls are granite, feldspar, lots of glittery mica and probably a lot of other things I didn't notice. Ruggles Mine is not an "underground" mine in the traditional sense. It's actually a pit mine - open air without the claustrophobia to egg on anxiety. Aside the steep hill, it's an easy trip.




This is the first view of the mine you get from the tunnel. The camera doesn't give you the "wow" factor it deserves. This is the only place I can think of, aside the sea, that was mammoth in size when I was a child, and still is today years later. Just for perspective, I took this shot with my father next to the pillar and got a bonus when I realized I caught this huffing and puffing lady climbing up the hill.






The mine has many caves. This is the only one that contains water - maybe only a few inches deep at most. I got some cool orbs on this photo too, if you expand the image, you'll seem them.





This shot is the mine from the middle up. That's a long hill to climb!









And lastly here's a lovely Garter Snake that lives in a wall of quartz crystal and aquamarines.

Gulls in Flight!

These are images I took with my trusty ole digital camera out at Lake Winnipesaukee's Ellacoya State Park. We went out there to swim, but all we did was bob waves thanks to constant 25 mile per hour gusts. This normally placid waterfront was plagued with whitecaps and 5 foot waves that were a blast to dive into. Even more intriguing to me were the gulls. They hovered near head level, seemingly hovering as they flew into the wind. Enjoy!

Summer Flora

Between a lovely trip to Pickity Place's Gardens and Maple Farm Gardens at Beaver Brook, I've no shortage of vegetation images this year. The above was a flower tucked away in the back of Pickity Place's garden. Pickity Place is a historic old farmhouse which served as the reference for illustrations in a very old printing of Little Red Riding Hood.

The blue flowers are also from Pickity Place. They reminded me of the 'Blue Girls' in my current writing project so I took the snapshot to remind me to work harder on my writings. lol















The mushroom was on a trail near Maple Hill Farm's gardens. If you click and expand it, it makes a whimsical wallpaper. So do fields of daisies...









And lastly I have 2 unknown flowers. The yellow one is from Pickity Place. It was unusual as it bloomed downward and compact. The other is from Beaver Brook and my sister and were intrigued by it, so I took a shot for her.