While Riding My Bike

I went for a ride on my bicycle this afternoon. I got rained on slightly. Just a couple of sprinkles. That has become something of a family joke. Two summers ago it seemed like every time I went out to ride my bike I got caught in the rain. It rained on me the last time I went out so maybe the pattern is back this summer.

While riding out of town towards Southville I spotted this tractor parked along the road by a patch of woods. It's a cliche subject but I'm a sucker for anything red and I can always blame it on being a visual omnivore with a large appetite. :-) Anyway I went back later and shot several pictures of the tractor and digitally modified this one in Photoshop.

Addendum - Sat. June 26th:  I went for another bike ride and got rained on again.

A Nice Place to Eat Lunch

My first lean-to trip of 2010. Yes, I re-adopted "my" lean-to. I've decided to go for 20 years as an adopter. This one and 2 more will get me there. My friend John hiked in with me. We hiked past the lean-to itself to the camping area by the dam and ate lunch sitting atop the old rock dam enjoying this view of Marshall, the mountain peeking up in the center. The rock dam is remnant of lumbering in the 1800s. It was used to create a pond in the area we are looking across. They would put the logs onto the ice in the winter and when the stream was swollen with spring runoff they opened the dam to drive the logs down stream. Sitting on the dam today it is difficult to picture the mountainsides cleared of trees.

Mount Marshall is named for Robert Marshall, one of the Marshall brothers, the first to climb all 46 Adirondack summits then thought to be over four thousand feet. More modern measuring has revealed that 3 are a bit short of four thousand feet but the Adirondack 46ers still recognize and climb the original list established by the Marshalls. I am 46er #3232.

The clean up was easy, very little trash, none on the camping area by the dam. The lean-to is in approximately the same condition as last fall except the the shingles are getting a bit brittle and very mossy. There are no signs of leakage though. I need to go back next week to put a new register in it however. People have torn several pages out and only about 3 remain for entries.

Itchy Feet

I puttered around this morning but couldn't think of anything I really wanted to do. A friend and I had been talking about camping trailers and he had mentioned a guy who was selling Aliner pop-up campers. I decided on the spur of the moment to drive over and look at them. On my way home I spotted this scene. The barn, which is just outside the hamlet of Gabriels, NY, may be the most photographed barn in the Adirondacks. It is generally shot from a different angle though. Today I wanted to capture it against the mass of Red Hawkweed in the field behind it.The assorted wildflowers in front are pretty nice too. It was a great find on a sunny day.

Camping

Tuesday through Thursday was my annual camping trip with two friends from my NYS DOL days. As is frequently the case when we do these outings, it rained a fair part of the time. In spite of that we managed to have campfires both evenings. The first night was cold the second it sprinkled on us. On one of our excursions we spotted these Lupine. They seemed to be growing on a lot of the slopes along the roadside. I don't recall seeing Lupine in the Adirondacks as a wildflower before. Perhaps the highway dept planted them for erosion control on the embankments. Photo taken with a Canon G10 in light rain.

In looking up information about the flower I learned that its name is a homophone, a word that has different meanings depending on how you pronounce it. The word forte is a common homophone. Pronounced 'for-tay' it is a musical notation term meaning "play loud or forcefully". The same spelling pronounced 'fort' refers to a personal strength or skill. In the case of Lupine the flower is pronounced 'Lu-pen' while the pronunciation 'lu-pine' means wolf like, ravenous or rapacious.

Probably the best photo of the trip though is the one below of a pair of Fragrant Waterlilies in a swamp along County Hwy 45 near Upper Saranac Lake. Photographed in a light rain with a Canon 7D while on my way home.

Good Morning Sunshine

Many moons ago Diane planted some Shasta Daisies. We meant them to live in one of the flower beds but they turned out to be one of those perennials that grows where it wants without much regard for the plans of us humans. Where they like to grow is in several locations around the yard. My response has been to simply mow around them until they stop blooming then mow over them for the rest of the summer. This clump which grows right next to the front path greeted me this morning as I went out to fetch the paper. It was aglow with dew and the morning sun, an explosion of light and color. How could I not take its portrait?

Visual Pushups

A day or two ago the Kelby Training site (NAPP) added a series of videos that followed Scott Kelby as he spent a day with Jay Maisel. Jay has an amazing eye for spotting good photos. Scott asked Jay for advice on how to improve his photography. Jay's response was that if you want big muscles you go to the gym and work out every day. If you want to make good photographs you need to have regular visual workouts, so go out shooting daily. It is good advice and it is one reason I bought the Canon G10. It is easy to carry around. Today Diane needed to spend some time at Clarkson. We incorporated it into a shopping trip and to occupy myself while she did what she had to do at work I took along my G10 and explored. I've spent a fair amount of time exploring the buildings there but I can always find something I've overlooked before and today it was some skylights in the science building. Above is the best of my visual workout for today.