Contrariwise

As you are probably aware from the postings of other Boston-area LJers, we had a bit of snow yesterday and overnight into today. We actually achieved OFFICIAL blizzard status late last night (defined as "3+ hours of sustained 35 mph winds and 1/4 mile visibility") which, as the Weather Channel people never ceased telling us, is the first time Boston has had a REAL blizzard since the infamous one of 1978. We did not, in fact, beat that snow total record. However, we did have a 76 mph gust at Logan Airport last night, and a category 1 hurricane is 74 mph (sustained, granted), so well-played, nature.

I took a bunch of "before", "during", and "after" pics. You can click through and see any of them larger.

( Many snowy pics below! )

Neighbors trying to dig out their entire driveway by hand. Mind you, the winds are still VERY strong. I then noticed that one of them (right) had, halfway through, gone and fetched a lawn chair, and just gave up.



I agree, neighbor. I'm not even going OUT there to clear off my car until tomorrow.

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes yesterday. :) We actually had gorgeous weather here, so I took the opportunity to do something I've been meaning to do for a while, which was get out kayaking again. It surprises me to realize that I probably hadn't been out for 2 years, and as soon as I got back out on the water, I remembered how much I just plain enjoy it. The river is lovely and the feel of kayaking is lovely.

This time, I was excited to get out on a stretch of the Charles River that I'd never been on before. Charles River Canoe & Kayak has several rental spots, all of which I've been to, but I didn't know they'd opened up a new one upriver at Nahanton Park in Newton, on a 12 mile stretch of the river unbroken by any dams!

In a sense, this was my downfall; so was going by myself. Because whenever I go out to do things by myself, I always wind up being over-ambitious. Previously, I think I have not done paddles much longer than about 6 miles round trip. This time, I took advantage of a little canal that cut across a big loop of the river -- at the end of which, I had to actually get out and walk through a waterfall over rocks (in flip-flops, because I'm dumb), dragging the kayak under a bridge to get back to the river and go back the long way, downstream. In my head, this made sense, because paddling downstream is always easier, and I'd noticed on the way out that the wind ought to be mostly at my back on the return. But I sort of didn't do the math in my head to estimate how long a trip that would really be. When kayaking, I tend to manage about 3-3.5 miles per hour. I paddled 2 miles to get to the half-mile short-cut. That brought me back to the river 8 miles upstream, which I then had to paddle all the way back to the rental site. And while I was indeed going with the current on the way back, the current isn't so strong that it carries you at any speed. So, yeah. That was about 3 and a half hours' worth of constant paddling, more than I'd ever done before, and the river was twisty enough that I still had stretches where I had to paddle against the wind.

But it was great, even if my arms are kind of limp noodles today.

I don't have any pictures of any of that, because I don't tend to try to mess around with electronics in a kayak, since it's all so wet. Instead, have some pictures from a few weeks ago, when Diane and Katie and I took a day-trip up to the White Mountains in NH. I was the instigator of this plan, because it has seemed for a while now, to me, that it is ridiculous that I have lived up here for over 20 years and never been up there, and never driven up Mt. Washington.



Many more pictures below the cut, half of cool animals and half of scenic mountain vistas: ( this way... )

Conclusion: the White Mountains are really pretty. And I want to see more waterfalls.

Remember the hawks at Harvard? We had all kinds of Drama earlier in the spring, and then the upshot of that was pretty unclear. But my guess has been that the resident pair didn't raise any young this year, because of the disruptions to the mating season.

I will sometimes see one or the other of the adults perched on a weathervane. But a couple of weeks ago I found BOTH of them perched on a steeple around the corner from my office, so I went out to get some pics.



( A few close-ups below... )

Meanwhile, in Nature News, we have also acquired bunnies.


( More details below... )

Yes, yes, still behind. Have some owl pictures from June!



( More owls behind the cut... )

Next time: the USS Constitution (I promise!), and a trip to the Jersey shore. (Not THAT Jersey Shore. I swear.)

Dammit, New England Aquarium. You are NOT going to let me pet a hammerhead. Not even a very small one. Don't jerk me around.

This was a quick screen-cap I took of one of those annoying, in-your-face animated ads on Boston.com's homepage this morning. The hand descends and the shark comes up until they touch. Yeah, right. (click to embiggen)

(For the record, I would like to gather folks for a trip to the NEA to scope out the new Shark & Ray Touch Tank. I got to pet some sharks and rays at Monterey, and it was neat. The sharks are usually quite small and really not all that interested, but the rays are into it. You can see a video of it on the NEA website front page right now. But the whole hammerhead picture is silly. THERE WILL BE NO HAMMERHEADS. Phooey. I did get to see a couple of hammerheads at the Monterey Aquarium, and mostly my impression of them is: they like to hang around at the farthest reaches of the tank away from the windows, and harass the school-fish.)

CORRECTION: So that's what I get for ranting without going to look things up first. Apparently they DO have a bonnethead shark in the touch-tank. The bonnethead is "the smallest species in the family of hammerhead-like sharks". There is a little video of it at that link -- it must be like 2 feet long. AWWWWWWW. Well-played, NEA. I stand corrected.

Also, OMG OMG, I am SO THERE.

Today, it is frickin' cold here. Winter has settled in. ... Let's enjoy one last look at fall, shall we?



( More behind the cut... )

I really enjoy getting out and walking, and I've assembled a pretty big collection of places to do it within an easy drive around here -- a combo of various town conservation land and forests, state forest, and Audubon reserves. Fall is definitely my favorite time -- partly because of the beautiful colors, and partly because the temperature is just right for prolonged walks (and after the first frost, the bugs get killed off).

First, from several weeks ago (on Oct. 30), a brief walk in Broadmoor Audubon sanctuary -- catching some perfect afternoon light through oak leaves:



( More this way... )

Thank you to folks for the birthday wishes. :) I had a nice, quiet, flobby day.

I also got some long-overdue stuff done, such as uploading some pics for posting. Today, pics from an owl show back on June 6th, at the spring festival at the Ipswich Audubon reserve. The program was courtesy of Eyes on Owls, a couple who care for birds who can't be released back into the wild for various reasons, and who have trained them as educational owls.

The photo quality here is somewhat disappointing, as it was a grey, dark day, and the tent set up for the owl show was made out of yellow canvas -- thus, the strange quality of the light. The few clearer shots are because I was standing at the back edge, and Marcia, who handled the owls, would bring them around for people to get a closer look at, so I was able to get a few pics from quite close, and under more natural light.



( Click here for more... )

Tomorrow, update on hawks!

So, the exciting thing I promised on Friday (for certain values of "exciting") was that on Friday evening, I attended a saw-whet owl banding demonstration at Drumlin Farm Audubon Sanctuary. I really didn't quite know what to expect from this, but it sounded kind of interesting. I ended up at the "family night" session, so it was me, some parents with kids, and the Young Birders group.

Well, let me tell you, it was totally cool.



( More insanely cute pictures and explanation below the cut... )

From katie_m:

1. Stop talking about politics for a moment or two.
2. Post a reasonably-sized picture in your LJ, NOT under a cut tag, of something pleasant, such as an adorable kitten, or a fluffy white cloud, or a bottle of booze. Something that has NOTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS.
3. Include these instructions, and share the love.



Paragon Carousel, Nantasket Beach, Hull, MA - October 25, 2008

The center and inside horses go uppy-down, which is always awesome, and it really does go around at a respectable clip. Yay!

(At some point soon I will figure out how to upload a movie somewhere so I can post here 39 seconds worth of this carousel doing its thing.)