The Resuscitation of Wednesday Adventures

Since the unseasonably high temperatures are probably the first sign that the Mayans were right and the human race is doomed in December, I figured I'd better take advantage of the time I have left and not let a beautiful day go by without getting outside. When my husband saw me pull out my hiking boots, he took a vacation day to join me.

Mount Severance happens to be just a few minutes down the road from our house and is a great first hike of the season. It's short, not even 2 miles round trip, but just steep enough to wake up our legs after a winter's rest. And the views from the summit are outstanding.

We watched the ice melting on Schroon Lake

I enjoy hiking mid-week because we often have the trails to ourselves. We were on our own at the summit until two gentlemen came over the crest. The elder looked like he was wearing his "Sunday drive" clothes and I wondered if his wife would scold him for getting mud on his shoes. (While the mud wasn't too bad due to the lack of snow this winter, there was still a number of squishy spots.) The younger snapped a few pictures, then they disappeared back down the mountain and we were left to eat lunch in peace.

Mountaintops are perfect places to journal

And it was peaceful. Other than the hum of trucks going by on Route 87 below, there was nothing but the birds singing and the shutter clicking on my husband's camera as he captured the view. The breeze carried the smell of pine.

When I get to mountaintops, I never want to leave. When the mountain is serene and the sky is a perfect blue, the sun is warm with just enough breeze to keep it comfortable, and it's too early in the season for bugs except a few happy butterflies, I need to be dragged back down, kicking and screaming. (That is a bit of an exaggeration, but I really didn't want to leave.)

The last of the snowmelt running downhill made the stream very pretty

My husband and I wandered down the back side of the mountain for a bit, delaying our descent. When we returned to the summit we discovered we were again not alone, but this time one of the trio which had arrived was a friend of ours. It would have been nice to stay and chat, but we did have to beat the school bus home.

Being married to an amateur photographer requires patience

It's been a tough month, preparing for a busier spring and summer at the yoga studio and launching the Bona Fide Butterflies, and I needed an adventure. And, judging from how heavy my legs felt, my body needed a hike. The mountaintop breathed new life into me and I'm ready to get back to the work at hand.

I'm grateful to Mother Nature for a beautiful Wednesday, even if it's the calm before the apocalypse. I hope She lets me summit a few more High Peaks before she wipes us out. Or, better yet, She gives us another chance.

Nature - Cute and Bizarre

Ever since my husband headed to the north country with the dogs, the New Jersey wildlife has reclaimed the backyard. We suddenly have a population of bunnies and groundhogs, hordes of squirrels, and birds galore. I'm not complaining, since we're enjoying watching the antics, but I'm keeping a close eye on the groundhogs and their proximity to my "vegetable garden" (large pots containing tomato, eggplant and pepper plants, which will move when I do).

Image via Wikipedia

We've had an interesting addition to the New Jersey garden this year. After days and days and days of rain, I noticed a patch of yellow in the garden that looked like vomit. Had the dogs been around, I would have assumed one of them had gotten into something gross. Curious, I did a search on google for "garden vomit" and discovered that the mysterious yellow goo is actually called "dog vomit slime mold". I'm not making this up. Check out Tom Volk's page on Fuligo septica here.

Dog vomit slime mold hangs out around rotting wood, eating bacteria. The extra water this year must have made my wood mulch a good place for the slime mold to grow. They must have had some wet weather in the 1950s, when a large patch of slime mold inspired the movie "The Blob".

We've got plenty of birds in the yard, but my kids and I have really been enjoying Cornell Lab of Ornithology's nestcams. Twitter friend @adktricollie turned me on to the website, where you can watch the nests of an owl, a falcon, a chimney swift and a robin. The young barn owl is really fun to watch. What a funny face he's got!

Thanks to Mother Nature I've had some nice distractions from packing, work and my pre-race training taper. There are some really amazing things out there!