The 30th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

MILE AND HALF OUT ------ MILE AND HALF IN

We had rain last night and evidently very early this morning.  And here is the rain drop to prove it!  Last night's rain was pretty hard and most of nature had a pretty good cleaning.  Including this crape myrtle here at the house.

Today I walked the Cayce side of the Congaree River.  It had rained earlier this morning, but evidently there wasn't much wind associated with it as the pine trees still had rain drops clinging to each needle.  The woods were quiet as was the walkway.  The smell was of a new rain and rotting vegetation of a new day through the woods after a rain.

A clean and promising new day!

As in most southern woods late in may, it was humid with the temperatures already pressing mid seventy.  The only real sound were those of the cardinals, red belly wood peckers, and Carolina wrens.  The wrens weigh only about three quarters of an ounce, but 90% of that is their vocal cords.  You can here them calling from five miles away.  Well, I probably exaggerate but it sure seems so. 

Early, dark, quiet, and alone I expected to find the tracks of the famed Southern Sasquatch!

  So isolated I felt.

  I am pretty sure that this is more like a USC, basketball player's, Nike, track, size 18.  And not one of that illusive creature found primarily in the swamps.  But who knows, Nike advertises everywhere and whose to say that old sassy didn't take a liking to an occasional jogger's shoes.  Not a pretty thought.  Sassy would have had a real tussle on his hands.

I'll leave you all with that thought!  Is there such a thing as a Sasquatch? 

Hummmmm!

Or is it all some figment of some ad man's imagination somewhere.

  These are the important questions of our time.

The 29th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

AND A HUGE THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE SERVED!

I am not sure that I have posted this link in previous blogs, but it is worth doing again.

http://atlanticsecurityinc.com/video-large.htm

When I lived in Maryland, I built a platform on the top of a piling about fifty feet away from my dock.  I had a pair of osprey nest there the first year, which is amazing in itself.  For some fifteen years, that nest has had, only what I can assume, the same pair laying eggs and raising as many as three offspring each year.  These birds will migrate as far as South America each year and spend their winters in those warmer climes.  But on (almost exactly to the day) March 15th, they are back at the nest to have at it again.  They then have to have their young ready to head south again by mid November.  An amazing thing really.  Please check out this neat web cam and below is one of my birds learning to make his first flight.

The 28th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

SOME SIGHTS ALONG THE WAY

I did three miles in about an hour today on the Columbia side of the Broad River.  Not a record by any means, but pretty good for an old fart like me.  It is a spot that is about 2.5 miles of paved walkway  stuffed between a canal on the one side and a river on the other.  A lot of people, but also a lot of other things going on.  One crosses an old metal bridge over the canal to get to the walkway and it is always interesting to watch the water for any critters, like gators, wading birds, human debris, and other things that use the waterway.

The paved walkway is beautiful but heavily used and this morning was no exception.  I was able to get one shot or two sans peeps.

Normally, these long holiday weekends are difficult for me as my kids are in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.  And I miss em.  But some other friends showed up on my walk this morning.  Notably, a red tail hawk looking for his breakfast.

This is May, hence there was a large hatching (called Hatch in fishing parlance) of May flies.  These dainty flies were all over the place landing on my hands as well as the bushes all along the way.  In the more northern clime, these types of days would be a trout fisherman's dream....not to mention the trout's dream.  Good food and a great artificial fly to have on the end of a fishing rod.  But here, the brim and a few small bass seemed to be feeding on them when they dipped to the water.

Finally, and not necessarily a friend.  This snake, I take to be a black snake, was huge.  Not so fat, but long.  That, to me, makes him a black snake and not a water moccasin.  Either way he was going in one direction, and I in the other.  And that's a good thing!

The 27th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellila

MEMORIAL DAY REMEMBRANCE

Memorial Day was first widely observed on May 30, 1868, to commemorate the sacrifices of Civil War soldiers.  Now, I fear that the meaning of this weekend is that it simply marks the beginning of summer.  Days at the beach followed by outdoor hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, potato salad and fresh tomatoes.  Not to mention some of the first sweet corn of the season.  Friends and family round out the dinning compatriots.

I fear that all to often, we forget the meaning of holidays such as this one upcoming and others such as July fourth.  This image was made at Gettysburg a few years back and offers the Officer's view from Little Round Top.  Gettysburg was a bloody part of the Civil war and the size of the area of that war site is dauntingly huge.  Most of what you see in the view above from Little Round Top was part of the battle site at one time or another.

Believe it or not, General George Meade shown below went on after the war to become on of the most noted lighthouse builders in the country.  He built the lighthouse at Barnegat Inlet in New Jersey.  Just some fiction and fact from my almanac of garbage knowledge.

I wish  all my friends and family a very happy and safe holiday weekend.  And just before we go to sleep each night, maybe give a little prayer for those people who fought so hard to create and maintain this free land.  And for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as well.  Maybe it will make those hamburgers and hot dogs taste Oh so much better.  Can't wait. 

The 26th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

EVER GET THE FEELING THAT EVERYTHING IS UPSIDE DOWN?

This reflection is upside down.  As is our lack of national leadership re: the oil spill and clean-up.

Nero fiddles, making photo ops and blowing smoke, while Rome burns.  The gulf states need federal help to clean up.  Not fix the spill, but to curtail it's spread. 

 And clean it up. 

Turn it around and make it right!

 It's been done before.  What's the problem Washington?

You're screwing up my environment with your ineffectual leadership and political games!

38 days and counting!

The 25th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

SANDY HOOK LIGHTHOUSE

I took some time on my last trip to NH to visit some of the lighthouses in New Jersey that might have been repainted since I last visited them.  Sandy Hook is always a trip.  Almost in the dried mushroom sense of the word "Trip".  I guess the proximity to New York City lends a bit to the weirdness one can experience out there.  A nice experience, don't get me wrong but, if one looks hard enough and is open minded to what is going on, some strange, different, and interesting things can be found.  This time it was a hog nosed snake crossing the road.  It always weirds me out to find a snake at the beach.  At other times it has been the unexpected discovery the the local nude beach.  But this time I was on a tight schedule going from Navasink south to Cape May where I caught the Ferry to Lewes.  So I kept my clothes on while out there.  Probably a good thing that.

The oldest operating light tower in the United States, Sandy Hook Lighthouse has been in operation since 1764. The tower is 103 feet high with a diameter at the base of 29 feet and 15 feet at the top respectively. A third order Fresnel lens was installed in 1856 and is still in use today, flinging a white non-blinking light up to 19 miles at sea on a clear night.

British loyalists used this light as a base for raids on the countryside during the Revolutionary war. And in WW II, the light was turned off to protect New York Harbor. Located on National Park Service property it is within the confines of Fort Hancock at the north end of Sandy Hook.

The first lighthouse location in the country is of course Boston Harbor, but this light is the oldest existing tower at it's original location.  It is still amazing to me how these things were built.  The walls are thick, as much as eight feet in some cases, and were comprised either of brick or stone.  Just shaping the stone  would have been a huge chore.  In 1764, they just did not have the equipment we do today and all of it was hand labor.  Once the tower itself was built, the generally metal, circular,stairs had to be placed and the light room at the top, some 12 stories up, needed to be built.  Quite an engineering marvel.

I think that I finally got a definitive image of this lighthouse.  This photo pleases me and I did not have to go through to many contortions to get past telephone wires, cars, roads, and people to make the image.  The clouds were just right as was the lighting.  This one works and will be shown for the first time at the North Wildwood Maritime festival in July.  Dates and stuff for that show can be found on my website.

Wishing you all a good day.

The 24th day of the fifth month of the year of the Camellia

I DON'T NORMALLY DO THIS...................BUT!

This is an open letter to whoever wants to read it, and I pray that in some way it might help the current nature of man.  Chances of that are slim and none, and Slim just left town.

I live within three miles of this spot on the Saluda River and to which I walked this morning on the RiverWalk.  Does that mean I can now have bacon and eggs for breakfast?  He asks his cardiologist.

  Probably not, but that's the least of my worries.

For those of you who attended public school, this is a river which tries to clean itself every so many feet with filtering grasses and river bed stones.  It is a pretty much losing battle as too many people live on it and around it.  But as rivers go, it is pretty clean.  Trout thrive in it's upper reaches and landlocked striped bass in most of the rest, as well as small mouth bass and brim.  Also an occasional gator.  It really is a pretty spot within the shadows and city limits of Columbia, South Carolina.  A major city in the South.

Now for my grand kids, and someday great grand kids.  I am pissed!  By the time you are old enough to read this that will probably be one of the milder terms you learn in your modern places of education.  Webster says that the term means in British parlance, sometimes drunk.  That I am not!  In other translations define the term as downright angry.  That I am!  Now, they may change Webster's dictionary by the time you are old enough to read this, but right now in late spring of 2010, that is exactly what I mean.

Before I drop the hammer (writer's parlance for get to the point), we all have seen the semi-pristine beaches and oceans we are fortunate enough to live on or near.  This one at Assateague Island in Virginia.

Or seen a storm coming into the beach and putting an end to our beach side enjoyment for a while.

Or maybe lucky enough to experience the rocky coasts of New England and Maine.

And then there is this guy who is right now under serious threat!

To say there is a grave problem in the Gulf of Mexico is one of the understatements of modern times.  And I don't want to hear all the left wing ranting about "See what happens when you drill offshore".  I don't want to hear anymore hand wringing, inept, uninformed professional politicians saying "Well we expected the other guy to take care of this......and if George Bush had just ....yada, yada, yada."  Well, news flash....George isn't president, and neither is Bill, Ronnie, or even the peanut vendor.  AND, they are all at fault!  And yeah, you can note my tone of disrespect one and all.

The current administration is hell bent to destroy the economy, our democratic way of life, and now their inexperience or unwillingness to "Stop playing politics" is going to destroy an good chunk or our environment.  So kids this is what we leave you with.

I for one have gone online to find organizations who might need help in cleaning up the mess along the gulf coast and further if it gets to that.  There are the usual whiners like the Sierra Club and others who simply have political agendas.  I am not interested in them and would prefer to spend my time, money,  and effort with the likes of Audubon, or local home grown groups, who just want to clean up the mess.  Lets face it, Washington is just being Washington.  Too late with too little and always protective of their own political butts rather than problem solving.  Not to mention that the current bunch of "Elites"  simply  don't know what to do.  The answers were not in the text books at Harvard, Yale, et al.

Here's my answer Mr. and Mrs. congressman and women (deliberately without a capital C).  Give Bobby Jindal what  he needs to do the job, because the rest of you don't have to intelligence or the guts to find the solutions that the American Public elected you to do.