Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee - Vol. 276
The storm coming up the east coast has swung out to sea after dropping lots of rain in the Carolines and northern Georgia. Here we’ve had some of the nicest weather that has come along all year and no frost yet. The full moon is tomorrow night, and you must watch out just before or after a full moon this time of the year for a frost.
The leaves are turning fast and this weekend and next should be peak in this neck of the woods. Some swamps and shorelines have already hit peak with lots of reds this fall.
We went out on Thursday night as there was a good chance to see the northern lights after looking at my grandson's app on his phone. We went up to the Seventh Lake lookout just before eight as the skies had cleared and we could see stars right to the north right down to the horizon but no northern lights. Some others we reported seeing them as it traveled to the west but not us. The big dipper was just a little to the north of us and Nathan got a few photos of that. There was a Loon calling along the north shore of the lake and a couple of songbirds flew over in the dark giving a couple tweets. A couple of weeks ago when Nathan was home from college he got some great shots just north of Williamson out by Rochester. He got the big dipper, the northern lights and a falling star all in the same exposure. He said it didn’t look that good to the naked eye but came out well in the photo. He was with his dad Jason and his mom Kelly all out shooting the stars.
On Saturday as more of the family arrived, we went up on Rocky Mountain to view and shoot some shots of the Mile of Hope on Fourth Lake. My daughter Erin and her husband David, their daughter Rachel our guide, and Grandson Nathan. We got some great shots of the flotilla of canoes, kayaks and guide boats getting together on the calm lake and then breaking apart after the count. The organizers hoped to raise over 100,000 for cancer research and there were over 2,000 crafts in the flotilla. You can still donate to the fund at http://www.onesquaremilehope.org/. It had been a while since I had been up that trail. The last time I went up someone had gashed their head open swinging a beer can in a plastic holder as they fell and did a good job. We patched him up and of course it was dark, and they had no lights, so we walked them back down to their vehicles.
Earlier in the week, I got an email about a dead adult Loon on Little Moose Lake, so Erin and I went over to recover the dead bird. It had floated right up to the shore, but workmen there said when they came in the morning its mate was circling nearby. We collected the dead Loon, tagged it and put it in the freezer.
We had some critter on the porch one night as I was awoken by a big crash. I turned on the porch light and there was a broken clay pot that held my Christmas cactus smashed to pieces. I went out with my big light, but whatever was there took off. It was trying to get my hummingbird feeders and tried to stand on the potted plant for more height. A little further down the porch was one of my other cactuses down on the porch. In the morning accessing the damage I found another potted plant down in the ferns over the railing still intact. I believe it was a raccoon as he had pulled off the bottom of one feeder a week ago. I put the plants back in their pots and one in a new pot and back on the railing. We did have a hummer today traveling through as it worked some of the flowering plants and fed at one feeder a couple times.
Karen’s Celebration of Life on Sunday filled Gould Hall to the walls most of the afternoon Sunday. So many friends, neighbors, and library users came to give all my family hugs and well wishes. So many had never been in the building and remarked to many of them what a great place this was. My granddaughter Rachel put Karen’s Life together on a powerpoint presentation from when she was one to just the weekend before she died. Since I was there for most of her life being my neighbor next door first and then my wife for sixty years, I filled in the text for the160 photos Rachel put together. My two-year-old great granddaughter Milly came up at the end for hugs and kisses… She's a keeper. I was still greeting some folks just before the celebration ended. I wish to thank all who came on this day, who helped put this together, caterers, staff at View and my family for this day in honor of Karen, love you all!
Get out and enjoy those leaves before they are all on the ground but that’s another story. See ya.
Photo above: One Square Mile of Hope flotilla breaking up
