I stole this from my neice's blog (Henry's daughter). This is my brother when he was 38. His birthday was Friday so this was taken 21 years ago. The passage of time is an amazing event. This is a great picture. Everyone who reads Jen's blog has seen this, but my friends haven't. He's so skinny! But mostly he's full of joy. This is one of the ways I remember him. I also remember him at 50, which is good because I like calling up the image of how he was when he grew up. And we shared more because we were both grown up. or I was sort of. And he could enjoy the new improved me.

It's PANSY TIME!

It's PANSY TIME!
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

On my way to Plattsburgh from a meeting in AuSable Forks I stopped to get some pansies at my usual pansy place. SO MANY TO CHOOSE FROM!! I fill a bowl/planter full of all one color of pansies, a mass monochromatic planting, different color each year. The bowl I use is plastic, though, and I broke it after it froze this winter. I broke a lot of things, very careless. Anyway, there are sooooo many colors to choose from. Pansies that are all one color? Bi-colored? Dark? Light? It was raining pretty hard, which may have hastened my decision. Also the owner came out to see what I was up to when he noticed me taking pictures of his flowers.

Perky little things

Perky little things
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

These were a definite possibility. Very pretty but maybe a little too perky. Sometimes I like something light and bright and other years I like to make a dramatic statement.

Anger eye?

Anger eye?
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

These were a possibility, but they were violas, tiny blossoms. Besides, when I took a closer look I decided I didn't really like them. Angel tiger eye too hard to say

odd combo

odd combo
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

You don't really think I'd pick these, do you?

Delta yellow blotch

Delta yellow blotch
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

And the winner is: Yes, it's Delta Yellow Blotch. Did I pick them because of the name? Now that I take a closer look at them, I think maybe. They look pretty in a bunch, though. Sometimes I buy a flat, take it home, change my mind and buy a second flat of a different color. Sometimes I do that after I've planted them all and I have to pull them all up and plant them somewhere else.

This year I must restrain myself, though--I have to get my finances in order. Yeah, this from the girl who has ordered a LOT of perennials already.

natalie

natalie
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

I got my hair cut this afternoon. Here's sort of what I had in mind. I want short hair (no, really I want the hair I had in college, very blonde and long, very very long) that's attractive and looks good on me.

hair

hair
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This would be perfect. Unrealistic, and I wouldn't look like this, but what a nice head of hair.

elizabeth

elizabeth
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This is closer to what I ended up with

The Mountain

upland 004
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

Here we go again--time to start taking pictures of Silver Lake Mountain.

I walked to camp Tuesday after work. Checked on all the buildings (no small task--6 cabins, main camp and my cousin's camp next door). All is well, no trees down, all buildings still standing.

Fred had said the ice might go out that day, but there was a little left.

I just missed the opportunity for a mirror shot of the mountain--the lake was like glass, but the dogs were thrilled to swim and ran ahead. After their swim their fur was really soft and shiny, free of winter's blech and smell. When they got out of the water they ran around really fast and Tess rolled in the duff. I've heard that dogs will roll on the ground when they're wet to make their coats cleaner. But then, I've heard a lot of things.

iceout

upland 025
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This turned out to be the last day there was ice on the lake. The ice went out yesterday, the 23rd. A little late but at least not May 1, which is really late. It's been very warm for 2 weeks now, but without a warm breeze it took longer.

proof positive

upland 034
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

Here's a close up. The edges of the ice make a really nice sort of tinkling sound when it's like this. Too bad I missed it this year. Sometimes the dogs will swim through it, like icebreakers.

Large Print?

Large Print?
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This is the sign above the door of my cousin's cabin. It was her mother's cabin and now it's hers. The name of the cabin is Upland, but winter has not been kind to the sign. I think this is really funny but I'm sure my cousin will take it very hard. So LP could mean Large Print--maybe I should swipe the sign and put it at the end of our LP stacks. Or LP could mean Lake Placid and my exhusbandthemayor might swipe it for his bedroom. Of course there is Long Playing, those albums we listened to. My cousin has a collection of those and could store them here. Oh, the possibilities of LP are endless.

Special place

Special place
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

Here's what the front of the cabin looks like. The cabin sits on a little rise and has a great view into the woods with the lake beyond. It's right next to Main Camp, though, and every time someone goes in or out the door on the back porch it slams loudly and you hear it in this cabin (LP Land)

Swiss cabin

Swiss cabin
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This is the last cabin in a string of 3 at camp (starting at the boat house). Each child of my father's generation had sleeping cabins built for them when they got married. This one was for my Aunt Frances (we called her Aunt Frankie. I wonder if she liked that? She never corrected us) and her husband Horace. Molly and I, in our impudent college years nicknamed them Pinky and Horrible. We had nasty names for all of our aunts and uncles. snotty snotty pooh pooh pants.

Anyway, myth has it that Frances did not want a cabin anything like the others so she insisted on hiring different builders. The rest were build by "boys from the mill." Hers was built by Swiss builders, hence the curved roof. Who knows if they were really Swiss, but they were NOT boys from the mill. Anyway, from this angle the cabin looks a little pathetic. It looks as if there should be a witch with an oven for little children inside. It's right on the water, though, so you can hear lake sounds all night. Very dark inside--very dark, sort of like Horrible was.

More water

upland 033
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This is the Saranac River, outside of the village of Saranac Lake. I took it yesterday on my way home from the library there. This is supposed to be the Saranac River. This vista is just before the spot where I took last week's shots. The river has risen even higher--reports are that many bodies of water are about a foot above flood stage. I'm not sure what that means, but the water's high everywhere. And there's a ban on outside burning because everything's so dry. The grass is like tinder.

People here burn their grass in the spring because they believe it will grow back greener. I can sort of see that--it's the equivalent of raking up all that yellow, dead grass. Some of us also have burn barrels to burn our papers in. Guilty, me. We've had several house fires recently, a couple started by grass fires and a couple started by burn barrels. And one started by a grease fire in the kitchen. In that one the woman, in a wheelchair, managed to get 5 cats into their carriers and herd her 4 dogs out the door so all 9 pets were safe. Pretty amazing.

Two of the Town of Jay's fire trucks got stuck in the mud fighting one fire. Funny, but also not so funny. They had to declare a state of emergency so the town could go on private property to retrieve them. Oh, the things you learn in daily life.

Anyway, this is a pretty picture but I have no idea where the river is.

mountains and Saranac

mountains and Saranac
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

And here's a zoom-in on the scene. I don't know what the mountain peeking over the shoulder of the mountain in the foreground is, but it would make sense for it to be McKenzie--one of the mtns. seen at the head of Silver Lake.

I like discovering things in the frame that I didn't notice when I took the shot (although that is definitely not the sign of a good photographer). I didn't realize how green the trees in the foreground are. The camera distorts the colors, though, so I'm sure they're not that green. The poplars (popples) have tiny leaves (squirrels' ears?) now, so there is green out there for sure.

silhouette

silhouette
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

The view from the foot of Union Falls--plenty of open water, but plenty of ice, too.

I wish I could say I took this because the silhouettes matched, but it wasn't until I loaded the image that I noticed it. In the foreground is the hill (whose name I forget) that's at the head of Silver Lake. Over its left shoulder is Cranberry Pond. You have to bushwhack to get to it. Ken used to fish there as a boy--he and a friend (here's where I'm embarrassed at failing to remember who it was, having been told this story dozens of times) would go there and spend the night under the boughs of a hemlock tree (hemlocks are one of my favorite trees, their boughs are feathery and the needles sort of drip down). They'd fish for bullhead and always brought back a pailful. Then--now get this--they'd dump the pail into Silver Lake. HAH! Sort of like planting ragweed on an asthmatic's lawn.

Everyone says they used to catch bullhead, but the water is really too cold to sustain a population, at least that's what I think. Anyway, no one has caught a bullhead, I don't think, for a long time. I caught one once, many years ago, fishing in a boat by myself. I yelled ICK! and cut the line, dropping the fish back into the water. Supposedly bullhead have spikes on either side of their heads and the myth is that you have to nail them to a board in order to skin them. Ken has a friend who brings him bullhead pretty often. Marty is a great fisherman, who brings perch, bass, smelt and those awful bullhead for Ken. They're always cleaned and pan-ready. Ken used to ask for bullhead for dinner until I finally told him I DON'T LIKE BULLHEAD. Icky consistency and tastes just like mud. "What? You don't like bullhead?" Anyway, I don't have to eat it anymore.

mystery peaks

falls 006
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

The two mountains in the distance are the two you see at the head of Silver Lake. I've always been told by the Rogers family that they are Ampersand (left) and Mckenzie (on the right) (I think). When I told this to Rush he of course doubted me. Then he thought about it and decided maybe I was right. Oh yeah, that thing Jamie always said, "You MIGHT be right." Used to drive me crazy, back when it was easy to drive me crazy, because I would feel that the unspoken end of that was "but I doubt it." Now I laugh when people say that. Like when people say "That's not a bad idea." The unspoken there is "But it isn't a good one, either."

Power

falls2
Originally uploaded by woodsrun

This is what the dam at Union Falls looks like right now. The power company generates electricity from this, although the only time it EVER looks like this is in the spring. I have a friend who monitors the generator--he does it from home, on his computer (he only lives about a tenth of a mile down the road anyway) and he says it takes 10 minutes a day.

Anyway, sometimes there's hardly any water, just a trickle coming over the dam. I wish my family could see it like this. Henry would have really liked it, and Molly would stand on the bridge, listening to the roar and getting wet from the spray. I think JP may have seen it this way