Excuse

Well here's my excuse: I signed on for some software that would look at the number of pageviews there were of my blog since Oct 13. Well this software wasn't working right (my fault not the software's), I wasn't aware that it wasn't working, and it was telling me that nobody had looked at the blog since mid-Ocotber. Not very motivating. I found out that was wrong and that there actually are people reading the blog. (I must say that I am kind of flummoxed by the fact that people would voluntarily spend their free time reading my gibberish.) So that's my excuse for not writing any blog entries for a while.

Since it has been so long since I entered last, I'm going to split up my photos into a couple entries – this one being from Nov 13th to Nov 23rd. (I actually didn't take all that many pictures while I was in Marq. because at that point I thought that nobody was looking at the blog anyway, so I didn't have to much motivation.)

So November the 13th I headed north to Fond du Lac (my ultimate destination being Marquette to visit Spring, my girlfriend) to visit a high school friend of mine who we used to call “Beast.” Good times. From there I headed north to Marquette and stopped along the way to take a few pictures at Daves Falls. Some of you might remember some other pictures I had on an earlier blog entry of these same falls. None of the pictures of the falls itself turned out to be worth a damn but there were a few of the area right around the falls that were OK. I wish that I had made more of an effort to take better pictures of the falls itself so you could compare what it looked like this summer and what it looks like now (or the way it looked on Nov 14).

I like history. But as an unabashed lover of nature I have to lean towards thinking that these pilings from an old dock in Lake Superior near downtown Marq. are kind of an eyesore not really a desirable historical relic. Seems like we should clean up our messes.

This is right along Daves Falls.

This was taken in Governor Dodge State Park on the trip to Fond du Lac.

Snow was falling but it was still kind of warm when I took this picture of a tamarack tree in Marq. Some may remember from high school bio (or an earlier blog entry of mine) that tamarack trees have needles but are deciduous – they lose their needles each fall – so this tree isn't dead, it's just getting ready for winter.

This is the view partway up Sugarloaf Mtn. which is a big hill near both Marq. and Lake Superior. The top of this “mountain” is rocky and only has a few trees on it to obscure the view of Lake Superior.

This picture was taken at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. You can see that the view of Lake Superior is pretty awesome from up there – even when it's kind of hazy up there.

Daylight

These pictures were all taken within the last two weeks but their origins are so scattered that me trying to tie them together with some kind of story would be a losing proposition.

I will say that I'm kind of bummed by daylight saving's time pushing the sunrise time earlier. It was kind of nice to be able to sleep until 7:30 and still be able to see the sunrise.

This was taken in the early morning before the dew evaporated off stuff. I thought the low-angle light of the early morning (when the sun is "low angle" it just means that it's low in the sky. As opposed to the light at midday when the sun is overhead and light from it is harsh this low-angle light is generally much better for taking pictures) made some interesting shadows on this leaf.

I had on my rubber boots and was doing my whole streamwalking technique when I came to a pool of slow water and saw these leaves floating on the top of the surface tension.

This was taken in the same stream as the last photograph was in.


This the pod of a milkweed taken with the sun directly behind the pod. That's why the fuzz on the milkweed seeds are so lit up. I guess that I'm assuming that y'all are familiar with the way milkweed seeds are. In case you don't know I'll give a brief description of them. They're kind of like dandelion seeds. They have lots of fuzz that catches the wind and carries seeds around. A little trivia: I've heard of people using milkweed seeds for emergency insulation in clothes...like when you go through ice on a lake. And you can make cord out of the stalks.

I was at Devil's Lake State Park when I saw this leaf and how it makes an interesting contrast with the rock behind it. The rock is a quartzite boulder that had broken off a steep embankment and rolled down to the bottom.