Evaporating snow leads to mist

There's mist rising from the melting snow, making for an interesting ground-level vista.

Changing views of the forest

Over the months, I have taken photos of the lake from the front of the cabin. Putting them in chronological order, one can see the progression of the seasons...

Rain in the forest

It's raining in the forest today, and the temperature is reaching 10C, too! I don't know how thick the ice is, but I'm not going to be walking out on it until it gets nice and frozen again...

Trekking around the forest

Third Sister Lake has frozen enough to have an illegal ice-fisher out on the ice, and today I made my way (cautiously) across the ice on my rounds. Although I was not the first person to walk across the lake this season, I didn't grow up in places where lakes froze over (at least to the point of being able to walk on them). Also, being a rather large guy, I am wary of having things adequately bear my weight. Anyway, I mustered up my courage and headed out, following the paths of former walkers.



Up on the northwest part of the forest, I found that someone had a go at cutting out a path through some of the larger woody debris that has fallen across the user-generated path that leads to the main road from the user-generated entrance opposite Westview Way. While I don't mind that people are taking an interest in the accessibility to the forest, I am a little concerned that this might lead to actions that are successively more dangerous. If you happen to be the person doing this, I thank you for your efforts, but please e-mail me (link to the right) if you have concerns about accessibility. However, remember that this is not a public facility, but rather a research facility to which the public - on their own personal responsibility - is allowed access for the 12 hours between 6 AM and 6 PM.

Winter Bird-feeding

Happy Winter Solstice!

A walk in the woods

I walked along the north side of the forest this Winter-Solstice evening, taking along my camera. I encountered a lost scarf adorning a tree (and decided to leave it there).



Then, I moved along and started hearing what sounded like owls in the pines. Moving back toward the main path leading to the south side of Third Sister Lake, I happened across this scene, which really made me -- for some reason -- want to take a photo of it.



As I walked through the "Arboretum" portion of the forest, I noticed some footprints in the snow walking to the lake. Having had problems with ice-fishers in the last winters, I decided to ensure that these tracks belonged to someone who decided (inexplicably) to walk off the path and see the lake from the western end. However... no such luck. The ice fishers are (apparently) back and (again) trying to hide this fact by sneakily setting up on the far end of the lake.



This one, and its twin (installed a few meters away) were removed.

With the solstice being tonight (in one hour from now!) I'll be making a fire to see it in.