ALL THE LEAVES ARE BROWN, AND THE SKY IS GRAY...

...but I'm content to be right where I am, not dreaming of being on the Coast. Here are two recent views from my backyard. The top photo is to the west, with the faint arm of Pigeon Bay hugging the horizon. The second shot is to the east, with the Point Pelee peninsula. Today it's raining, and fortunately the wind isn't too strong, so the back porch windows just may get cleaned and stay that way! It's a beautiful mild day in a rather indeterminate month...

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Raven Swallows the Sun (Lake Erie)

I wrote this out for SWF last week, but didn’t get around to posting it, so now I have something for today, even though my friend is visiting and we're out and about all day. I'll stop by and see your skies this evening! The Raven in the photo used to sit atop the western-style gate at my home in the Rocky Mountain foothills, greeting all who came to visit, and no doubt amusing the real ravens. Now he sits on the patio railing and looks out at the lake, but so far no other ravens come to play; maybe one day… I took this photo when the sun was about to set, and was reflected in the raven's shiny black paint, making it appear that he'd 'swallowed the sun.'

Raven Notes
Ravens and humans go back a long time; for millennia even. Raven, a very widespread bird, has been a recurring subject of mythology, folklore, art and literature around the globe. In many indigenous cultures, including those of Scandinavia, ancient Ireland and Wales, Bhutan, North America, Siberia and northeast Asia, the Common Raven has been revered as a spiritual figure or god. Raven is known as a hero, a creator, a trickster, a friend and helper of humans. Along the northwestern coast of North America, Raven figure prominently among the stories of the First Nations people—the Haida, Tlingit, and Kwakiutls to name a few. The story of Raven swallowing the sun belongs to the Koriak people of Siberia.

The Raven and the Sun in Siberia: Among the Koriaks, Raven-Man swallows the sun because Big-Raven declines to give his daughter to him in marriage, whereupon the earth is plunged into darkness. Yine-a-neut, Big-Raven’s daughter, tickles the Raven-Man who swallowed the sun: he opens his mouth and sets the sun free. Pacific Coast: This corresponds to the episodes of the raven cycle of the Pacific coast, in which the Raven liberates the sun. From: http://collections.civilisations.ca/multimedia/3143/392/E2006-02648_02685_01.pdf -






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AN ERIE STORY

Like each of the other four* Great Lakes, Lake Erie has many moods. All of them have their appeal, except maybe the wildest storms if you live right on the shore like I do! I think my favorite mood of the lake is when it's perfectly calm, almost mirror-like, and the light and air play tricks with the horizon and perspective, making things like fishing net floats look like a string of beads floating in some strange cosmic void. (click for best viewing)


Lake Erie is:

• the fourth largest of the five Great Lakes by surface area (and the tenth largest lake globally) but is the smallest and shallowest of the Great Lakes by volume - and therefore is the warmest, and has the shortest average water residence time.

• bounded on the north by the Canadian province of Ontario, on the south by the U.S. states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, and on the west by the state of Michigan.

• named after the Erie tribe of Native Americans who lived along its southern shore.

• an average depth of 62 feet (19 m) and a maximum depth of 210 feet (64 m). For comparison, Lake Superior has an average depth of 483 feet (147 m).

• primarily fed by the Detroit River (from Lake Huron and Lake St. Clair) and drains via the Niagara River and Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario.

• home to Point Pelee National Park, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland, located on a peninsula extending into the lake. Several islands are found in the western end of the lake; these belong to Ohio except for Pelee Island and 8 neighboring islands, which are part of Ontario.

• host to a number of cities on it's shores, including Buffalo, New York; Erie, Pennsylvania; Toledo, Ohio; Port Stanley, Ontario; Monroe, Michigan; and Cleveland, Ohio, and of course, Leamington , Ontario where I currently live!
  

* In 1998 Lake Champlain was officially declared the sixth Great Lake. I've been on Lake Champlain, it's a very nice lake, although definitely the runt of the glacial litter compared to the truly great ones surrounding the Michigan mitt, where I grew up. To me there will always be just five Great Lakes!

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Last Colors of the Evening (Lake Erie)

The first photo is of my back patio. The setting sun tints the weathered wood a delicate pink, and gives the shadows of the willow bush the optical illusion of being green. For the second photo, I turned and captured the sun itself—the source of the beauty.





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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Maya (Lake Erie)

Along the north shore this morning it looks and feels like the sky is everywhere and nowhere. Fog obscures the details of the backyards, and totally dissolves the view of the lake. The fog collects on porch screens and patio furniture, giving the appearance of rain, but you could stand outside for a long time without a jacket and feel merely refreshed, not soaked. The only sound is the gentle lapping of invisible waves; the only movement a skimming swallow, briefly manifesting, then just as quickly fading back into the mystery.


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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – TWO SUNSETS (Lake Erie)

Spring has arrived here on the north shore, but it’s still being a little shy about it. Days alternate between mild and optimistically sunny to chilly, overcast and rainy. One gray evening a few days ago, the sun found two thin places in the veil of clouds, creating the illusion of two sunsets, one gold and one pink, happening at once, as if we’d been transported to some faraway planet in a binary star system.


For the musically inclined, here is LINK to a beautifully done video montage of inter-stellar images paired with the music of Paul Kantner and Jefferson Starship. The song is the tender rock ballad, "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight" - reprised from the 1970 concept album, Blows Against the Empire, and recorded live at Kantner's 65th birthday in 2006.


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GOING HOME

Today it's raining steadily, but I have in my hand the first few pieces of beachglass I collected this season, found on a sunny afternoon at the little beach just down the road from my house - a couple of bits of old stoneware, a tiny piece of an old patternware plate; a bright green chip with a hint of a ridge (I think it might be from a vintage 7-Up bottle), and a nameless piece of clear glass, turned yellow by the action of the sun's UV rays on its chemical composition.

A trip to the big beach near the ferry dock almost always yields more spectacular finds, like old medicine bottle stoppers from the turn of the century before last, and interesting blobs of "bonfire" glass - bottles and other glass items melted in a trash fire, then dumped in the lake, and left to roll around for decades til they're frosted and ready to be storm-tossed onto the beach to lie like uncut gems in the sand - but any walk on a beach is a good one. I put beachcombing in the same category as birdwatching. A leisurely obsession that takes you for a wonderful walk outdoors, with often the reward of seeing something new and amazing to identify.

Here's a favorite poem I copied into my notebook from an issue of New Yorker magazine, sometime in the 70s I think it was - I didn't save the issue. It's like a piece of beachglass itself, a small treasure I've carried with me for decades. Now that we have the Internet, I've tried several times to find out more about the poet, but so far nothing has turned up. If anybody knows anything about her, I'd love to find out more, read more.

Going Home

Tonight when we're back in another land
We shall not empty our shoes of sand
We shan't untangle sea-snarled hair
Nor rinse our souls of salty air

Susan Thurrott

THE POWER OF WATER

A couple of days ago I posted a series of photos of the wind-driven waves splashing against the breakwall at my back yard, and ended with a shot of water that was pooling in my neighbor's yard two doors down. Then yesterday, the fellow who does breakwall maintenance showed up with his tug and barge, and a load of big rocks (aka armor stone). As I watched out the window, the barge turned and headed very close to my place, so I grabbed my camera and headed out. I was shocked to see my neighbors' yard with a large, deep hole in it! Even worse for them, the strong metal barrier had buckled in at the top, and then flared out at the bottom as easily, it would seem, as a curtain hem billows out a raised window.

Armor stones can shift and some even sink with time, but whatever may have been in front of my neighbors' place in the past, there were no stones to prevent the buckling and the washing away of his yard when the recent winds and high water came. I don't know if there's any way they can restore the wall without making it worse; the rocks they added yesterday may be all that can be done to prevent further erosion. And then they're going to have to fill that hole with something.



It got me thinking about the power of water. Together with the wind, it bent and buckled that section of thick metal breakwall like it was nothing. At my place, it's obvious some of the previous owners have added to the pile of armor stone over decades. It may not be the prettiest bit of shoreline from certain angles, but I'm awfully glad it's there!

SKYWATCH: BEFORE and AFTER the STORM

A storm swept over the open lake, spattering rain everywhere, and sending the squirrels and birds on shore racing for cover...


...but it blew itself out before too long, and everyone returned, to gather under the bowl of blue.

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Eye in the Sky (over Lake Erie)

We’ve been socked in with rain for days, and my stash of Skywatch photos is depleted, too, so I went out with my camera during a break in the rain (but not a break in the gray) and took this one of the only clouds available. When I got back inside and looked at it on my computer, I could see a pale mysterious eye looking back at me. I think it was worth a pair of squishy wet shoes.

Then late in the day the rain stopped, and the sky decided to make it up to us with a really glorious sunset that turned everything to crimson!




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OLD BIRDERS' PROVERB: An Offshore Wind Flatters No Standing Ducks

This is the third consecutive day of wind and rain. In some ways I don't mind, since an offshore wind means less work for me. I don't have to squeegee muddy Lake Erie spray off the back windows. But it can be very difficult on the birds. One time it blew so fiercely I watched it sweep a house sparrow completely off her feet and somersault her over backwards, like that little Woodstock bird in the Peanuts cartoons. This time, an unexpected gust whipped a starling right off the tree with the suet cage. I just happened to be trying for a photo of another bird when it happened, and caught the startled starling, too. What looks in the photo like graceful flight is really some fast and desperate course correcting!






And then there's the ducks. My pair of mallards stopped by and basked in a brief moment of sun that broke through the clouds. Sitting with one's back to the wind works if one remains seated, like the female, but stand up, like the male, and the wind does the most unflattering things with feathers. Talk about a wide load!






When the rain took a break, I popped out out to get the mail. We never get any pigeons around here, but I thought the beaded water on an oil spot in my parking area made pretty pigeon colors, so I went back for my camera. While it certainly wouldn't count as a sighting for anyone's Life List, after three soaking days, I'm getting desperate for something with a hint of color! I suppose I shouldn't complain; you don't have to shovel rain...

SKYWATCH FRIDAY - Late for the Sky (Lake Erie)

The title of my Skywatch photo this week was taken from the Jackson Browne song of the same title. The lyrics are about a failed love, about loss and parting, but even knowing that, the title seems enigmatic to me. I'm not sure what it means, but I like the poetry of it. And poetry (and all artistic endeavors) often suggest rather than spell out. What appeals to me about this sky is the way the it almost looks like it's been scratched in places, as if someone tried in vain to keep another night from covering the day.


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FOUR PAINTINGS and a PHOTOGRAPH

Four of these images are paintings by American abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970). The fifth is a photo I took of Lake Erie on calm afternoon.

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – April Fool’s Sun (Lake Erie)

I took these three shots yesterday – April Fool’s Day – so I thought it fitting that they have a faux sun. It’s actually a solar garden ball that glows softly for a few hours after dark, but I think it’s just as pretty with the real sun setting behind it. The wind has died down quite a bit, but with the lake level so high from melted snow and recent heavy rains, even modest waves still create spray that catches the colors of the real sunset.






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SURF'S UP on LAKE ERIE

(click to enlarge)
Remember all those photos I posted over the winter months, of the flat frozen lake with a couple of ice mountains? Well, all that's changed now that spring has sprung. The heavy snow we received this winter, plus a few days of heavy rain over the weekend, and the lake level is pretty high. When the big winds come, we get lots of crash and splash against the breakwall. Trust me, you don't want to be standing there!

GOING GOING GONE - THREE HORIZONS

Just as with every mountain or prairie landscape, the lake has many moods. Here are three recent spring-time horizons. The first is of the late afternoon sun illuminating the Point Pelee peninsula, the next is of the last floe of ice before it drifted away and melted. You can see the herring gulls have planted their flag, but their newly-claimed territory won't last. The bottom photo with the Canada geese was taken earlier this morning. If winter snow and winds bring white-out conditions, spring fog brings "gray outs." The horizon is strangely uncertain, and the geese look like they are floating in a mystic, unnameable element. Even their normally raucous voices seemed somehow quieter in the still morning.

SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Floating Sky (Lake Erie)

Yesterday afternoon, a slow-moving thunderstorm rolled through, and when the clouds lifted over Ohio, the light brought beautiful reflections to the calm water. The mountainous landscape of ice piled up by last December’s wind and waves is sinking as surely as Atlantis, if less dramatically than what Plato described. Before long the islands will disappear completely into the chilly water. The gulls have already returned. There’s enough water on top of the flat ice for them to swim, and when the rest of the ice departs, the mergansers and other deep-diving birds can make a living here.




EXTRA, EXTRA! A friend sent me these cool SKY PHOTOS she found on flickr; maybe some of you have seen them already. Quite inventive sky shots!


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SKYWATCH FRIDAY – Sun, Ice, Water, Fog (Lake Erie)

The day had been dull and fog-obscured from morning until late afternoon, when the sun broke through behind the veil of gray, silhouetted the ice peaks out on the lake, and turned everything the color of a Jovian storm. To further the metaphor, rivulets and pools of bright water along the top of the ice looked ancient as the surface of a Galilean moon.
(click to enlarge for details)





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SKYWATCH - FAREWELL to the SUNS OF WINTER (Lake Erie)

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that we have seen the last of the really frigid days. A friend told me yesterday that warmer temps, maybe even into the 50sF, or double digits Celsius, are coming our way soon. Already big cracks are appearing in the ice along the shore, and ribbons of open water appear during the day, even if the still freeze over at night. So here is my tribute to the beautiful sunsets of winter over the frozen lake.











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THE LAST DAY of FEBRUARY BRINGS OPEN WATER

Wind and warmer temperatures have done their work, and out beyond the ice closest to shore is - open water - that slim dark strip at the far side of the ice! As you can see, there are still some big piles of ice pushed up by wind and waves, but unless it gets really cold again, they will continue on their to back to liquid. Out on the very edge, two swans were drifting along, but they were out of my camera range. You can see in the bottom photo how the ice at the foot of my breakwall is quite cracked. I hope the little red fox who has been patrolling the ice mountains regularly has good instincts not to venture out and get stranded!




An additional note. Yesterday, our blog friend WREN put up a really cool photo of puffins. They are such comical-looking little birds, I was reminded of some of the classic amusing limericks that have been written about birds (the BUSTARD, the PELICAN, and the HEN (written for Henry Ward Beecher by Oliver Wendell Holmes, with an excellent pun in the last line!) so I emailed our other blog friend and poet, KAT, and said, Hey, what do you think? Well, she got all inspired, and created a delightful limerick tribute to puffins, destined to be a classic, too. I hope you can stop by Kat's blog for a read, and check out Wren's charming photo, too!