City Daily Photo Theme Day: Orleans Village Metal Footbridge

As Grandson Wingnut and I walked the Orleans Village Quest this past Tuesday, we had to cross the Barton River on this metal footbridge high over the river. Wingnut, as you can see, had no fear of heights — unlike me! I held to the rail on both sides, focused my eyes on Wingnut across the river and cautiously made my way across while consciously breathing slowly. All photos will open in a new window when clicked.

To view the entire quest, please visit Orleans County Quests: Orleans Village Quest

Orleans Village Quest Set on Flickr

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Indian Pipe

Monotropa uniflora

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Sky Watch Friday: Storm Clouds on Crystal Lake

Wingnut and I were at the town beach at Crystal Lake when the clouds began to move in again. This is another HDR image. It has highlighted and dramatized the cloud formation. You don't need HDR settings on your camera. You only need to take three different exposures and then you can combine the three photos. I use Photomatix but there are other ways to do this (click here for a Google search for HDR Tutorials). When clicked, this photo will open, full size, in a new window.

UPDATE: My thanks to Andy and Aaron for helping me convert this image from 8 meg to 379 kb. I never pay attention to sizes because of my huge amounts of storage here. So when Andy told me how big it was and how long it was loading, I tried to fix it. But couldn't. But now it is fixed. Thank you both!

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The End of the Aphid Farm

The once flourishing aphid farm on the rhubarb stalks has disappeared completely. I wish I knew why and how they dispersed. I assume that when the rhubarb stalks died, the ants, aphids and spiders found a place to go to live. But it is a mystery. Did they leave all at once? Or a few at a time?

But when we were looking for spittle bugs on Saturday, Wingnut did find another tiny ant farm out back in the field. We have to keep an eye on it to see how (or if) it grows. Tomorrow I will cut down the dead stalks. Observation is over. It was a great experience in viewing nature.

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Technorati Tags: aphid farm, ants, honeydew
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Loons on Crystal Lake

There is a pair of loons on Crystal Lake. The groundskeeper says they will even come on shore when people are present. Also, they fly back and forth from Willoughby Lake to Crystal Lake.

One day last week I heard a loon on the beaver bog. But that was ridiculous, I thought. There are no nesting loons here. But according to the people at Crystal Lake, they would easily stop off to rest or feed here on their way back and forth to Willoughby.

Gavia immer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
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Technorati Tags: Gavia immer, common loon, Crystal Lake, Barton, Vermont
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Spittle Bugs

What you see on the plants in a field — a wad of spittle on the stems or leaves of plants.

The spittle appears hexagonal
(which makes sense from the little I have read and understand about strong shapes).
Family Cercopidae

I had never heard of spittle bugs until the bug program at the library. I had seen the spittle of course, but thought it was sap naturally bubbling out of all the plants in the fields. But when Mr. Schneider showed us photos, I was amazed. So Wingnut and I went into the fields Saturday evening, found a good specimen, brought it into the house and photographed it. My last photo below is terribly unfocused when blown up like this.

This is the nymph of a spittle bug and I have not found out which species. But I know it is not a pine spittle bug. They are not harmful. They are too small to damage plants. But if they truly bother you, hose them down. They build these little houses of spittle to protect them from predators. Any creature this clever deserves to remain in its little spit house and grow.

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Wingnut Photos

Cranefly

Day Lillies

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Thunderstorm Damage

The photo above was taken on Friday, July 18 at the Barton Public Library after we had moved inside to make our bug shirts. If you click on the photo and view it full size you will see the horses in the field down below. You are looking from the library parking lot into the middle of Barton Village where there are many horses and barns. I went back out to the parking lot for more photos to see what the weather was going to do. It wasn't going to do good. The winds were so strong that the windows of the library bulged ever so slightly. And one of the trees in front of the library was blown down. On our way home after the storm, Wingnut and I saw several other huge trees toppled over in Barton. An earlier storm burned down the Sheffield Federated Church. The photo below was taken through the big library window just after the tree blew down. The beige house across the street is Community National Bank. The brick building is the historic Barton Academy and Graded School.

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Brownington Prospect Hill Observatory Quest (or: Playing with HDR)

Brownington Congregational Church (hdr image)

Our goal: the observatory on Prospect Hill (hdr image)

Start of road that we walked up

Left to right: Sophie, Scout (the Crazed Beagles), daughter Amelia, grandson Wingnut (hdr image)

raspberries by the road (hdr image)

unidentified flower

Sophie, Amelia, Scout (Owl's Head is in the background)

The Observatory (hdr image)
for historic information, click here

Southeast view: Tall peak, left: Bald Mountain. Little hump on the right: Haystack Mountain
(hdr image)
Turning clockwise:

Southeast view: Willoughby Gap: Mount Pisgah on the left, Mount Hor on the right. (hdr image)

Lake Willoughby inbetween them but cannot be seen. Turn clockwise again:

Western view: Jay Peak (the pointy peak almost in the middle) (hdr image)

Northwest view: South Bay of Lake Memphremagog in the midground. Lake Memphremagog is behind that (it looks like a blue circle). Owl's Head Mountain in Québec is the highest peak on the side of the lake. (hdr image)

See the treasure box in the rafters of the observatory?

Contents of the treasure box.

Geodetic survey marker at the bottom of the observatory.
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Technorati Tags: Bald Mtn, Brownington, Vermont, Haystack Mtn, Jay Peak, Memphremagog, Mt. Hor, Mt. Pisgah, Owl's Head, Prospect Hill Observatory, Willoughby Gap
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Sadly, Sunday Spire: Sheffield Federated Church

This photo, above, of the historic, century old Sheffield Federated Church was taken in May. Yesterday the church burned because of a lightning strike. Wingnut and I went to pay our respects today, with many others, and took these sad photos. The text is from the Caledonian Record.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Lightning Strikes Church's Bell Tower
Amy Ash Nixon
Staff Writer
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Firefighters attack a fire in the bell tower.

SHEFFIELD - The historic white clapboard Sheffield Federated Church in the village caught fire Friday morning after its bell tower was struck by lightning, Sheffield-Wheelock Fire Department Chief Marc Brown said.

Firefighters from several surrounding communities, including Glover, Lyndonville and Sutton responded and battled the blaze that started in the cupola sometime around 11 a.m. That's when the first 911 calls came in.

The church, located in the heart of Sheffield on Route 122, could be seen smoking from several miles away. Lightning is believed to have struck the belfry, according to people at the scene, who heard a loud noise. They first believed it was in the woods until smoke was seen starting to billow from the historic church, spreading panic through the village.

Judy Zimmerman, visiting her brother David, said someone stopped at their home across from the church, banging on the door to call 911. And she knows several people called the fire in once the smoke was seen. Observers, including a group of children with binoculars, watched the fire from across the street.

Wilbur Beer, a parishioner who lives in Lyndon Center, traveled over to watch the fire, and said, "It's very sad."

Beverly Frost, who lives nearby, caught photos of the early stages of the fire, and said before she picked up her camera, she helped evacuate children from the day care center on Route 122. The children were taken to nearby Miller's Run School, she said. She "helped to escort the kids to the school."

The Rev. Tim Pittman, his wife, Linda, standing beside him with her arm around him, had few words to put to the feelings he was experiencing, tears welling up in his eyes.

"It's pretty rough," he managed to choke out.

"It's been 10 long years of hard work," Linda said.

Pittman, when asked to comment, said, fighting tears, "I can't put words to it."

Harold Burt was also watching. He said, "I've been the janitor there for 20 years. The church is over 100 years old."

Chief Brown said it was too early to tell about the structural integrity of the church building because firefighters were still tackling the smoke, and flames were still erupting from the walls of the bell tower. The bell had fallen through to the floor, after ringing several times from the water hitting it during the firefighting efforts.

Brown said firefighters had difficultly with water early on in fighting the fire as multiple departments responded, and power had to be cut off to the building to safely battle the blaze.

Water supply improved, he said, allowing firefighters to battle the fire. They were able to poke holes in the belfry and cut into the clapboards to ventilate the fire to try and knock it down.

Firefighters expected to be at the scene much of the day monitoring the site, which state police were helping to oversee.

Paul Spitzer, visiting from Maryland at David Zimmerman's home, expressed frustration at the flow of water onto the fire initially, as did several observers of the fire. They worried about the structure becoming engulfed. The water issues improved and more water was directed on the bell tower and structure.

"It's very sad that they haven't had more water available," Spitzer said.

Karen Rood, who owns a second home in Sheffield, was heading back to Connecticut with her grandchildren when she noticed the fire and stopped to watch the firefighters try to save the church.

"My husband and I go to that church when we are here on the weekends," she said. "I feel so sad about it."

Brown said fighting fires in an old wooden church bell tower "is very tricky." He said the church sustained heavy water damage.

The two-alarm fire saw strong response from the surrounding departments and there were no injuries reported as a result of the fire, Brown said.

The East Burke Fire Brigade and West Burke Fire Department were placed on alert while the fire was fought.

© The Caledonian Record

All Rights Reserved
Sunday Spire

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(Nearly) Full Buck Moon

Waxing gibbous moon: 91% of full

From the Farmer's Almanac:

Bucks begin to grow new antlers at this time. This full Moon was also known as the Thunder Moon, because thunderstorms are so frequent during this month.
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I have been trying to take moon photos at night with my Canon XSi. This is my best shot from this past week and was taken after 11pm EDT (-5 GMT) on Monday, July 14. It has too much glare and the clouds are out of focus. This was a magical night with the mist pouring over the bog in the warm summer air and thunder clouds floating all around. The smear of light on the top left is Jupiter. I learned this from Starry Nights Online. Try it!

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Camera Critters: A Moth and a Spider

The moth is unidentified. But I know that the spider is a barn spider.

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Camera Critters

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Wild Edibles: Chicory by Wingnut

Cichorium intybus
Aster family
I enjoy the fringed petals.
Abundant everywhere.

Chicory roots are a coffee substitute and a food additive.

Photos taken on Kodak Z710 Zoom camera by Grandson Wingnut.

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Technorati Tags: Cichorium intybus, chicory
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