Category: Interacting with nature

new camera old lens (continued)

In my previous post I mentioned the challenges of crisp focusing, the flatness produced by the flash directly above the camera (it should be to the side), camera shake and the need for a tripod.  I discovered among our possessions an old tripod (a Velbon VE-3, >30 years old) and today I returned to the field.  When using a macro lens the slightest jarring of the body blurs the image.  One answer could be to increase the speed of the shutter.  But then less light reaches the sensor.  So I Read more [...]

new camera and old lens

I have taken photographs since I was a kid.  Initially with a box camera, then my Dad's Zeiss Ikon f2.8 bellows camera, then a single lens reflex and then most recently for this website a Canon PowerShot SD1100.  The PowerShot has been fine but it has limitations for good close up pictures.  I recently found a boxed assortment of Pentax lenses, one of which is an Asahi SMC Macro Takumar f4 100mm, which is about 40 years old.  This lens should be great for close ups I thought, so why not pair Read more [...]

restocking the little pond

In June last year I dug a small pond in the woods where a spring emerges from the hillside.  I stocked it with a few goldfish and minnows - see my post on the little pond and by July I was sure the frogs had eaten all of them.  Then later in the year I noticed one fish, about 6 inches along, and then two fish and in January, the same two fish and a small fish.  Somehow a couple had survived and apparently propagated. In my post in February this year I mentioned the frogspawn in the pond and, Read more [...]

neighborly chat

Every so often I meet my neighbor (I will call him Thomas) and we catch up on local goings on.  Not a Robert Frost walk the line and set the wall event but courteous enough.  He hailed me as he backed his truck out his drive (I learned later he was on his way to the insurance company) and we got chatting.  I mentioned I heard his chainsaw the previous day hard at work followed by a loud crash.  He explained that he was taking down a rotten tree some of whose limbs had fallen on and made ineffective Read more [...]

favorite bloomings

In early summer my two favorite blooms are the Cherokee rose and the Grancy Graybeard.  The Cherokee rose is not a sophisticated rose. Like the dogwood it has simple bright white petals.  It has vicious thorns, dark green leaves and thrives in the humidity of Georgia.  It is tough, independent, requires no nurturing and is our state flower.  It is an ambitious climber.  I nailed several cable hoops around a tall pine and after pointing it in the right direction it took off and now has Read more [...]

Activity in the yard

In the woods the splashes of white are the dogwoods. They have a striking, bright white flower. The dogwood tree trunk is also unusual.  It looks like the hide of an alligator. Lots of white foam on stems and leaves everywhere. If you probe gently with a twig and look carefully you will see the odd looking spittle bug emerge. The bamboo patch is producing offspring. And of course, with the good comes the nasty - the ever lurking poison ivy. I thought the ohio Read more [...]

Aldo Leopold – Green Fire

The local weekly gazette mentioned that the Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia (MCT) was screening a new documentary on Aldo Leopold.  I was interested that Pickens county, where my property is, was the HQ of MCT an environmental group and I wanted to learn more about it.  Also, I vaguely knew the name Aldo Leopold but was unsure what he had done. Last Saturday at the event I met with several board representatives.  Their mission, as I understand it, is to encourage large local landowners Read more [...]

cuddling a peach tree

I have 2 peach trees and last year their blossoms were freeze damaged and I had no fruit.  I really shouldn't have any peach trees because they are difficult to produce fruit using organic methods and they blossom very early in the spring.  But Georgia is known as the "Peach state" and Peachtree is a very popular street name in Georgia, and the Peachtree 10K Road Race is the world's largest 10k race (I have run it 20 times), so my enthusiasm got the better of prudence. Freeze damage occurs differently Read more [...]

Down Under takes a stand – almost

Hurricane Sandy late last year hammered the northeast.  I read the articles and listened carefully to NPR for a consensus from the scientific community attributing the cause of the hurricane to global warming (I use "global warming" and "climate change" interchangeably). There was no consensus nor did I hear a scientific expert unequivocally say that global warming caused Hurricane Sandy.  No shortage of laypeople expressing their views, including Mayor Bloomberg, but it seemed the scientific community Read more [...]

a silver lining to faltering memory, also BMSB and IPM

I find that my memory does not work as well as in the past.  As a student I could easily memorize hundreds of law cases, now the labels I read one day are gone the next.  So where is the silver lining consolation? I believe we have different skill sets and we compensate for those we lack.  The kid who can analytically unravel and reassemble complicated concepts  tends to be independent and does not require and consequently does not develop, good social skills.  The ambitious kid, who does Read more [...]