Clouds, and a Butterfly

On my weekly walk to the grocery store this morning there just didn't seem to be much the camera could catch as I walked through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park. There were lots of butterflies, and even a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, but none of them seemed to want to sit still enough to get their portrait done. However, when I got up to the meadow I saw that the humidity and the heat had created some pretty impressive clouds. So I got some cloud pictures. And I also came across an Eyed Brown butterfly on the railroad overpass on Baltimore Rd. on the way home from the grocery store. Finally, a subject willing to sit patiently while I moved around to get the best angle!

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Corn Festival 2016

Today is Shippensburg's annual Corn Festival, always the last Saturday in August, when they shut down the main drag (King St.) from Spring St. to Prince St. and fill it up with handcrafts, food, and entertainment from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. I know people who grumble and think the whole thing is tacky, but I love this kind of thing and have a great time every year. Here are some shots of some of my favorite parts of the festival, plus a brief video shot with my cell phone to give you a taste of the atmosphere at the center of the festivities. Enjoy!

The street was packed at 10:00 am

The Cameron Molloy Band and Laurie Matlock on the main stage, playing "Route 66"

Carved gourds

Wooden and bamboo flutes and dreamcatchers

Quilts displayed for a raffle hung on a fence by McLean House

Handmade, old style brooms

Ray Owen performing at the gazebo across the street from my house

Here's the video I shot today to give you an idea of the atmosphere of the festival:

And here's the slideshow I put together 5 years ago after my first Corn Festival:

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger

A Rainy Sunday Morning

"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby."
– Langston Hughes

" Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."
– John Updike

We finally got some decent rain today. Not all that we need, but it was pretty soaking this morning and there looks to be more of the same later this week. We need it. And it rained on me while I was doing my errands this morning.

It started raining while I was doing my laundry, two showers, one after the other. Then it stopped for a while. When I headed for the grocery store via my usual route through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park, it started out with just dampness from the previous showers but no actual rain, so I got the first photo of the butterfly. But not long after the rain started up again, and the rest of this photo essay is concerned with views of the park in the rain. Yes, I got wet. Happily so!

A Variegated Fritillary butterfly getting a meal in before the rain starts up again

A view of the north duck pond in the rain

Raindrops on the north duck pond

A view of Timber Hill from the upland meadow

Looking west from the top of the meadow

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Hot August Morning

We're currently stuck in a Bermuda high; this means that there's a high pressure system sitting in the Atlantic Ocean off the East Coast just cycling, and it cycles in a clockwise motion, which means it's cycling hot, humid air from the south right over us. We've been stuck in it for about 4 days now and it doesn't look like it's going to move off for several more days. Right now at 2:20 PM it's 99ºF/37ºC, which combined with a dew point of 74ºF/23ºC means we have a heat index (what it actually feels like)  of 111ºF/44ºC. And a very humid 111º at that. A local weatherman called this weather "disgusting"; I heartily agree!

This is also my once-in-four-weeks weekend off. Nope, no hikes; during a heat advisory like this the advice is to stay indoors, but if you need to be outdoors don't do too much, don't stay out for long, and fer Pete's sake stay hydrated! I went out to the grocery store earlier this morning (full and previously refrigerated water bottle tucked into my messenger bag along with the camera) to get all my wandering done before the real heat set in, and I still totally soaked my shirt with sweat. Despite the discomfort, I followed my usual practice and walked through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park; these are the scenes that grabbed my attention.

Nice, cool water; the creek in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Long Dash Skipper sipping on some Spotted Knapweed in the Dykeman Spring wetland

These reflections in the north duck pond look amazingly like Aurora Borealis

A Cabbage White butterfly sipping on Spotted Knapweed on the upland meadow

Mountains and clouds to the north seen from the upland meadow

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Visit to Burd Run

Today I decided to head over to the Burd Run stream channel reparation project park at Britton and Fogelsanger Roads. I haven't been there in some time and thought it was about time for another visit. Due to the dry Summer the creek is running low, but it was still plenty green and there were some interesting photos waiting to be taken. Enjoy!

A male Goldfinch on the approach to Burd Run

Burd Run at Britton Rd.

A Cabbage White butterfly

Black-eyed Susans

A female Ruby-throated Hummingbird on a Buttonbush

A Long Dash Skipper

An Ebony Jewelwing damselfly on a branch over the creek

Heading home on the undeveloped end of the Rail Trail

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Stained Glass Wings

Today was a day for butterflies in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park, and the prolific Joe Pye Weed seemed to be the place to be the place to find most of them.

Monarch

Two views of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Spicebush Swallowtail

Silver-spotted Skipper

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Beauty

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumblebee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. – Ashley Smith

Scenes from a walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park

Photos © 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

An Abundance of Wildlife

We actually had rain yesterday and overnight last night, and there may be more coming on the weekend. This seems to have awakened some of the critters in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park out of their heat-and-drought-induced midsummer torpor, especially the turtles, who tend to sink to the bottom of any deeper water and bury themselves in the muddy bottom until things cool off. Here are some of the residents of the park who sat still long enough for a portrait.

This Eastern Cottontail was sitting in the middle of the Dykeman Walking Trail daring me to keep walking

A Common Whitetail dragonfly in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Painted Turtle sunning on the bog pool next to the north duck pond

This particularly large and ancient Snapping Turtle, who I call The Behemoth, had just come up for a breath of air, with the mud of the bottom still on his back

This Green Heron flew up out of the wetland into this tree to hide from me, and kept a wary eye on me for quite a while

A Variegated Fritillary butterfly in the upland meadow

My new Summer hat, a handwoven palm hat from Tula Hats out of Austin, TX

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Butterflies

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." – Nathaniel Hawthorn

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." – Rabindranath Tagore

A Red Admiral in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A pair of Silver-spotted Skippers in the Dykeman Spring wetland

A Cabbage White in the upland meadow of the Dykeman Spring Nature Park

Photos © 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

There and Back Again (with apologies to Bilbo Baggins)

"He [Bilbo Baggins] used often to say there was only one Road; that it was like a great river: its springs were at every doorstep, and every path was its tributary. 'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,' he used to say. 'You step into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"- Frodo Baggins in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

So when I was planning my vacation for this week one of the first things that popped into my head was to finally walk the entire Cumberland Valley Rail Trail from Shippensburg to Newville, something I've wanted to do ever since I first discovered it. And looking at the weather forecast for the week, yesterday stood out as perfect for hiking - cooler than the rest of the week, with low humidity. So at 6:00 yesterday morning I headed out.

It was a great hike. Lots of things to take pictures of, interesting bits of history learned from the information posts they have along the trail, and new vistas to look at in the part of the trail I hadn't walked yet. But I made a mistake deciding to walk up to Newville and then walk back; that's 10 miles (16 km) up and 10 miles back, a 20 mile (32 km) total. I figured if I took a long, maybe half an hour, break to eat lunch and relax at the Newville trailhead everything would work out. More fool me!

The 10-mile walk up was fine. I was a little footsore, but not markedly so. I took my boots off and ate lunch, and then stretched out on the picnic table bench and rested in the shade. Then after that half hour rest I put my boots on and started to head back. After just two miles my feet were hurting, but the nearest bench in the shade was about 3 miles down, so I made it to that and took a rest with the boots off again. And I continued that way all the way back to Shippensburg. By the time I got home my feet were killing me, my hips and calves were complaining, and I was so tired I think I might have looked drunk as I slowly made my way through town to my home.

Did I learn anything from this? Yes. Age definitely puts limits on activity, and at 63 it looks like 20-mile hikes are beyond those limits. Ten mile hikes are fine, though. Also, some of the problem was due to the fact that my new hiking boots weren't as broken in as I thought they were (well, they're broken in now!), so the lesson in that is to wear only well-seasoned boots on long hikes. And finally, if I ever want to visit the entire Rail Trail again, I need to make arrangements with someone either to meet me in Newville and give me a ride home or drop me off at Newville and I'll walk the trail back to Shippensburg.

After a good night's sleep I'm back to normal today; I expected to be stiff in the hips and legs, but that doesn't seem to have happened. And I've gone through the shots I took and processed the ones I liked best, so here they are for your pleasure. Enjoy!

Looking north across the valley in the early morning

The Sensenig's Purple Martin high rise (at Duncan Rd.) is certainly full up and busy!

Another view of farms and mountains

A spiderweb along the Rail Trail

This brave little Chipmunk waited until I was almost up to him before he scuttled off

This baby Eastern Cottontail also waited until I was right up to him; he didn't take off until some bicyclists came whizzing by

Fields and mountains - a typical Cumberland Valley scene

A serene pastoral scene captured during one of my rest stops on the way back home

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger