Baby Weston

Here's Weston and MOM! I was absolutely exhausted last night, so I came home and got about 9 hours of great sleep. I'll be down to the hospital again to check on Mom and Babe this morning.








Again, thanks everyone!

Going Back

As we grow older, our collection of memories, stored as visual images, smells, emotions, and countless other visions that are too difficult to describe begin to blend and blur, forming an incredible goulash of goodness. Our experiences increase, and what we view as our defining moments in our lives begin to rise to overshadow that pot of goulash, eventually bubbling over and flaring up in a cloud of steam. This is our realization of what is really important in each of our lives. Although I've photographed and naturalized in far flung places like Australia, Borneo and across America, and seen more pristine natural areas in Ohio that puts me in company with only a handful of people, I don't think any of these experiences will equal the emotional rush that Megan and I hope to experience sometime, at Riverside Hospital in Columbus, within the next 14 days.

With that being said, I took the time this past Monday, president's day, and in fact my 30 birthday, and my own mother's 59th birthday, to explore one of my old haunts, Kenney Park in Columbus Ohio.

Perhaps what marks this park as an urban cooperative is a recently restored footbridge that spans an old stream channel on the floodplain of the Olentangy River. Columbus' parks systems are fairly unmanaged, and recently, the position of director of natural resources for the parks system was eliminated. This park relies on its users to provide maintenance and upkeep.

The main path through the park remains littered with trees from remnants of Hurricane Ike that ravaged central Ohio in September.

Although I do not know his name, one of our old neighbors re-planked and old bridge, carving and painting the names of the dogs that had frolicked along the banks of the Olentangy.

A walk across the bridge allowed me some familiar views.


Canada geese, now ever present along the Olentangy.


Mallard ducks, also ubiquitous.


The white barked sycamores, adapted to thrive in the floodplain.


The corky bark of the hackberry


The evergreen leaves of a Carex.


The seed head of wild rye (Elymus)


The former home of a woodpecker,


A Carolina chickadee,



And a white-throated sparrow, hiding amongst the mast of box-elder samaras.

Although Megan and I have only recently been removed from this park- a place that felt like an extension of our backyard, it feels like years have gone by. It is hard to believe that when our pregnancy began, our house sat only 100 feet away from the green corridor. When I walked into the woods this past Monday, I must admit, I looked at the weeds and my analytical botanical mind started to trash the place. However, I was quickly reminded why I enjoyed the place so much. There simply is nothing like having a little bit of nature, not matter how trounced upon and full of invasive species, that you feel a part of. We haven't found that connection yet at our new house, but as we live here, I'm going to slowly transform the backyard into a mecca for Ohio native plants where our future naturalist, if he or she chooses, can grow and explore.

Tom

Downy Woodpecker and the Clarity of Canon "L" Lenses

Mon@rch asked me what lens I used to capture the willet image a few posts back. I used a Canon telephoto 400 mm 5.6L, which is a freaking awesome lens. I wish I had it to take the shot above. My telephoto now is an eight year old tele zoom 70-300 from Sigma, and it just isn't cutting it. I look at my images from Sanibel and I just drool for that 400 5.6! If you haven't tried this lens, check out Roger Cicala and Lensrentals.com. You'll love it. As far as super telephotos go, it is great bang for the buck. Here's a direct link to the lens. (sorry Mon@rch, you'll have to rent a Canon body to use it!)

I've tried fairly hard to lure birds to our backyard this winter, and have been fairly successful. In fact, at my old place, we had so many creatures that my suet was stolen every time I put it out. When I wired the suet cage shut, the next morning, the entire suet cage was gone. At our new house, I've been more lucky, and we readily have a downy woodpecker visit the feeder, which I have located just off the porch.

Down to 12 days to go on baby watch. We're almost ready, I think. We can't wait to meet this new person that is growing inside Megan.

Tom

Hi Everyone

Hi Everyone-

Things are starting to pile up in our living room- things that we've never owned. All of these things are either incredibly small, have cartoon type characters on them, or are colored yellow and green. I'm not quite sure what is going on.

As you can imagine, Megan and I have been plenty busy getting ready for this baby. A quick look to the right and I see we have four more days until we're under five weeks. And since things can happen early, we may be looking at three weeks. Wow.

Are you staying warm? Hopefully this shot that I have posted at my photo blog will stoke your internal flame a bit.

I'm still taking nature shots and videos, and will continue posting here. Tomorrow, in fact, is my three year blogoversary. I'm also going to start blogging about our home life more often, since things are bound to get interesting around here in the next few months. I'll post those kind of updates to House with a Tree. Just check out the right sidebar to see if any news is happening.

Happy MLK day,

Tom

MyWorld- Exploring a New World

This is my contribution to this week's "My World" Meme. I invite you to participate and show your world as well. Go here to do so.

There's nothing like a 68 degree, late December day to motivate anybody to get out and start exploring. This past Saturday, Megan and I did just that, taking a hike along the Olentangy River near our new home in Worthington.



I say our "new" home, but it depends on what your definition of "new" is. We have lived here just shy of six months, and I still feel like I'm getting to know the ins and outs of our new house and have only scratched the surface when it comes to exploring our neighborhood. We have moved almost exactly two miles north from our last home, a rental in the Delawanda neighborhood of the Beechwold/Clintoville area. Before, I could be at the Olentangy river, literally, seconds. Our house was only two removed from the urban forest that covered the floodplain of the Olentangy. In our new neighborhood, there are homes close to the river as well, but our house is not one of them. We live about eight tenths of a mile east of the Olentangy, in the ever so 1960's-esque Worthington Estates.

Back to Saturday. Why not explore the same Olentangy river near our new home? It was only a matter of time before I brought the cameras to capture what we would see along the river. Feeling like spring, we parked the car, stepped into the park, past the playground, and onto the Olentangy Bikeway, one of the busiest bike paths in Ohio.

We walked north, and shortly we crossed under Wilson Bridge Road, continuing north where a footbridge leads the trail northwest across the river. I must say that the river here is a disappointment. Compared to the runs, riffles, pools further south, actually further into the City of Columbus, the river in Worthington has been channelized. Instead of the root wads of trees lining the bank, limestone rip rap is present, and the stream is one long corridor, even in times of lower water.



The river crosses under a major thoroughfare just north of this footbridge. If you've driven through Columbus, chances are you crossed the Olentangy River here on Interstate 270, the beltway that rings our city. One of our major commuter freeways in town, State Route 315, was built alongside the stream in this area and the river was probably channelized at the same time the new freeway was created. You may recognize this sign, especially if you are a buckeyes fan.



Looking north, towards the bridge that carries Interstate 270 across the Olentangy River.



The trick in these urban environments is to really look and explore- although rare and sensitive species may not be present in such disturbed areas, there are plenty of interesting things to be seen and discovered.

As we walked north of the bridge pictured above, the path takes on a more natural feeling. There are less invasive species in the floodplain forest, the trees are more mature. We walked further, and Megan stopped us suddenly.



A Virginia oppossum- I haven't seen one of these since we moved from Girard Road. This one was young- who knows why it had perished alongside the path. I would hate to think that it was hit by a bike, but I suppose that is always a possibility. Even in winter, the trail is used often.

Megan and I continued to walk, noting the occasional downy woodpecker, Canada goose, and mallard. And finally, we reached the end of the trail, which is adorned with one of our areas most interesting geologic features- concretions.





They may look small, but these boulders are huge. Megan gracefully and graciously volunteered herself to be the size reference for the concretions.



These are actually limestone concretions, founded bedded in the Ohio Shale, our bedrock of the area. The jury is out on exactly how they are formed, but sometimes there are fossilized fish bones in the center of them. The Ohio Geological Survey has put together a nice fact sheet that I'll have to more in depth. The ones here must have been dug up during building construction, I presume, and place in the grassy park area at the trail head for decoration.

There were still other interesting things to be seen on the floodplain that I noticed on the way back. First up was a nice (or not so nice) population of the invasive plant wintercreeper, or Euonymus fortunei. You may recognize this one from your home landscape, but in nature, it can escape and be a nasty weed. Here it has climbed up a sycamore tree.



A closeup of the leaves. Do they look familiar to you?



A little on down the trail, I saw another clump that was fruiting. I'm not sure if I have seen winter creeper fruiting before.



The wintercreeper wasn't the only thing fruiting. Columbus seems to be a hotbed for Osage Orange trees, a non-native species that was extensively planted for hedge rows and other agricultural purposes. I always find these fruits extremely interesting- for those of you that haven't seen them, they are about the size of a large grapefruit. I was reading on Wikipedia that some scientists have theorized that the fruits may have been eaten and dispersed by now extinct mammals. Amazing! The tree is native to the the south-central U.S.



This year seemed to be a mast year for box-elder trees. A maple, the samaras of these trees went crazy this year.



One last tree that seemed to be quite common along the drier reaches of the flood plain was honey locust, a tree that is adorned with three-pronged thorns often several inches long.



It was so great to get out with Megan this past Saturday and walk. She really gets the prize for growing this baby inside her. It is truly an amazing experience for us, and I get all the wonder, and she gets lots of pain! It is hard to believe that in only a few more months, we'll be doing walks with a three person family. Let the count down begin. I've added the widget Megan has on her blog to remind me of just how close this thing is all going to shake down!







Tom

Wrapup of our Highbanks Hike

I was able to capture these photographs using a setting that I discovered deep within the menus of my Canon Digital Rebel XTI camera during our trip to Highbanks Metropark. If you don't recognize this critter, it is a developing human being. That is right, Megan and I are slated to become parents, if everything goes well, around February 27, 2009. We are excited, to say the least. Tomorrow, we will be exactly twenty weeks into the pregnancy, half way there. Ok, I have to fess up. I really didn't capture these images on the trip to highbanks. Our doctor did, at an office, using this interesting GE digital camera with a very strange lens which you smear some clear jelly like stuff on. Fairly amazing camera, isn't it? I wonder where I can get one of those myself!

Everything came out well. See the lines? The doc drew eyes and a smile right on the pictures. And we did not want to find out the sex- we'll wait for it to be a surprise. Still though, we were nervous. I don't think I've ever hoped for something to be more "normal" than any time in my life. Just counting limbs was a big deal. Does it have two arms? Yes! Two legs, yes! This should be a fun ride. Hopefully blogger will be around long enough for our child to read this very post. That is weird, isn't it?

Meg and I are often to Maine tomorrow, what will probably be our last trip until the baby is ready to travel. Pretty cool, eh?

Wish us luck!



Tom & Megan