Saturday, January 31, 2009

Miscellaneous pics from November 2008




Weekends are for long walks at Highbanks Metro Park. November was the beginning of some snow and all the leaves were pretty much gone. It makes for some lovely landscape scenes.













Dressing for the weather is not a problem. We've been collecting a bunch of gear in anticipation of our trek to Everest Base Camp, which will be in May 2009.












November also gives us a chance to have a long weekend off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Meghan likes to hang around in pjs on long weekends. Emma looks more elegant here, I think. . .







The boys sharing a laugh, and it's a rare photo of Richard smiling. He doesn't like having his picture taken.











Emma wanted to share in the Thanksgiving feast. Steve picked her up after we had finished eating and she was all eyes and nose. . .


She did get a bit of people food as I was cleaning up - lucky dog!

A visit with the Stateline Woodturners

Ok, so I'm catching up a bit. This post is from mid-November 2008 when I visited the Stateline Woodturners in Arkansas. I did a weekend visit for an all-day demo and some hands-on classes. It was a great bunch of nice folks to visit and my host, Mark Ost, was gracious and fun to get to know. The demo was at the Jones Center, a nice facility in Fayetteville.



The hands-on classes were at Mark's shop - a space that is much larger than my house. As usual, I had the students work on pyrography and coloring techniques. It keeps me on my toes, that's for sure.











Everyone is always so intent on the work that it's pretty quiet most of the day - not your typical turning hands-on class. Aside from a bit of smoke coming off the wood, there's not much mess to deal with in clean up.








I can never remember the names of students after about a week past an event, but the guy there in front showing off his project is Kurt Bird.













Nice job, Kurt.












I have the students doing transparent coloring techniques with Prismacolor markers and acrylic painting techniques as well. The painting techniques are usually the most challenging for my students.









I always like to watch the dynamics amongst students. There's a lot of sharing and caring going on throughout the day.











Success!













Comparing projects. . .













More success. . . That's Mark Ost on the right hand side of the picture. Thanks, Mark!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Last bit of kayaking for 2008




Fall foliage is wonderful by kayaking. We finished out our kayak season on Alum creek reservoir near the height of fall foliage season. The water level was dropping steadily each week and this weekend toward the end of October was our last on the reservoir for the season.









There's not a lot of boat traffic on the water as the levels drop, so it's great for kayaking up until the extreme north end of the reservoir. At that point you have to be careful to track in the channel or you'll get stuck in deep mud.






Our last bit of fun for the autumn was a full moon paddle on Dow Lake near Athens, Ohio - second week of November, if I recall correctly. We joined up with a group (Touch the Earth Adventures) based on a friend's recommendation about how much fun these night excursions are. She's right - it was a wonderful evening with the highlight being a great horned owl that kept us company for a bit.








We got on the water just as the sun was setting.














Lovely, lovely, lovely . . .










The moon was rising just as the sun was setting. We had plenty of light to paddle by. Everyone wore light necklaces and I highly recommend this experience. It was a real joy to be on the water in the calm of the evening, enjoying nature by moonlight.

More Oct 2008 pics - Autumn scenes



Steve and I like to take walks at Highbanks Metro Park. During the fall foliage season, the colors are an extra bonus to the scenery.










Even though there are always a lot of people in the park, it's very peaceful there. It recharges my batteries to be out in a natural area.









Beautiful autumn leaves.












Always worth a closer look.










Also, an inspiration for my "Autumn Brilliance" series.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Some turnings from 2008







Biophilia. Ginkgo, turned and carved; 5 X 4.25 inches. The inspiration for this piece comes from the microscopic landscape of biological organisms.


photo by Jerry Anthony Photography












Alternate view for Biophilia (photo by Jerry Anthony)















Autumn brilliance series. ca. 4 inches diameter. Maple.












Leaf bowl. ca. 3.5 X 3.75 inches. Maple.












Alternate view of leaf bowl.











"When I let go of what I am, I can become what I might be" - Lao Tzu. No. 2. Redwood, ca. 4 inches in diameter.










alternate view (photo by Jerry Anthony)

Miscellaneous birding stuff from October 2008

Well, I'm so far behind on blogging that I might as well back track to last fall. Here are some pictures from a couple of birding excursions.


The first was via kayak. Steve and I enjoyed birding on Alum Creek reservoir and up into the creek as the shorebird migration was underway.

Here's a Lesser Yellowlegs. The neat thing about birding by kayak is that the birds aren't nearly as skittish. You can quietly approach them by floating the boat and then grounding on a mud flat.






Stilt sandpiper













Ring-billed gull












Steve, stuck in the mud. That's the drawback about birding by kayak in the late fall. The water levels are very low and you can ground your kayak without too much effort.






The other birding excursion was a Columbus Audubon trip to Hawk Mountain in eastern Pennsylvania. About 20 of us rented two chalets and had a wonderful weekend of birding and fellowship.

We were fortunate enough to be given a tour of the Acopian center, which is a raptor research center.







This is a picture of Sarkis Acopian - a wealthy man who was very interested in raptors. He donated the money to build the center.












The main attraction was Hawk Mountain - a place where you can observe the migration of raptors moving north to south. You sit up on a ridge and watch them fly by either at eye level, just above, or slightly below. It was a spectacular sight - we saw dozens of sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper's hawks, red-tailed, broad-winged, etc.







The scenery is pretty nice, too. It was very enjoyable to sit there and watch the hawks fly by.










That's an owl decoy on top of the pole. Hawks sometimes will attack it from a dive.










It was a gorgeous day to be out on the mountain.










This spot is where hunters used to shoot the raptors by the hundreds before the place was turned into a conservation center.









Near the chalets, there was a flock of about 20 turkeys out and about.