Decaf and Weather

 

I do love mornings. The view above is looking out the kitchen window at a pretty sunrise.

Mornings are when I get time to myself in the house. 
Since I love coffee in the morning, but coffee doesn't always love me. I switched over to decaf and it made a huge difference. I thought I'd go through caffeine withdrawal and have terrible headaches.

I didn't. But Folgers Decaf is some of the nastiest tasting stuff around. My son's girlfriend works for a coffee company and while talking with him last week I asked if she knew of any kind of decaf coffee that actually tasted good.

This week, I received a package in the mail.

Yum.

This is one of the flavors. Color me tickled to have a smooth and good tasting coffee in the morning. It helps me start the day out with a brighter mood.

Saturday was all about weather. Warming temperatures, ice, sleet, and then rain. As the temperatures warmed up to nearly 50 degrees, the melting snow and warmer air created instant ground fog.

Even though it was raining lightly, I decided to head out the door and explore the intense weather.

I knew that it would be just a short walk through muck, mud, and ice to get to the runoff area just west of our fenceline.

Aurora was absolutely correct in saying, don't follow the trails. Stay off the beaten path.  This deer trail was treacherous. 

The meltwater and ice follow this dip towards the bigger ditch. 

Certain spots have a little drop into a pool and that creates a mini waterfall.

The foam is due to organic matter in the stream like fall's dead leaves. Chunks of ice were slowly spinning around too.

This drops into another lower spot that is wider. I don't know how many years ago this vehicle was dropped in here, but it was probably used at the time to slow down erosion. Of course the water just goes around it.

Just past this car is another one that is nearly submerged in mud.

I kept walking down the hill to follow the water. I got almost to where the creek that flows into our land starts when I heard thunder and decided to hurry back to the house.

Here is a shot from about the same spot in 2018, after a huge rainfall February 21st.

Another storm came in and now the Kickapoo is flooding. I'm all up for going to the creek bottom and exploring today, even if it is dreary looking.

Who knows what I'll discover now that the temperatures have dropped to just below freezing again?

The Creek Bottom after a Flash flood

I looked out the window as soon as daylight broke and used the binoculars to read the rain gauge.
3.25 inches of rain on the dot.

And water was running like crazy everywhere. My smart phone gave me an alert that flash flooding was occuring in my area. 
Be still my heart! 

Our house is not situated in an area that would be in danger from a flash flood. Our driveway suffers washouts, the creek gets cleansed of all those nasty weeds, and some places do wash in the pastures...but our house? We were not in danger of rising creeks or flash floods.

However. I love a good gully washer. Or should I say I love the aftermath of a good gully-washer/flash flood.

Alas. My poor heart. I had tomatoes to can. My feet however where itchy to go out and see what the gushing waters looked like.

I finished canning the tomatoes, and then proceeded to work on clear coating the Wainscott chair rail wood in the dining area.

Then it was time. I donned my 'woods' pants, 'woods' shirt, camera bag, rubber chore boots...and of course Morris and went to explore. I had promised Rich that it would be a short walk.

Oh what torture that was.

Earlier this year, the creek was not visible due to the amount of Jewel Weed and other weeds that choked the creek bottom.

A few flash floods and gully washers have set things back to normal. 
And I can gleefully look for cool rocks.

And I can find the odd balls rocks. The ones I believe are iron concretions and come in some very strange shapes.

The water was cold that came down the creek from above. Briefly, the sun came out and there was a thin layer of fog on top of the creek water.

It was eerie but amazing at the same time. Cold air and warm air met. Fog in a thin layer oozed across and towards myself and Morris.

Morris and I only hiked a small portion of the creek. 

We hiked enough to know that I wanted to follow the creek down the valley to where it meets up with Black Bottom Creek.

I looked at my watch. Time to get back home. I had work to do inside the house and the sun had come out. It would be a hot and sticky walk home.

I dipped my hands and my baseball cap in the 'new' pond and cooled off before heading up the ridge road towards home.

Morris trotted ahead of me, eager to get home and out of the heat also.

However I was stopped dead in my tracks by some incredible jelly fungi that glistened in the sunlight.

I sure want to get back into the woods and explore the valley.

Alas. Today is Crab Apple Jelly Making Day with the Neighbor.

I promised to show her how to make jelly. Both our households love jelly and homemade jelly.

Tomorrow looks to be promising though.

Fog in the morning and nice temperatures.

Perhaps I can convince my darling hubby to let me off clear coat duty for a couple of hours to explore the valley.

How I love to explore!

Big Rain and Lots of Fun

I looked at the weather on the radar, we were supposed to have a chance of rain and then it would move on.

Oh boy was the weather service wrong! After the first inch of downpour, I checked the weather again. NOAA had said that a line of thunderstorms had developed and stalled.

The expected rainfall could be anywhere from 2 inches to 4 before it moved on.

I stepped out on the porch and watched the rain come down in sheets. After that first downpour water started running across the yard and through my garden.

The water ran across the edge of the yard and right into the garden.

The damage was minimal after the waters receded. I went out to look at the garden and water still trickled through. 
Our ground is super saturated.

Just after the rain stopped I checked the radar and put on my chore boots. It was time to go see how the waters were running.

It came down from our neighbor's cattle pasture and had rushed to the spot where our little creek begins.

And from there the volume increased.

I stayed up on the bank for the most part because the water was still flowing too hard and too fast even though it had subsided from flash flood stage.

After the waters subsided a bit more, I did use this deer trail to get down into the creek and take some shots near the big rock.

Yep, worth the mud on the hands and the seat of my pants. However, climbing back out was interesting. Walking along the stream was not an option.

I went down to the last dry run we have before the creek goes into the neighbor's land.

The water had subsided, but the run off was still very impressive.

I decided to end my exploration there and not continue downstream.
The water would only be faster, deeper, and wider there. It could wait a day for me to go check it out.

I guess I am just a freak for mud, water, and fun in the rain.

I'm going to go search for my rain duster and check it out again today or tomorrow.

Really. I am not crazy. 
Perhaps I can find some cool fungi and mushrooms!

Big Melt!

I took my Olmpus OMD M5 to take shots out yesterday.

I was again impressed.

I did some experimenting to see how well the Olympus would do with IR photography and long exposures.
I was not disappointed here either.

60 second exposure:

This is a line fence of my neighbors.  Morris and I finally got chilled enough to get off the wind blown ridge and down into the valley and creek area.

The sun came back out and warmed us up.

Morris is forever the patient assistant.  He will sit near me after we've been hiking a while and wait patiently until I pick things up and am ready to move on.

We were headed back home along the trail when I thought I heard the faint noise of water.
Naw, it couldn't be!
But.

I called to my 'assistant' and he came running.  We were off to the rocky dry run.

And indeed we were in for a treat.  I set my camera bag with the Nikon in it on a log on the home side of the creek bank and then proceeded to climb rocks towards the sound of water with my Oly in my sling pack.

I was able to hear the sound of water coming off the ridge above.
So I thought I'd experiment.

I decided to try and use the video option on the camera.

This is the first time I've actually gotten a few good clips of the water run off.

I grabbed a few shots and then decided that I'd best head home.  My feet were cold and the creek was filling full of water.

Morris waiting for me:

I saw that look.  He was giving me the stink eye and wondering why I hadn't crossed yet.

Just one more shot Morris!

A longer exposure of the brown water swirling with the snow....
and then a shot of the creek bottom that had been empty just a half hour before hand...

This had been my second hike of the day.
I think I was pretty worn out, as was Morris by the time we got back home to do chores and make supper.

It was a great day.
I think I will be sad to say goodbye to winter.

Of rocks, moss, ice, and running waters

I spent over 2 hrs out climbing icy and mossy rocks [with snow shoes on], wading and jumping over rushing water...getting sprayed by splash-over, and getting dripped on by wet soggy branches and berry briers.

And I was in heaven.

There is nothing like the rushing of water [even if it is run off that has brown in it from the soil above and the reddish colored iron-clay] when it occurs in the dry gullies.

It bounces over the mossy rocks with huge intensity roaring at times.  Today was not a 'roarer' but it was quite loud and I could still cross in places without getting too wet.

I peered down the valley and saw the water was wall to wall, running over ice.  I looked at my watch and sighed.

I'd promised to be good and not 'stay out too long', as hubby wanted noon 'dinner'.  I could have been drawn by the swan song of the creek's rushing waters.


I stuck to the gullies, climbing, ... rerouting, using the ice picks in the shoes to grip in otherwise dangerous footing.


I was sad to turn away from the creek. 
My husband thinks that I get 'geeked' out by sucky weather.
That is because I find such beauty in it.

Today I got 3 or 4 shots that are print worthy. 
It was a good day.
 
[8 second exposure ~ using a X4 ND filter]
I am sleepy and dreaming about an ice/sleet/snow storm headed our way.