Of Camp and Cacti: Photos from 4th of July Week

Among the many interests that my sweetheart, Lisa, and I share is a love for photography. This last week we’ve poked around together in the outdoors with our Canon cameras and harvested a variety of images. So rather than write a lot of words, I thought I’d share a few photos with you. They’re about neither jazz nor storm chasing; they’re just odds and ends from nature and life at large.

Last weekend Lis and I headed up to Camp Henry, a Christian camp located on Kimball Lake north of Newaygo, to spend the Fourth of July with our close friend and dear sister in Christ, Kimberly Dunn. Kimber lives in Redding, California, but has been doing a summer internship here in Michigan at the camp. It was great to see her, and during our visit, Lisa and I naturally took a lot of photos.

Then yesterday, we went out on a photo expedition to capture prickly pear cacti in bloom. There is at least one species that is native to Michigan, the eastern prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa, also known as devil’s tongue. The blooming season for it is winding down, but there are still plenty of bright, butter-yellow blossoms available to fill a camera viewfinder.

With many photos to choose from, I’ve opted for images from nature and the outdoors, subjects that Lisa and I both gravitate toward more than anything else. I hope you enjoy the selection.

Sunset at Camp Henry

Sunset at Camp Henry

Swimming Buoy at Sunset, Camp Henry

Swimming Buoy at Sunset, Camp Henry

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Milkweed

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar on Milkweed

Loosestrife Flowers. These are a native species, not the highly destructive exotic, purple loosestrife, which takes over wetlands.

Loosestrife Flowers. These are a native species, not the highly destructive exotic, purple loosestrife, which takes over wetlands.

Eastern Prickly Pear

Eastern Prickly Pear

Also Known as Devil's Tongue

Also Known as Devil's Tongue

Opuntia Humifusa in Flower

Opuntia Humifusa in Flower

Hiking at the Virginia Bluebell Plant Preserve

After over a week indoors in the throes of an ugly chest cold, it felt wonderful to finally get outside today and take a hike out at the Virginia Bluebell Plant Preserve on the Coldwater River. This location, a cooperative between Trout Unlimited and the Michigan Nature Association, is one of my favorite places. It’s got nothing to do with storm chasing or jazz saxophone, but I’m okay with that and you should be too. It can’t hurt to broaden out in this blog every now and then, and there’s nothing like a beautiful natural setting to refresh the soul.

The Virginia bluebell is rare in Michigan, but where it does grow, it tends to grow abundantly, and this preserve is a prime example. I’ll say no more, but will let the photos tell the story.

Sunlight plays on a clump of Virginia Bluebells.

Sunlight plays on a clump of Virginia bluebells.

A bumblebee busies himself with a cluster of bluebell blossoms.

A bumblebee busies himself with a cluster of bluebell blossoms.

Virginia bluebells carpet an open woods at a Michigan Nature Association preserve in southeast Kent County.

Virginia bluebells carpet an open woods at a Michigan Nature Association preserve in southeast Kent County.

The beautiful Coldwater River borders the eastern side of the preserve.

The beautiful Coldwater River borders the eastern side of the preserve.

Remembering May 3, 1999

View from the balcony.

View from the balcony.

Looking at my recent posts, it dawns on me that it has been a while since I brightened things up with a few photos. The above is a purely gratuitious shot of my small apartment complex in Caledonia, Michigan, taken from my balcony. In the foreground, you can see some of The Kids–that is, my carnivorous plants. They’re long and lank right now from being forced to gather what sun they’ve been able to sitting indoors by the sliding door. April’s temperature fluctuations have permitted only occasional forays outside, but I think that at this point they’re there to stay. Now the bright, direct sun can do its work, strengthening their stems so that in another month or two, new leaves on the pitcher plants should stand up straight and tall.

Actually, the Sarracenia oreophila has already been doing just fine in that regard. Once I took it out of refrigeration, it wasted no time sending up a fine crop of stout, trumpet-shaped leaves. Unfortunately, hornets are drawn to the taller pitcher plants like crazy, and they don’t take kindly to being trapped in them. I’ve had to tape several of the oreo leaves after they collapsed due to hornets chewing holes through the sides in order to escape. I’ve got to believe that hornets aren’t the normal fare for Sarracenias in the wild. My plants occupy a habitat three stories above ground level, not exactly the same kind of ecosystem as an Alabama mountain bog or a southern savannah.

Anyway, as you can see from the photo, today is gorgeous here in Michigan, with temps in the upper sixties–on the cool side of warm. A body can wear shorts or jeans, a T-shirt or a long-sleeve; either works perfectly on a day like today. Me, I’m in shorts. I have no plans to go anywhere, since I’m still a bit wheezy from my cold, but it’s nice to just sit here and look out the window at blue sky, white blossoms, and tress leafing out.

Ironically, this picture-perfect May day is the tenth anniversary of the 1999 Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak. On this date, the infamous Moore/Bridge Creek Tornado tore a path from west of Amber to Midwest City, taking 36 lives and becoming the last tornado to be rated an F5 under the original, now passe Fujita scale. A wind max in this tornado of 301 mph, give or take 20 mph, recorded by the Doppler on Wheels (DOW) remains the fastest tornado wind ever measured to date, placing the Bridge Creek tornado at the upper end of even the most extreme tornadoes. Powerful as it was, another monstrous tornado which plowed through the town of Mulhall that same day may have been even stronger.

It’s hard to fathom winds of that velocity. It’s faster than most BB guns. To help you visualize such a wind speed, if a piece of lumber was blowing at you at 301 mph from a house disintegrating 450 feet away, you’d have approximately one second to duck. Granted, the DOW reading was 105 feet above ground, and the surface winds were likely to have been somewhat slower. But I doubt that information would have been very reassuring to residents of Bridge Creek that day as they watched the storm bearing down on them.

What a cheery thought. I think I’ll return to today’s bright sunshine and enjoy it. Storm season is at hand, my cold is on its way out, and I hope to get out to the Plains in another couple of weeks and chase some supercells. But for now, it’s May 3 and the day is beautiful here in Michigan. Who could ask for more?

Preparing for Storm Season 2009

Out of curiosity, I just ran the GFS down to 384 hours. The SPC has posted a light risk for parts of the South on Wednesday, but that may be just a foretaste of an upcoming active period. Did I already write about this recently? Not sure, but if so, I’m writing again.

Long-range prognostication is something like reading tea leaves, but consulting the numerical models still beats going to a groundhog for your two-week weather forecast. At around 204 hours, a nice surge of moisture appears to unlock the the Gulf of Mexico for several days, with 55 degreeĀ  dewpoints extending as far north as Missouri, southern Illinois, and Indiana.

Am I hanging my hat on this? Heck no. I’m just thinking, quite wistfully, how nice it would be if what I just saw bore some resemblance to how things actually play out nine days hence. In February, one dreams if he’s a northerner and shudders if he’s a resident of Dixie Alley.

I’m anxious to to see some great storms this year. Last year was fabulous, but I blew some great photo ops because I didn’t know how to use my camera. This year I think I’ve overcome that concern. Now if only the weather and my finances will cooperate.

Meanwhile, I’ve decided to make the best of the holding pattern by signing up for Tim Vasquez’s severe weather forecasting class. It’s a small group setting that will be held on Sunday, March 8, in Norman, Oklahoma. I just shelled out my hundred bucks today and am really looking forward to attending this thing. My chase partner, Bill Oosterbaan, will be joining me. This ought to be a perfect way to really tighten down our forecasting skills for storm chasing season 2009 by learning from one of the foremost gurus of the field. I own nearly all of Tim’s books, and also his Forecast Laboratory software. It’ll be cool to finally pick his brain for eight hours in a focused, fairly personal setting.

More immediately, though, this evening the sun set at 6:17 here in Caledonia, and tomorrow the temperature is supposed to spike to a sweltering 36 degrees. I’ll take that and like it for now. It presages good things to come.

Sunset Photos and Sax Licks

We finally got a break in the gray skies and snows. Today’s morning sun rose into a flawless sky, and sunshine predominated all day long, along with warmer–which, at thirty-two degrees, is not to say warm, but an improvement on what we’ve had–temperatures.

I grabbed my saxophone and my camera and headed out to Grand Ledge this afternoon, and on the way out there, I grabbed my first workout in months. I haven’t been in the gym since last October, I’ve been feeling the lack of exercise, and I finally decided the time had come to get back into my workouts. So I dropped in at a modest but great little weight lifting gym out by Lake Odessa and ran through a quick, twenty-minute break-in routine. One set per movement is enough; I’ll be feeling the pain Monday when it comes time for my next bout in the gym.

Anyway…I took a number of photos out near Grand Ledge. The ones I liked best were of an old, deserted farmstead at sunset. Thought I’d share a couple with you.

Old Shed at Sundown

Old Shed at Sundown

The Sun Sinks Lower

The Sun Sinks Lower

Afterwards, I found a place to park my car and practice my saxophone. It has been a while since I’ve spent time on my horn. I’ve been writing a book and have been singularly focused on that, and I need to exercise a little balance, tend to other things that are also important. Staying on top of my sax is right up there at the top. It felt good to limber up my fingers and run through some Charlie Parker licks.

It takes discipline to be a good jazz musician. Licks and ideas you think you own for keeps can desert you after a while if you don’t practice consistently. Fortunately, I’d only been away from my axe for a bit, not long enough to damage me. But it always feels good when I pick it back up.