April was ...

... a month of baseball in Ohio ....

... continued improvement projects ....


... blankets of spring wildflowers ...

... backyard blooms ...

... and canoeing in the Jersey Pinelands ...

... maybe now that its over, I can get back to blogging more often!

A Morning at Middle Creek

My parents came up for the weekend on Saturday, and Dad and I took the opportunity to run up to Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area for sunrise on Sunday morning.


While the large flocks of snow geese and tundra swans have moved on, a few individual geese were still to be found. A group of three were foraging within a few yards of the road for most of the morning. This is one of the three. Two of the three were noticeably holding a wing at an unnatural angle; they will not be making the migration this year.


Dad and I were exchanging lenses and equipment, and I am not 100% sure if he or I took this picture of a flying cormorant. I think it was Dad, but I enjoy the cormorant's unique silhouette, and since I took the liberty of cropping and otherwise adjusting the photo, I am posting it here :)


And lastly, the song of the red-winged blackbird could be heard throughout the morning. Many were perched at various intervals along the wire fencing used in the park. Here, a blackbird breaks into his call.

What I Did Last Weekend

I found some colts foot, just unfurling, in Mont Alto State Park. We were there for our friend's Pennsylvania wedding reception and I wasn't really expecting to find any spring flowers. But I did manage to catch a few colts foot (colts feet?), which are usually the first ones out.

Then, on Sunday, my Aunt & Uncle (Salty) came for a visit. Salty explains the situation and history of the bridge very well in his latest post, but I thought you might appreciate a "behind-the-scenes" picture of his totally incredible shot of the bridge.


And then, the storm hit and we got hail. Probably the largest hail I have seen since I was a small girl, but we were fortunate as just a few miles north of us golf ball sized hail stones were reported.

We were very lucky in that we only received high winds and heavy rain, many nearby areas suffered damage and it was later confirmed that a tornado touched down in the northern part of the county. And all this, in March!

More News from the Backyard

The snow drops are finishing up now, but this picture was taken in their prime just over a week ago.


These crocus are ones that I planted in the fall. I am pleased with their "up and at 'em" attitude this spring.

More Wedding Fun in Garden of the Gods

Part of the ceremony involved seven colorful ribbons. Prior to the start of the wedding, the happy couple had given members of their family one of the ribbons. At the beginning of the vows, the officiant had the couple place their palms face to face, and during the ceremony, each family member placed their ribbon in a loose loop around their hands. At the end, the couple took the loop and "tied the knot" together.

Here Sandy is letting the wind play with the ribbons from the ceremony. They are to remain with the couple as a memento and reminder of the vows taken.

This is the wedding party, including moi. Sandy was the most easy-going bride imaginable - just told me to go find whatever dress I wanted, in hunter green.

And this was the passing of the torch, so to speak. Sandy gave me her bouquet (no tossing involved) at the end of the day, as I am the next to be headed to the altar. While the flowers themselves will eventually pass on, the bouquet contains a hand painted orange butterfly crafted from dyed feathers that will proudly take a place in my bouquet come July.

Sandy & Alan - March 21, 2009

On Saturday, we attended the wedding of a dear friend of mine. She is a very smart chica, and chose a great man to be married to and a beautiful location to be married in. The outdoor ceremony was in the garden of an inn at the base of Pikes Peak, and the reception was in the Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs.


Personalized, color-coordinated m&m's ... yum! While the natural scenery was beautiful, I also wanted to capture some of the details of the day, things that people might not think to aim a camera at, like candy :)



A close-up of the bride's bouquet and the beadwork and embroidery on her dress.


The informal photo shoot in the Garden of the Gods after the reception was so much fun. The park gets a steady stream of traffic, and lots of people were honking their horns and yelling congratulations while we were taking pictures. A great way to end a great day :)

Backyard Surprises

We bought this house in September of last year, at the very end of the growing season. The yard hadn't been maintained in probably a year, and was looking pretty rough. After cutting out a lot of the yucky stuff, I took the opportunity to plant some fall bulbs. But while I was digging, I kept hitting existing bulbs. So, I knew I was in for some surprises this spring.

These snowdrops were a surprise. There are quite a few popping up. True to their name, they were covered in snow shortly after the first one bloomed. I've also got hyacinths, lots of daffodils, and some things I don't recognize coming up - so more surprises are in store.

Now this one, I think I am responsible for. But, I don't remember what it is. I was thinking grape hyacinth (that's what I remember planting, anyways) but it just doesn't look right. Oh well, a flower is a flower, and these little spring bulbs are so sweet to see after the dreary winter months.

Gulls & Swans

Not too long ago, Salty posted a picture of a ring-billed gull he saw in Florida. Since then, I've been meaning to take a closer look at the group of gulls that hangs out in the parking lot of the local grocery store.

Lo and behold, they're ring-billed gulls. I believe we are just about as far inland as these guys go in winter.

This evening, as we were working in the yard, I noticed a long dispersed column of gulls flying overhead. They were moving from the northeast to the southwest. I kept an eye on the birds for more than 15 minutes, and there stream of gulls still had no end in sight. I imagine several thousand were in the group, ultimately.

Over the last week, I've noticed small and large groups of tundra swans taking the same flight path, sometimes in the morning and always in the hour or so before dusk. This last shot was taken from our backyard.

Looking out of Lucy

Here's the view that Lucy gets of the Atlantic from her perch just west of the beach. Literally, the "porthole" is her eye.

I am amazed by how attracted humans are to waves and sand- even on a cool windy day, plenty of bundled-up families were enjoying the beach while I was huddled up inside an elephant.

Lucy and a New Look

As I bet you've noticed, Ash's Eye is getting something of a facelift. The solid gray background finally just bored me all the way over the edge into hunting for something pre-made and a little "froofier."

Cosmetics aside, meet Lucy the Elephant! She is the largest elephant in the world, so big you can tour her insides. Lucy lives in the oceanside town of Margate, New Jersey. Around the turn of the century, she was built as a gimmick, to attract homebuyers to the growing streets of Margate. Lucy really didn't convince people to buy homes, but she did eventually become the mascot for the town. Soon wooden elephants were all the rage in the beach towns of the mid-Atlantic, and Coney Island had one, as did Cape May, New Jersey.

These copycat elephants were soon lost to history and now only Lucy remains. She sadly fell into disrepair in the 1960s, and was threatened with demolition to make way for condominiums. Townspeople rallied together to raise funds to refurbish Lucy and move her to city-owned property. Lucy is now well-loved and taken care of primarily through the labor of volunteers and the admission fees gathered from those who wish to climb the spiral staircases located in her hind legs. Lucy is now a designated National Historic Landmark. Her story is recapped in a short but interesting movie you get to watch in the room located in her belly.

More photos from Lucy will be forthcoming shortly ...