Playing Catch Up

Its been a while since I've had internet at home, so I'm catching up on my blogging. Inspired by my Uncle's archived frost photo, I'm adding two pictures from the last time I've really seen snow: March 2006, on the Olympic peninsula in Washington. Both are from my friend Sandy, who graciously copied all of her pictures for me after mine were lost. Having lived in Tennessee for the last five years, I've had to travel elsewhere for any taste of true winter weather. Now that I'm back in Pennsylvania, it seems like I've brought the Tennessee-style winter weather with me!
This is a temperate rainforest in Olympic National Park. We were actually there on Sandy's birthday, and we were both extremely interested to see snow in a rainforest. While the unsettled weather made for some interesting photo opportunities, I would love to go back when the rain and snow stays away for more than an hour at a time!

Cat Meets Bird (not quite)

This is Ansel, the Christmas cat. He's actually behaved pretty well, only removing two ornaments so far. Yesterday, Ansel had the chance to see a really cool bird, one much bigger than the ones he normally gets to watch. But he was sleeping upstairs and missed all the excitement.

Even though Ansel was asleep, one of my boys got to see the pheasant. I didn't realize it was outside, until Justin leapt up saying "what the heck is that?!?" He (the pheasant, not Justin) was about five feet away from the patio doors, using his head to dig into the mulch under the bushes.

Saturday Afternoon History Lesson

We ran out this afternoon to Chiquies Rock, a county park just down the road. Here you can see a lot of history crossing the Susquehanna. The bridge in the distance carries Rt. 462 across the river. While its the prettier bridge, you can't see a thing as you cross it. The nearer bridge is the newer, helping Rt. 30 on its way across the nation. While its not as architecturally interesting, the view from it is far superior. In the middle, you can barely make out abutments that no longer hold any type of structure. As I understand it, prior to the Civil War, these supports held up the world's longest covered bridge, over one mile long. The bridge was burnt by locals during the war to prevent enemy troops from crossing the river. After that, several railroads used the same foundation, but now, no mode of transporation uses the old rock foundations.
Here you can see some of the farmland and small town-type landscapes of eastern Pennsylvania. You can actually spot where I live, just in front of the blue water tower in the upper middle part of the photograph. Even after writing a thesis about preserved farmland, I never expected to live right in the middle of some very dense patches of preserved farmland. While I don't know if it is preserved or not, a farm right down the road provides us with very interesting smells most days!