Fish and Frog - Turtle and Blog

Monday, February 16, 2009

This And That From Baker's Hat (IV)

This photo has a feeling of fall in it, but it was taken at the beginning of the summer last year. I just like it for some reason. There's something there about the shades of brown and the random simplicity that appeals to me.

It's one of those that I look at and think that I almost captured it just right, but not quite. Every time I see it I want to go back and try again. And I like how it reminds me that there are often interesting photo opportunities right under your very feet and before your very eyes if you just look for them. You don't have to always have to have colorful and exciting subjects.

Now what do you imagine this guy is thinking as he climbed this vertical tinted window?

"Would you hurry up and take the picture already? I can't hold on like this forever!"

This following photo was not taken around the pond, but at a nearby lake last July. It is a wild passionflower. The wild passionflowers in our region are know as 'Maypops' which refers to the apricot-sized fruit they produce which has a rigid outer shell, but a juicy, seedy pulp. Stepping on one would be much like stepping on an egg.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Flying Valentines

It has been some time since I posted to the blog. Fortunately, Graceanne has taken up some of slack with posts over the past 2-3 months. Normally we would be posting a 'PhotoHunt' theme photo on a Saturday, but, considering the date, I thought I would post something a little different.

The arrival of Valentine's Day brought back memories of some of our favorite visitors during the summer. I have posted about them before, but I just couldn't resist sharing some additional photo's with you. From the moment I saw the first one last summer I thought of Valentine's Day.

These are Calico Pennants. Among the primary features for these dragonflies are the 5 markings down their back. The markings are often 'heart-shaped' and easily identifiable.

The red specimen above is the male. The female (below) is yellow or golden in color. You can see that her markings are even more heart-shaped than the particular male above, but we have also seen males with comparable markings.

In addition to the markings along the body, these pennants also have distinctive wing markings making them among the most colorful and prettiest of the dragonflies that visit the pond frequently.

The wing markings make them great subjects from any direction.

Happy Valentine's Day to one and all.

By the way. How do you like the new header?

Friday, February 6, 2009

Bridges Near The Pond

While hunting for the Photo Hunt on Bridge(s)I realized there are more bridges around here than I thought about, so I want to share with you some "cool" pictures of various small bridges.

The following bridge is the largest, and the most further away from the pond. This is one that goes over a swampy area out to a large lake somewhat back of Baker's and Graceanne's and other neighbor's properties. You may have seen another shot of this one some month's ago in the Photo Hunt for "Road".
Here are some of Baker's bridges. A small creek (or brook) runs across all the properties and eventually out into the big lake. This little stream runs (back of the dam) between the pond and Graceanne's house, curls around and goes between the back of Baker's house and his back pasture. This first one is from his back pasture to the front pasture.
This neat bridge goes from a walk-path from Baker's to his back pasture and barn.
Here is another shot of the bridge. It is so pretty I wanted you to see it also.
This is Graceanne's little bridge across the brook from the pond to her house.
And here is another shot of this one, which shows the water reflections.
Below is a bridge in progress. It crosses a small stream that runs from under the road and BESIDE the pond. These are pieces of a tall steel antenna tower used here before there was satellite. Baker brought them down and got them placed across the stream for AR and ER. It will lead from their place over to the pond.
Baker said to tell you, - This one is waiting for the stimulus package; then bring on the shovels and the wood & nails. Ha ha !
Hope you enjoyed our little tour of bridges.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Most Furry Ones Around

With this week's Photo Hunt theme as "Furry" I will introduce you to my two furry "kids", Pixie and Pansy. Since they live in my house with me, they live near the pond also. They are the most furry things anywhere around here as you can see. And I believe these animals must be the most loyal, affectionate, and loving creatures on the whole planet.
Now in case you don't know what kind these are, they are toy Pomeranians.
This is Pixie.
Although Pixie is almost 17 years old (will be in April) and takes heart medicine now because of her old age, she is still otherwise healthy and gets around very well. She weighs between 7 & 8 pounds. Below is another photo of Pixie:
This is Pansy when she was an 8 week old puppy. We named her Pansy because her face looks like the dark face in the flower Pansy.
Pansy is a "parti-colored" Pom, 5 years old, and is almost as little as a "tea cup" Pom, as she only weighs 4 & 1/2 lbs. She is a first, as we never had a 'two-colored' Pom before. Though Pansy is fully mature she still acts like a puppy sometimes; she loves to play with her little stuffed toys, and she whines like a puppy when I come home. She is so loving and sweet its hard to believe.

I had never seen or even heard of a Pomeranian until I was grown. When I was still dating my husband, he took me to see some Poms that a family owned in his neighborhood and I fell in love with them. After we married we saved aside a little money at a time and in 1955 we bought our first Pom puppy, a little orange male whom we named Teddy Bear.

Below is another picture of Pansy with her other favorite toy, her elephant.
We/I have had Pomeranians for almost 54 years now. That's a lot of Furry ! - And oh, what a joy they have been.

Monday, December 22, 2008

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!

Since everyone is busy with family and friends during this season of the year we may not be posting until after the holidays are over, so we are sending you a Christmas card. I painted this picture some years ago for my card that year, when the pine trees were much smaller than they are now.

Both Baker and I want to wish you all a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year.
"Winter At The Pond"

Monday, December 15, 2008

Photo Hunt Favorite

Hi folks, I am sorry about being late with Photo Hunt again this week.

This blog being primarily about the pond and surrounding area, it was hard to come up with a favorite. Since winter is here there is not much going on around the pond; no one is coming fishing because it's too cold, the fish aren't eating much so they don't follow Baker around, the turtles have dug into the mud to sleep, the frogs and lizards have also hibernated, and there are no pretty insects around. - SO there's not much to post about the pond right now.

My favorite season of the year is Spring as everything comes alive again. These are my favorite photos that I took of the pond last spring. If you have been following the blog from the beginning, you may have seen one similar to this first one as the header, but here is a different shot:

I love the limbs with the fullness of the Dogwood blossoms.

The sun shining on the flower petals was spectacular.

Well,I guess we'll just have to tolerate the cold until my favorite season comes around again.

PhotoHunt

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Feeding Breakfast

The PhotoHunt theme for this week being "Breakfast" made me think about the greatest breakfast we had seen around the pond.

Both Baker and I saw the Bluebirds feeding this summer but neither of us were able to get a good close-up photo of them, so below is a painting on my handmade paper of bluebirds feeding their young. The title of this painting is "Waiting To Feed".

PhotoHunt

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Autumn Around The Pond

A few days ago I took some photos while the trees were in their autumn beauty in this area. The news said that last weekend was the peak time for the autumn scenery in the north Georgia mountains. Our trees here turn color later than that and many are still pretty here, so I wanted to show you a few pictures of autumn around the vicinity of the pond.

This first one is looking east from my porch toward our road out front. The horizontal line through the woods on left is the dam of the pond. A small stream runs between the house and the pond.

Looking northeast from the porch you can see the glen next to the small stream.

The scene here is southeast looking toward the driveway and Baker's front pasture.

Looking toward the west, the yellow tree-top in the middle of this picture is a huge beech nut tree.

This one is looking south from my yard, with Baker's back pasture in the far background.

Last but not least, here is the pond later that afternoon. Though the sun was getting low you can still see some bright colors in the tree-tops.
I hope you enjoyed my little tour around the area of the pond.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Water Will Have Its Way

This week's theme for PhotoHunt is ruin(ed). As I was thinking about it I realized we have lots of things around that were ruined by nature over the past years. Rain, wind, sunshine, ice, flowing water, lightning, falling limbs and trees, and the actions of various creatures tend to wreak havoc from time to time despite our best efforts to avoid the damages.

As I was going through the list I recalled a particular sight that I have always found interesting. As many of you may know we live in a partially wooded area with several small streams. In years gone by I think perhaps a good portion of the land was used as farm land, probably for growing cotton. As cotton farming diminished in the area the land was used for other crops. This particular section eventually became a dairy with perhaps half of the land in open pasture and the remaining in hardwoods.

One of the streams happened to run through wide, low section before passing through a narrow area with a very steep hill to one side and a gradual 10-12 foot upward slope for about 60 feet on the other side. Evidently at sometime someone decided to build a dam to create a shallow pond perhaps only 2-3 feet deep and probably about 2 acres in size. I have no idea when it was built, but I would think it was likely more than 50 years ago and perhaps up to 100 years ago.

In any event, I think the dam was essentially hand built as it consisted primarily of a ridge of dirt covered by layers of small rocks. It was about 60 feet long and 3-4 feet tall at the highest point as you may be able to tell in the photo below.

I've always been amazed at the amount of time and effort that must have gone into that dam. Unfortunately, the builders evidently did not consider the amount and power of the water that might come through the area in the event of a large rainfall. (The stream bed drains an area of probably over 100 acres.) I have no idea how long the dam lasted, but eventually it failed. This is a photo from the downstream side. You can see where the water broke through between the steep hill on the right and the tree on the left.

This last photo is from the upstream side. You can see the size of the rocks used in the dam and just imagine how many hours went into building it. Most of the rocks are from the size of a fist up to the size of a soccer ball at the largest. One of these days I may work out a calculation of how many thousands of rocks may have been piled there. For now I just go check it out from time to time and wonder who built it and how long it lasted.

You can find more participants in the hunt at PhotoHunt.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

This And That From Baker's Hat (III)

Here are a few more 'out of the hat' photo's. Actually I have used a photo similar to the one below on a prior post, but I thought it was such an interesting phenomenon I decided to post another shot. You can check out the story here.

The following photo has a story behind it also, but it is a little too long to tell. Let's just say we got a good laugh at the expense of certain visitors who sighted the 'giant lizard' in the pond and spread the alarm. I'll have to admit it did look rather life-like from a distance.

Now this last one is not mine. AR sent it to me. AR is the quiet blog team member who supplied a few of the photo's used in some of the initial posts on the blog including the panoramic view at the bottom of the page. This is a photo of a flower on an okra plant in her garden. (The garden is within sight of the pond by the way.) I find it interesting in its size and simplicity.

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I have a couple of things to add to this Baker's Hat post. I been away from the computer a good bit for the past 7-10 days as some of you may have noticed. You know how other things can take priority at times, lol. I'm working on catching up on my visits and commenting on the blogs of visitors and such, but the list is quite long.

Also, I want to thank Kim from WishnikWoods for presenting us a special Friendship Award. Kim, it was truly appreciated.

We have received a few awards from special visitors in the past and we treasure them all. We always try to recognize those bloggers and the awards in the sidebar and in a special post that outlines our general position on awards.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Blue For You

This week's PhotoHunt theme is 'blue' and it wasn't too hard to find a photo with blue in it. The trouble was I have too many with blue. So which should I use?

Well, for pure color in nature I think it is hard to beat dragonflies and damselflies. I've always been amazed by the sharp and brilliant blues, reds, and greens one can see in these little flying marvels. Not surprisingly, many dragons and damsels have common names which include their color. Who can resist those vivid names such as Blue-fronted Dancer, Yellow-legged Ringtail, and Orange Shadowdragon.

Even their group names are fun with names like Darner, Skimmer, PetalTails, and Cruisers. And damselflies even have a whole group known as Bluets.

So damselflies it is.

I have found that it is very difficult to identify some of the damsels and dragons, however. There are well over 400 species in the USA alone. (There are over 160 found in our state and probably over 100 in our particular area.) And for each species the male and female may be significantly different in color or some other aspect.

Plus, the juveniles may be even a different color and will change gradually as they mature over their relatively short life stage. When you add all that up and consider that not all the damsels and dragons will necessarily look like the 'specimen' photo's in a field guide you can see that making the correct identification would often be difficult for the layperson.

In any event, it would appear that we will be having plenty of opportunities to check out the damselflies in coming years based on the activity in the following photo's. These are damselflies laying eggs in the shallow water along the edge of the pond. As you can tell we have a healthy population with the promise of more to come.

You can find more participants in the hunt at PhotoHunt.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

An Update On That Catfish

I used some photo's of a rather large catfish for the PhotoHunt weekly theme of 'dark' a several weeks ago so I thought I would update you on the catfish. Of course there is no way to tell exactly how many catfish there are in the pond, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there is only one the size of that one I caught and returned to the pond.

Channel catfish do not reproduce very well in small ponds unless they have suitable nesting sites. They need cavity type structures such as holes in a bank, rock formations, or perhaps old downed trees with holes or protected areas under them.

We have not added any structure to simulate this environment in the pond so any of the large catfish could possibly be from the original stocking of the pond (or perhaps the rare second generation) and that was years ago. GG stocked with some small catfish during the spring, but it will likely take several more months before they reach a respectable size of 1 to 2 pounds.

During the summer a very large catfish would come up to eat with the carp, turtles, and smaller fish. We would only see one at the time and as you can see it is appears healthy and hungry.

And here is a very short video of the catfish chowing down on the fish food.

Please Note: This video includes audio that can be adjusted on the video. The audio is not excessively loud, but you may want to adjust the initial volume settings depending on your situation. Also, you can view a full-screen version by selecting the small icon immediately to the left of 'vimeo' in the bottom right corner of the video block. You can return to the normal view by pressing [Esc].

Catfish from BakerWatson on Vimeo.
Hopefully next year we will have many more catfish coming up to eat. A steady diet of high-protein food can double their growth rate in the first few years. If we stock new fingerlings next spring I expect we will use some type of enclosed cages to protect them from predators during the first weeks/months. This will also give us a chance to feed them regularly to promote faster growth before we release them into the pond.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The Itsy Bitsy Spider Crawled Up The.....

When it comes to scary there are spiders and, well, there are spiders. Some are harmless little creatures just going about their daily life bearing no ill-will toward the huge, clumsy humans they encounter. And then there are...the other ones.

You know the ones I'm talking about. Those hide-in-your-shoes-waiting-for-you-to-slide-your--unsuspecting-little-tootsies-in spiders. Those running-across-the-floor-when-you-turn-on-the-kitchen-light-in-the-middle-of-the-night creatures with eight legs. Those are the types that get to me.

And let's not forget the crawl-across-your-bare-foot-while-you-are-in-the-shower-with-soap-in-your-eyes monsters. You've been there. You know them only too well.

But the ones that really get to me are those diabolical ones. I'm talking pure evil here. The mere thought of them can make you break out in a cold sweat. The absolute worst. Those hide-between-the-sheets-and-wait-for-your-warm-body-to-slide-in monsters. They are so sly. They wait for you to get nice and comfortable, warm and cozy in your safe little bed. Then you feel it. The slight touch along your leg. It is almost like a gentle tickle.

At first you think it is your imagination, but then you feel it again. It stops. You wait. It moves again. Higher. You hold your breath. You are deathly still. Visions of horror movies run through your head. You can feel it against your skin. You feel the legs touching you. Crawling. Higher. You.....

Oh!...Wait!... I'm getting off track here. I just wanted to share with you a shot of a regular garden spider. Nothing dangerous here, folks. It may look a bit scary, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't harm you despite its sheer size and those hideous hairy legs.

Then again it probably wouldn't hurt anything if you made a quick check between the sheets before you go to bed tonight. You never can tell.

PhotoHunt

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

I Hope To See You In The Spring

I'm going to miss a lot of the creatures around the pond now that the weather is changing and their summer time has passed. Some have migrated. Some will hibernate. And some, like the fish, basically just slow down for the cold weather and we will not see them as often. Of all those creatures I think I'll probably miss the green herons the most.

This year the green herons have been special. It started back in the spring with the rescue of a trapped green heron as recounted here. That was one of the incidents that prompted the creation of the blog.

Throughout the summer the green herons visited almost daily. At first there were 2 and then 3 when what appeared to be a juvenile arrived. Eventually we seemed to see just 2 at the same time and then primarily just 1.

Green herons are known to wander a bit after breeding so we presume the parents stayed around for some time as their offspring learned the ropes and then departed. Perhaps they lived nearby and brought it to the pond periodically until it was old enough to venture out on its own. Whatever the case, the remaining one that visited often appeared to be an immature bird by its markings.
This bird and I spent many hours around the pond together. We were both visitors there, but for different purposes. I was there to capture photographs. It was there to capture its daily meals. Over time it became more accustomed to my presence. It allowed me to come much closer and eventually it even approached me at times.

Of course it always maintained a safe distance, but I noted the change. I could tell it was growing much more tolerant and had begun to consider me as a natural fixture around the pond. We were on good terms. Some days I would stay far away and let it hunt in peace. Other days I would approach closer, but I always tried to avoid putting too much pressure on my friend.

Finally it was letting me get close enough to capture some its life around the pond. Often it would hunt mostly along the bank but sometimes it would concentrate its hunting near the cages where many of the small fish congregated.
Then all too soon the day came. It wasn't there. Nor was it there the next day. I watched for a week thinking maybe I had just missed it or it had changed its daily schedule.

But obviously the time had come for green herons to leave. That mysterious internal clock said it was time to go. It was time to head south.

I hope the heron finds its way back next spring. Maybe by then it will have a mate of its own. And maybe they will bring their young ones by to show them the best places to fish for lunch and teach them by example how to stalk the shallow water for prey.

We will be there waiting for them.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

What This Blog Needs More Of

I was looking through some of the photo's used in the slideshow in the sidebar and I realized one thing the blog needs more of. It needs more yellow. Yep. More yellow.

We have lots of greens and browns, the reds and pinks come up pretty often, there are blues here and there, and even orange pops up from time to time. But, there is not a lot of yellow. So I went off searching the photo archives for a bit of yellow or gold to balance things out.

Now I don't know about you, but I always have a hard time shooting yellow flowers. They just normally do not come out very good. I'm sure it has to do with the light and perhaps I'll get that figured out someday. Anyway, that's probably why you have not seen many yellow flowers here.

Fortunately I have a few photo's of butterflies on yellow flowers.

And just by chance there are some other yellow items around the pond so I could sneak in a photo of one of those. (Actually I'm curious about how many of you will know what the yellow thing is used for.)

But I think this one below was my favorite yellow of all this past summer. This is a female Calico Pennant. I watched for this one after having seen and photographed a few males around the pond. The males are similar, but colored red in the place of the yellow/gold color of the female. Together they make a handsome couple.

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