Wildflower pictures

Just wanted to share a few more...the last three are from the campsite, not the preserve.

I really love those yellow flowers. Should probably figure out what they are.

The past week has been an interesting one… and I’ve been too busy to update, so this is going to be a particularly long post.

Workwise… I spent a lot of time designing the curriculum for the Nature Study program happening in July, made those bathroom signs from the earlier post, and got a little bit of hiking in. We decided on a “dirt” theme for the younger kids that I’m super excited about… there will even be thematically appropriate snacks each day (who doesn't love edible dirt?). And Chad is going to do a sing-a-long session with them (apparently he plays the guitar and mandolin- awesome, eh? Wish I was more musical). For the older elementary school kids we’re thinking of either something with insects (Entomology Extravaganza!) or something I’m calling “Perspectives” that has them looking at the preserve through the eyes of different animals… we’d build a dam one day, do a bunch of bird stuff one day, think like an insect another. For all sitting in front of a computer makes me crazy, it’s wonderful to have so much room to be creative, and Chad’s great for bouncing ideas off of. Still haven’t had any major brain waves about what to do with the middle school program. I wish I knew more about how to teach and entertain that age group. Oh well, that’s what research is for, right? I’m hoping to work in some really good team-building stuff and creative projects, at least.

The weather has been rainy, but warmer, and the mosquitoes are starting to make their appearance, but not so much as I’d feared (though truth be told, I think it’s hard to impress someone who’s lived in Alaska with anything other than a truly terrific mosquito population). The other interns have gone firefly catching on the evenings we’ve been home… that, dinner, and watching episodes of the TV show Bones have consumed most of our nights in.

I’m getting better at photographing wildflowers (though I really wish I could afford a camera with a better manual focus!) but have not managed any pictures of the chipmunk that lives outside my window, the Phoebe bird that’s nesting on our porch, or the baby cottontail bunny that lives next to the lab. Sad story! I left my art supplies at the office this weekend, or I’d be working on some oil pastels of the trails… my snapshots just don’t do anything to capture the beauty of the woods here. I might not do much better with my pastels, but at least it would be good practice for me.

We had a few exciting after hours field trips this week- pictures from Wednesday’s campground swimming trip are in the previous post. We also had a picnic, with subs from Sophia's deli, and afterwards went to a Stewarts gas station to refill tubes and eat ice cream. I had blueberry pomegranate frozen yogurt- pretty darn tasty! Apparently Stewarts has the best local icecream, and serves as something of a local gathering spot.

Thursday we (four interns, two local boys, six tubes, five lifejackets) went back to the campground, but instead of frolicking in the swimming hole pushed off into the current and set off on what became something of an epic adventure… or at least a cautionary tale. At first it was AWESOME… beautiful evening, fun little rapids (just exciting enough to make me whoop with joy), laughing conversation, lovely scenery drifting by. We stopped once at this nifty rocky ledge that we all agreed would make an awesome campsite. Unfortunately it had taken us longer to get on the creek than we’d anticipated, so it was 6:50 or so before we set out on what was usually a two hour downstream trip… our local intern believed it would go faster because the current was running higher from all the rain we’d had.

Well, the water being higher did make most of the rapids a safer, and the drifting along bits a lot faster. The second to last rapid we went down also unfortunately had a newly downed tree, and the current was stronger than normal, or at least too strong for me… anyway, I have some bruises, but I managed to stay in my tube and didn’t really get much more than a scare. Pretty terrifying to lose control like that, I must say, but that wasn't the epic part... We’d started to hear thunder rumbling far off in the distance, and (being the risk-management professionals that at least three of us were) begun to get a bit worried. If we’d had cell phones we’d have called for assistance and gotten off the river then… but we’d all forgotten our wet bags (uh oh), so we decided to push on, and if the thunder got any closer we’d take our chances hitchhiking or sommat, since a road ran pretty close to the creek. I was also starting to get really cold (me, cold? shocking!), even with my neoprene shorts.

It started to get darker... and darker... and the water became more of an ominous deep green… and the thunder got closer- right as we were heading into a rocky gulch. We got out anyway, scrambled up the steep embankment (I was farthest ahead, had to abandon my tube close to the water because I couldn’t pull it up the little cliff with me), and found each other in the rumbling dark. There was a house, thank goodness, and after about ten minutes the resident finally heard her dogs barking and let us in. She was very kind- a retired medical professional from long island who’d turned the property into a nature preserve- gave us towels and water and Lindt chocolates and let us use the phone. We got back to Bullfrog Camp a little before midnight, tired and sore but fine. I was exhausted the next day and kept discovering new bruises from my brush with the tree, but it's all good now.

Friday evening all five of us interns headed to the Old Music Festival for the evening concert. A half hour of twisting country roads led us to the slightly muddy fair grounds and a parking lot full of… well, the sort of people who go to events called Old Music Festival. There was lots of tie dye and beards and flowing skirts (sometimes on the same person)…. And vendors selling tasty international and local foods or handmade crafts. I bought a bandanna from a couple who turned out to be some of the Preserve’s resident artists, and a cd that looked interesting… it was a good thing I didn’t have more money with me, because I’d have spent it, for sure! I tried something called an Eccles cake that was apparently banned by the puritans, another pastry called a lamb’s tail or longjohn, and some sort of fried curly potato concoction that’s apparently a local specialty. Oh! And there was fresh squeezed lemonade. I am told I must try potato pancakes, and missed out on some amazing smoothies. We had salt potatoes last week and I think they are by far my favorite of the local foods I’ve tried so far.

Music wise the concert was eclectic- some Dutch, French, Storytelling, a really good band with a mouth-harp and banjos and guitars, a couple singer-songwriters, and one band who’s national origins I’m unsure of that played sitting cross legged and wore a turban (okay, only one guy was wearing a turban, everyone else in the group looked fairly Caucasian). It was a good time, we had some great conversations, and there was a contra dance afterwards. I think all of the college student interns are going to try to find some contra dance at their respective academic institutions. woo-hoo contra dance!

Today (Saturday) I’ve mostly been sleeping, eating, and re-reading the latest novel from one of my favorite authors. Laundry is brewing in the basement of the lab as I write this. I need to go introduce myself to the artist who’s going to be living in Lincoln Cottage for the next few weeks.

Hoping I can talk someone with a car into heading up to visit a local batik artist and Woodstock some weekend soon. I really want to buy a pair of aviator sunglasses for my sister from Woodstock, just because I think that would be awesome. Also just really want to be able to say "Oh yeah, I was at Woodstock".

Some Wednesday Pictures

Wednesday after work we headed out to Catskill Creek... the others went swimming, but it was a bit cold for me so I played with my camera. I have a lot more pictures than this, but didn't want to overwhelm the blog. Maybe they'll go up on facebook at some point...

Bathroom Signage

Okay, so these may not be exciting to anyone else, but I'm pretty pleased with them. There had been no markers on the bathroom, so I designed these and put them up Thursday. The round/square one is based on our Trail Markers.



































And this is what our trail markers look like, in case you were wondering.

Potluck!

This is Chad and Chloe (my boss with his baby)



















She is about a year old and utterly adorable.



























I offered to hold Chloe so Chad and Lisa could eat (that's Chad's wife- in the background with the amazing red hair). Chloe was really excited about my hair tie.






















That's Allie, one of the research interns...
























And these are some wildflowers I spotted on the walk down to the potluck...






























And the trail to the lake...










And a picture of the Lincoln Pond Dam- at full gusto with all
the rain we've been having...

















and more wildflowers.




woo-hoo!

Yay Huyck Preserve!

Neat things about the Huyck Preserve I have discovered so far…

1. We’re written into the book Far Side of the Mountain! In fact, the town is the setting for a Major Plot Twist, they camp out under our waterfall, and the Peregrine falcon Frightful is set free on the Preserve. Neat, eh? The author is a local, so there’s actually tons of shout outs in the book.

2. Next neatest fact (in my opinion). The preserve was started in 1931 by a woman named Jessie Eliza Van Antwerp Huyck (who was apparently both very shy and extremely influential) to “be a bird and wildlife sanctuary” serving “to increase the general knowledge and love of nature, especially that of trees and wild life”. She named the preserve after her husband, and got the people of Rennselaeville actively involved from the beginning (they still are, as my observations of the number of townsfolk in and out of the office can attest). Oh, and she required that the preserve dedicate a big part of its mission to education. You go, Jessie, you go. Particularly since your dad wouldn’t let you seek formal education past the high school level (and now all of the preserve’s science staff are female. Hah!).

3. There’s a rural legend that the last ever real live Passenger Pigeon was sighted on the preserve.

4. We run a program called COM.EN.ART. that brings in artists to the preserve for a few weeks to just… create… draw, paint, sketch, whatever. So we’ve got a whole reservoir of art made at the preserve, and all the illustrations on our materials are hand drawn by professionals specifically for the preserve. It’s nifty.

5.The preserve has a huge diversity of habitats- partly because of our location between the deciduous biome and coniferous biome, partially because of the geography (being in the rollicking foothills with a ton of water from various sources)…and partly because when they reforested the land upon making it a preserve they created some unfortunate forestry experiments. So there are funky patches of white spruce and hemlock (which is at least native) and larch and such. One of my goals during my time here is to actually visit all of the different habitats.

Morning Commute

On days when I don't catch a ride down to the office with our executive director (Chad), this is what my commute looks like. Well, part of it anyway. We've got a multitude of habitats here.

Intern Life Update

Friday night all five residents of Bullfrog Camp went over to our local intern’s house. It was AMAZING… I’ve never seen anything like it. The first thing I noticed was the huge array of solar panels, then the landscape (gorgeous mountain vistas), then the sheer size of the place. I’d never been in a (new) house that big that I actually found attractive. And it was totally eco-friendly… the wood was recycled, the rooms were kept warm with radiant heat, a large portion of the water used in the house was rainwater collected on the roof… it was just so cool! And dinner was really tasty (as well as mostly vegan). I’m going to have to try making salt potatoes myself sometime soon.

Met some cool people on Saturday- a guy who’s going to RISD to be an Environmentalist Artist, some elderly Bryn Mawr alums, and other generally awesome folk. Also went on the Herp walk with the research coordinator… unfortunately forgot my camera, or I would have gotten some amazing shots. At one point I was holding a Bufo americanis in my hand and the little toad was just staring at me… in utter terror, I fully realize, but it was so darn cute. I continue to be captivated by the salamanders, of course, and got my first sight of one of the larger yellow spotted salamanders today. Still haven’t spotted any reptiles, though I’m sure I’ll get a glimpse of our enormous snapping turtle (Old Scarneck) soon, and hopefully one of the snakes (other than the blind garter snake we keep in the education room).

The wildflowers are also really beautiful… I’m going to try to get some pictures, though I’ve not had much luck doing that with my camera (which is beginning to show signs of age already. Oh dear). Also daydreaming of getting a new camera… Canon has a really awesome waterproof outdoorsy camera out now that looks wonderful. I’d like to have something I didn’t have to worry about so much, given my propensity for putting cameras into intense situations they aren’t designed for. And with a waterproof camera I could take pictures while boating without so much worry. If I get refunded any of this month’s rent from my DC landlord that’s where the money will go, I think. Well, and maybe into some more photo storage space… my computer’s memory is full. Uh oh.

Camp Bullfrog

Okay, beloved Parentals, this post is for you.





A couple of pictures of where I live (at least for the next few weeks)... everything was just renovated, and it's wonderful. My room is the one on the far left... living room, dining room, kitchen and bath house are shared. I'll take some more pictures when the light is better, and from the other side of the pond... you can't tell from these just how amazing the view is.

"A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature." - Thoreau, "Ponds", Walden

I live next to Lincoln Pond... similar to Walden in many respects, though I'm making no pretense of solitude. It's easy to understand why Thoreau wanted to live where he did, and I'm looking forward to this summer very much, and enjoying myself immensely. Even if I have spent a large chunk of this week printing and stapling and labeling newsletters.

It rained for most of today... but having been in the city for so long, I didn't mind much... yes there is lots of mud, and perhaps I would have minded more if I'd been getting soggy... but rain has turned this already beautiful place into something utterly magical. I've always loved rain in the woods... the way the mist curls around the trees and the light softens, the new glimmers on leaves and trails and rocks, the sweetness of the air... If you have ever been in a deciduous forest during a light drizzle, you know what I'm speaking of. Living in the city I had begun to forget why I love rain so much, just like I'd forgotten about stars.

More mundane information? I'm living in Bullfrog Camp with four other interns who are doing undergraduate research in field ecology. Some of them are more excited about this (meaning field ecology, not living with me) than others, but they're all sweet thoughtful women, and I'm enjoying our cooking adventures and movie watching time. Last night was our pizza experiment- next time we should buy better dough, and spread it out thinner... mine was all mushy in the middle. Ah well.

My mattress has dinosaurs on it. I'll take a picture soon.

Beginnings

I arrived at the preserve on Sunday evening, after dinner with the Executive Director and his wife at an amazing Vietnamese place in Albany. I've felt welcome since the moment I stepped off the train, and find new things to give me joy all the time. It's beautiful here, of course... but what an inadequate word. There are evergreen woods that make me want to run and spin until I can't move anymore, wildflowers everywhere, moving water giggling and burbling and shining greetings, and everything changes with the light... every moment is fresh and new and glorious. I've only begun to explore.

We all have many reasons for our choices. Partially I came here simply because I wanted to get out of the city. To see a new place and not have to lock my door or live behind protective bars. To step on something besides concrete and cockroaches and cigarette butts, smell rain falling on trees and earth instead of roads and sidewalks, to worry about ticks instead of muggers. I wanted off my couch and away from my television... the sounds of warblers instead of sirens. I realized last night, when I stepped out of the field station into the darkness, that I had begun to forget about stars... about what it is to look up and see the heavens spread above you in glorious unbridled confusion. I have missed that.

Partially I cam here because I believe in what the Preserve does. I'll write more about that later. Partially I came because I was impressed with what the Executive Director said in our interview, and partially because I was ready to jump at any chance to do work I love. Partially I came because of a passage in Thoreau's Walden.

Whatever reason rings true for you, I am glad to be here.