Easter Weekend

Clarice ended getting stuck in California for the weekend with her work assignments, but was able to attend church with the Nishimoto's, a young couple that used to attend our church when they were here at Grace College.

Karen and I spent part of Saturday with some of our friends, and I was able to get in some bike riding, 14 miles in the morning and 12 miles in the afternoon. Karen and Apryl went shopping Saturday morning and I got to spent time with Skyler and Trae. My sister Carolyn came up to visit mom and we got to go out to lunch with them, bumped in to Jon who had the same idea so we got to visit with him as well.

Karen's mom hosted lunch on Sunday for the hawk family and Karen and me. I was able to catch Adelphia's family in their Easter clothes

Notice Elisea's feet in the shot below. She is very comfortable barefooted.

After lunch we went over to the bait store to get some bait to try some fishing. Elisea found appropriate transport to and from the store.

It was pretty windy and a bit cool so we decided to try to fish at a spot that got us out of the

wind and in the sun.

I gave Jon my camera and asked him take a few shots of the fishing trip. Carolyn and Mom came over to join in for a while.

Andrew distributed fishing rods and help Elisea with her technique.

I got to help Elizabeth. We had an open faced reel that made the lesson a bit challenging.

Eventually we got the knack and casted the bobber (no hook) reasonably well.

Ethan was convinced that he had a good spot and showed great determination. Great Grandma Harris tried to show him some of the finer points.

After a while of no success we were off to new adventures.

Perhaps we should go find turtles instead

So off we go to the great turtle hunt.

Ethan rounded up some equipment.

I gave a lesson in stealth and turtle hunting etiquette.

So we're off.

Carolyn and Adephia missed out on the turtle hunt.

After a while Andrew joined us, but alas no turtle were found.

So off to the next event, kite flying.

The kites were in the kids baskets that Karen put together. Because of the strong wind the kites were a bit hard to control, but the kids seemed to enjoy chasing them more than holding on to a kite string.

Jon, the photographer turned kite flyer, had turned the camera over to Karen who had been taking this series of pictures.

Then we tried out baseball for a while.

Eventually the day began to wind down and we all went for some water.

All in all the weekend was very good lots of time with family and friends.

Spring Blooming

Karen and I went over to Pisgah Marsh a few days ago to see if we could catch a glimpse of some of the Sandhill Crane that we have been seeing in the fields. Back in February we were there when the entire area was covered in Snow.

We saw evidence of squirrel's snack wrappers, and what they gnawed on when the snacks were gone.

We also spotted some Canada Geese starting pair up and establish nesting sights. The cattails are still brown and from these shots it almost looks like fall.

As we progressed down the board walk we began to spot some evidence of spring. The Blue Winged Teal are not ones to endure much cold weather, and are among the first migratory birds to head south in the fall, but are beginning to show up again this spring. We saw several nests and nesting sites.

Below is a Sandhill Crane guarding a nest.

I thought that these two shots of tree bark, oak above and hickory below, show a variety, one tight and the other almost falling off the trunk.

The Beaver have been busy at Pisgah. This typical beaver hutch above is probably 12' across at the water line.

A pair of Swans one on the nest and one on guard.

Though not a great picture the Mallards in the shot above were buzzing the pond at the end of the board walk. The Sandhill Crane below was stalking the far side of the pond and got to a point where his reflection dropped into the edge of the water.

The shots above and below show the effort the beaver make to maintain a habitat. The dams that they built in two locations retain the water level 18" or so higher that what would occur naturally.

Above a gaggle of geese are trying to defend there territory from some pesky ducks, and below you can see that they successfully drove the intruders away.

We also saw quite a few plants beginning to leaf out and blossom. One of the first I spotted was this dogwood.

I'm not sure what all of the tree types were but most had fairly small and delicate blossoms.

Some of the early leaf growth starts out colorful, like this maple below, but will eventually turn green.

From a distance the blossoms were lacy as they spread across the woods.

Above is the sprouting of Shagbark Hickory leaves. and below several varieties of trees in bloom.

Some of the ground cover was surprisingly far along in its growth for this early in the season.

On the way back to the car we walked this fruit tree that was in bloom and just below the tree was this bright yellow flower poking up through the dead grass.

Across the road were some willows that were flowering.

Some more flowers and interestingly the extent of the leaf development on the cottonwood below was surprising because it was so early in the year.

near the area where we parked was this white Lilac. Most likely this was something planted there rather than a native plant. It still smelled nice.