Winter Solstice

Serendipitously, a journey to the lake beckoned and was easily embarked upon early this afternoon. 

While I was taking a tour of photos, a fellow who was also visiting the shore (which amounted to two of us in the breezy thirty something half sunshine) said 'it's too bad it's so hazy, otherwise you can see the islands!' and he went on to tell me that west and middle sister islands are only 18 miles out, and the David Besse plant is 28 miles out (which you can see on a really clear day).

He said he had lived in the area his whole life, including on Stony Point, which is really just a long jagged peninsula (facing northeast from the beach at Sterling State Park).

It was a nice fellowship of appreciating the beauty of the lake.

All on the winter solstice.

And now the days embolden.

Another month's end stroll along the lakeshore

It's amazing how often I want to go out for a sunny afternoon and yet don't. But this time, I did, and the sunshine did not disappoint, nor did the shore.

Did you know we only get about nine hours of winter daylight at this northern parallel of 42 degrees? That's not much, really. Don't waste it by staying inside when the sun shines. 

Stroll in it.

Cleveland on the Lake

 

50 miles to Lake Erie

Just a short jaunt to Lake Erie from here. When I am out in the global work environment, I tell folks I am from the Lake Erie region. This is an essence of where I am from.

Au revoir, summer dreaming

 and just like that, it's the last day of August and seemingly summer.

Three months to the day, Lake Erie

4th of July sunset

After the Rain

Some very windy storms blew in last night to usher in the astronomical summer at 11:31pm, bringing with it half an inch of rain on my side of town.

Today I took a walk to survey some of the local damage. Unfortunately one of my favorite trees took a direct hit from a straight line wind and one of its major limbs broke away from the trunk. But more fortunately, this seems to be the worst of it. 

and life goes on:

A momma duck and her ducklings after the storm

and then they killed the tree:

Seasons change

As we now roll into the summer season, I look back at the events of the last couple of months and am shocked at how much turmoil a spring season can hold. 

While I was caught up in the ice out dates of the local lakes and rivers, what I didn't realize was that the pipes had frozen at my mother's house while she was away and consequently flooded the house. An extensive amount of water damage, to say the least. Dealing with this has preoccupied a lot of unanticipated time.

But now that the reality has set in, and with very little help from the insurance company, I am compelled to relate this experience to the implications of climate change, insurance, and the unfortunate lack of adequate and affordable housing in the US. I will likely write about this more articulately on my other blog, Courage and Climate Change. But for now, I just needed to revisit my intentions for a lake poet's musings, which was to, well, muse and wax poetic about the lakes and rivers and weather in general.

Since I find myself awake at a much earlier hour than usual, I think now is a good time to return a bit more energy to this effort once again. 

What I can note is that the river has been quite low lately, based on the daily text updates I receive from the USGS for the Huron River in Ann Arbor near Canal Street. Save for a few good storms this past week, it has been rather dry this entire spring in southeast Michigan. 

But June is here, and the summer solstice will hopefully bring life balance along with it.

Zukey Lake

 

This is the lake that inspired it all; the love of water, poetry and all that is beautiful in the world. 

Zukey Lake.

River Raisin at the Old Mill Museum

The River Raisin winds through an old historic downtown area called Dundee, Michigan before eventually letting out into Lake Erie several miles downriver. These photos are a snapshot of a river park near the Old Mill Museum. Such a beautiful little sanctuary in the heart of the downtown. 

Old Mill Museum along the River Raisin in historic downtown Dundee, MI 

A river park along River Raisin in historic downtown Dundee

River Raisin in historic downtown Dundee, Michigan

Traver Creek

I realize that I seldom chat about the creek part of the watershed so often featured on this blog. I found a nice spot today just north of the Huron River very near the Canal Street site, called Plymouth Park. 

Alongside this park is a lovely stretch of the Traver Creek. I particularly love this short video segment because you can hear children laughing. 

Perhaps there is a lovely spot of sanctuary somewhere nearby you are overlooking as well? 

Huron River at Canal Street

Quick capture this afternoon because the water is high and moving quickly today (909 cfs at 11am EDT):

Rainbow over Lake Erie

 A rainbow over Lake Erie today, and

A fast and high river in Flat Rock:

and at Canal Street in Ann Arbor:

Red Cedar River

Fortune smiled upon us with a convenient and unexpected walk along the Red Cedar River today. I haven't visited this river in several years, I felt blessed to have it visit me in a way.

I thought it seemed pretty low, judging by the water lines on the north bank.

and I was right, it was pretty low, and more than a foot lower than this time last year.

April Snow

Seems this April has a sense of humor already to kick off Fool's Day! A chilly 30 degrees F and some afternoon snow really sets the tone for a month of weather shenanigans.

Happy April!

Fast River

Just a quick note to note that the river was moving even faster today, although I didn't go look at it so no pictures or video today. 711 cubic feet per second (cfs) at 11:15 a.m. EDT, which is almost twice as fast as what it's been lately. Appears to have topped out at 755 cfs today, close in competition to the spike from the major rain on March 25-26. 

USGS gauge site data - river flow (discharge) measured in cubic feet per second

the Canal Street lately

Definitely a windy day out there today and of course I forgot my anemometer

I mean really 

who does that?

 It's a fast moving river with high winds from the west today.

Hazy lake blues

Subtle shades, lines, hues, blues.

Every so often a simple grey blue is good for dreams

especially when unexpected yet slightly on time

and just before the rain.

An impromptu visit: River Raisin

Fortune smiled upon me Thursday and lead me on an impromptu adventure near the River Raisin gauge site I had been hoping to check out soon. I found the site, located on the north bank in a spot difficult to stop and photograph, so I instead gathered some pictures from the county park a half mile or so upstream. Again, the water about to be logged!

I also brought my new anemometer along this time, which I set to read out in knots and Celsius because... why not? So I jotted in my notebook the local air temperature at 21 degrees Celsius and variable winds from the northeast at 2 knots. This is particularly indulgent for a data collector who was so pleased to find USGS records eight different data parameters at the gauge site (#04176500). For now, here are the two graphs showing flow and river height. Note that these graphs show the influx of water from the rain the evening of March 25-26. The pictures are from shortly before the rain.

Finally some rain!

Finally got a whopping 1.13 inches of rain yesterday and (mostly) last night. It's been fairly dry now for almost a month so it was a nice surprise this morning when I checked the rain gauge. I ventured a short trip over to the Huron River near Gallup Park and found a new spot on the south bank. Nothing much going on except the usual, ducks and geese and trumpeter swans and the like. It's becoming something of a series, this Huron River lately.

Lake Erie strolling

Happened to stroll along the Lake Erie shore this late late afternoon. I managed to get out there before the rain became more like rain and less like mist but it was definitely colder than I anticipated. Short sleeves and flip flops! It was just so much warmer earlier in the day. Also testing out the stream quality for this new platform, the audio is a bit weird.

experimental television

A few months ago I stumbled across this great broadcast app called Periscope. It was perfect for livestreaming from the field. Unfortunately, it is discontinuing (aka being absorbed by Twitter) but today I found this great new platform called Happs. I think I like it. Can I embed it? Let's find out:

The Tuesday News

Mapmaking

Here is a map I started working on today. My goal is to add all the watersheds for Lake Erie and then fill in with my own photographs and videos over time. 

Creek to River

This is the creek and river I keep talking about

Dove into map madness this morning. 

Still trying to pull myself up and out of it but I thought I'd take a moment to share a map of the creek and river I keep talking about. The creek is the one that roughly follows the train tracks to the upper right. The Canal Street gauge site is at the bottom of the tiny triangle.

(Map snippet from the online interactive viewer at MapWashtenaw)

The last of the snow and ice

It's been quite dry now for several weeks, with zero precipitation to report on the northeast side of the city. All the snow has finally melted away from the north side of the hill. It was probably gone by yesterday but I didn't take note of it until today. So now that the snow is rapidly fading from memory, I ventured a walk into the woods. This is probably the best time to walk the trails before the rains storm in and turn everything into a mud pit. 

It was there I found the last of the ice in the dry, dry swamp.

A small patch of snow and ice center right

A small joy to find this patch, as I was slightly sad I missed the last snow photo op pondside.

A snow and ice free pond

The temperature is around 65 degrees F (12:00pm EST) with a west wind blowing in this morning and early afternoon, hinting at gale force at times. Fewer geese and ducks around today as I assume they are finding cover. This concludes my hyper-local report for the day.

 :-)

Lake Nipigon

After dreaming about being north of Lake Superior, today I found myself reading up on the source waters. The Nipigon River is one of the primary tributaries to Lake Superior.

Then I discovered that I can embed maps in this blog. This is such great news. 

Ye olde Argo Dam

I just came back from an early afternoon walk by the Argo Dam. I realized it's been quite a while since my last gallivant in this direction. Things have changed!

and of course a snapshot from my favorite river bank near Canal Street:

water flow cubic feet per second

river gage height at Canal Street site