Pond Dwelling

 Midsummer has brought lovely overgrown edges to the pond.

A lovely wilderness in all its simplicity.

© Dawn Nelson, 2022. All rights reserved.

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:

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? 

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.

 :-)

Creek Life

A foggy mist out there this morning.

Just a trace of precipitation over the last day. I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon walking by the creek and river. The creek is working overtime doing its job. It's always so beautiful to see it functioning in top form. So often throughout the rest of the year it is a tiny, quiet tributary, but in the season for snowmelt, it shows off.

As I was walking along the creek I thought about how fortunate I am to live so nearby that I can see it from my balcony. A two minute walk and I can quickly gather the status of its condition. Knowing this little creek will ultimately flow into the Huron River, and then on to Lake Erie, is such a lovely blessing. It is a very simple way to feel connected with nature and the Great Lakes, even an hour inland from the nearest shore.

I decided on my walk that my goal will be to capture as much of the river's journey throughout the spring season as my capacities will allow. From creek to Great Lake.