Although I have little to show for myself, I have spent a lot of time pouring over videos, reviewing photographs, bookmarking sites and organizing what I'm writing next. Today, I noticed a public conference that sounds very interesting and is certainly pertinent. It isn't that far away. Maybe it's doable. Hm. On Saturday, it was almost a relief to mail out a thick package and be done with the thing.......for a little bit at least.

I took these photographs the same day I was out at Bluff Point State Park. I stopped to investigate the Stonington Lighthouse in Stonington CT. Although it's a small lighthouse, there were plenty of exhibits stuffed inside the first floor. At one time, the baleen plates in the bottom photograph hung from the mouth of a whale to filter its food. The black thing to the left is a seven foot long piece of baleen. I placed my sunglasses next to the whale vertebrate for a more impressive look at how big this piece of whale backbone really was.

I've made a decision that this proposal will be mailed no later than August 31st.

Bluff Point State Park, Groton

This past Saturday, I did some coastal hiking at Bluff Point State Park in Groton. It was a nice level wooded hike to the shore. While walking along the sand I found a number of these jellyfish splattered like painted flowers on the beach. They were striking in shades of coffee brown and bubblegum pink.

Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford - part 2

Here's a photograph of the great egrets at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford.

This week, I'm working on a presentation and a proposal to do a presentation.

Harkness Memorial State Park, Waterford - part 1

Today, I spent the day with my mother on the coast of Connecticut. We stopped at Harkness Memorial State Park in Waterford. Although I've been there before, I've never really explored the place.  I never walked the trails or toured the mansion. The top photograph was taken at the start of the Dr. William Niering Nature Preserve. As I strolled along the path, I spotted tiny piping plovers and least terns ambling along a sandbar.  Great egrets were fishing in knee-deep water. An osprey nest looked like a mess plopped on a pole. One of these days, I will return and explore what I missed.

I'm looking forward to putting the proposal in the mail soon. Also, I hope in the near future, I can polish off the last piece of the article that I've been working on. Fingers crossed.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 3

We hiked down Mount Washington via the Gulfside/Jewell Trail through the bonsai pine trees. This ridge top trail ended near the start of the Cog Railway. I've never taken it before, but it was quite nice. I was sorry to see the view disappear as the trees slowly grew with our descent. Hiking down was a challenge as usual, but the trekking poles I picked up the night before we left were a HUGE help. My legs recovered much faster.

I'm eagerly looking forward to meeting with my writing friends on Wed. morning. Today I leafed through my proposal book and formatted a number of pages the way they are supposed to be formatted even if it irked me to waste paper. I've been thinking about presentations lately so hopefully I'll have some time to move forward on those.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 2

Although I didn't see much in the way of wildlife on the Presidential range in New Hampshire, I did find signs of science. At the hut, there was a citizen science project and a climate change project that guests could partake in. I must admit I looked over the climate change project that centered around alpine flowers, but put it back knowing that we had a long hike and no time for it (we hiked from 7:30AM to 6PM with few breaks). These photographs were taken near Lakes of the Clouds hut below the summit of Mount Washington. The top photograph is climate and air experiments that were scattered on the rocks overlooking the hut. I spotted two of these plant cams on Crawford's Path. The AMC White Mountain Guide book that we have mentions an extremely rare Robbin's cinquefoil (Potentilla robbinsiaina). I'm not sure if this cam is pointed at one or not?

Mount Washington, New Hampshire - part 1

Walt and I hiked up Mount Washington this past weekend and what a hike it was. We slept in the clouds and walked on the mountaintops. The first day we did an easy six miles and slept at the Mizpah Hut at 3,800 feet. I found out Mizpah means pillar in the clouds, a watch tower, a look out, a fitting name. The second day we hiked 11 miles up and down the Presidential range. We scaled the summits of Mount Jackson, Mount Pierce, Mount Eisenhower, Mount Franklin, Mount Monroe and Mount Washington. By the time we headed down I was Mount Exhaustion. The scenery on top was spectacular in every direction.

The first photograph is the trail we took. Crawford's Path, the oldest mountain trail in the United States, snakes along the mountaintops. Although we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, we did see this gray jay begging for food on Mount Jackson (it even ate out of people's hands!). Mount Washington (the high mountain in the photo) looks incredibly far away.

Tomorrow I'm emailing the full 10 pages to my writing buddies for review. We'll meet a week from tomorrow. Sometime after the 22nd, a second scientist will review the material. Then it will finally be ready for mailing. Hallelujah!

I watched these two butterflies for a little bit before my cat scared them off. One was on the grass while the other did what looked like a courtship dance, fluttering in the air above it.

Currently, I'm integrating comments from a scientist. I am quite grateful he reviewed the entire proposal and had many helpful suggestions. Today, I should finish up those changes.