Two Miscellaneous Nature Photos

This past Saturday late afternoon and evening I did some hiking in Tinicum and Bridgeton Townships, Bucks County, Pennsylvania near Upper Black Eddy. It was a mostly cloudy and windy day just after a big rain storm Friday night into Saturday morning. People tell me that during that time period we got two inches of rain.


This is Rapp Creek. This particular location is inside of some state game land. The creek couldn't hardly be any fuller.


This is a normally dry feeder to Falls Creek in Ringing Rocks County Park in Bridgeton Township. I loved the moss-covered rocks with the small falls.

In a couple upcoming posts, I will be showing photos from my Saturday afternoon hike in Ringing Rocks County Park. Falls Creek in Ringing Rocks County Park was particularly impressive on Saturday afternoon.

Nockamixon State Park - Autumn, Part 2

This is a continuation of my hiking trip at Nockamixon State Park of Wednesday of last week. The park is located near Quakertown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I was on the Bedminster side of Nockamixon Lake hiking off of Kellers Church Road.


Wouldn't this be a spooky place to be at Halloween? Part of the time I was hiking, it was late evening in a dense part of the forest. It can make for a feeling of quiet mystery and solitude.


Sometimes the prettiest things are the simplest things - like a single red leaf on top of a forest bed of dry brown leaves next to a brown log.


A beautiful hiking trail in the forest near an opening


A pretty yellow leaf


Nightfall is descending; almost time to go home

Kite Flying and More with my Nieces and Family

This past Sunday afternoon and evening I spent with one of my brothers, his wife, and their three girls. The girls also had one of their friends from church over for the day. And her parents came in the evening for supper when we had blueberry and regular pancakes along with vegetable finger foods for the main course and choice of three different kinds of ice cream products for dessert. Below are some pictures from the day.


The day was quite windy so we spent a fair part of the afternoon flying a kite.


The two girls to the right above are two of my nieces. The one furtherest to the left flying the kite is a friend of theirs from church. The guy on the bottom left is my brother whose family I was visiting.


Unfortunately, the kite landed twice in trees. The first time my brother was able to rescue it; the second time, kite flying was over. But we had a good afternoon.


My oldest niece


In the late afternoon, my brother & his wife and I played Blokus. Here's a picture of one of the games when no one could place another piece.


Here the girls are playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey. They also got us adults to participate. I missed the tail's proper location by far. :)


And here is my youngest niece who is a bundle of fun.

Rainbow Ridge

A Fall Weave

Faces in the Night

Faces in the night
Storm driven dreams
Beveling against the real

Those faces piercing
Fixating beyond the seen
Breaking through a terror unnamed

A fire roaring
Between house and lake
Broaching an emptiness not spoken

Off in a distance
Darkened trees against a riled sky
A fury raging undefined

So real the faces
So far from touch
A baffled heart.

Questions in the Night

Nockamixon State Park - Autumn

Yesterday evening, I went hiking at Nockamixon State Park located near Quakertown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The park surrounds a resevoir along the Tohickon Creek. It is a large park consisting of 5,283 acres surrounding a 1,450 acre lake. Below are some scenes from my hike. It was a mostly cloudy evening with temperatures in the fifties or slightly lower. I was on the Bedminster side hiking off of Kellers Church Road.


This year many leaves fell before the real color change began to take place as can be seen in this photo. I took the photo with a zoom lense at 300mm looking over Lake Nockamixon to the forested hills on the other side of the lake.


This photo is located on the same lake side I was hiking. Note the great blue heron near the autumn red leaf tree.


I had hiked a distance off the path and was struck by the colorful leaves on the forest bed.


I don't know what kind of tree this is; but I loved its yellow fruit.


A tree leaf view from underneath


A side view


Red berries against the leave-matted ground


One of my favorite autumn leaves

Pumpkinfest 2006 - The Daisy Jug Band

I mentioned in my last post that this post would feature the Daisy Jug Band that was playing most of the time I was at the Pumpkinfest in Doylestown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They were a talented group of musical entertainers playing both ordinary and not so ordinary instruments. They are worth hearing; but many of the songs were whiskey and beer drinking ballads. I found that somewhat ironic and incongruent with the festival being actively advertised as a drug and alcohol free event. The Daisy Jug Band has been performing since 1971 mostly in eastern Pennsylvania and the Poconos.

So here are the Band characters and I mean characters. To fully soak in the feel of the moment, I encourage the reader to click on the picture to get the larger view.


For one song, the band invited about ten children to come forward to beat on pots and pans to the beat of the music. They did excellent!


Here's two views of the scrub-board bass instrument.


In the photo above and below is a guy playing the wash-tub.


I love this guy's grin.


These two pictures above and below give the background view of the performance and the Pumpkinfest. The structure behind the stage and the structure shown in the next photo are all part of one the building - the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. At some point I am planning to make that a separate post all its own.


The content of this photo is located mostly to the audience's right of the stage. To the far right is the line of people going into the courtyard to view carved pumpkins.


And lastly but not least I have to include at least one carved pumpkin in this post. The label at the top read Gourd - Bride of Pumpkinfest. And then it has video covers from different movies with one of then being King Kong.

Pumpkinfest 2006

Yesterday, I went to the 15th Annual Pumpkinfest held at the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. I arrived late afternoon and stayed on into the evening. I took some photos while it was still light and some when it was dark and the pumpkins were lighted. Some were lighted so brightly that I didn't need to use my flash giving a uniquely different sensation. While I was there the Daisy Jug Band was playing which will be featured in an upcoming post. Below is the first photo installment of the many carved pumpkins at the festival. Before carving, these pumpkins weighed from a hundred to three hundred pounds. Pictures of the winning entries from last year can be seen at the Bucks County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence site. It is celebrated as the largest two day drug and alcohol-free event of its kind in Pennsylvania. It was also advertised on National Public Radio.

A Fall Landscape

I took this photo last night over Deep Run way near Bedminster, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was evening and windy. A cold front had arrived earlier that afternoon.

On a different note, I hope to respond to all comments made on previous posts yet tonight. But if I don't, it will probably be because I am just now heading out to a pumpkin carving festival.

Big Bend National Park, No. 3, Landscape Views and More

This is a continuation of my posts on my May 1997 visit to Big Bend National Park down at the bottom of Texas next to Mexico. In my last post I showed pictures of the Santa Elena Canyon portion of the Park. This post is showing views from various areas throughout the national park excluding the Santa Elena Canyon. The next post in this series whenever it comes will show a variety of non-cactus wildflowers from the area.


The sign in this picture alerts visitors that they are entering bear and mountain lion country. Unfortunately, I saw neither. Park rangers do say that mountain lion sightings are rare. But they want you to report any such sighting to them.


This is a view of the peak of the mountain in the first picture. The rock formations are so much more impressive in person than can be communicated via a photo.


In this desert scene, I caught a roadrunner.


Rocky peaks under an evening sun


I camped out at the park for one night and in the morning was greeted by these javelinas (sometimes referred to as wild pigs). I have read that this is a common sighting at the park's campground.


Another landscape view with more mountain ridges
in the distant background


Across the Rio Grande is the city of Boquillas del Carmen, Mexico.


Can you see the horse drinking water from the banks of the Rio Grande? You may have to click on the picture to view the larger version.