Good Morning All,
On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!
Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com
Today, pictures from valued commenter J R in WV.
The best public space in our home county is this recreational flood-control lake on the Upper Mud River. Fishing, un-powered boating (ie canoes and kayaks mostly) picnicking and a day camp for school kids. You can also rent the camp for a private picnic, which was this event a couple of weekends ago. Small group of friends, we’ve known each other for 30 years and are familiar with each others’ eccentricities. Heh.
One issue is that the Hobet Mountain-Top Removal strip mine is upstream of this lake, so water drains through huge valley-fills. As a result the water has high levels of dissolved metals like selenium and other “overburden” metals. I won’t swim in it, nor will I eat fish from it. But it is pretty, and occasional exposure won’t harm you much in our modern world full of such pollutants.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
Just a picture of the lake on a rainy early fall afternoon.
Interestingly, for this pot-luck picnic, there were 4 different potato salads brought by the 6 different families. There were plenty of other dishes, and all four potato dishes were different and all tasty.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
You can see the rain drops on the still lake waters, but the birds on the dock don’t care. I don’t know the name of these two birds, I grew up on a dry ridge without water birds like these. I’m sure someone will tell us about them in detail, I hope so anyway.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
There are six different “Ladies’ Tresses” Orchids – I’m not going to leap at one of them definitively but I suspect this one is a Shining Ladies’ Tresses. Alternatively it could be a Little Ladies’ Tresses, but I think it’s a little tall for that… This was growing right next to the mowed lawn of the Lakeside Camp. There are other Ladies’ Tresses in the same general area …
Native Orchids are not common around here, but they aren’t rare either.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
No clue as to the name of this late summer flower. I had to mess with the color balance to get it away from showing up a blue, which it isn’t. It’s between lavender and magenta, and playing with the color of the flowers made the background foliage a little more fall-like, which is correct if memory serves me right from a week ago.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
Another picture of the lake, much later in the day.
All these pictures were taken with an Olympus TG-5 camera, which is built for outdoors use and is waterproof for use while kayaking, snorkeling, etc.
This image was f/2.9 for 1/13 sec at 43 mm. I forgot to include these settings for the other photos, and the new tool doesn’t have the ability to go back and edit previously added images. Darn!
Bonus: puppeh!
These are pictures of Happy, our older rescue puppy, a lab mix we adopted from our Vet clinic. She was stolen off a back yard chain by a client at 3 am, rescued from a horrible and abusive life of neglect and violence. She spent 9 months in the hospital being treated for Heart worm, and then we brought her to the hillside farm where she is free to roam the woods.
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
Happy, about 14 years old, very relaxed last night. She still has a few old habits from her bad times, but is usually quite happy with us.
f/2.3 for 1/30 sec at 30mm Olympus TG-5
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
I spoke to her and she woke up!!! Imagine that!
f/2,3 for 1.30 sec, at 30mm with the TG-5.
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
What else is there to say? Then she fell over!! Still cute!!
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
Same old puppy, still cute, awake, happy Happy.
Thank you so much J R in WV, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
Submissions should be sent via the all-new form at https://tools.balloon-juice.com