Weekend on the porch

Joe and I spent Friday night and Saturday morning on Lake Barkley... one last mini getaway. We spent most of our time gawking at the wonderful scenary.

Dancing through the daffodils

This weekend we visited LBL with Joe's folks and brother. We really get a kick out of this 60s style scene.


I made a prettier version of Salade Nicoise than my usual. This is a hybrid composed, mixed salad.

Bison snacks

OK, I've actually eaten a buffalo burger before -- at the Indiana State Fair -- it was pretty good. But the snack I'm referring to here is GRASS, which the LBL bison herd enjoys in abundance. Here's a little video.

Hematite Lake, and snacks

Before begining our chilly jaunt around Hematite Lake in LBL, we decided to eat part of our picnic. The Yasudas brought sandwiches and sticky rice balls. The Parrinos supplied the dried cuttlefish, freeze dried okra and sweet potato, almonds and garlic pita chips.

Daffodil? Narcissus or Buttercup?

There's some contention among locals about the name of these spring blooms. I call them Daffodils. Their latin name is Narcissus, and buttercups, while descriptive, refers to those tiny creeping wildflowers in the ranunculous family. I was happy to find this field in the same spot it was in last year. Joe and I went to LBL with our neighbors, Tai and Saya.

Eaglets, horses and barn cats

That blurry dark
blob with a little white head is our national bird, spotted by my coworker Emily's husband Rob, who is himself a Screaming Eagle with eagle eyes. Rob saw the bird before even the LBL staffers who were taking us on a winter eagle viewing tour.
I took a number of blurry photos Saturday, and this is another. Emily Stahl with her horse, Twister. Rob and Emily fed their horses at the Fort Campbell stables after our LBL excursion. Joe spotted a kitty up in the rafters and tried to make friends. Below are some blurry barn cat photos

The inquisitive turkey

And other creatures at the LBL nature station.
Friday we had a picnic at Land Between the Lakes and caught a presentation on eagles at the nature station. The turkeys were very cute and seemed to like hanging out by the edge of their enclosures to be near people. If they only knew...

I also enjoyed watching the nuthatches, titmouses, wrens, cardinals and downy woodpeckers at the feeders.

And I wanted to take this bobcat home, he was acting very much like a big Pooky (my former pet cat). As you know, my other passion, besides food, is nature. I could have stayed there all day (or at least until the next time my stomach began to rumble).

Bird Quiz

Just kidding. I'm going to limit the fun to the food quiz (see yesterday's post if you missed it.) But, really, if you know what kind of bird this is, I'd love to know. Right now I'm guessing a Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus). But I really don't know. It seemed about the size of a very large red-tailed hawk.
EDIT 5-29-07: Now I'm thinking it looks like an immature Bald Eagle... what do you think?

Joe and I have kind of taken to bird watching since we lived in Taiwan. These photos were taken in Land Between the Lakes, where we went hiking Saturday.

In other bird news, I heard a blue bird's soft, low chu-do, chu-do as I was walking to the mailbox today. At first I just thought it was a distant mockingbird mimicking the sound. But then I looked up and saw a flock of three bluebirds flying in the familiar flap a few seconds, swoop a few seconds pattern. They were talking to each other as they flew. Adorable. If you'd like to get a proper dose of bluebird, click here.

Weekend critter blogging

This snag was completely covered in woodears. Sorry the photo is blurry.
Joe and I went hiking in LBL today because the weather cooled down to the mid-80s. But the humidity hasn't let up at all, so I think my camera was having a tough time focusing through the thick air.



The trail we took was also thick; with spiderwebs and little frogs. There were the regular LBL olive-greenish frogs and then I spotted this red one. Is he a mutant? Er, is he a toad? I confess I don't really know the difference. I guess he's a toad and the next one is a...


Stripy shy frog... debating whether to blow his cover and jump back into a nearby puddle with his friends. Speaking of frogs- check out this zany picture.


It was breezier by the beach. Joe and I sat on a log, where I noticed some fossilized river critters.


And some fluttering river creatures... They loved these flowers.

Weekend warriors

It didn't rain this weekend. Several weeks ago we scouted out a camp site on a little grassy penninsula with four different paths to the lake. We arrived around 6 on Saturday night and just barely had time to gather firewood, make our dinner and pitch the backpacker's tent that we haven't used since our honeymoon in the Appalachians in '01. We were both pretty exhausted ... and my hands were too sticky from s'mores to take photos that evening. Our peaceful plot was actually quite noisey. The frogs in LBL are not normal ribbiting frogs. They sound more like hogs with megaphones. Anyway, they're also very long winded. I didn't sleep much, but I was still happy when our tent was surrounded by sunbeams and birdsong. Even if it was only 5:00. We managed to get into the tent without more than 2 insects inside with us. But when we woke up, we could hear the buzzing swarms just outside. So we stayed in and ate some muffins.

They look like blueberry. But they're plum-peach with strawberry jam surprise middles.

Finally, I left Joe to snooze longer, and ventured to see what all the buzzy chirpyness was about. And I found dozens of fuzzy bumblebees having their breakfast too.

Then I spent some time appreciating the lake views and getting my toes wet in the dewy grass.

When I finished, there were some other visitors to the tent. But for some reason, blogger isn't letting me post the pics. So they will remain a mystery until I get a chance to edit this.