Roger’s Ramblings

The Climbing Frog

Roger — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 03:32:31 +0000

Lisa noticed this on the outside of one of our UPSTAIRS!! windows this evening. The very cunning frog was hanging out (well was “sticking” out on the window pane, ambushing bugs attracted to the light inside the window!!!

The Underside of a Gray Tree Frog

Excuse the apparently dirty window. (click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

A photo gallery of some other shots from both inside and outside follows:

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Cass River Walk

Roger — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:41:14 +0000

After looking at the petroglyphs, we spent about an hour walking the 1.5 mile track that follows parts of the Cass River through the Historic State Park. It seemed for the most part eerily devoid of wildlife – apart from tiny flies and mosquitos!!!!!

The occasional Lobelia cardinalis – the Cardinal Flower – brightened the forest, and a few fungii on the trees and forest floor provided contrast to the greens we saw along the way.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park – Petroglyphs

Roger — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:33:05 +0000

Lisa wanted to visit the Sanilac Petroglyphs Historic State Park, so we set off on Wednesday to go over to the “thumb” area to see the Petroglyphs – quite a drive from Grand Rapids – 200 miles, plus afterwards another 150 miles down to Saline to stay the night with Lisa’s Mum!!

I was a bit underwhelmed by it, but it was interesting to see it. We also took the 1 hour walk around the track through the State Park.

(click any thumbnail to open a slideshow)

These carvings of hands were interesting - many of them had a thumb AND 5 fingers!!" rel="lightbox[set_45]" >

Don't know if this represents a person, or something else." rel="lightbox[set_45]" >

Lyon Street Water Slide 2010

Roger — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:19:09 +0000

Amid much publicity and hoopla, Grand Rapids became home to what had been billed as “the world’s largest inflatable water slide” over the weekend of 21 & 22 August 2010. This community event was organised by Rob Bliss and was free, with the costs of setting it up apparently covered by various sponsors. Thanks to Susan Dmytrusz who happened to be standing near the top when we got there for our turn, to whom I gave a card with my eMail address on it and asked her if she’d mind taking a couple of pictures of us and then eMailing them to me – Thanks Susan!!!! (I hadn’t taken my camera as I couldn’t think of anything to do with it while going on the slide).

The Slide - Looking Uphill from the Middle

The Slide - Looking Downhill from the Middle

Things got off to a slow start on Saturday, with the start delayed from 9 AM to 2 PM for technical, and weather reasons, and once running things seemed slower than expected. People were waiting up to 6 hours for their ride. One of the bottlenecks was the tubes needed for sliding – a “chain gang” was in place to return them from bottom to top, as can be seen in the two pictures above, but the reality was that people walking up the hill were actually travelling faster than the mis-thrown, dropped tubes were.

Lisa and I decided to head down earlyish on Sunday morning to see if we could get a ride with a shorter wait time. We got there right about starting time of 0800, only to find things already behind schedule. We had to line up below the bottom of the slide on Lyon Street, in what turned out to be very nearly a 4 hour wait.

Lined up waiting our Turn

Thanks to Nathan Vandenbroek for taking the above photo on his cell phone and eMailing it to me.

As we slowly made our way up Lyon Street to the start, the slide ran, then stopped for repairs, was delayed waiting the return from the bottom of the needed sliding tubes, etc etc

A description of the mornings events might have gone something like this…

Waiting, chatting, waiting, idle chatter, waiting, “why don’t they do it this way”, waiting, waiting shuffling slowly up Lyon St, waiting, “oh the sun has come out” waiting, waiting….

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thok!!

$10 Tee shirt

Been There Done That

A photo gallery with a few more images is below.

Blending In

Roger — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:31:12 +0000

While watering the garden at the back of the house this morning something caught my eye…

The Milk Weed by the back porch

In case it’s not obvious in this picture what I saw, here it is again…

The Milk Weed by the back porch

And a much closer view reveals…

Amazing!!!!!

A gallery is below.

Family History Quilting

Roger — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:31:50 +0000

This quilt was made for Aunt Jean’s 70th birthday. It was a collaborative effort.

Design by Lisa
Some photo scanning by Roger
Some photo scanning by Carol
Photo work by Roger
Printing them on fabric by Roger
Putting the front panel all together by Lisa
Putting the back on it by Aunt Bev

Jean's Birthday Quilt

All Creatures Great and Small

Roger — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:55:18 +0000

Visitors seen around the yard today include the habitual doe and her 2 bambis, and some “bugs” on the milkweed plants beside the back porch.

Pond Renovations

Roger — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 03:29:25 +0000

Since putting in the ponds nearly 2 years ago it has been a constant battle to keep the water clean. I’d only bought a cheap filter at Menards when first getting this set up, and it became apparent that we needed better to try and keep the water clean. Other measures were needed too, like more area covered by lilies or other vegetation. The water lilies we’d had from Menards were tired and not doing very well.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a new water lily, along with some water lily food, and some chemical to help clear the water. The new lily has done amazingly well, the chemical powder to clear the water was slowly working it seemed, and the olde tired water lilies were responding to being re-potted and actually fed for the first time. But it seemed like we still needed a better water filter. Hours spent searching, researching and reading online came up with the thought that we needed a Bio-Pressure-UV Filter – this has mechanical filtering, bio-filtering, and a UV light to kill algae.

Ebay turned one up for $72 plus shipping, and that arrived yesterday. So after much pondering on just where and how to put it, today was spent digging, organising, piping with bigger pipes than I’d used previously, and generally tidying up.

A couple of pictures show this in progress. There’s still more to tidy up before I take the “finished” pictures…

A view showing the new filter (centre of picture), with the pipe coming up to the top of the spillway in its new trench. The garden to the right is to be a butterfly garden.

Another view of the work in progress, with the mess laying around waiting tidying up.

Yard and Garden 7/7

Roger — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:02:12 +0000

A few shots taken today in the garden this afternoon, and then this evening from the kitchen window. An update to the water garden, and then a visit from bambis

Yesterday Lisa and I went to Apols Landscaping and oohed and aahed at the amazing selection of water lilies and other aquatic plants they have in an amazing array of ponds, and came home with a water lily, a couple of other plants, some “stuff” to take care of the water with, pellets to feed water lilies with and just for a laugh 5 tadpoles.

So the 2 puny lilies I’ve had for a couple of years got repotted and fed and put into one pond, and the new water lily given a pond of its own, along with the tadpoles and assorted snails that were hangers on.

The new waterlily purchased yesterday. It had 2 blooms yesterday - 3 today.

Then tonight after dinner Lisa looked out the window and a bambi was on the patio right outside the kitchen. By the time I’d got my camera, it had raced off to join its sibling across the lawn, and then Mum turned up.

OK - we're done, and I'm out of here, now follow along...

Camaro Superfest 2010

Roger — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 19:59:22 +0000

The Camaro Superfest 2010 was held July 2, 3 and 4 at Riverside Park in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and (on Friday afternoon) at Michigan International Speedway. Lisa and I, along with friend Kristie, her 3 kids and her parents went to take a look at the cars on Saturday.

A panorama made by joining 15 photos together

Pre-event registration had 155 Camaros registered, from 1968 through to 2010. Needless to say I took LOTS of pictures!!!!! Some of the better ones are immediately here, and then more in the photogallery below.

Not far in from the entrance - a line up of red Camaros - 2010 models in front, and a couple of the earlier ones up to 2002 bhind.

White 69ish Camaro and Black 2010 Camaro in the shade.

This 1970s Camaro was an amazing orange colour.

A photogallery with a lot more photos follows: