12 May 2010 Holden Arboretum Plant Sale


It has been a number of years since Ali and I were able to visit Holden together during the plant sale. This year was pure luck. Ali got finished with work early and I was finished at the hospital much earlier than I expected. There used to be one big sale at this time each year. It was amazing. It was one huge party with a few thousand plant freaks (like me). A few years ago, they split the sale into three sales to match selling times with the best time for planting. It makes sense for the best way to handle the plants, but I really enjoyed the old, wild sale. This one is quiet and pleasant. It was nice to spend a couple hours together here.


This is the wildflower tent where all our money goes for deer food disguised as plants. This year we purchased wild white geraniums, wild columbine, pink turtlehead, and virginia bluebells. The deer decided wild white geraniums were perfect for their diet and ate most of the four plants before they made it into the ground.

We found sessile trilliums and rattlesnake plantain at Buckeye Perennials.

11 May 2010 Sandy


Sandy aka Sandman has been with us a long time. He's a super cat. In March he had the equivalent of a kitty stroke. I was traveling and didn't expect to see him again. He still had a small amount of circulation so the emergency hospital got him through the night, and our vet had him for a few days. He's been home since then. He doesn't get around as well as before, but he still purrs constantly. We know his days with us are numbered, but we'll enjoy him a little longer.

10 May 2010 New Camera

Since last June my camera has had an intermittent problem with writing files to the disk. It seems to return at the most painful times and usually just when I have stopped obsessively checking to see if it had written. This evening was the time for a new one. It was down to four choices before we left the house. Once at the store, it quickly became two choices. After a lot of waffling, I had a new camera. We stopped at North Chagrin near sunset to give the camera a try. We didn't expect to see a social heron on the boardwalk or a flotilla of baby wood ducks. It was a good night, and I like the camera. :-)








A regular visitor said these wood ducks were only a day old. If that was true, they were amazing swimmers for one day.

9 May 2010 Hiding a New Cache


We stopped at Anders Run to see how the orchids were progressing. We were really surprised to see that they were already in bloom during this strange, warm spring.




We had an AGT cache container to rehide for the program. When we first retrieved the container, we were going to place it north of our house in a section of the ANF that hasn't had a cache. Then Ali mentioned it was time to archive her tough puzzle cache in the ANF on the road to Hearts Content. There is a trail back here, but the area goes unvisited unless by hunters. We had two puzzle caches here at one time, but one is long gone. When we first placed those puzzle caches, it was blueberry season. There are blueberries everywhere here. We had a great time that day picking and eating blueberries while placing those two caches. I thought it fitting to place a cache for a tourism program in a simple quiet place in the woods where visitors can enjoy a super snack.






Blueberry Blossoms





This was a great spring for fringed polygala. This area was filled with large clusters.

8 May 2010 Eva

6 May 2010 North Chagrin Revisited


We returned to the park hoping for a less exciting evening. Other than trying to reunite a lost dog with its owners, it was a quiet evening. There were lots of birds along the trails this evening. It was unusual for me that I actually spotted a few of them. The oriole was a pleasant treat.


Searching for the perfect stand of wild hyacynths.



The turtle hang-out was quiet this evening.





He was cute and friendly, just not very smart. We left him with another dog family. They were trying to return him to the couple that was searching on the other side of the river. I hope there was a happy ending.

5 May 2010 At the Polo Fields





We came to the park hoping to find lots of wildflowers, but we were just about a quarter-mile from the parking area when we came on a young women who had broken her ankle while running. We helped her back the quarter-mile to the gravel drive and stayed with her until her husband arrived. I hope she is doing well.

4 May 2010 A Few Photos While Working in the Yard...

3 May 2010 Trilliums in Our Yard

2 May 2010 Along the Bridle Trail


Not many people walk the bridle trail at this park, but there are a lot of wildflowers and a nice stream crossing. We wanted a long walk with the dogs so this fit the bill.

1 May 2010 Spring Cleaning


Several years ago there was a geocache placed at the Forest Hills Lawn Bowling Club by a member. Ali and a friend went to find the cache one morning. While they were there, they tried bowling and decided it was fun. Since then they have both been members of the club. Twice a year, a group of members get together on a Saturday morning to do maintenance. We were there this morning to help. It always rains on these two days of the year. Today was no exception, but the rain was at least slow enough to groom the lawn and complete other chores. Afterwards, there was a little time for Ali and another member to have a few practice bowls.

30 April 2010 Going North


Pinnacle Rock State Park





The historical marker near the park entrance says visitors can see for several counties from the cliffs. From the view on a clear day, I think the sign was right.





Wolf Run State Park







It was a long drive home. I hoped to spend time at the Geocaching 10th birthday party, but I barely made it in time for the picture.