19 January 2017 Westlawn

I made an extremely rare on-time exit from the office and decided to go geocaching with the remaining daylight. I've been to Westlawn Cemetery before and remembered the older section of the cemetery was filled with local history scribed on old headstones. It was great to walk away from work even for a very short time.

15 January 2017 For the Birds

We made a visit to Stark Parks' Petros Park this afternoon. Our walk started with the unexpected surprise of a heron passing by and landing near us on the open water.

Petros Park was also hosting a large number of mallards. They appeared to be pairing off and getting ready for mating season.

We weren't so lucky with a later visit to Sippo Lake Park as the wetlands were quiet this afternoon.

13 January 2017 Beartown Lakes

As my career has changed, the time I have for little things like walking the park with Ali and the dogs have become less frequent. I was lucky this evening to be able to get away in time to meet Ali at Beartown Lakes and take a early evening walk in the park.

The trails were snow free and the water was mostly ice free.

The park has at least one ambitious beaver.

8 January 2017 Canal Time

We planned to spend the afternoon in Stark County with our first stop Canal Fulton. Stark is close enough to home to be a "short" drive. It is far enough south to have generally less snow than home. We were starting the second phase of the Stark Parks GeoTour. We really enjoyed the time searching for the first part and were happy the second part had been released. Our first few finds made me wonder if the second series had a chance of being as much fun as the first. These hides were weak in places where weather and other threats would keep them at risk. The time outdoors was still worth the adventure. The snow was as light as we had hoped.

The lock by the gatekeeper house was frozen in place. We found the cache and moved on to a second short walk on the canal.

Our walk along the canal included a really creepy doll along the far bank.

There was a lot of open water along the way, including the Tuscarawas River. Hopefully, it was a sign of a mild winter.

7 January 2017 Visiting Punderson

1 January 2017 Caching New Years

We stopped at the park in Titusville to walk the trail behind the park and find a couple caches to start the new year. We were not expecting to spot multiple cedar waxwings and a purple finch. After the caches we decided to continue our journey on this mild new year's day and cross over toward the Oil Creek State Park.

31 December 2016 New Years Eve in Pennsylvania

The day included a quiet walk along the Allegheny River. In the evening we played a video while we assembled a puzzle. It had been a long time since we spent a quiet night like this. :)

29 December 2016 Backyard Feeding

We used to have a number of bird feeders for the winter. Over the years that number has declined, but our plantings have matured and now provide nutrition for the wintering birds. This cardinal seemed content to eat the red berries today.

28 December 2016 The Wilderness Center

We don't visit The Wilderness Center often because of their restrictions on which trails dogs may walk. To see all of the preserve, we usually leave them at home. Today we planned to just walk the dog-friendly trails. The weather was perfect. We made a couple finds before we came upon the area where the Wilderness Center had recently cut down their ash trees. Emerald ash borer is changing the face of the woods. Many parks and preserves are being aggressive with wholesale removal of ash trees. The damage caused by the emerald ash borer is swift and soon fatal.

Phineas was happy to be out for a walk and managed to get himself wrapped up in my legs

The preserves holly stand was decked out for the season with plenty of berries.

It was sad to see the large numbers of ash trees which had been felled. This was just a small sampling of the felled trees

Amazingly the caches survived the work or someone on the crew knew where they were.

The downed trees gave Lizzie a chance to show he Aussie jumping skills.

The downed limbs also gave her a chance to be silly.