2014 – Page 4 – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

A Gorge Trail Summer Standout

Use it to make a refreshing summertime tea.

January 28, 2023December 8, 2022 MichaelStephenWills8 Comments

Monarda didyma is also known as crimson beebalm, scarlet beebalm, scarlet monarda, Eau-de-Cologne plant, Oswego tea, or bergamot. A wildflower native to the Finger Lakes, Crimson beebalm is extensively grown as an ornamental plant, both within and outside its native range; it is naturalized further west in the United States and also in parts of Europe and Asia.

It grows best in full sun, but tolerates light shade and thrives in any moist, but well-drained soil. As suggested by membership in the Lamiaceae (mint) family, Beebalm, as an aromatic herb, has a long history of use as a medicinal plant by many Native Americans, including the Blackfoot. The Blackfoot people recognized this plant’s strong antiseptic action and used poultices of the plant for skin infections and minor wounds.

An herbal tea made from the plant was also used to treat mouth and throat infections caused by dental caries and gingivitis. Beebalm is a natural source of the antiseptic thymol, the primary active ingredient in modern commercial mouthwash formulas. The Winnebago used an herbal tea made from beebalm as a general stimulant. It was also used as a carminative herb by Native Americans to treat excessive flatulence. As a matter of local interest, Iroquois of Oswego, New York, made the leaves into a tea, giving the plant one of its common names.

It is 9:30 am on a July morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

References

Wikipedia, “Monarda didyma”

“The Botanical Garden, Vol II” Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, 2002. Page 284

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Newlywed View II

Under the Spell of Treman Gorge

January 27, 2023January 27, 2023 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

View shared by generations of newlyweds standing on a stone bridge across Enfield Creek. I favor yesterday’s view, peering down into the flume plunging underneath is disconcerting. Readers: What do you think? Please post response as a comment. Thank You.

We are looking back on the place where Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here northwest along Enfield Creek.

It is 9:30 am on a July morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Here is another photograph featuring the ephemeral winter theme, “The Cave.”

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Newlywed View I

Under the Spell of Treman Gorge

January 26, 2023December 8, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

View shared by generations of newlyweds standing on a stone bridge across Enfield Creek.

We are looking back on the place where Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here northwest along Enfield Creek.

It is 9:30 am on a July morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Here is another photograph featuring the ephemeral winter theme, “The Cave.”

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Entranced

Under the Spell of Treman Gorge

January 25, 2023December 8, 2022 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

First timers to Enfield Gorge realize it is special when a corner is turned and this faces them.

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 9:30 am on a July morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Here is another photograph featuring the ephemeral winter theme, “The Cave.”

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Frozen Fall Creek III

Across the years into a future

January 12, 2023November 28, 2022 MichaelStephenWills10 Comments

Gratitude for miracles witnessed is my emotion for this series, “Frozen Fall Creek.” Fifteen winters after Pam and I walked Fall Creek as a solid walking path, the stream flows without ice most years. My son, whose family now lives in the house, and his wife recalling walking the creek a few years ago, not in the past few years.

Weather records support our recollections and observations: here is an analysis of Ithaca January temperatures. The years 2009 through 2019 show a warming trend in daily temperatures for both minimum and maximum.

Analysis

Excel I used to plot minimum and maximum temperatures (Fahrenheit) for the 31 days of each January for eleven years 2009 – 2019. Click on the images of this post for a larger version.

Click any image for a larger view.

Forecast

Pam and I moved to Ithaca 2011 and missed our Fall Creek winter walks, miss them even more now our weekend excursions are only memories. Here are January minimum/maximum average daily temperature projections from 2020 through 2044 based on the trend established from the 2009 through 2019 series. The trend is the solid color, projection the faded color.

Reading from the chart, if the current trend continues by January 2044 the average maximum daily temperature will be 47 degrees compared to 29 for 2009. In other words, the temperature never rose above freezing in the year 2009. By 2044 temperatures will be above freezing every day, on average, with daily minimums averaging 21 degrees.

From what I read, we can expect these warming trends to accerate within our lifetimes. My son named small mid-creek hummocks “islands” with numbers. Here is a view of his Second Island in late summer. What will Second Island be in 2044 late summer?

Memories

Reader of posts I and II of this series have commented about snow shadows. Here are the shadows produced from snow fallen on the vegetation of the last photograph: soft mounds to contrast with tree trunk shadows.

I prefer the composition of the following photograph. What do you think?

A combination of contrasting shadow forms.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Stories VI

Down and Down

October 26, 2022November 2, 2022 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Weathered masonry at the height of Torr Head was there to serve the custom house and as support for a spotting station where ships transiting the Strait of Moyle (Irish Sruth na Maoile), the 12 miles of water to the Mull of Kintyre.

Lloyd’s of London, vitally interested in the appearance of ships’ progress crossing the oceans, had notice of passage via semaphore (and, later, Marconi’s “wireless”). Destination ports were copied in.

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Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Torr Head Stories V

The Way South –

October 24, 2022October 19, 2022 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Scottish influences touched the landscape covered by yesterday’s post, today we continue on this subject with these south facing views from Torr Head. The far ridge of Torrcor marks Loughan Bay.

A townland on the other side of Torrcor hill (and townland) has an eponymous ruin, Altagore Cashel. Mores the pity we did not visit this site, a thick drystone enclosing wall from the 5th century (you can see photographs from another site at this link). Cashel is from the Irish Caiseal, a circular, defensive fort (“ring fort”).

Books such as “Antrim and Argyll: Some Aspects of the Connections” tell of connections over the millennia, clan associations between the islands and ring forts such as Altagore Cashel.

Argylshire Scotland across the North Channel from Torr Head

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Torr Head Stories IV

Salmon Run

October 22, 2022October 18, 2022 MichaelStephenWills1 Comment

Late spring and summer, weekdays, a net is stretched across the bay to catch salmon nosing up the coast, searching for their home spawning stream, here called Altmore Burn. “Burn” is a Scottish term for a fresh water source, evidence of the influence 12 miles across the north channel.

The small harbor seen here from Torr Head is for the salmon fishery. Small boats will seek shelter here from the wind and tides strong enough to roar in passing the Head, like a fast flowing river.

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Torr Head Stories III

Neolithic Passage Tomb

October 19, 2022October 13, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

Taking in a flower meadow, foreground, coaster sheep pastures, the photograph, below, looks north from Torr Head. The high hill, midground, is Greenanmore, notable for a the largest passage tomb of the Antrim Glens. Locally known as “Barrach’s Tomb,” for the Red Branch knight of the 1st Century AD fort on Torr Head, tree ring research of the mid-20th Century dates these tombs in the neolithic The hilltop passage tomb was an ancient relic when the mortar of Barrach’s Torr Head fort was drying.

When I enlarge the original photograph, visible on the ridge is a decommissioned Cold War listening post, the tomb is near that. The distant land across the North Channel water is Rathlin Island.

Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.

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Torr Head Stories II

Ancient Castles and Raithlin Island

October 17, 2022October 11, 2022 MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Knights of the Red Branch appear towards the end of “Deirdre and the sons of Uisneach”, a tale from 1st century AD Ireland, as protectors of the lovers Dierdre and one of the sons of Uisneach, named Naoise. The two fled to Rathlin Island, seen in the distance in the following photograph.

From Rathlin Island they passed over the Irish Sea to Scotland where they lived happily for a term of years.

Click me for an earlier Torr Head post “A Bit About Torr Head.”

Barrach’s fort no longer exists, a Coast Guard Station was built over the site. There are other intact ruins on this picturesque coast. Here is one close to the Giant’s Causeway, Dunseverick Castle.