Tag: Spring

View from Loughcrew, northeast, Megalithic Ruin

On the Ground in County Meath

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

On a May afternoon my dear wife, Pam, and I climbed to the summit of in Irish “Sliabh na Caillí” anglicized as “Slieve na Calliagh” translated to the english language as “Hag’s Mountain”, the site of 5000+ year old megalithic monuments. Here you are looking to the northeast with a collapsed tomb to the right foreground. In closeup is a curbstone, one of many laid side to side to form the outer tomb margin. In the middle distance is a hill with additional megalithic ruins, not visible.

Megalithic is an architectural style used throughout the world, between 6,000 and 4,000 years ago in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Megalithic ruins are scattered throughout the island and County Meath is especially noted for them.

We stand in Corstown townland, the townlands of Ballinvally is to your left, ahead and to the right is Patrickstown, all in County Meath, Ireland.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Flowering Saguaros in Finger Rock Canyon

Some Fallen, Some Blessed

MichaelStephenWills9 Comments

My visit to Finger Rock Canyon of the Santa Catalina Mountains filled two mornings.  On the first morning, the subject was the lower canyon as morning light filtered over the eastern ridge.

Early morning to the north / northwest looking over a 20-foot fallen Saguaro Cactus (Carnegiea gigantean), toward lower ridges of the Santa Catalina Mountains.  The saguaro is among a stand of healthy fellows, some with new growth and flowers on the tips of arms and main columns. This giant must have grown over rock through 60 years.  It was brought down when the roots weakened.  Specimens that are more reliably rooted can live to 200 years.

A clump of brittlebush shrub (Encelia farinosa) grows from the same rock.

Pima Canyon is the next over, behind that near ridge which provides similar shade.  Unlike Finger Rock Canyon, the Pima Canyon trail follows the western cliff and loses the shade much sooner.  During our three-week trip, my wife, Pam, and I visited Pima in our first week.

These photos were taken between 6:20 and 7:00 am.

Along the trail I noticed a multitude of buds on the tip of selected saguaro arms.  In a previous blog, there’s a photo of this same saguaro in the shade.  The following series captures the one blossoming top just as the sun passes over the eastern, shadowing, ridge.

The same saguaro, two minutes later…….

Here is a portion of the saguaro forest, around 7 am with the lower canyon filled with light.  There are a few foothill homes with west and southwest Tucson.  The Tucson Mountains are in the distance.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Saguaro Flowers in Finger Rock Canyon

April Perfection

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

These photographs are a continuation of blogs from two days’ exploration of Finger Rock Canyon of the Santa Catalina Mountains, southern Arizona. Here we explore the nature of the Saguaro blossom.

Click Me for a gallery of Arizona Fine Art Photography

Saguaro flowers start as buds on the tip of the cactus body or arm. The specimen in the photograph below, growing in the yard of a foothills home on the border of federal land, is over 30 feet tall and, at the end of April 2011, buds are sprouting from every tip.  Look closely for opening buds and full saguaro blossoms.

Flower buds grow only from some tips and around the center, along the sides, not from the point at the very end of the tip, from which the limb grows.

These buds first appeared mid-April and are here shown in the latter stages of maturity, prior to opening.  Sometimes, the base of an arm weakens and the arm lowers close to the ground while remaining healthy.  While descending the canyon I noticed this had happened to the arm of a particularly large specimen, an arm in full flower.  This and the following photographs are from that arm.

I have read that each flower opens in the cool of the night and lasts only until the following afternoon.  Here is a fully blossomed flower with a pair of opening buds.

And more, from a different view of the same arm.

A saguaro flower in full bloom, having opened the previous night. This flower will last a single day. It will wilt in the heat of a single afternoon and close. In this brief time, flying animals will pollinate it. You can see numerous honey bees on the flowers, in a previous blog, “Saguaro Flowers in Finger Rock Canyon.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

Finger Rock Canyon Morning

April Perfection

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

The perfection of April in Tucson is nowhere better than mornings spent in Finger Rock Canyon of the Catalina Mountains.  Oriented on a north/south axis, the eastern cliffs shed a long shadow well past 9:30 am. For early risers such as me, this means no hat and cool hiking to the canyon head: the trail hugs the eastern cliffs.

These three shots were taken 5:30 – 6:00 am mountain time (Arizona does not follow daylight savings time except on the Navajo Reservation). 

Click me for an Arizona Gallery of Fine Art prints by Michael Stephen Wills

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills

First Day

Spring Equinox

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Thank You for exploring with me the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on this first day of Spring 2023.

Photographs with video from this walk, with nature sounds and music in 4K HD
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.
Here, before the epynmous creek flows over the falls, glacial outflow carved this deep canyon through relatively soft sedimentary rock.
Distant Lake View
The place for rest and wonder
Looking into the gorge
South Rim view of falls
Taughannock creek below the falls
Red Barn on Gorge Road, off South Rim rial.
Perched on the north rim of the gorge, the Visitor Center for the Falls Overlook is visible before trees leaf out.
On spring’s first day Taughannock Creek is full beneath the old railroad bridge, now a connector between South and North Rim Trails.
The creek here plunges into the chasm below a former railroad bridge.
Gorge from Railroad Bridge Walkway

Click me for another Taughannock post, “Cuteness Break.”

Lake on Early Spring Afternoon

Out of Season Dandelion

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A willow, nurtured by Cayuga Inlet waters, with a bench.

All photographs are from the Apple IPhone 14 ProMax, raw format and perfected on the phone.

Click Me for more photographic art from my OnLine Gallery, “Finger Lakes Memories.”

Stenciled on asphalt pavement along the Cayuga Lake Inlet, the white paint delimits dandelion flower stalk and seedhead, mostly denuded, with floating seeds held aloft by the pappus.

A circular bench that has seen better days, a hollowed out tree trunk repurposed as a children’s playgound house, picnic benches and, in background, a portion of the Farmer’s Market pavilion, to the right is Johnson Boatyard, Cayuga Inlet and lake. This is the Steamboat Landing, historically the southern port on Cayuga Lake. The entire area is long overdue for a facelift.

Painted on the side of restroom building, various shades of blue, black outlines, something or other holding a trident surrounded by fanciful fish.

On the trail to Lighthouse Point, this tree is in fine winter form on this early spring afternoon in March. Newman Municipal Golf Course

Cayuga Lake Views from Lighthouse Point

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Anniversary Tableau and Cards

Trunks Entwined

MichaelStephenWills9 Comments

Pam created this tableau in our den to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary.

My card to Pam is on left, Her’s to the right. Pam presented these ceramic elephants to Michael on their 14th Wedding Anniversary, Monday, March 20, 2023. Ivory is the traditional gift for the 14th.

Pam’s card is a illustration of solid and variegated  tulips, a spring flower.

On Michael’s card is a Spine-cheeked ClownFish. This fish species lives among the tentacles of the Bubble-tip sea anemone, also in photograph. “Both organisms form a symbiotic relationship: the clownfish will rarely stray more than a few yards from its stinging tent of protection. The anemone benefits from the darting antics of the clownfish, which protect the anemone from its predators.” Quote from the Sierra club. Photograph on card by Mike Bacon.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Anniversary Floral and Card

Fourteenth

MichaelStephenWills17 Comments

I created this floral arrangement for Pam on Monday, March 20, 2023 for our 14th Wedding Anniversary.

All photographs are from the Apple IPhone 14 ProMax, raw format and perfected on the phone.

Click Me for more photographic art from my OnLine Gallery, “Finger Lakes Memories.”

The arrangement is composed of Pussy Willow, “Lollipop” chrysanthemums, Blue Larkspur (Delphinium) and an unidentified pink flower the grows from a spike, like the Larkspur.

On the card is a Spine-cheeked ClownFish. This fish species lives among the tentacles of the Bubble-tip sea anemone, also in photograph. “Both organisms form a symbiotic relationship: the clownfish will rarely stray more than a few yards from its stinging tent of protection. The anemone benefits from the darting antics of the clownfish, which protect the anemone from its predators.” Quote from the Sierra club. Photograph on card by Mike Bacon.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Treman Gallery Footbridge II

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site.

This is the footbridge at east side of gorge gallery entrance, seen from the east where the trail descends.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Treman Gallery Footbridge I

Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 […]

MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge.

Spanning the eastern side of the gallery entrance of the gorge.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills