Our best dogwood tree is in an open area next to our house.  It was transplanted from further back on our property many years ago.  Each spring, the tree is heavy with lovely white blossom, much more than is typical for a dogwood trees.  In Arkansas, most dogwoods are found growing in the woods in the shadow of larger trees.

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, September 12, 2009

Spruce Tree House is the third-largest village at Mesa Verde, within several hundred feet of a spring, and had 130 rooms and eight kivas. It was constructed sometime between 1211 and 1278. It is believed anywhere from 60 to 80 people lived there at one time. Because of its protective location, it is well preserved. (Wikipedia)

The cliff dwelling was first discovered in 1888, when two local ranchers chanced upon it while searching for stray cattle. A large tree, which they identified as a Douglas Spruce (later called Douglas Fir), was found growing from the front of the dwelling to the mesa top. It is said that the men first entered the dwelling by climbing down this tree, which was later cut down by another early explorer.  (National Park Service)

This picture was taken from Canton Lake’s Sandy Cove beach. We were camped in the Sandy Cove campground on the first evening of our 2009 trip on our way to Colorado.

At the time, I was working a contract back in Arkansas.  We were taking advantage of a 4 week hiatus in the work to do a little traveling.

May has to have been one of the wettest months we’ve seen in the 35 years we’ve lived in Arkansas.  I think we’ve received between 15 to 20 inches overall.  Fortunately, it’s been spread out enough that flooding hasn’t been a significant issue in our part of the state, except widespread flooding in many areas along the Arkansas River.

Most of the water currently flowing through the river is from recent very heavy rain in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.  Several Oklahoma dams that have been holding back water in their reservoirs to limit downstream flooding are at capacity and have had to start releasing the excess flowing in.

At Dardanelle Lock and Dam, the river has been roaring at around 360,000 cubic feet per minute for days, over 7 times its normal flow.

Dardanelle Lock and Dam is part of the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.  The normal difference in elevation between the pool above the dam – Lake Dardanelle – and the downstream pool is 54 feet (16 meters), the highest in the system.

We’ve been over to view the river three times in the last week, including the south riverbank, just downstream of the dam.  The flow through the spillways results in massive churning of the water and waves that carry river debris to the bank.

Glacier National Park, Montana April 16, 2015

Though I wish it was, this photo isn’t one of mine.  I took quite a few photos at or near this same vantage point at Apgar Village.  However, all were taken before dark.  We were not at all keen about being out after dark when a mountain lion was known to be on the prowl in and around Apgar Campground.

Image on Flicker by Jacob W. Frank, Some rights reserved by GlacierNPS

Haw Creek Shops

We used to travel to Little Rock several times a year, usually just to “go shopping.”  With a wider variety of stores there, there more of a selection of whatever we were shopping for.  On occasion, we would venture to Fort Smith, which is a little further from us than Little Rock.

These days, there is more available locally than back then or, if we are to travel elsewhere, in Conway, which is about half the distance of Little Rock.

I don’t mind shopping for most things, but I usually detest shopping for clothes, which, because of available sizes, is  generally a struggle.

I’m a big guy.  Most stores carry few, if any, shirts that fit me well and even fewer that I like.  Sometimes, they’ll have pants in the right size and style.  Even then, I have to search just to find a pair or two to try on.

A few weeks ago, we went to Little Rock, mainly to get out for the day, but, also, to do a little shopping for new “business casual” work clothes.

I found one shirt and two pairs of slacks that I liked and that fit.  The shirt was from the “big and tall” section of the store, but, even there, it was an effort to find just one.  Usually, I’m on the lower end of sizing for “big and tall.”

I was also looking for shoes, but the one style I liked wasn’t available in my bigfoot size.  I scanned the bar code into my smart phone so that I could order the shoes later online.

While I still needed more work clothes, I was done for that day.  My older work clothes were getting a bit ragged, but there are several pair that were good enough for a while – and I just wasn’t up to searching (shopping) for more clothes.

Weeks later, I still hadn’t gotten around to shopping for the rest of my work clothes.  Since I liked the one shirt found in Little Rock, I checked to see if it was available online – and it was, so I ordered several more in various colors.

That was easy! – and so much easier than trying to find my size and choice of clothing in stores that, the next day, I ordered slacks and jeans.

The digital revolution has certainly changed shopping habits and led to the demise of many retail shops.  It’s been many years since music stores were common in malls – almost all of our music purchases have been digital downloads for at least the last seven years.  Because of Amazon and other online book sellers, most small book stores have closed as have some large ones.  We both have kindles, so visits to bookstores are now very infrequent.  We shop locally for most other purchases.  However, specific products are often easier to find and order online and can often be delivered in just a few days, often without any shipping charges.  It wasn’t that long ago that long distance purchases – generally through catalog sales – took several weeks for delivery.

How have your shopping habits changed?

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Images have been
digitally edited from
original images found
on Pixabay.com,
a repository of
public domain pictures.

I was probably about 3/4 of the way through my hour of exercise on the stairmaster, my head down, my hands clasping the top of the machine’s bars and my ear buds in, oblivious to what was going on around me.

I heard someone say something, but the voice didn’t sound familiar, and I ignored it.

Then I heard it again, louder and closer, so I looked up and saw that she was talking to me, with concern on her face.  I took out the ear buds so I could hear what she was saying.

“Are you okay?” the little old lady¹ asked as she gestured towards my thoroughly soaked shirt and the puddles of sweat on the mat under the stairmaster.

I grinned and told her that I was fine – and, then, realized that she thought I was overdoing it with my heavy sweat and head lowered.

I held my phone up and turned the screen towards her.  “I’m watching a movie.²”

¹ I guess “old” applies to a large percentage of us at the gym in the middle of the day.  I think she was at least 10 years older than me, which would put her at 73 or older – but I could be wrong.
² My Netflix workout plan.

A double-crested cormorant drying its feathers.
poster

Image by Ben Kerckx is licensed under CC0 Public Domain

In the last 15 years or so, cormorants have been regular winter inhabitants down in the Arkansas River Valley.  Large numbers often perch, many with wings spread wide, on the cross braces of an electrical transmission tower rising from the water between US 64 and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, where both cross the Illinois Bayou area of Lake Dardanelle.

The double-crested cormorant mainly eats fish, hunting for food by swimming and diving.  Like all cormorants, its feathers are not completely waterproof.  After diving, it stands for long periods in a characteristic wings spread pose, which allows the feathers to dry.

A member of the cormorant family of seabird, the double-crested cormorant occurs along inland waterways as well as in coastal areas, and is widely distributed across North America, from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska down to Florida and Mexico. Measuring 70–90 cm (28–35 in) in length, it is an all-black bird which gains a small double crest of black and white feathers in breeding season. It has a bare patch of orange-yellow facial skin.  (Wikipedia)

Searching online for material related to a photo of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone  (below), I learned a tragic accident had occurred there while we were in the park last summer.  An eight-year-old girl, hiking with her family to the observation platform at the brink of the falls, was two-third’s of the way down the trail when she fell 550 feet into the canyon. She had apparently stepped off the trail when she lost her footing.

We last took the trail to the brink of the lower falls in 2010.  The high usage, 1.5 mile paved trail, round trip, is steep, dropping 600 feet over multiple switchbacks to the viewing platform.  The climb back up is strenuous.

Numerous signs along the trail warn visitors to stay on the trail.  Some are intended to limit human caused erosion.

Some people choose to ignore the signs.

Other signs warn of danger.

Unfortunately, some people ignore these signs, too, some quite flagrantly.

Hiking a portion of the South Rim Trail last summer, we were passed several times by a large group, all of whom looked to be in their early 20s, except for one or two.  It was an organized group, possible a guided day hike.

If it was a guided hike, their trail discipline was very poor.

We saw several of the group venture off the trail to have their picture taken with the canyon in the background, including one young man repeatedly, including some balancing poses that could have ended badly.

On the day the girl fell into the canyon, we took Uncle Tom’s Trail down into the canyon. The trail is asphalt with switchbacks and steps, including a metal staircase with 328 steps terminating at a  view platform about 3/4 of the way down into the canyon.

It’s across the canyon from where the accident occurred and slightly downstream.  The photo below is the observation platform at the brink of the lower falls, through a zoom lens.

We were on Uncle Tom’s Trail in the middle of the afternoon.  The accident occurred in the morning, with the body recovered around noon.