Denise Goldberg's blog

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Crunch

carpet of leaves

Two weeks apart

This morning I stopped by the spot that drew my eyes two weeks ago, awash in color. Today? Just a bit of some muted (and rusty) color remains amid bare branches.

fading autumn colors

autumn colors, clouds reflecting

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Warmth

The end of October is fast approaching with normal (cooler) temperatures predicted for tomorrow. The last few days have been a gift, warm, with temperatures edging into the 70s.

Early evening, walking, no layers needed...

autumn leaves, curling

a carpet of autumn leaves, reds

I know I'll snap back into dressing properly for cooler temperatures, but I've really enjoyed the last few days!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Once more around Park Loop Road

It was a morning of walking in the park, an afternoon of driving (home).

Colors changed noticeably over three days. The glowing yellows I saw on Thursday and Friday morphed into more of a rusty shade by today, bare branches starting to emerge. Both are beautiful in different ways.

Three days isn't a lot of time to spend at Acadia. Any time I spend there leaves me feeling fresh, rejuvenated. Until next time...


I suspect it will take me a few days to go through my photos from this weekend. In the meantime, here are a couple from Friday, colors still bright and glowing.

autumn colors and cloud reflections

behind Sand Beach

On Jordan Pond

Look! The wind calmed down enough for me to pose for Denise's camera as we were bouncing around Jordan Pond yesterday morning. It was a happy wandering day.

--- Rover


Rover posing on a rock, Jordan Pond

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Can you hear the wind?

The wind stayed with me all day long, howling, constant...

I had been thinking about starting by hiking the Bubbles this morning, but the wind made me think again. After yesterday's mountain top winds I decided that today would be a good "low" day.

The wind was so strong that there were waves on Jordan Pond. The trail around the lake hugs the shoreline and is a little over 3 miles of walking. My unscientific measurement (using a piece of paper and a topo map) puts the lake at about 1.3 miles of constant choppy waves. The mountains rising above the lake wore a combination of colored trees and exposed rock. On the east side of the lake it was easy walking. The west side started as a wide trail, changed into a section of uneven rocks (making for interesting walking, pay attention!), and then into a series of what "A Walk in the Park" Guidebook calls bogwalks. That was interesting walking. It should have been easy, but it felt a bit odd. The bogwalk is made of split logs, two wide, above rooted and wet ground. That's wide enough for only one person, and while the logs were right next to each other, walking with a normal gait didn't quite work. The rocky and split logs part of the trail required paying close attention to where I placed my feet. In case you are wondering, yes, I still managed to look at my surroundings.

To go along with today's theme of staying low, I headed to the western side of the island for a little ocean walking near Seawall, a walk down the wooded Wonderland trail leading to a low rocky coastline. I stopped again to walk at Eagle Lake on my way back to my home for the night.

The forecast for tomorrow is continued chill with mostly sunny skies. While today's pure blue skies were beautiful, I'm hoping for a few clouds as decoration.

Morning report

Ah, another taste delight to start the day...

Breakfast this morning was an egg perched on slices of avocado, french toast topped with bumbleberry jam, and gingered baked pear. Yum!

The sun is shining, the wind is blowing, it's time to wander on a clear but chilly day. The forecast calls for a high in the low 50s, an increase in the warmth index from the current 37 degrees. Clearly, layers are (again) the rule of the day.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Acadia in color

I really wanted a picture of myself on top of Gorham Mountain, but the wind was blowing so hard I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stay on the ground. But oh! I suppose I should start at the beginning, shouldn't I?

It took us a long time to get to the start of our hike this morning. I think we headed out at about 9:20, and we didn't walk out of the Sand Beach parking lot to start our loop up Gorham Mountain until close to noon. It took a long time to get to Sand Beach because Denise kept seeing things that made her stop, to walk, to look a little closer. The mountains were painted in trees wearing autumn colors. The sun played hide and seek all day, so sometimes the colors were brilliant and sometimes they were dark. We walked down paths, some that were created by other people, and some that I think might have been created by animals. Some were dry, some streaming with water. All of the funky paths brought us closer to the colors that pulled Denise off of the road.

Ah, Sand Beach! We walked on the beach a bit, then headed down Ocean Trail towards the start of the Gorham Mountain Trail. Denise likes to do that trail as a loop instead of an out and back walk. Ocean Trail to the start of Gorham Mountain trail, up the mountain, up, up, following trail markers across the top, backtracking when we were slightly off track. Then the down started. Down a trail that carried running water, hopping from rock to rock, trying to maintain dry feet. And oh! the wind was howling.

We headed up Cadillac Mountain (with the help of the car). We stopped often to enjoy the scenery, and we did some walking around the top of the mountain. The wind was so strong that Denise had trouble standing in one place; it was easier to walk than it was to stand still. I hid from the wind in Denise's camera pack, keeping the zipper open enough so I could enjoy the scenery. I really didn't want to fly off of that mountain!

The temperature crept up to the high 40s, dropping as we climbed to the top of Cadillac. Denise was really glad she had a fleece hat and mittens to wear. It sounds like tomorrow will be another sunny, chilly day, another day for wearing layers and happy wandering. Until tomorrow...

--- Rover

Breakfast delight

Last night's rain has moved on. I woke to see blue skies with a few scattered bright white clouds. It's a crisp morning, temperature of 39 degrees, light wind, a good but chilly day for walking.

My day started with an excellent B&B breakfast, courtesy of Evin at the Holland Inn. This morning's treats included a vegetable frittata, banana granola pancakes, with some wonderful fruit, kiwi & strawberries mixed. Happy...

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Golden

Rain passed through the area early in the afternoon, but blue skies returned before I headed to Maine. Blue, decorated with clumps of white...

The sky continued to change as I headed to Bar Harbor. Gray returned, but with enough light to provide a magical view, a gray ribbon of road cutting through trees painted in golden colors, colors ranging from yellow to gold to orange, even an occasional red. There were sections of bare-branched trees standing amid evergreens. Each time I thought I had traveled past the color, decorated trees appeared again.


For anyone who is wondering, I was on I-95, and yes, I did resist the urge to stop. Somehow stopping on a limited access highway when cars are flying by just isn't the right thing to do.

Heading north & east

Oh! Denise & I are about to jump into the car to head to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park for what will probably be a too quick long weekend.

Time spent in Acadia is good time. It's such a beautiful place, and walking along the rocky coast listening to the ocean always makes Denise happy. I like bouncing there too. I'm so excited!

--- Rover

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Return to Parker River

I felt a need to walk on the beach today.

The last time I visited Parker River National Wildlife Refuge was back in August when the beach was still owned by the piping plovers. Today I knew the birds were ready to share with people again.

beautiful sky, pools, autumn colors

red berries

flowing water, ocean waves

Interested in seeing more photos? You can find them in the gallery Parker River through the seasons - 2010.

Through the corner of my eye

I was heading towards the ocean when a splash of bright color caught my eye. A quick glance to the left told me that I needed to turn around, to stop for a bit and enjoy the painted trees.

painted trees

painted trees, reflections

More painted trees can be seen in the gallery Autumn enters... 2010.

Friday, October 15, 2010

A progression of layers

I added blinking lights to my walking attire a few weeks back, my first concession of the "moving into walking in darkness and cool temperatures" season. This week it was time to adjust layers for warmth.

For my first early evening walk this week I wore a pair of capri-length tights and a combination of a light sleeveless long-underwear weight shirt plus a light t-shirt. Oops, not warm enough. My arms were quite chilled and felt non-moving by the time I returned home.

The next night I added a windbreaker. Better, but not good enough... I still had cold hands.

One more walk, one more addition, this time fleece glove/mittens from Sahalie.

Ah, much better!

I thought that would probably be enough new layers for the week, but I was wrong. Tonight's walk was in a chill wind and a bit of rain. The temperature when I headed out was 45 degrees (Fahrenheit), with the wind-driven rain taking it down to about 38 degrees. Brrr...

It was a walk in new layers, full-length fleecy tights, a fleece shirt topped by a rain jacket, fleece hat, and of course my fleece glove/mittens. Perfect! I returned home with a warm core, water dripping from but not penetrating my outer layers. Yup, I think I've jumped right back into cold weather layering.

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Crisp, bright

It was a crisp day, cool, bright with a clear blue sky. I shared the day with a fellow photographer, wandering from Wells to Biddeford Pool, a bit south of Portland, Maine. We both would have been happy with clouds decorating the sky but who can argue with blue skies?

waves

boat floating, grasses

More photos from today can be seen in the gallery South coastal Maine - 2010.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

to Iceland! ...photos

I suppose it's a good thing that I had some wet days in Iceland. Fewer days with enough wet to make me hide my camera from the rain may have meant more photos to sort through (although honestly, needing to sort through photos is a good "problem" to have).

Iceland photos are loaded into galleries and ready for viewing. You can start with the top level gallery, to Iceland! or you can click on the photos below to enter a specific gallery.

A few favorites:

A few favorites


Reykjavik, Reykannes, and the Golden Circle:

Reykjavik, Reykannes, and the Golden Circle


Circling north:

Circling north


Along the southern edge:

Along the southern edge

Interested in words? You can find my ramblings in my blog entries tagged Iceland 2010.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

A little color

It's October, and most of the trees are still wearing shades of green. Some are tinged with a bit of brown, likely the result of our very dry summer, and some have popped with color.

Look closely and it's still possible to see a few flowers providing extra decoration.

a pop of red

purple, green