"No place is a place until it has found its poet"

What a day!  This seems like it is going to be just about the last time we really go out to our places so not only will I share with you my poem, but I would also like to show off some things I have been working on for the past semester.  But let's start with the poem.  It has no title but goes like this:

On my way to Salmon Hole
I passed two chickadees
With nothing but love
in their flight —
with my arm outstreched,
I could almost touch
Them.


The water laps on smaller banks than
what I am used to.
The trees, too, aren't used to it.


Birds
Bugs
Buds.
They're all here
At a party celebrating life —
Where are you?

Now how about some cool videos and stuff?!  Woo hoo!

This first little one is of a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), which seems to be an important character at the Hole because I drew one in my Event Map last week.

As for some other cool things, I have a couple time lapse videos I have been itching to post for more than two months now — I hope you like them!

This is simply a compilation of all the panoramas 

you have seen at the bottom of the blog each week

I originally meant this to show the sumac as it began to leaf out 

in the spring, but instead it's just a cool time lapse of the seasons

This last one is the one I am most excited about; it shows the path to my place

 as a time lapse over the seasons.  I took about 10 shots today though 

since it may be the last week and I really wanted to show as much 

of the path as I could — hope it's not too dizzying!

Well, if this is the end, it's been real.
If not, I'll see you next week!


...I just watched all those videos after I published this post and I appologize for the quality problems most of them are having; if you want to see them, let me know and I can show you on my computer in class on Wednesday!

Event Map

I like this week's post because — on the busiest week of my semester so far — all the description you need is already on the map!
Enjoy the map!
It's no trap,
Admiral Ackbar.

Follow me around; I start at the bottom and go up!

This Post Has No Title

I don't even know where to start — I can't even think of a title!  I just got back from Salmon Hole (yes, I discovered it is actually called that) and I hope you are ready for an adventure because that is just what I did.  Let's start off with the usual analysis:
The flora and fauna were great.  No leafing out yet, but I saw more cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) today than I ever have in all my years birdwatching...combined!

Get that nom nom!

Need a cedar waxwing?  I've got half a dozen.

Alright, enough of the biotic analysis — let's get to how ridiculously high the river is right now!  A couple weeks ago, I went down to the river by my spot and noticed that there were huge chunks of ice 20 feet (maybe 4 or 5 vertical feet) up the river bank, as if they had stayed there as the rest of the ice melted and the water level receded.  I thought it ridiculous that the water could have been that high, but today, I saw with my own eyes that it can be even higher.

The red outlines show approximately where the water level usually is;
the line down the middle shows where there was a wintertime ice bridge
and also where I tried to cross over to Brian's spot last week

The floodwaters were simply breathtaking this week.  Here are some pictures; hopefully you will get as excited as I was:

All of these pictures (including ones yet to come!) were taken as I circled around the Salmon Hole area.  This map shows approximately just where I went:

As I came around the old factory (the Woolen Mills Fitness Center, fun fact), I dove down into some woods and came to a spot that harkened back to the Mills' golden years.  Here are a couple pictures from the Woolen Mills:

I half expected James Bond to come out of the water, strip off his SCUBA
gear, and climb casually up those hidden stairs below the Mills

Ever wonder where your Christmas trees go at the end of the season?

This was one of the coolest places I went, by far.  I have
no idea what any of these things do, but they're really
big and cool looking!

Finally, I would like to share one more thing — the muck scraper!  What is that?  Well, I don't know if that's really what it is called but there is one lone gentleman that sits atop the dam and scrapes all the sticks and dirt off of the grate where the water passes into the hydroelectric turbines at the dam.  He sure had his work cut out for him today...

Cheers to you, Scraper Man!

So Begins Mud Season

I've heard that Vermont has very few seasons, and in my own observations and experience living in Vermont wilderness, I can say that this is very true.  Winter takes up half the year and then the other approximately six months are divided into two simple seasons: the mud season (which is starting now and will go through about late May to early June — conveniently enough, this is just about when the early AT hikers start getting up to VT...it's great how hikers and the Leave No Trace Center actually know how to live well in their places) and the rain season (which comes after the mud season, including when it rains for literally the entirety of October as it has for the past two years).
Today I thought I would visit Brian's spot (since it is right next to mine) along with Centennial Woods as a whole because I couldn't really figure out where Fed's, Dan's, and Harrison's spots were exactly.  Brian's spot was a bit difficult to get to, needless to say.  I remember when I ran into him in the winter, we were discussing how it would be interesting to see if he could get to his spot once the floodwaters started during the post-winter melt.  Today, I found the answer:

A couple weeks ago, this was an ice bridge

Anyone work for Asolo?  This would make a great advertisement ;)

If I had had boots that were maybe an inch higher, rain boots, or waiters, I would have made it across; however, today, I wasn't really feeling my inner Bear Grylls (although those are his pants in that picture, too).  As cool a spot as you have, Brian, I will leave the river navigation to you.  Perhaps when the water level begins to drop, I will once again be able to check out your place.