Not Bored in CoMo
Sharing a few glimpses of a busier and fuller life
Yes, I’ve not been very present here lately. And no, it’s not because there is nothing to tell but too much! And that is a good (and recent) problem to have.
The big unpacking remains to say more about the Ghost Ranch experience, which has become more daunting the more time I have had to revisit the week in mid-September now receding in the calendar’s rear view mirror. And I will yet make a point to do that unpacking.
Meanwhile, smaller “landmarks” have appeared in my days and space and life, and I should follow my decades-long pattern and share them with those of you who keep up with this travelogue-blog-newsletter habit of mine. So in no particular order…
🪶 THE BIRDS!
One evening not long ago I witnessed an event overhead I will not soon forget. The local Audubon folks have been interested in gaining a current understanding of the use of local chimneys for what is probably migrant use by swifts. And on this particular evening near downtown and just before sunset, our guide and friend counted more than 700 in this one single chimney as we watched.
For almost a half hour before they finally began plunging at great speed into the vertical darkness, those hundreds of birds tracing a counter-clockwise circle of signaling and preparation of what was about to happen.
When it began, it went quickly.
ABOUT THE CHIMNEY COUNTS IN COMO
🍃 THE MOSSES
And on a recent Sunday afternoon, a sizable group of enthusiasts gathered at a local nature area a few miles north of town designated as a “moss walk” site, with a field trip, lead by the author of Mosses of Missouri Through a Hand Lens.
I purchased a copy signed by Lorie, met a few of the gathered group, and after a few hundred yards of trail into the woods, decided the heat was too much and I brought my book and hand lens home into the AC. You can soon expect moss glamour shots, I feel reasonably sure.
AN UNKNOWN NOW KNOWN!
I posted this image of an unusual “creek gravel” fossil a few weeks back when I was stumped to explain what might have created the tooth-like impressions. When I found a second similar enigmatic imprint in stone I was even more intrigued.
And so the night of the swift watching I loaned my stones to my geologist friends who deobfuscated the mystery imprint. And here’s the explanation: It is the impression of the central shaft of a fossil bryozoan, Archimedes. Traces of the “fan” could be faintly seen within the depressions formed by the “screw.”
A VERY DISTINCTIVE FOSSIL: THE BRYOZOAN ARCHIMEDES
🌙 OF EARTH AND SKY
The weather, now that fall-like temps have visited, is much more pleasant for walking the trails in and near town. Almost always, any given trail is not far from a creek (Hinkson Creek, Gans Creek) and I am drawn to water. A companion and I even set up our lawn chairs in inch-deep water along the edge of a deeper pool that persisted through the recent sustained drought here in central Missouri.
I liked this image that requires a bit of mental effort to sort out reflection from overhead trees from the stoney-leafy bottom of the pool.
And finally below, the Milky Way in a crude iPhone image from the “alfalfa field” darkness at Ghost Ranch. The image is not astro-photography of any merit, but the image and especially the memory of that sky will stay with me forever. (A faintly lit tree grounds the image at bottom.)
And I feel better now having “released” these tiny tales into the wild and hope you are having your own mini-adventures that keep life full. Thanks for stopping by.
Keep on sharing your new life, Fred. It helps us stretch our own.
I’m glad to see you are immersed in life forms and flows in your new terrain. It was your sharing of your immersion in Floyd that called me to the NRV. It is quite moving. Figuratively and literally. I’m glad to see that spirit so strongly revived.