Tag: pictures

We picked up some house plants in the spring. The snake plant has been in the window getting plenty of sun. We noticed a stem coming up with bud so I guess it’s going to flower.

Today we had to go to Lancaster to get a hose to water the garden. We ran into a short delay when a flock of geese decided to waddle across Harrisburg Pike right in front of us.

This morning we had a line of thunderstorms approaching from an MCS last night. The timing was right that the tops were out ahead in time for sunrise. It gave us a pretty bright pink sunrise.

We were leaving a ball field close to sunset today and some cool iridescent clouds caught my eyes. I don’t notice them nearly as much in the summer as the winter, so it was nice to see them.

I have been noticing tons of the common white butterflies around the past week or two. Today was the first time that I had my phone on me to grab a picture of them.

We have our first rose of the year blooming on the rose bush. I smelled it when I was outside so I had to get a picture to share it.

We were walking home from Joy’s this evening and noticed the white tree that had been planted on Main Street is blooming. It’s a neat tree that’s different from the others along the streets.

We were finally able to get out for a nice walk this evening. There’s just been too much going on. We saw some dogwoods blooming at Memorial Park.

There are a bunch of various types of bulbs that someone planted in the vacant lot across the street. They’re in full bloom now. I noticed them this morning.

We got out for a nice walk this evening after supper. The trees are blooming, and some bulbs are starting to flower.

Today I noticed or at least took the time to go get a picture of some of the trees that are blooming. This year they’re not going all at once but instead they’ve been more one at a time.

Here it is March 19th and after our mid 70s spring like day a broken line of thunderstorms was moving through the area in the evening. We were between cells so we got nothing more than some very light drizzle. We did get to see some lightning in the distant thunderstorm off to our south east and a red rainbow since it was just about at sunset.

This evening I noticed a pretty nice sunset for a change. Those are harder to see here in the winter because of the neighbors’ houses mostly blocking it.

It’s the middle of March, and we’re finally getting a decent snow storm. The storms so far this winter have been mostly mediocre around here at best. We ended up with three or four inches.

I have always liked seeing fresh snowfall on the trees and stuff when the sun first comes out after a storm. Today was one of those chances I got to see that before it melts or blows off.

This morning we had a nice sunrise but it was more about the clouds glowing pink off to the north instead of the horizon..

This morning we had another good sunrise. It was a bright and colorful one with the clouds off to the east and overhead.

This morning it was very clear outside. Not even a single cloud formed before sunrise and it made for a less colorful but very nice and clear sunrise.

The sunrise this morning that I caught was cloudier than the recent ones but still was a nice colorful one and a great way to start off the day.

Another great sunrise this morning. At least I thought so.

It’s another cold morning with the temperature in the lower teens but I had to go outside and grab a picture of the awesome sunrise.

It’s almost February now and I noticed that our hibiscus had a flower that opened. It’s a nice change of pace from the temperature in the bedroom being in the upper 40s.

One single cloud first appeared in front of the sun giving that awesome winter irreverence effect that you see at times when the clouds are ice crystals

It’s January now and our hibiscus plant that we brought in for the winter is still getting occasional flowers.

Last night was a great night for our walk. As an added bonus we walked past Mount Joy’s Christmas tree while it was lit up and the moon was in a perfect spot

We went out for our walk last night and wound up within a few blocks of the two houses that go all out with their Christmas lights. I suggested we take that slightly longer route past them to check them out.

We have had our first snowfall of the season finally. It wasn’t much, but it’s something.

Today we went to the local alpaca farm’s open house again with the grand kids. It was good to see the kids again and fun to see the alpacas.

Recently we’ve been hearing a bald eagle in the evening. Earlier in the summer I thought I heard one but never did see it. We’ve been hearing it on our evening walks daily now but haven’t been able to spot it. I also hear it in the mornings and same deal. Never looking in the right spot at the right time. We were in the car this morning ready to go out caching when it finally landed on top of one of the Amtrak power poles.

Our milkweed hasn’t been doing all that well this summer, so it hasn’t attracted many butterflies. Today was the first that we actually saw one there. I moved it from the scrawny milkweed plant to a larger one.

We had a pretty good thunderstorm here this evening. On top of that, there was a nice double rainbow this evening as the storm moved off to the east.

While we were out for our walk, we noticed there were some chalk drawings on the sidewalk. We noticed this pretty cool one. I guess it was from the car show.

Today, I spotted the first monarch butterfly that I am one hundred percent positive that I saw.

There are lots of mushrooms growing out of the neighbor’s lawn this summer. They’re large white ones with flat tops.

I walked into the garage this evening and saw movement in the backyard. I looked more closely and saw that it was a bunny doing its thing, eating the grass and weeds.

We see a groundhog every once in a while across the street. Today while waiting for Molly I noticed it sitting up over in the vacant lot.

It was in the seventies today, with no real humidity for this time of the year. It made for perfect weather for our walk after supper. While we were walking, we saw a small bunny.

I was getting read to head out to the garage when I heard what sounded like weak gunshots. At first, I didn’t notice it when I looked out the window, but later I saw that a large branch had split and fell from our tree.

It was a nice day today, unlike yesterday was. I got an older WOD done. After supper, we went for a walk and saw some flowers.

Time got away from us, so we ended up getting Two Cousins for supper. We did have time to go for a walk, and we had a nice one this evening and even saw some flowers blooming.

It’s always nice to see wildlife on our patio. First I saw a robin hopping around. Shortly after the robin flew off, I saw a squirrel out there.

I have always felt the need to stop and look at a awesome shows nature gives is and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Lift is too short to not enjoy the free things. We were out for our evening walk and arrived near the train station with nearly perfect timing for both sunset and moon rise today. It’s pretty open up there so you can get a decent view of it.

A Mourning Dove On Our Hanging PlantHere is a photo of a mourning dove that was sitting on our old hanging plant right at the door. I walked into the garage while I was eating a hard boiled egg and heard a dove calling much more loudly than normal. You normally can barely hear them inside unless they’re close by but this one sounded like it was right there.

Molly just bitched at me saying I guess we won’t be going for a walk tonight because it’s raining. I looked outside and saw some blue to our north and said we’d be fine. I grabbed my tablet to come upstairs on the computer for a bit while we digest and relax a bit before going and noticed the sun was fully shining I thought I would go outside to see if there’s a rainbow because why not?

I noticed a bird was flying back and forth between the tree and our dormant milkweed plant. It was pecking at and pulling fibers from the dead milkweed and flying off with them.

I woke up and knew today would probably be the best day weather wise of the week to take my barbell outside and complete the running version of this week’s vault WOD. It’s essentially Isabel then run 800 meters then Grace. I did the row version of this last night at too light of a weight but it made sense to try a lighter one and complete the WOD rather than get bogged down by weight.

It seems like just a few weeks ago it was still pretty chilly with snow on the ground and the threats of more of the white stuff in the forecast. We had to go pick a few things up and I waited in the car while Molly went into the store. They tend to have boxes everywhere and people everywhere so I decided I didn’t want to go in. While just looking around I noticed a patch of bulbs blooming near main street just to the side of where the car was parked.

A great sunrise for the start of 2021This is a picture of a great sunrise on New Years Day. Not that it really makes a difference given dates and calendars are a made up thing that only matters to humans but we’re beginning a new year. This particular year started with a great sunrise and I happened to notice it in time to be able to catch at least a reasonable picture of it with my phone.

The weather forecast has been for it to be sunny for this week which was a nice change for what typically happens during my girlfriends vacation. The sky has been clear other than the dimmed sun and odd gray color from the smoke layer. I can’t remember a type when we had such noticeable smoke. Really the only other time I can remember smoke here in Pennsylvania from wild fires was back in the 80s or maybe 90s from large ones in West Virginia/ Virginia.

We’ve been meaning to get back to the Conewago falls area when the river was low. We finally made it there today.

We finally made it to Conewago pothols when the river was low enough to see them. We spent some tikme enjoying the nice weather out there.

We spotted a monarch butterfly hanging out near our rose bush today.

I saw the first monarch butterfly of 2020, or at least the first one that I am positive that I saw. I thought I saw one out of the corner of my eyes before, but today I was certain.

our rose still has clusters of flowersThis is a photo of some red roses blooming on our rose bush. I looked out the front door this morning to see if we had any monarch butterflies flying around yet and the rose clusters caught my attention. The sun was hitting them just right that they were glowing super bright. I wanted to get a picture of it to post here but naturally my phone was dead and on the charger this morning.

I have been smelling honeysuckles for days now but didn’t see them. Turns out they must have been in the deep shadow in the trees the other evening when I went to see if I could find them. These always remind me of our house in Andalusia that had many trees in the large yard. Right outside my bedroom window was a holly tree. Honeysuckles grew on that tree so I’d smell them every spring.

We were walking out the door to the car and I thought I smelled flowers. I want to think honey suckles bit I didn’t see any where they typically grow. I could have sworn that’s what I was smelling but didn’t notice them. They could have been hidden in the shadows. My nose is also still a bit stuffy so it could be messing with my olfactory sense. It’s also under a constant state of irritation these days between the fire pit smoke and chain smoking next door neighbors.

Our rose bush normally blooms sometime around new years for what ever strange reason but it didn’t get to do that this year. It used to change colors when we first got it but it never really grew that well for us. We assumed it was just dead. One winter we had to have the yard dug up to fix the sewer. That was a shitty day. Thanks neighbor’s tree roots!

We decided to give the grocery store a shot today to see if it may be less busy than the weekend. We pulled in and parked and there in the middle of the Giant parking lot is a duck waddling around without a care in the world. I just had to take a picture of this. duck looking straight at me in the parking lot when I take his pictureThis picture contains a duck standing in the middle of the driving lane of a parking lot looking straight at me while I took his picture.

I haven’t yet had any like identifying what these are for sure but I really haven’t put a ton of effort into discovering it either. It’s really just a curiosity but I thought I’d share the picture of some spring positivist. Purple flowers across the streetIn this picture there is a plant with small four petaled purplish pink flowers that are blooming. They come up every year and every year I wonder what they are but then forget to look deeper into it.

Our pink swamp milkweed that we finally picked up last summer seems to be coming up again. We thought the original white one we got was the pink one but it was apparently mislabeled. It sucked that it wasn’t the one we got but the butterflies loved in none the less. We weren’t sure it was even going to come back up considering we didn’t buy it and plant it until August and the monarchs found it immediately.

It was a very nice evening so I took the very short walk across the street to see what sort of flowers are blooming no. I noticed a few of the Daffodils are flowering. I always called them egg flowers when I was a little kid because of the yellow center and outside center makes it look like a perfectly cooked egg. Daffodil blooming at the curbThis picture shows a daffodil blooming.

I have posted before about the flowers along the street since the neighbor planted them. With all the negativity in the world and the not doing much of anything outside the house with the coronavirus happening at this time it sure is a nice break to see these flowers a few hundred feet away. He has all sorts of flowers planted so there is basically something in bloom at any time of the spring, summer of fall.

Incoming gust frontImpressive looking thunderstorm for April. While we didn’t get directly under the cell we did get the edge of it and it packed a lot of wind and plenty of thunder and lightning along with it. I wonder what it was like under that cell. We just got the tail end of it and gust front that was off to the south of it. There was a constant strong wind sound as it raced over us.

We decided to try bleeding hearts in our front yard last year, since they are perennials. They came back up and are starting to bloom now.

Trying to continue with the more positive posts with all of the bullshit going on right now. Maybe it could brighten someone’s day or something. Besides that I just like flowers. Yellow and white flowersThis is a picture showing some yellow and white flowers blooming. We were doing our typical once a week grocery store run when I noticed these flowers in the sun. They’re in an empty, unused lot of land.

Low ground level fog that was cool yet eerie a few weeks ago.This picture shows low fog rolling in along the ground during an early spring evening. With everything being so quiet the past couple of weeks I was reminded of this picture I took at a nearby park in early March. The skies had just cleared near sunset with ground fog suddenly appearing. I remember joking that it’s as if Stephen King and M.

It’s still March 30th and the trees along the street are blooming. Well technically they began blooming last week. They do smell good but they produce so much pollen that blows like dust everywhere and coats everything. I happened to notice the lower flowers today near the railroad tracks so I had to go grab a picture. A cluster of flowers on one of the trees across the street.This picture contains small pink and white flowers on trees.

Our hibiscus is still alive after the squirrels ate it up last fall. It’s been blooming and slowly improving all winter while it has been in the house.

I spotted some Crocuses blooming already.

It’s really been sort of surprising and interesting to watch how our Hibiscus plant is coming back again. A squirrel ate it bare right before we brought it save a few pieces of leaves and flower buds. It took a couple of months but those buds eventually opened and new smaller leaves appeared. There are still small leaves but they’re slowly getting bigger. The thing that has been surprising to me is that it keeps getting flower buds.

Last fall I moved our Hibiscus plant from the front yard to the patio to be nearer to the garage door to make it more convenient to bring in for the frosty nights. The first morning bringing it outside again I noticed some damage. I figured I banged it into the door frame carrying it and it lost those leaves. it got worse each day. Maybe it’s adjusting to less light and lower temperatures I thought.

We ended up with a couple of inches of snow yesterday. It was wet snow and stuck to everything.

We’ve been out on the NW River trail working on stages for a geocache hide in the evenings. We were out a little later this evening and got to enjoy the nice dusk settling in.

We spotted a freshly emerged monarch butterfly drying itself on our hibiscus today.

Seems to be the theme of the year. Last year it was just rain every day and flooding but this year its been scattered thunderstorms and rainbows. September Second we had the typical passing storm of the year and sure enough timing and sun angle were right for another rainbow. Not only that but it was a double rainbow yet again. Fourth time this year that has happened. I don’t think I’ve seen four double rainbows in my life before this summer let alone in one few month period.

We had a pretty good thunderstorm this evening. It really poured for a little bit and I think there may have even been some small hail mixed in. Being late in the evening the sun was pretty low and stayed out while it poured. I figured there might be a rainbow so of course went outside to check for one. There was indeed one and it was a very bright one at that and then the second outer one.

Two monarch butterflies nectoring on our new pink swamp milkweed flowersThis is a picture that shows two monarchs butterflies nectoring on our new pink swamp milkweed. Our milkweed was eaten bare save a few new leaves the caterpillars hadn’t found yet. We happened to be at a hardware store picking up sand for our sandbag and saw there was still some stuff in the garden center so I suggested we go look for milkweed just in case they have any left.

We had scattered thunderstorms pop up today and while it didn’t rain much if at all here the storm was to our east and the sun was the right angle to give is a rainbow. I saw it out the window so I went to a nearby open area to see if I could see one. Sure enough there was not only one but a double rainbow. Another double rainbow over a field.

This photo shows a very bright rainbowWe saw a very bright rainbow while driving and just had to get a picture of it. A small shower popped up just to our south this evening and never produced anything for us. The cloud itself couldn’t have been very big at all and didn’t look like it was even producing rain. It was dumping rain for sure though. We were driving through the back streets taking a shortcut through Mount Joy when we saw this very bright rainbow.

Double rainbow someplace in Mount Joy PAHere’s a photo of a double rainbow over a street someplace in Mount Joy. We had some heavy rain then the sun came out while it was still raining so of course I thought to look for a rainbow. Not only was their a rainbow but there was a double rainbow! Haven’t seen one of those around here in a year or two if I am remembering correctly.

It was a decent day and we wanted some fresh air today so we opted to go out on the riverfront trail and grab a few caches. It was a pretty nice day though. Pretty much the whole time out there we kept seeing these butterflies flying all around. Butterfly on plant along the Northwest River TrailHere’s a picture of a reddish brown butterfly that we saw many of on the Northwest River Trail today.

This is a photo of a rainbow over the ocean and beach at Cape May, NJWe got an awesome view of a rainbow over the beach and ocean while in Cape May NJ. Well I got the opportunity to see something I’ve never had a chance to see before. We had a dying thunderstorm move over us on July 18th when we were vacationing in Cape may. Really all we got from that storm was a shelf cloud and a quick burst of rain.

The other day, the stars aligned so that we’d be able to get outside on a nice day and find a few geocaches. It was a nice walk on the Lancaster Junction Trail, and we saw some farm animals in the fields that border the trail.

We finally got some snow before the arctic front moves through tomorrow. I saw a squirrel sitting on the patio table after the snow.

There’s been a monarch chrysalis hanging on my chair on the porch for a while. We’ve been keeping a close watch on it. Today it cleared up, and we actually got the opportunity to watch the butterfly drop out of it.

It’s always great to see unexpected wildlife coexisting with humans. Today we spotted this toad under the hose.

We were sitting outside like we do most evenings. This evening we were watching two bunnies hopping around the neighbor’s yard and eating.

We spent the spring looking for butterfly weed last year. First we checked at Hostetters in Mount Joy but they didn’t have any yet. We found ourselves at Stauffers later for other plants and decided to check there. We found swamp milkweed instead so gave it a try. I grew well and did attract monarchs. It turned out to be white instead of the pink it was marked as but it was okay.

We were out at the shopping center where they’re putting Whole foods in Lancaster today and saw a bunch of ducklings walking along the building.

Last fall I gathered tons of milkweed sees from the pods as they dried out thinking it was worth a shot to try to propagate more plants from seeds because we had a few people ask us about where to get the flower that attracts the butterflies. I had no idea if the seeds were mature enough to harvest or anything like that but I got a baggy of seeds to try it out.

We headed out to the NW river trail to check out the river ice. It was cool looking so I had to share some pictures.

I found some pictures of from when we went out to Conoy White Cliffs near Maytown. I Figured I would upload them.

I came across pictures while updating a hard drive and remembered this hike clearly. Some time ago. Probably 10 years ago we decided to go for a longer hike and geocaching. We were into that at the time and time allowed us to do it more than it does now. On this day we’d decided to go after one that was one we’ve wanted to get for years but never thought we’d be able to do the hike since it was something like 4 or 5 miles each way and when we started geocaching .

I found some pictures of my first big snowfall after moving to Mount Joy. It turned out to be one of the area’s top ten of all time, I believe.

I came across some old pictures from when we did the thousand steps cache. That was a great little hike, and we hit the mountain on the perfect day to enjoy the fall foliage.

We had more peppers from our garden than we ever expected. It really surprised us. Hopefully, they taste delicious too!

I came across some old pictures of Swatara falls recently. That was one of my favorite geocaches of all time because it brought us to the falls.

We have a bunch of phallus like mushrooms growing out of the old mulch around our flowers.

Today was a first for me. It was the first time I’ve seen a live cicada that I can remember. I’m sure I saw them as a kid but don’t remember it. I certainly remember finding the molted skins all over the place but haven’t seen one live. We just happened to spot something large and green on a tree today and upon further inspection it was this cicada that was in the process of crawling out of it’s old skin.

Our swamp milkweed lived up to the hopes we had for it and attracted monarch butterflies. The caterpillars formed chrysalises all over, including on our porch.

When I was a kid I had a venus fly trap and thought it was the coolest thing. The whole idea that plants could even be carnivorous was really neat to me. I’ve always been interested in thinks that are different from the norm. I got more carnivorous plants years later. If I’d have to guess I’d say that was 15 years ago or so. It came with 6 plants in a little plastic green house type of thing.

We were on vacation at Cape May and decided to walk to the end of the beach to see the sunset. We ended up being there at the right time, with it right near the Cape May Point Lighthouse.

This storm did produce a tornado in York County. When it got here you could definitely see that it was rotating. Well actually it more less just skirted my house but it was cool looking. Here’s what it looked like as it moved away to the north east. It was a really impressive looking storm for around here let alone in winter. Departing thunderstorm showing rotationThis is a photo of a departing thunderstorm showing rotation.

It was great that my girlfriend had off work today. With the weather being so nice we went to the nearby trail for a walk and t o collect some sunshine.

I came across some old pictures while preparing to upgrade my computer and found a bunch from the neat things we saw while geocaching. A few years back we went on a two day road trip with a friend so we could get the counties and grids we need for the PA Delorme Challenge and the county challenge which we sadly still haven’t finished but that’s another story for another day.

I came across some old pictures while preparing to upgrade my computer and found a bunch from the neat things we saw while geocaching. In July 2002 miners working in the Quecreek mine broke into an old abandoned mine that was flooded. The water quickly flooded their mine trapping them underground. Rescue operations began quickly. and after being trapped for 77 hours the miners were all rescued and all of them survived.

We went to a local alpaca farm. They had an open house and the grandkids were going, so why not?

When I was in high school we went to East Windsor race track most Friday’s because some guy my dad worked with raced there. Shortly after that my dad tried racing. He went to Bridgeport, never went fast but it was fun. I found a picture of his car recently

We were driving home from Lancaster on 283 when we saw a large mushroom cloud looking cumulus cloud. We stopped at a nearby park on the way home with a clear view to the west and watched it wax and wane for a bit.

We had a bigger snow storm on January 23rd. We ended up getting two to three feet of snow.

I looked in the backyard and saw robins pecking in the snow. It reminded me a lot of Nan and Pop, who were always thrilled to see them in the spring.

We got out on the recently refinished NW river trail for a nice walk and some caches. We heard a train coming, like you hear so often along those tracks, but this time we were at a break in the trees at just the right spot to get a picture of it approaching.

We decided to go for a quick cache near Cove Park today. It was a near a neat area near an old dam. Nice quick walk and one couldn’t ask for a nicer day to do this. We happened to notice this woolly bear caterpillar on the trail. They remind me of he stuff my grandparents used to say. Of course things like this predicting weather is complete bullshit but still it’s was a nice memory Saw this little guy crossing the trail.

I am making more posts from our trip to the mountains as I come across some pictures. We had a great thunderstorm and I got this frame from a video of lightning over the mountain.

Last weekend we visited Bushkill falls in northeastern Pennsylvania. Our trip began on an ugly looking day in which it looked like it could rain at any minute. It was a bit of a later start than I would have liked but that happens some times. It’s only about a 2½ hours drive from here. When we arrived the sun came out and pretty much stayed out the whole time. That’s something we haven’t seen a lot of this spring.

Once in a while our smallest guinea pig rumbles and mounts the other ones. She humps away when she does.

With it being warmer Our four guinea pigs have been laying around more outside of their igloos except for peppy. Anyways here’s how Teddy lays on her side. She lays that way often and sometimes we are worried she’s dead because she doesn’t wake up very quickly. The other ones we have lay on their sides but not very often. Teddy is almost always sleeping this way. Teddy Sleeping On Her SideThis photo is of our Teddy bear guinea pig, Teddy, sleeping on her side.

We went to a geo event at Blue Marsh today. It was actually pretty interesting getting some information of how search and rescue works and hearing about Middle Creek Search and Rescue. You have to really appreciate the work they do. It was really interesting seeing how the k9s do their work. Of course after the very interesting presentations we wandered off to find some geocaches. It was really a nice area to explore and we’ll absolutely have to return to Blue Marsh some day.

Last Saturday Lynn called us and asked if we wanted to go caching with her. We decided to go. We went up along 61 in the mountains of Central Pa. We’d love to get up there more but Molly’s car opposes hills let alone the steeper stuff up there. It was a fun day with a few snow squalls. Pretty cool for being early April! We ended up near Centralia so we stopped in to see the cracked road.

Last Saturday we went geocaching along the Conestoga trail near Pequea. It was my first time seeing Suzies hole, and it was a great view.

We hid a cache at Chickies Rock county park a few days ago. Knowing where it is we can see the location from the overlook trail so we decided to stop in and go out to the overlook and see if any cachers were there. We ran into iBrew. It was nice to see him. We then headed out to the overlook to watch the sun set. Here’s a picture.

We decided to check out the ice on the river today. It was really cool on the York county side of the river. There seemed to be lots of pressure pushing the ice against the western banks. We could hear the ice squeaking and cracking as the water tried to push it. There was also plenty of broken pieces of ice on top and pushed up along the bank. There were also a few louder cracks out further.

It’s been below freezing for a few days now. Actually it’s been getting into the single digits at night and teens in the day. We’ll be keeping an eye on the river for a while. Below will be a few pictures from today. Icy iceThis photo shows a couple of blocks of ice on top of the sheet ice on the river. River Ice Towards BridgesThis picture shows more ice on the frozen Susquehanna River.