Last year my husband and I started Geocaching, we aren’t out there every weekend like some enthusiasts, but enjoy our times when we do go out. It’s great exercise and not an expensive hobby. All you need is a hiking or biking GPS (not the kind that you use in your car) and a way to find “caches” in your area. You can find more information, and see what we do visit a page I put together called “Geocaching Baby Boomers” (I have new pictures that I have to add, but there are some there), and you can find out more about Geocaching at the MAIN site, geocaching.com.
Here are some pages devoted just to Geocaching in New Jersey:
Here’s a video put together by the North Jersey group…you don’t have to see snakes, get scratched up, and some of the other delightful things you’ll see here, because when you use geocaching.com to find and upload caches in areas you want to explore, you can set parameters ahead of time to avoid whatever you’d like to avoid. It REALLY IS a LOT of fun!
I was browsing New Jersey topics today, and read an article about the comeback that the Bald Eagle is making in New Jersey. We often watch large birds circle in the sky and wonder if one is an eagle…are more accustomed to seeing them when we travel to Maine, but apparently, they are indeed finding their way into the Garden State.
The following video was interesting…it always bothers me just a bit when they take the animals from their nests and do all the things that they do to study and research, must be terribly unsettling for the animal, but that is the way it is, and is done for good reason.
Have any of you seen our Nation’s symbolic bird, the bald eagle, where you are?
This past summer, we had the pleasure of seeing Goldfinches come to our bird feeder, especially in the Spring when the yellow was so bright an vivid. I have a tiny little picture of one at our feeder, wish the camera had been closer. Instead I have chosen to share one from Webshots, if you want to see other pictures by the photographer, just click the picture.
The Goldfinch is our State bird, and was declared so in Senate Act No. 241 which was introduced in January of 1935 by a Mr. Kuser. At that time, 44 States had state birds, and I am sure the Mr. Kuser figured that it was high time that New Jersey did, too.
I have been feeding the birds for years, but recently I purchased thistle seeds to use with a thistle feeder, and the picture on the packaging had many Goldfinches on it. I was planning to use the seeds over the winter, and asked whether birds other than goldfinches would eat the seed, the woman at the store said that Goldfinches are around all year, but lose the vivid yellow during the cooler months. That was new information to this bird-lover.
I hope you are enjoying the beautiful fall colors if you are living here in the northeast.
My husband spent the weekend working around the house, including building a new enclosed area for our trash cans. We haven’t had any trouble with bears in our trash all summer, but wouldn’t you know, last evening after supper, only a day after his finishing this project, we had a visitor. I guess he likes the new design My pictures are a little blurry because I was SO excited, but here’s a few shots off the side of my deck, he/she dragged a bag of trash from the can he knocked over and carried it into our neighbors yard. I quietly called my husband as I snapped these, and the bear ran, leaving a nice mess for us to clean up.
This pretty little flower has somehow found enough soil in a tree to take root and grow. It is this flower that grows wild in the woodlands and along the roadsides of New Jersey. I have some that come up in my garden each year, and though I have to pull some of them, do leave a little patch of them because they are so pretty. Even the heart-shaped leaves are attractive.It took a little doing to get the legislature proclaiming this as New Jersey’s State flower to pass. The first attempt goes as far back as 1913, which passed, but was a designation that would only last a year. Then in 1963 another attempt was made, to no avail. Finally, as recently as 1971, a year after I graduated from high school (“recent” to me anyway) those wonderful garden clubs that are all over our state and others were persistent enough in their requests that the common violet, viola sororia, became the State flower.
A day or so ago, I gave you a view of our home from the street, here’s what we see out our bedroom window. The leaves are just beginning to grow on the trees, so you are not seeing them in their full green glory, but it’s been quiet, beautiful and serene for the past few days.
I have a swing on the deck that I love to sit in on quiet evenings, as the sun is just beginning to go down. This picture wasn’t taken at that time of day, but it is beautiful looking across the lake…the water is still, with only the fish eating causing rings that spread out, out, and out some more, joining rings formed by other fish. An occasional mallard will fly and land on the surface. Geese will join them, and now the little gosling’s and ducklings are appearing.
My pictures are a little blurry because I was SO excited, but here’s a few shots off the side of my deck, he/she dragged a bag of trash from the can he knocked over and carried it into our neighbors yard. I quietly called my husband as I snapped these, and the bear ran, leaving a nice mess for us to clean up.
