The Columbus Zoo

Today Greg and I got up early. I made breakfast then we got ready and went to meet my Mom, Janie, and Pam in the parking lot of First Merit Bank on Sawmill Rd at 9:45am. We all piled in Janie’s rental car and headed to the Columbus Zoo. There was a big line of cars and school buses waiting to get in the zoo. Then a long line for the one extra ticket we needed and a line to get through the gate. After we got in we stood around and talked for awhile until Sandy came through the gate singing the donkey song and doing the funny hand motions beside her ears. We waited awhile longer for Janet to come through the gate then we were off to explore the zoo.

We saw bright pink flamingos standing on one leg with their long necks twisted around and their heads tucked into their backs sleeping. We saw lazy alligators that looked like flat tires laying in the grass. The group split up when we got to the reptile house because my Mom does not like to go in there. Mom, Janie, and Janet waited outside while Pam, Greg, and I went in to look at all of the creepy crawlies. There was a cute little brown tortoise walking around its enclosure and a big fat gecko stuck to the wall. Any type of turtle you could imagine was there. A neon green snake was curled up in a fake tree branch. The king cobra was sprawled out resting in the rocks. There was a python bigger around than my upper thigh. We saw a diamond back rattle snake taking a drink out of his swimming hole. There was a huge iguana with an under bite and then we were at the exit.

Next we went into a building with a huge tank of water holding the manatees munching romaine lettuce and a see turtle with a bad flipper and sting rays and other kinds of fish. Then we walked over to the aquarium to watch the fish and sharks in the huge reef tank. I stood really close to the tank where I could almost count the teeth on the shark except that it swam by way too fast.

Before we knew it we were walking up to the historic carousel and getting on board. Janie, Pam, and Sandy sat in one group and Greg, Mom, and I sat in another. Mom was sitting beside a little boy. She gave him a high five when the horses started to move. Later she asked him what his horse’s name was. He replied “it isn’t my horse”. My Mom said her’s was named “Bandit”.

The next area we came up to was Australia where we saw koalas sleeping in trees and a funny little prickly fella with a pointy nose. Then it was time to go into the kangaroo enclosure. After opening the gate the only thing between you and the kangaroos is a small rope. The kangaroos were all sleeping. I wondered out loud to my Mom and Greg if they gave them sedatives. They were pretty cute either way.

Then we walked past the lorikeet house and had to go inside. You could buy a cup of nectar for $2 to feed them but we didn’t do that. The birds would stop at nothing to get that nectar. About halfway through I found an abandoned nectar cup that still had some in it so I picked it up and found a hungry lorikeet. I lured him onto my arm with the sweet liquid but then when the fun was over I had a lot of trouble getting the bird to leave. Even after putting the nectar down it took quite a bit of coaxing to get the bird to climb off of my arm and onto a branch. Feed a lorikeet and you have a friend.

We stopped to get a snack and the lines were out of control. Greg and I shared an order of bacon cheese fries from Charlie’s and drank water from the fountain. Drinks were very expensive at the zoo!

The next area we went to was Africa where we saw a contemplative orangutan, a very large gorilla sitting on the cement wall of his enclosure looking eerily human and many other apes. We also saw an okapi, a very unusually looking animal.

The last exhibit we went to see was the polar bear. You could walk down below the polar bear habitat where the pool was and watch the bear swim in the pool. there were a bunch of fish in the pool that we decided were his food. When the bear was not swimming in the water if you looked up you could see the sky and it looked like the fish were swimming in the sky. It was very surreal.

After we were done at the zoo we went to Max & Erma’s to eat dinner. I had a BBQ bacon cheddar burger and it was huge! I even had the smaller option.

Sycamore Trees

On April 29th I went to The Park of Roses for a walk. While I was there I discovered a path that I had never walked down before. This was pretty surprising because I have been to The Park of Roses dozens of times and thought I knew it in and out. This was a dirt path that followed along the creek. As I was walking down the path I saw quite a few very large sycamore trees. The one in the picture above is my favorite. It has a huge area that is hallow. A person could easily get inside of this tree except that the hallow part is facing the water and there isn't an easy way to get to it. This made me think of the the book The Botany of Desire where Michael Pollen writes about Johnny Appleseed and how he was thought to sleep in hallowed out sycamore trees. Johnny Appleseed was an interesting character! I had always wondered how in the world a person could sleep in a hallowed out tree until I saw this one at The Park of Roses. There were probably a lot more huge sycamore trees before the pioneers came along and Johnny Appleseed was always moving west right in front of the action so now I understand how he could sleep inside of these hallowed out trees. How he went barefoot all year long is a mystery I will never understand. 

During my walk along the creek at The Park of Roses I got to see all kinds of wildflowers and fungus and I even found 3 morels. I also got to quickly pet a dog that was walking by. I stopped and watched a woodpecker for awhile. It slowly started getting dark so I walked back the way I came and headed back home. 

Hunting Morels

On April 28th I went to my Mom and Gary's house so we could go hunting for morels in the woods behind their house. We walked off into the woods and started looking. The first thing I found was a turtle shell. It was empty so I picked it up and put it into my bag. A few minutes after that Mom found a morel so the hunt was really on because we knew they were out there. We kept looking and finding a few here and there. Mom
found a deer antler then Gary came around with a live box turtle. It was the cutest turtle I have ever seen! After we looked at it for a little while we put it back on the ground so it could go back to doing whatever it is turtles do.

When we got to Gary's deer stand we went up and sat in it for awhile so he could show me what it was like up there. It was pretty windy, I can't imagine being up there during deer season in the winter. I wouldn't last 5 minutes.

Their woods has a lot of different areas with different types of plants in each area so it was interesting for me to see all of the various plants. At one point I bent down to take a picture of some logs with a bunch of moss on them and when I looked to my right I saw about 5 morels just sitting right there. We ended up finding a total of 38 morels. Not bad for the beginning of the season. I don't even like eating morels, I really just like walking around in the woods and hunting them gives me a reason to be out there. When we came inside we had spaghetti for dinner then my brother and his girlfriend came over to hang out for awhile.

House Sitting

Way back on April 22 Greg and I went up to Northern Ohio to house sit for his parents while they were out of town. They have a beautiful house with a pond in the country.

I am not a morning person and I have a lot of trouble getting out of bed. While we were there I would eagerly get up every morning put on a pot of coffee then go out to check on the animals. First I would feed Roxy the dog. Then I would go to the barn and feed the cat. The ducks were usually waiting on me to feed them next. Then I would check on the chickens and let them out for the day. They averaged 5 eggs a

day. They have 9 hens and 1 rooster. After everyone was fed I would go in and have my coffee and look at the internet.

Later in the day I would check on the plants in the greenhouse and walk or drive over to feed Greg's brother's dog and look at the koi pond, depending on the weather. It rained a lot while we were there but I had so much fun taking care of the animals that it didn't bother me like it would have at home.

In the evenings I would go out and close the chicken house then Greg and I would watch bad TV. We do not have cable so shows like Swamp People and Ax Men were interesting and very alien to us. I am glad we do not have cable, I think I would watch way too much of it.

One day while I was watering the plants in the greenhouse I heard a strange noise in the pipe above the wood stove. When I looked
in the wood stove (it was not being used) there was a black bird inside! I thought I could just open the door and grab the bird but it snuck out so I had to chase it around the greenhouse for a little bit but finally caught it and let it go outside after a little photo shoot.

One evening we drove to a nearby town called Glandorf and Greg took me down what they call "13 Curves" though we were really pressed to actually count 13 curves on the road. We also drove by a weird cemetery where they had taken all of the tombstones off of the graves and created one big shrine out of them. The whole reason for this trip was to pick up our Bombshelter Pizza. Greg had been telling me about this pizza for years so I finally got to try it. I would call the thickness hand tossed and it had a really thick layer of cheese on it with real sausage and pepperoni. It was delicious and lived up to everything he told me about it.

I had a lot of fun pretending to be a farmer but we had things to tend to at our house so we said good bye to the animals and came back home after 5 days in the country.

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make this page look the way I want it to so please excuse any strange spacing.

Alum Creek Dam

Greg and I went to Alum Creek Dam today. There was a lot of water flowing! We walked up the huge concrete staircase to the top of the dam then decided to go to the right toward the woods because we had never gone that direction. It was a beautiful day with sun and blue skies. The wind was a little chilly but I was ok with no more than a t-shirt and jeans on. There were a lot of people out jogging and walking their dogs. About half way to the woods I started hearing a high pitched noise. I asked Greg if he thought the sound was birds or if it was a loose belt on a car far away. He didn't hear the noise I was talking about so we kept listening. As we walked the noise got louder and louder until I knew it was coming from the woods and it was the sound of many many frogs! I was excited that there are frogs out, that means it really is getting warm out! Greg asked me if I wanted to go down to the grass area and I said "I want to go in the woods to find the frogs!". So we carefully walked down the big rocky hill and slipped into the woods. There were a lot of briers that will soon become berry bushes. There were hundreds of tiny plants sprouting underfoot. We walked a little farther then we saw a tiny swamp! As soon as we got near the swamp it became silent. We couldn't help but make a lot of noise getting there because there are still crisp dried leaves covering the forest floor. I sat there for a minute but the frogs didn't make a sound so we kept walking. I saw something bright blue at the very edge of the water so I looked closer and saw that it was an old aqua colored glass insulator. I picked it up then I realized it was broken so I put it back down. The date on it was 1893.

As we walked up a small hill Greg said "look, there's a snake!". I couldn't see it at first so we each took another step and the snake slithered away. I saw it that time. It looked like a queen snake. They look similar to garter snakes but they are more brown in color. We walked around a little more then decided we were done fighting briers and found a way out of the forest.

We climbed back up the rocky hill then down the other side which was covered in grass. Near the bottom of the hill I spotted a dandelion! The first one I have seen this year! Winter was so hard this year I am happy to see any kind of flower! We noticed that the sky had turned grey and it was getting colder. We walked in the wet mushy grass back to the truck and just after we got inside it started to rain. We were very glad to get back when we did!

Lancaster, Ohio

Yesterday Greg and I went to Lancaster, Ohio. We had a list of thrift stores that we wanted to go to. We were on a quest for a grounded electrical cord. The first place we went had shut down. Since it was downtown we decided to walk around. There are a lot of beautiful old buildings in downtown Lancaster and so much pretty wrought iron! My favorite building was this old church. The white paint was flaking off to show its age. It had beautiful windows and this wrought iron fence with one slightly damaged panel. I love things that are imperfect. It think this church has been converted into a house. I know I would love to live in such a beautiful house! The alley beside this church was brick with grass growing down the center, so cute! After walking around downtown we did go to all of the thrift stores but did not find the elusive grounded cord we were looking for. We gave up and went to Rising Park to climb up to the top of the big hill and look out over the cliffs. Rising Park is a beautiful place. The trail climbs up and up and when you reach to top there are sandstone rocks that you can sit on and look out over Lancaster. The town looks like a model train set from this view. The wind was strong up there! We went all of the way around the top and down a little trail on the opposite side. There weren't any people on the smaller trail, it was very steep. It was quiet except for the wind and the crows and the path ended at a very large tree. I sat near the tree while Greg walked around a little more. I love sitting near big old trees. I think they have something to tell me. Finally we walked back down the trail and headed home. We picked up some fruit and nuts for the ride. We went to a few more places before we got home and it turns out that the thrift store right by our house had several grounded cords. We were looking for adventure though and a trip to that store would not have been much of an adventure at all.

An afternoon at Grigg's Dam

Yesterday afternoon Greg and I went to Grigg's Dam along the Scioto River. The picture above is from a previous visit. When we went yesterday the water was rushing over the dam and creating big piles of foam along the rocks. The river had flooded and there were signs warning of high water. One picnic shelter was even under a few inches of water. There was a lot of driftwood along the road where the water had risen. After looking at the dam we walked into the woods. It is a great time of year to explore the woods because everything is dormant and there aren't any bugs. I was excited to see lots of wild onions or chives growing in the woods! That is a sure sign of spring. I also saw a weird type of mushroom growing. We found some big old pieces of steel out there and some large concrete pipes. When we decided to leave the wooded area it was extremely muddy. On the way back to the truck we watched the geese and ducks dig around the edge of the river for food. It was really nice to be outside again on such a perfect day. It is supposed to be rainy for a few days so it is nice that we can take advantage of the good weather when it comes along.