On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Good Morning All,
On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!
Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com
Today, pictures from valued commenter J R in WV.
The best public space in our home county is this recreational flood-control lake on the Upper Mud River. Fishing, un-powered boating (ie canoes and kayaks mostly) picnicking and a day camp for school kids. You can also rent the camp for a private picnic, which was this event a couple of weekends ago. Small group of friends, we’ve known each other for 30 years and are familiar with each others’ eccentricities. Heh.
One issue is that the Hobet Mountain-Top Removal strip mine is upstream of this lake, so water drains through huge valley-fills. As a result the water has high levels of dissolved metals like selenium and other “overburden” metals. I won’t swim in it, nor will I eat fish from it. But it is pretty, and occasional exposure won’t harm you much in our modern world full of such pollutants.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
Just a picture of the lake on a rainy early fall afternoon.
Interestingly, for this pot-luck picnic, there were 4 different potato salads brought by the 6 different families. There were plenty of other dishes, and all four potato dishes were different and all tasty.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
You can see the rain drops on the still lake waters, but the birds on the dock don’t care. I don’t know the name of these two birds, I grew up on a dry ridge without water birds like these. I’m sure someone will tell us about them in detail, I hope so anyway.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
There are six different “Ladies’ Tresses” Orchids – I’m not going to leap at one of them definitively but I suspect this one is a Shining Ladies’ Tresses. Alternatively it could be a Little Ladies’ Tresses, but I think it’s a little tall for that… This was growing right next to the mowed lawn of the Lakeside Camp. There are other Ladies’ Tresses in the same general area …
Native Orchids are not common around here, but they aren’t rare either.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
No clue as to the name of this late summer flower. I had to mess with the color balance to get it away from showing up a blue, which it isn’t. It’s between lavender and magenta, and playing with the color of the flowers made the background foliage a little more fall-like, which is correct if memory serves me right from a week ago.
Taken on 2018-09-22 00:00:00
Upper Mud River
Another picture of the lake, much later in the day.
All these pictures were taken with an Olympus TG-5 camera, which is built for outdoors use and is waterproof for use while kayaking, snorkeling, etc.
This image was f/2.9 for 1/13 sec at 43 mm. I forgot to include these settings for the other photos, and the new tool doesn’t have the ability to go back and edit previously added images. Darn!
Bonus: puppeh!
These are pictures of Happy, our older rescue puppy, a lab mix we adopted from our Vet clinic. She was stolen off a back yard chain by a client at 3 am, rescued from a horrible and abusive life of neglect and violence. She spent 9 months in the hospital being treated for Heart worm, and then we brought her to the hillside farm where she is free to roam the woods.
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
Happy, about 14 years old, very relaxed last night. She still has a few old habits from her bad times, but is usually quite happy with us.
f/2.3 for 1/30 sec at 30mm Olympus TG-5
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
I spoke to her and she woke up!!! Imagine that!
f/2,3 for 1.30 sec, at 30mm with the TG-5.
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
What else is there to say? Then she fell over!! Still cute!!
Taken on 2018-09-30 00:00:00
Library dog bed
Same old puppy, still cute, awake, happy Happy.
Thank you so much J R in WV, do send us more when you can.
Travel safely everybody, and do share some stories in the comments, even if you’re joining the conversation late. Many folks confide that they go back and read old threads, one reason these are available on the Quick Links menu.
Submissions should be sent via the all-new form at https://tools.balloon-juice.com
Mary G
Love Happy! Beautiful lake photos too.
Rob
The photos of Happy made me smile, as did the lake photos. The two birds on the dock are Spotted Sandpipers.
raven
Sweet pupster!
Elizabelle
Moar dogs in OTR. Happy is a charmer.
Interesting about the selenium in the water. Have been to a spa in Germany where one of the mineral baths was enhanced with selenium. Not sure what it’s reputed to do. There was a salt bath, and the usual heated mineral baths too… we were, of course, not drinking the stuff — they served up sekt, cocktails and beer for that …
OzarkHillbilly
The flowers are Lobelia siphilitaca, Blue or Great Lobelia
Quinerly
?
MomSense
Aaaaah Happy is a sweetheart.
Albatrossity
You’re on your own for the flower IDs, but the birds on the dock are Spotted Sandpipers.
Very nice shots!
Mike S
Nice pictures! The birds on the dock are spotted sandpipers (non-breeding plumage as @Rob said. The orchid looks more like nodding ladies tresses and the “blue” flower is a Lobelia, but not L.siphilitica, the flowers are too narrow and delicate. This is a lesscommon or rare species. The white “eye” indicates Lobelia kalmii (Kalm’s lobelia), but that likes calcareous bog and is mentioned in the Flora of WV 2nd ed. as being only known fro Altona Swamp in Jefferson Co. WV. Is there limestone bedrock in the area?
Elizabelle
Um, for my wicked identification skills: puppeh has been reading Dorothy L. Sayers.
WaterGirl
Love the Lobelia kalmii (Kalm’s lobelia) – it is now officially on my wish list for wildflowers I want to grow.
Happy looks so happy. And content. You guys did good.
J R in WV
@Rob:
“The two birds on the dock are Spotted Sandpipers.”
Thanks for the definitive on the birds, knew someone would know, If I had to make a guess a type of Sandpiper would have been the guess…
There may be a limestone layer around the area, there is some in the county, judging from the spotty presence of the Eastern Cedar, which likes limestone. You guys know, a dry spell can change the appearance of a flower, doncha? Botany isn’t quite as cut and dried as some things, as growing plants can vary quite a bit due to local conditions. Not to mention a photog messing with the color balance, etc. But just because the Prof. only found a certain variety in Jefferson county, about as far away as you can get and still be in a sprawled out state like WV, doesn’t mean it isn’t common in other places, and didn’t spread since the Prof did his field research.
The Olympus TG5 isn’t as good with color balance as the Panasonic Lumix is. That doesn’t usually matter so much, but that one flower was really a bad reproduction of the color in the field! It was really blue in GIMP, so I tweaked it away from blue, which torqued the green background a lot, obviously. I’m strictly an amateur on tweaking colors.
Thanks for the information, folks, glad you enjoyed the lakeside/library photos!
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I’m happy because you got the color of the flower just exactly right. It was obviously the star of the photo, so I could care less about the color of the background. :-)
Mike S
@J R in WV: Sure plants I know plants can change some aspects of their appearance depending on the local conditionsm but other things rarely change. Botany is one of the things I do and PA isn’t far from WV, so that is why I just happend to have my Flora of WV within arms reach when your lovely pics came up on my screen, :-)
As for location, that’s why I asked about limestone, because habitat is more important than location in the case of Lobelia kalmii. I’m familiar with it from a limestone marl area in North Jersey.
The puppeh is very cute too. Love the back rolls. I miss our dog.