Spring sounds

A trip to town today so that I can upload pictures, have a latte, and get groceries. The videos above are my attempt to capture the wonderful sounds of the woods in the spring. The first one has a wood thrush singing, and the second starts with a cardinal and then various other birds.

 I had bought a GoPro camera, one of those new-fangled video cameras that you can strap to your head or bike helmet, but I returned it today. I think they are just not ready for prime time yet. They need  some ID work for ease of use, and sound-recording just isn't very good. The videos above, and all of the other photos, are taken with my little $80 point-and-shoot pocket camera.

The river was at least back within its banks yesterday, so I decided to do my usual 3-hour float down from Magruder Rd., about 7 miles upstream from home. It was a cool sunny day when I started, but quickly changed to cool, cloudy, and breezy. I finally bought a spray skirt for the kayak so I wouldn't be sitting in water the whole time and having to sponge-drain periodically. However, some problems. First of all, I forgot to actually put the spray skirt ON myself before getting into the boat, so I spent the first five minutes ungracefully squirming into it while trying to keep the kayak upright. Then came trying to get the elastic fastened to the cowling. Imagine reaching a foot behind yourself to stretch the elastic over the rear, holding it in place back there while you get it stretched over each side, and then stretching it 3 or 4 feet to the front, while trying to make sure it doesn't snap back off of the rear. After several attempts at this and quite a few cuss words, I gave up and made do with it fastened around only the front. This kept me mostly dry, but ..... how in the world would anyone ever get it fully fastened? Either it's a two-person job, or maybe I can fasten the whole thing before I get in the boat and then try to thread my body through the hole.....?

Hickory Tree rising above the apple orchard

Oriole at the grape-jelly feeder

My favorite tree in it's springtime glory

High water