Travel to most any desert region and you will observe black, brown or orange streaks or crusts on the surface of many rocks. These stains on the rock have been called desert or rock varnish. The origins have been scrutinized for many years and still are not fully understood. I will explore some of what... Continue Reading →
Nothing particularly profound today. I thought I would just share a smattering of pictures of critters that can be found on most any given early fall day around our home near Akron OH. The last couple of days there have been thousands of ladybugs swarming around the backyard looking for a place to overwinter. I... Continue Reading →
Who loves pleasant sunny fall afternoons? Most everyone and everything and that includes a large population of gnats in my yard that have also enjoyed a wet northeast Ohio summer. I had a few minutes to do some yard work today but I was distracted when I walked through a cloud of these small... Continue Reading →
There is a strange circular scar on the earth found amongst the meandering incised canyons of southeastern Utah. Called upheaval dome because it was originally thought to be the result of the slowing rising of a massive salt dome from below, this highly eroded structure has long been an oddity among the many spectacular sandstone... Continue Reading →
Southeastern Utah has an astounding amount of sedimentary rock on full display. Between our stays in Silverton Colorado and Moab Utah we made a trek through this area. One day hardly does this area justice but what we were able to see was amazing. The sedimentary layers are best seen in the gorge of the... Continue Reading →
Around Moab UT you can run down sand dunes and you can hike on rocks that were sand dunes in the past. You can take a face-plant on one, as my son did, and not get hurt but you better be very careful not to fall on the other. I recently spent a... Continue Reading →
Ash trees of north side of street leaf out about 1 week before those on the south side. What you can't see is that there is a parking garage that shades the trees on the south side. As a result the north side is warmer and therefore brings out the buds on the trees more... Continue Reading →
Naturalis Historia 