From Water Leaks to Barred Owls

This morning I made a quick trip to the store to buy fixins for breakfast burritos. When I got back home and started to set the grocery sacks on the kitchen table I noticed that it was very wet. I looked up and saw that the water was coming from the ceiling. The water pipes for the upstairs run between the upstairs floor joists. What a way to start the day.

After such a unsettling start to the day, we decided to take a drive. We drove up the Talimena Drive to Queen Wilhelmina State Park on Rich Mountain.  As we drove up the mountain we saw that the trees were iced over at the higher elevations.  The ice made the scenery even more beautiful than usual.

We turned off of Talimena Drive onto Polk County Road 100, a rough dirt road that goes down the back side of Rich Mountain and connects with Highway 8.  Polk County Road 100 is a seldom traveled road through uninhabited land.

As we were slowly making our way down the road , my wife pointed out an owl .  We watched as the owl landed on a dead tree.  I drove the car carefully until we were right beside the tree.  The owl's head was turned away from us.  My wife called to the owl and I snapped the photo just as he turned his head.

Getting to see and photograph a Barred Owl today made me forget for awhile the problems that I had to face back home. It was a very special moment.

P.S.  The plumber is supposed to be here in the morning.

Arkansas Color

This weekend was beautiful and the fall colors were exquisite.  We made a trip to Little Missouri Falls to look at the fall scenery.  The road out to Shady was lined with glorious colors.  I'm not sure why, but the newest owner of the house my parents owned a number of years ago had made his yard look like a plane crash scene.





At the falls The Little Missouri River plunges through a cleavage creating a spectacular waterfall during periods of high water. Then it tumbles over a series of natural rock dams 2 to 4 feet high, intermixed with relatively quiet pools (natural swimming holes) it continues as a cascade for several hundred more yards.  The falls are beautiful any time of the year, but they are particularly spectacular during the fall color season.






Sunday afternoon we traveled the Talimena Drive up Rich Mountain to Queen Wilhelmina State Park.   The Talimena Drive stretches across the very top of the Ouachita Mountains in Eastern Arkansas and Western Oklahoma.  Normally there are great views from the many vistas along the road, but as we drove up the mountain fog closed in around us.  Visibility was very limited.  We were disappointed because we were looking forward to seeing lots of color.  As we turned on to County Road 100 and started down the side of the mountain we stopped to take photos in the fog.

A friend said, when seeing the pictures, “This is making lemonade out of lemons! I'd just complain because the fog kept me from seeing things not take advantage of it to make great photos".