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Lake Nokomis Photos


My wife and I live near Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis and part of our daily, non-winter routine is walking around the lake, most often in the morning. Since the quality of photographs taken with cell phone cameras has come so far I began taking shots of scenery and wildlife a few years ago. The resolution often leaves something to be desired when zooming in on wildlife, etc. but having the Samsung close at hand to catch an unexpected shot when something appears is fun. The pictures might seem small but if you click on them they will expand, once. Two clicks takes you beyond the sensible resolution limit.

These two pictures were taken just a minute apart – the rowing club was out early on a weekday morning – these were taken at about 6:30 a.m.

Morning sun on the eastern shore.

Scullers rounding the bend.

This picture was taken early in the morning as I was headed down the hill towards the lake. The sunrise colors lasted just a few minutes and I was lucky to get the shot.

Sunrise walk

This picture was taken a couple hundred yards further down the hill and the edge of the ball field.

Morning fog on the softball field

This picture was taken from the point on the eastern shore of the lake.

Downtown Minneapolis from Lake Nokomis

The lake’s fishing docs are moored for the winter at the northern end of the lake. I caught this picture on an early morning walk.

The enigmatic floating docks of Lake Nokomis

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Looking towards the point, waiting for the sunrise

Early sunrise over the lagoon.

A few years ago some low land next to the lake, at one time an archery range, was reconfigured as a marsh to filter storm water runoff, to help clean up Lake Nokomis. Studies have shown that it has made a difference, but the new habitat is what I find especially valuable. It has provided habitat for herons, egrets (none spotted in 2017, so far), muskrat, a wide variety of ducks & other wetland birds like red-winged blackbirds, and amphibians, which had virtually disappeared from our part of the city.

Marshland

Blue Heron

First gosling of the season

This picture was taken the afternoon of 5/7/17 at the Lake Nokomis Lagoon. Proud parents were keeping an eye on all the people walking past.

Blue Heron

Another blue heron, this one photographed on the eastern side of the lake.

Spring is advancing and the flowering trees are looking very nice

Leaves are out on many trees just this week. I am not sure whether the tree in the front is dead or just a slow starter.

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The parks department does a wonderful job planting a variety of trees in the park.

Geese on the south end of the lake, looking west.

 

Ducks on ice – not so graceful

Cardinal, on the point, eastern shore

Balancing contest

This picture was taken out my window at home, but that’s close to the lake so I’m including it.

Cardinal in the winter.

 

Goals


  • Be Accepting – if it hasn’t changed for a while and it isn’t yours, accept it and get on with your life.
  • Be Confident – don’t try to prove yourself right in every interaction. It isn’t necessary, and pisses other people off.
  • Be Helpful – don’t obstruct, help move things along.
  • Be Humble – avoid arrogant behavior, it isn’t attractive, often arises from a misunderstanding of the situation, and doesn’t earn you any friends.
  • Be Gracious – strive for a measured response, avoid sarcasm and digs.
  • Be Patient – the world has its own pace. Match it, don’t get exhausted trying to change it.
  • Be Relaxed – but focused. It is a mind-set that is very productive and leaves you open to new possibilities.
  • Be Smooth – show some class when problems arise. Calm thinking is usually more effective, shows better, and, flexible bumpers survive crashes.
  • Be Understanding – it’s usually not about me. Listen.
  • Be Useful – be the solution, not the problem.

Scenic Pictures


This post contains a variety of scenic pictures taken on hiking trips around the world. If you click on the picture you will zoom in – and if you click again, zoom again. It’s fun and brings a greater sense of immediacy and reality to your viewing – give it a try.

Patagonia  - Swans 1 Restored 1Black Necked Swans, in a lake near Puerto Natales, Chile. We stopped here on our way to Torres Del Paine National Park. It was a windy, cool day and the glare of the sun on the waves at that time of day made it difficult to get a good picture.

Ama Dablam from the northwestThis is a picture of Ama Dablam, a 22,300′ mountain in Nepal on the way to the Everest Base Camp. To quote from Wikipedia, “Ama Dablam means “Mother’s necklace”; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother (ama) protecting her child, and the hanging glacier thought of as the dablam, the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods, worn by Sherpa women.[2] For several days, Ama Dablam dominates the eastern sky for anyone trekking to Mount Everest basecamp.”  If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you’ll see that I happened to catch an avalanche in progress near the top of the mountain on the left side.

IMG_0549_0109_edited-1Here is another picture of Ama Dablam taken from the other side of the mountain. Notice the heavy overhang of snow 1/3 of the way down from the peak, ready for avalanche.

DSCN0430This is a picture of the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Alberta, taken on the return from a hike to the nearby glacier. The hotel is located in Banff National Park.

DSCN0431This is another picture of the hotel taken from a greater distance, near the far end of Lake Louise.

DSCN0432This is the view further up the trail away from Chateau Lake Louise. The gravel ridge in the middle of the frame is a terminal morraine formed by an advancing glacier.

DSCN0483This is a view of the glacier and the morraine. The picture was taken from higher up and closer to the glacier, from a Tea House in the park where we had a sandwich for lunch. We hiked about halfway from here up the morraine towards the glacier.

Patagonia This picture was taken in Torres Del Paine National Park in southern Chile at the end of a day hike to one of the glaciers in the park. The boat is arriving at a camp ground in the park, delivering supplies to the hotel and bringing hikers back to the end of the road at the other end of the lake.

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This is a picture of the Mer De Glace glacier above Chamonix, France. Several glaciers come together around the bend, outside the field of vision. The bare rock on the valley walls show how much the glacier has shrunk in the last 100+ years.

Everest and LhotseThis picture was taken from the National Park just above Namche Bazaar looking at Mt Everest, the pyramid-shaped mountain left of center behind the ridge in front of it called the Nuptse Lohtse wall. Lohtse is the peak to the right. The Everest base camp was about 8 days hiking from this spot. If you click on the photo you can see the spindrift blowing off Everest and Nuptse.

Alaska 2011 121 - CopyThis is Glacier Bay, Alaska. The day was so bright and the reflections off the glacier and snow so strong it was difficult to get a good picture with the automatic camera I was using.

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Pictures – Patagonia

This gallery contains 6 photos.


Patagonia – Mirror view Morning cloud – Torres del Paine, Chile

The Sun


Sunlight

I’ve grown accustomed to feeling the warm sun on my back now and then, as I wind through weeks of tasks and trips and problems, but never for long as walls and doors and planes are meant to block it out.

I’ve grown accustomed to feeling the bright sun in my face once in a while,  when I pause from paperwork and planning, a flash of brightness, then the cool office neon, and the harsh orange light of lonely public places in the dark.

I’ve grown accustomed to watching the distant sun dim here and there, setting in cities east and west, glorious golden afternoons fading into twilight, as I make my lists and tally tasks undone.

I’ve grown accustomed to feeling the touch of the radiant sun brighten my spirit, now and then, once in a while, here and there, in stolen moments of shaded days dulled by drudgery and worn by time.

I’ve grown accustomed to the sun…

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