Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Alphabet M...


Here we are already at the letter M, mmmmm.

I chose the Mighty Mississippi for my letter M.

There is a great walking path a couple blocks from me, right by the river and we walk there very often. I love to watch all the changes that take place during the different seasons.

We have two eagles that hang out around here (I wish I knew where their nest was) and one of them likes to hang out in the tree in the first picture. It seems like I Never have my big girl camera with me, but I always have my phone (thank you O children of mine) so at least I've been able to get proof that we do indeed have eagles. Now if I could get a better picture I would be very happy! It's so easy to see him/her when there are no leaves on the trees, but once they sprout, I'm not sure if the eagle even roosts there. I have seen one cruising down the river at about 6:30 p.m. for a few days in a row, and just when I think I have them all figured out, they go and change their schedule, so now I rarely see them down there. Once in a while they are waaaay up in the sky soaring on thermal currents. It looks so peaceful.

A lot of changes take place during one single season also. This past couple of weeks, because of the high waters, we've seen whole trees floating downstream, Fast.  During winter, the water will be wide open, then in a couple of days it will freeze over. Toward spring, huge chunks of ice will be floating downstream.
I see that I don't have a picture of the river frozen over in winter, or of ice chunks. I remember seeing ice chunks only one day this past winter, which is quite strange, but this last winter was so warm, that the river never did fully freeze over where I live. Hopefully this winter things will be back to normal and I can get some pictures of the Mississippi looking like it should.

The picture of the dock with my hubby standing on it, taken a couple of weeks ago, is almost always totally submerged under water each spring. I've seen the water up past the parking area. It's sort of amazing how quickly the river can rise. When you think of how big the Mississippi is, and with us being in Minnesota, we're closest to the beginning of it and when it floods here, what does it do farther south?
This was the first spring I remember that it hasn't flooded. Of course we ended up having a few really good storms quite close together, and that was enough to make it rise significantly.

Take a look at some of the changes the Mississippi goes through.












Once again, these were all taken with my phone and it looks like they can only be enlarged so much before they look a little off. 

Check out Kira's M, she has something interesting for you to read.


2 comments:

Hilary said...

It's so interesting to see the changes in any given space though the seasons. But add water and everything comes alive. Eagles sure are a treat to see. We had (maybe still have) a family up at the lake where Framk's family cottage is. Sightings never cease to be a thrill. Lovely images. Thanks for that.

Gail Dixon said...

These are really good photos for a phone. Is it the iphone? Because I find that my iphone sometimes does just as good as my dslr. Out of these photos the one that stands out to me is the man on the pier or walkout. The sky is really pretty here.