Autumn Primaries

Let it SNOW!!!!!!!!!

First Snow!!!
Today, I went home for lunch. 10 minutes after coming home, the wind started howling, and a snow flurry was the outcome.
10 minutes after that, the sun was out and the snow was gone. I don't know if snow on October 12 is early or not for Ohio, but it sure was an exciting event!!

Halloween get-up

Well, I suppose I've gotten all domestic this weekend. I couldn't resist doing just a little Halloween decoration - tho I don't want to get too involved in that, because the house is already pretty nauseatingly cute (in a good way).

Inda Jatra time in Nepal!

Diwakar Maskey making a puja (offering) at the Swet Bhairab temple, Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal.

I'm fortunate to have a few friends in Nepal, and every year, despite the fact that I'm not in Nepal, and not officially Hindu or Buddhist, I receive prayers and well wishes from my friends there for the plethora of festivals that occur through the year. This year is a little different, because one of my friends has taught me about a new festival. I've heard of Indra Jatra before - it's the time, once a year, when the palace opens up to show the adoring public its living goddess, Kumari, to the public. But it's also the time when a particular icon is also opened to the public. This is Swet Bhairab. It's also significant because Nepal is a wonderful amalgamation of both Hindu and Buddhist cultures - so, each festival that takes place in the country has strong overtones and traditions with influences from each.

On the first day of the festival, images of two gods, Bhairab and Indra, are displayed in various stages throughout Durbar Square, in Kathmandu. Displaying the two is believed to extend thanks to the rain gods for a good harvest.

Specifically, Swet Bhairab came about in the late 1700s: (paraphrased from Festivals in Nepal)

According to the scripture placed under the image of Bhairab, the image was made during the reign of King Rana Bahadur Shah. The periphery behind the temple was a cremation ground. Whenever the King came out of his palace, he used to see the cremation of dead people, every day. He used to return thinking the scene as a bad omen. Then, to do away with cremation there, he installed Swet Bhairab just in front of the main gate. The temple is just in front of Degu Telaju temple. The entrance still remains there just behind Swet Bhairab.

The legend also has it that people used to get frightened of great facial image so it is closed throughout the year. There is also a belief that Swet Bhairab wore precious jewelry so it was kept in close wooden curtain for security. One Gurju (priest of Buddhist clan) worship Bhairab every day inside the wooden curtain. In special puja (ceremony) one goat, one ox and one duck are sacrificed. The method is given in the Shila Patra (traditional book).

On the eve of Indra Jatra, care-takers will clean up the image and sacrifice the animals from one window among the nine closed windows. They open the window amidst the beats of traditional musical instruments of dhime and jogi on the first day of Indra Jatra.

So, many thanks to Diwakar Maskey and Sushil Shresta for sharing their photo and wishes with me on their auspicious holiday occasion!

Whhheeeeee!!!

This weekend I intended to enjoy another fall campout, which failed, but not completely. For more about my opinions on camping in Ohio, click here. What I did get to do was take a fun drive in rolling hills, through picturesque villages in rural Ohio, and that was satisfactory eye-candy. None of the shots from the trip are flickr-worthy but here are a couple that were just plain fun.

Imagine driving directly Into the Light for over a half hour. Through a FILTHY windshield. How effective do you think my vision was after the road finally veered northward? Not much - I missed my exit.

Hint of red in the trees!

Drive-by shooting...

Rolling countryside.

Wheeeeee...

This was odd. There were cars and trucks fulll of local Amish families. I did see a few horse-drawn carriages, but have never before seen Amish in vehicles.

Heed the Amish!

Meet Gabriel

This is such an adorable photo! Many congrats to my dear friend Marty McG and his wife Kendra on their newest addition, Gabriel Synge McG. This is a shot of him at 5 months. If Gabriel's anything like his parents, he'll have the world at his feet and all the creativity one mind can bear to manage. Love the hat, kiddo!

Some of My Favorite Photos

My Favorites
Originally uploaded by partially landed vagabond.

From Top, Left to Right:
Morocco, Morocco, Wyoming, Ohio, Cambodia
Morocco, Morocco, Canary Islands, Thailand, Singapore
Norway, Nepal, New Zealand, Cambodia, Morocco
Morocco, Morocco, Morocco, Singapore, New Zealand.

Looks like I've got - by count anyway - a new fave setting for travel shots!

Hocking Hills trip

This weekend, I decided to go camping and see what fall colors were presenting themselves in Ohio. I opted to head to Hocking Hills, which, despite its name, is a pretty region of rolling hills, limestone cliffs, and....."hollers" (aka hollows). It's a state park area with a few scattered attractions, each with its own hiking trail - I think 6 trails totaling 7 miles. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit soggy, but surprisingly, that didn't stop people from the area from enjoying some time out on the trails.

What was surprising was encountering people along the trails fitted out in full-on trekking gear - gaiters, wind- and water-proof jackets, trekking poles, camel-back hydration kits – the whole 9 yards. The only time I’ve used gear like this is when doing multi-day backpacking at elevations above 10,000 feet. I can’t imagine lugging that stuff on a mile long loop. The longest trail was a 2.5 mile loop, with an elevation gain of approximately 100 feet - all of it via wooden staircases. This is a tendency that I've noticed before in New Hampshire - folks outfitted as though they're setting out for a month-long journey on the Appalachain Trail. I find it a bit ridiculous. While walking on the 2.5 mile loop, pausing to let a family advertisement for North Face walk by, I chuckled under my breath. And then I heard someone behind me chuckle - out loud.

Turns out, this was to be my new friend, Brenda, who lives in Columbus. She'd driven down for the day, and like me, was walking sans-life-saving gear. We had very similar hiking stories - essentially, that this is something both of us really enjoy doing, but that none of our friends really dig. So here we were, two professional women, with nice vehicles, walking and talking along the trail. Incidentally, it had started to rain - and then pour - so the North Face family that we chuckled at previously were running to make it back to the safety of their auto. And we continued walking forward, because other than the moisture, the weather, scenery, and company were good. Brenda kept making conversational references to Buddhism, which puzzled me at the time. Not that I didn't get them, I just wondered what about me made her think I would know what she was referring to. Later that evening, when changing out of my wet clothes, I realized I was wearing my shirt from Nepal with the embroidered 'natural world' mandala.

The Hocking Hills area was a nice surprise to visit - most folks I work with recommended it as a camping /hiking destination, describing it as the "prettiest place in Ohio". They may be right. The countryside is flush with rolling hills, great two-lane winding roads, and loaded with national forest and wildlife with a few small towns mixed in. What was surprising was the number of bed and breakfast or cabin rental type places - sometimes off the most obscure of roads. These places were everywhere, and apparently are collectively referred to as the hot tub capital of Ohio, because apparently they all have them.

I opted to stay in one on Saturday night (ref. getting soaked in an afternoon rain earlier). I just didn't want to go damp-camping. So, I turned a hard left when driving by a cute little place, the Rest Nest, and got myself a little cabin with an outdoor hot tub. Of course, I didn't bring a bathing suit. But, this place was so nestled in the woods, I figured that once night fell, taking a soak al fresco in the all-together wouldn't be too much of a risk.

After dark, and after checking to ensure I could see no other signs of civilization from the hot tub deck, I opted for a little skinny dip. It was great. I'd picked up a little wine earlier, and the night insects were putting on a concert. But then, they stopped. OK, so maybe a deer wandering in the woods stepped on a stick and startled the crickets. Then I heard the footfalls, and quickly realized they weren't human - maybe a deer, but a really big one. Another moment or two, and the animals were visible in the half-moon light: 4 horses. With riders. They were finishing up a day ride after the rain delay, apparently. I tried to remain motionless and silent, and from the snippets of conversation I heard, I assumed that I was successful in not being noticed, and that the paying riders were grumpy about getting fed soon.

All in all, it was a great weekend escape. The leaves have started to change color, but slowly - almost tentatively - so I think I may need to make another few weekend trips to monitor their progress. With a back-up bikini, just in case.

Photos soon....

Fall Weekend Photos

I was able to use a high enough shutter speed to eliminate motion from the image, but this one long branch - just the one - was slightly moving up and down right in front of me. As though it were waving.
Upper (or lower?) falls at Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills State Park, SE Ohio.
Fall colors, streamside...
This formation is called "Devil's Bathtub". It's limestone but with an area that's slightly softer (and more easily eroded) than the surrounding stone - so with continuous water flow, it's the soft stuff that gives way. It was interesting to see one of these in water action - the only other type I've experienced has been dry 'sinks' in Utah's canyonlands. Ask me one day to tell you the story of trying to climb down one. Actually, climbing down it was easy - it was the climbing back up that was difficult, without ropes or shoes or my camera - they were all at the top rim, that I was trying to get back upon....but that's another story. This "Devil's Bathtub" has water year-round; just sometimes there's more volume.
Warning!!! Cheesy Caption coming!!!

.........Stairway to Heaven........
Sorry about that. That was my exact impression when I saw these steps, and of course - that triggered the song's memory for a full 22 minutes.

Here's a shot from Conckle's Hollow. Apparently the height of the leaf changing / color season is expected to be the 3rd week in October.

From the Rock House.

From the Rock House.

Mmmmm....geology!