tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13243945859703538822024-02-07T11:16:41.105-05:00Birds Brews and BlitherPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.comBlogger639125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-85589112723268298512017-08-23T21:14:00.003-04:002017-08-23T21:14:33.214-04:00Detroit Eclipse
For those of you in the dark (buh-dum-dum), these past few weeks, the Great American Eclipse of 2017 has been incredibly hyped. Lets face it - it should be.
This type of eclipse involves the moon moving directly between the earth and the sun. Recognizing that the sun is basically 400 times larger than the moon but is also 400 times farther away, the sizes match almost Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-89523085954879501392017-06-10T16:57:00.000-04:002017-06-10T16:57:03.014-04:00OK in the OTR and CZ
Two people. Two days off. Road trip.
While I have come to generally despise the name "bucket list", I understand its motive. Natalie and I, looking to hit a target destination, hit the road.
The drive down to Cincinnati was smooth as it was a Sunday morning. By lunch time, we had arrived in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood (OTR).
Needless to say, that Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-1578823796509494322017-06-03T18:29:00.001-04:002017-06-03T18:29:38.413-04:00Fort Wayne
As any student of American history knows, the United States and Great Britain have had an interesting relationship. We hated each other. We continued to hate each other. We liked each other. Now they hate us again.
After the second "we hate each other" phase, cooler heads prevailed and peace existed...for a short time, anyhow. During the late 1830's,Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-18192666074233642762017-05-31T20:05:00.002-04:002017-05-31T20:05:50.634-04:00Done...?
It's done. Finally. Finished. The finale. Complete.
There it is....
What you see there is my Final Project. Officially, it is the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Naval Air Station - Grosse Ile. The title? Runways to Recognition. Huh? Huh? Pretty witty, eh?
As the "Final Project" suggests, it was the final step of my Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-28126773151848548452016-12-25T08:00:00.000-05:002016-12-25T08:00:26.938-05:00Happy Holidays!On behalf of Natalie and I, Santa Tree Swallow would like to wish to you all safe and happy Holiday Season!
Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-25459702006710654442016-10-21T11:50:00.000-04:002016-10-21T11:50:12.320-04:00Beautiful Island
Scott Kelby knows photography. As a photographer, author, editor and technical chair for photography workshops, he gets it.
One of the projects he launched almost a decade ago is the World Wide Photo Walk. Basically, people sign on to lead a group of photographers in a given destination. All participants submit one photo to the group leader. That leader judges one to be the best Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-91094797674979621672016-09-01T21:26:00.001-04:002016-09-01T21:26:25.039-04:00A Tragic Minute
With my new semester starting in less than a week, Natalie and I wanted to take a day and have fun. With plenty of options on the table, we opted for a trip to the Detroit Zoo.
Always a fun day, I couldn't help but to be struck by the rhinoceros. Such a somber beast.
Specifically, it is the Southern White Rhinoceros. A subspecies of the White Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-51373586848444240542016-07-30T21:14:00.000-04:002016-07-30T21:14:34.206-04:00Forts and Fun in Fudge-land
Natalie and I recently had the chance for the few-day getaway. You might be thinking that we jetted off to some exotic location. Nah. Maybe we just stayed home and cleaned the garage. Nah. A national park?
Well, sort of...
Mackinac Island, that quaint island getaway in the Straits of Mackinac, was once the second National Park (after Yellowstone, of course). WhilePaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-23304281017323231392016-07-06T15:50:00.001-04:002016-07-06T15:50:46.730-04:00My Excaliber
Apparently, historians are not sure what to make of King Arthur. Did he exist? Did he not? In short, people just aren't sure.
We do know his sword, Excaliber, is a huge part of the Arthur legends. It was said that he who could pull it from the stone would rule England. Other versions have a Victoria's Secret model tossing him the sword from a lake. Ok, maybe not aPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-55548140393591106692016-06-29T20:29:00.000-04:002016-06-29T20:29:13.766-04:00Bird Bling on the Beach
The Piping Plover is a not very big bird. Smaller than a Cardinal and with colors the same shade as the sands they nest on, it would be easy for your average person to overlook them.
Of course, any good birder knows you can find birds in their appropriate habitat. In the case of the Piping Plover, just looking for the signs is a great place to start...
A few Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-72192408652081443562016-06-04T10:00:00.000-04:002016-06-04T10:00:15.336-04:00The Box by the BayWith apologies to Theodor Seuss Geisel -
Walks in the spring, we look for birds,
Natalie and I, some say we're nerds.
With boots on feet, and bins in the hand,
Feathered things we seek, across the land.
A warm pleasant day, not so long ago,
In Ohio we were, were swamp trees grow.
A lodge, a beach, the park - Maumee Bay,
Bird here we did, at the end of the day.
On boardwalks Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-65713672822454405542016-06-01T18:29:00.000-04:002016-06-01T18:29:07.507-04:00I Just Like It
If you take a moment and troll around the Internet, photos are everywhere. Everybody has a camera nowadays be it a phone, a point-and-shoot, or a SLR.
Going hand in hand with an image, one can often find a title. Some titles are simply locations and dates. For example, LEMP 5 28 2016 could be used. That would be considered rather dry for a photo contest, though, Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-17794889742100648842016-05-27T17:08:00.001-04:002016-05-27T17:08:46.893-04:00His Vireo-wn Show
Birding along the shores of Northwest Ohio (just east of Toledo) can be some of the most rewarding birding in North America during the second week of May. As gillions of birds move from their wintering grounds in the south to their breeding grounds in the north, they get stopped along the Great Lakes shore line. Any woodlot has the potential for tremendous birding if the Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-55292431896704785312016-05-18T22:28:00.000-04:002016-05-18T22:28:26.870-04:00Trees
Cemeteries are nothing new to me.
With my mom tracing our family tree, it was not unusual for my her to make plans to spend a day or so of the annual family vacation meeting with people to talk about genealogy. This tactic, of course, predates Ancestry.com, or for that matter, the home computer. In some capacities, it became a family affair. In the field, it was not rare forPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-2303851766003688312016-05-15T19:27:00.000-04:002016-05-15T19:29:25.244-04:00Wheels to Wheeling
“The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result"
Carl Sauer wrote that. Sounds pretty "out there"...huh? Yeah, well, these are the cool things that folks like me get to ponder in Historic Preservation programs. It is much more than "Hey, don't Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-20923927672159747162016-01-09T08:42:00.000-05:002016-01-09T08:42:55.698-05:00Brambling Ramble
As a general rule, birders get excited about birds that are hopelessly lost, er... I mean out of range.
Take the Brambling, for example. Native to Europe and Asia, this tiny finch occasionally makes its way to North America, believe it or not. Where? You never know. Sure, they have bred in Alaska (once) but that was considered a rare occurrence. With records scatteredPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-90778291517678833542015-12-26T12:00:00.000-05:002015-12-26T12:00:10.887-05:00Quill's Bridge
December 21, 2015 was a very sad day for Natalie and I. Our big, fat buddy, Quill, had to be put down.
Quill's origins are a bit mysterious. Our best guess it that he was a Siberian Forest Cat. Tipping the scales at 16 pounds (he was once 18 pounds!), he lived to the ripe old age of 15 years. In fact, he may have been 16 years old. We are not Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-56052168419947832582015-12-25T08:00:00.000-05:002015-12-25T08:00:00.049-05:00Happy Holidays!Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-84448213233991798372015-12-22T20:44:00.000-05:002015-12-22T20:44:07.348-05:00Detroit In Black and White
With Natalie working in Detroit, I enjoyed the opportunity to take her to work a few days ago. My semester was largely done and I needed the day to enjoy myself. With camera in hand, I opted to walk the town. I can't tell you how far I walked, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
I'm not going to tell you where I was. Maybe some you Michiganders/Detroiters can figure it Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-71129586762196654592015-11-26T12:27:00.001-05:002015-11-26T12:27:46.019-05:00Building A Mystery
A short distance north from Traverse City, Michigan sits the small hamlet of Greilickville (GRY-lick-ville). To the tourists who flock the region during the summer months, it does not seem like anything more than a small extension of downtown Traverse. During its heyday in the late 19th Century, businesses included a huge sawmill, tannery, brewery and brickyard.
Now, I suspect youPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-2856641802475792582015-11-24T20:51:00.000-05:002015-11-24T20:51:47.836-05:00Miscellaneous
Things here in the Cypher household has changed quite a bit in the last few weeks. Nat unloaded her only grad class and I unloaded one of mine. Further, my second class is already done as it met only twice in Traverse City. So with only my third class still meeting, my school schedule is much lighter.
That said, don't think that I did not have the chance to sneak out and do some Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-66312731816433362152015-10-31T07:36:00.000-04:002015-10-31T07:36:44.320-04:00Happy All Hallows Eve!
Happy All Hallows Eve!
Everything started fine around here. Last night, Julia Child Natalie made pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese/maple syrup frosting. They are every bit as good as they sound. In fact, more!
We'll be at the Fort Street Brewery tonight around 9:00pm. Join us for a pint if you're interested!
Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-83277770706240335602015-10-28T20:59:00.001-04:002015-10-28T20:59:37.223-04:00Mysteries
It is hardly a secret that Natalie and I drink beer. We travel for it. We cook with it. We brew it home. I have a spreadsheet listing my beer conquests. A week does not go by when we are not thinking about beer and all the possibilities that it brings.
Imagine my surprise when I got home from work one night. A bottle cap was on the counter. I didn'tPaul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-47657596766994325742015-09-27T17:00:00.000-04:002015-09-27T17:00:00.657-04:00365
It's hard to believe this picture was taken 365 days ago today. Where did the year go?
I guess it doesn't matter, does it? It's more about who you are with....
Thank you to all who made the day memorable!
Awwwwww, you can all cry now in three....two....one.....
:)
Paul http://www.blogger.com/profile/12323555266843322833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1324394585970353882.post-57859712845474935812015-09-11T20:00:00.000-04:002015-09-11T20:00:00.561-04:00August 31: Fallingwater and Drivinghome
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