Well, the weekend was incredible! My immediate family - David, Amy, Julia and Colin - (with the addition of my sister, Dee) went hiking at a place called Ragged Chutes - just north of here along the Mississippi River. I had heard that someone - other than the land owners - holds the mineral rights and has plans to start mining the area for uranium. I decided I had to see this landscape for myself so we packed a lunch and headed for the chutes.
The walk was grand, t-shirt and shorts weather, the river was in full spate and there were no mosquitoes! We walked to the chutes (a place in the river where logs were run - you can still see a giant metal ring in the rock probably used to secure the logs) then followed the river downstream, exploring some interesting rock formations and stopping to admire the reflections in this quiet pool.
We saw mourning cloak butterflies, heard woodpeckers, juncos and kinglets and came across this garter snake.
On Sunday I walked to a nearby wetland, spent time in the garden, planted 3 trees and added another nest box to my growing collection. We also ate cake! A good Earth Day was had by all!
What did you do on Earth Day?
David and I at Ragged Chutes.
