Wild Center

Today, in an effort to get out of the house and work off some of yesterday's Great Feasting, we made a roadtrip to Tupper Lake, to visit the newly-opened Wild Center, a natural history museum of the Adirondacks. It's an amazing place...and a terrific spot to pass an afternoon.

The focal point of the Wild Center is a series of water tanks, linked one to another, showcasing a series of wildlife habitats and hosting an assortment of aquatic wildlife, including a heritage strain of native brook trout. There were turtles, too, though they were much too active for my photo-taking skills.


In addition to these large tanks, there's a great assortment of smaller terrariums and other exhibits featuring frogs, toads, more turtles, snakes, salamanders and a host of other creatures.

The highlight of the visit, perhaps, are the river otters. They have several "on staff" at the Wild Center, and they come out to the exhibition tank alternately (as they are not all well-acclaimated to one another yet.). Great fun to watch, but even more difficult to photograph, since they dash through the water so very quickly.

Finally I got this halfway decent shot when this one paused on the play rock. Amusing to note that the otters have a Kong toy not unlike Emily's!

One of the larger exhibits features a faux glacier. These giant ice sheets were largely responsible for making the Adirondack region what it was today. They also make a great backdrop for potential Christmas card photos!

One of the extra surprises of our visit came in the Panoramic theatre, when we came across some old friends of mine who were also in town visiting family! We had a pretty quick visit, but it was great to see them.



All in all, it was one more great day in a series of them, and a good one to make my last in the Adirondacks for a while. Tomorrow I'll pack up and head East again for the Cape. It's always nice to get back home...


"Nature is one connected whole. At any given moment every part must be precisely what it is, because all the other parts are what they are." - Johann Gottlieb Fichte, 1762-1814

After the Rain

After a day of torrential rains, causing what they innocuously call "localized flooding" in the weather report, I can report that our day trip to Boston was nearly twice as long because flooding, bridge closures, car breakdowns and accidents (neither ours, thankfully), all related to the great storm that crossed over eastern Massachusetts today.

We had a great radio station (WBOS, 92.9 FM)to help pass the time, but there was still plenty of time to watch the water rushing by our stopped vehicles on the highway, and to wonder what it was like to evacuate before a hurricane, or what it must have been like to learn there was no home left to go to.

We did make it home safely and were grateful for that. The gardens, along with the rest of us, are well-watered, right on schedule. And there's more due for each day of the weekend, should Ophelia finally begin to move north from the Carolinas.

Meanwhile, just a few minutes ago, I spied this little frog enjoying the evening's high humidity on the shores of our little plastic pond. The fresh rainwater added to the pond today seems to have enlivened our two remaining coy, as well.