Lakeside Flowers and Fun

The best vacations often combine beauty, relaxation and fun.  Our family thinks Lakeside, Ohio fits the bill perfectly.  It has been our long-standing tradition to be there for the annual Fourth of July festivities. But a huge part of my enjoyment comes from visiting the non-stop flower displays generously sprinkled across the grounds. Lakeside's lakefront has been declared as the "Most Beautiful Mile" in Ohio.

Hollyhocks as colorful as fireworks

The Gundlach Garden is an old-timey cottage style garden on the west end of town which features a brilliant firework-like display of hollyhocks. Visitors often photograph these stately flowers against the back-drop of Lake Erie. Every article written on hollyhocks warns us not to plant them in windy locations, so Lakeside hollyhocks persist with a spirit that defy all odds.

A closer look at the heavy pollen.

A closer look betrays a heavy pollen load at play here.  Most literature I read says they are very attractive to bees and hummingbirds. Hummingbirds?  Where is the nectar reward?  I'll be watching to see what takes an interest in these old-fashion favorites. It is interesting to look closely at our plants and to better understand their ecosystems at work.

Getting a nature, science and beauty "fix."

 Leave it to Lakeside to encourage one tho think "out of the box" a bit.  The Lakeside Campground Association was offering science courses to woman back in the 1890's!  The long standing tradition of education, recreation, religion and cultural arts are the very pillars of the Lakeside Chautauqua Movement. It is intentionally designed to feed both mind and soul.

Historic Hotel Lakeside

 Our Hotel Lakeside is a Victorian hotel which perfectly combines modern needs with the beauty of an age gone by. You too can stay in this Grand old Gal from June to early October. It is one of our designated conference hotels for  Flora-Quest and OOS's Rally for Rails.  This is your chance to see Lakeside in the off-season.

Summer fun on Lake Erie

During the summer the lakefront is active with swimmers and boats. A good, stiff lake breeze will bring out a fleet of Sunfish sailboats, too.  This is all part of the recreation for which Lakeside is famous. Mini golf, swimming, shuffleboard, tennis, bike riders, fitness walkers and plenty of runners keep this active town on the move!

Happy Fourth of July!

So here's to a wonderful Holiday!  I hope you all were able to spend time with your family and friends, enjoying beauty, fun and some physical activity.  Next year, feel free to join me and a couple thousand of my friends on the shore of Lake Erie!

The Lake

Lake Erie is the epicenter of life on the North Coast.  We love her temperate breezes in the summer and endure the gales of November.  Sheets of ice, lake effect snow and numbing squalls will greet January's ice-fishing crowds. Best of all, the return of spring and the migration of raptors and neo-tropical migrant birds.

The Marblehead Lighthouse

The Marblehead light keeps watch over the wave-washed shores. We tend to think of the light as a quaint piece of history; Ohio's most photographed location.  But before electronic navigation devices it was literally a life-saver for sailors navigating the lake during storms and dark of night.  The light is firmly built upon a dangerous, rocky outcrop at the eastern-most point of Marblehead.

The lake giveth, and she takes away. Our freshly groomed shores of Lakeside took a bit of a beating this fall.  An ambitious November storm, a Nor'easter, chewed on the landscape we planted in late summer.  Waves blew up over the rocky shoreline and re-distributed topsoil and gravel onto the lawn.

"Sticks"

 The lake deposited some "sticks," or rather large driftwood logs.  Timbers much too big for a man, or even two, to maneuver are tossed about like matchsticks by violent storms.

"Stones"

 Even more impressive is the sudden appearance of a large chunk of stone and concrete foundation.  What forces must have been exerted to push this behemoth about the lake!  One must wonder from whence it came?

 These six little survivors held their ground like true Ohio born champions.  The deep roots of Little Bluestem grass, Schizachyrium scoparium held the earth in place against the waves.  If only the other deep-rooted prairie plants had more than a month to become established before the storms!  Then, they too might have fared better in the defense of our shore. 

Shoreline project before the storms of November.

This was the new landscape as we left it in September. Unfortunately, as the shore was pealed away by the lake, many of the plants were taken for a cold swim.  Storm damage was a risk we seriously considered while planning the project, for there is no assuaging an angry lake.  Erie will have her way,

Fortunately, we allowed for that possibility and chose to keep plantings (and potential losses) to a minimum.  The grass line remains and demonstrates how vegetation is a key component in the fight against erosion.

Who can know what other abuses the lake plans to hand out this winter?  Once the ice forms, the land will be less susceptible to Erie's angry waves.  Recently some of the lakeshore parks in Cleveland have also reported the first large scale storm erosion they have seen in years.  We will watch and see, while planning logical steps to minimize future erosion and damage to our shoreline.

The lake giveth, and she takes away. 

September on Lake Erie

Having spanned the country and visited countless parks, forests, natural areas and sea shores, I can assure you, it is nearly impossible to find anyplace more beautiful than Lakeside, Ohio.

 There is something about this town. First it gets into your heart and then silently creeps into your very soul. The call of shore birds and gentle slapping of the waves speak to me.  The vista of Lake Erie's Islands, floral gardens and these playful stone cairns  delight the eye. They won't last for long against Lake Erie's storms, but they balance the joy of "today" against the "forever" of rock.

Jewel-weed, Impatients capensis  on the rocks.

Lakeside is well known for its history and architecture.  It is a gated community in the summer, where children rule the streets and ice cream is considered the nectar of gods. It is a Chautauqua, and I could probably devote an entire blog to that alone, if I have not already. 

But it has a compelling natural history as well.  For example, these orange flowers growing in wild abandon on the lakefront attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds which visit them for sustenance on their migration south for the winter.

Lakeside's administration has turned a serious eye to this issue and is promoting native plants and the "natural look" of our great lake, Erie. The fall migration of birds and Monarch butterflies both pass through these historic grounds. Our wildlife will appreciate the consideration we are giving to milkweeds for monarchs and bee-balms for pollinators in general.

Our native plant enthusiasts should be proud of the on-going effort to select Ohio native plants for the restoration of the west end's lakefront.  I hope you will join me for the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association's Annual Banquet and field trips this weekend.  Keynote, Allison Cusick will be speaking about our native Sandusky Flora, and we will be leading tours on this lovely stretch of Ohio's Most Beautiful Mile.

The gales of September on Erie.

 And "weather" it is windy or balmy, Lake Erie and Lakeside is always my favorite place to be each fall. Every moment is to be savored...

especially, during the sun sets.

200 years later... still sailing Lake Erie.

This weekend offered a wonderful mix of family, friends and history.  The history: a two-hundred year anniversary of the Battle of Lake Erie (from the War of 1812.)

Everywhere the battle cry, "Don't give up the ship!" was evident in the Lake Erie Islands.  This photo of a flag adorning a Lakeside waterfront home was taken from my kayak on Saturday morning.  However, it seems to me Oliver Hazard Perry may have won that battle, but he DID have to give up his ship to move his command center to the US Brig Niagara .

I also managed a long-shot of one of the Tall Ships cruising the Kelleys Island coast-line.  History abounded this weekend!

Perry's Monument at Put-in-Bay was also visible from the Lakeside dock.  I would say this photo-shot was a good six-miles out.  Visibility was excellent Saturday morning, before gun-powder filled the air.

The night skies were filled with fireworks.  Port Clinton and Lakeside had displays on Saturday and Put-in-Bay offered a mind-blowing gun-powder-fest on Sunday night. No shortage of smoke and ka-booms in the west basin of Lake Erie this weekend.

Some of my favorite people we  here as well.  My daughter, Michelle, my father- John Boyd- and J.J. the shark-rider (my youngest daughter.) Both girls grew up in Lakeside, so sailing and good music are favorite offerings.  We all attended the afternoon program of the Navy Band Great Lakes.

Historic cottage 345 Sycamore Ave. in Lakeside is known as Toad Hall.

In fact, a whole bunch of my family members arrived to celebrate our annual Labor Day in Lakeside. We are a pretty amicable bunch, and the only war going on here was at sea. 

This is my favorite time of year to go sailing .  Shelly was teaching her friend Joe "the ropes," so to speak.

Captain Shelly (Michelle Soski Goodman) is quite capable in her Sunfish sailboat.  She bought her first boat when she was a very young teen growing up in Lakeside.  As much as I like kayaking, there is something even more exciting about sailing these mini-boats on our Great Lake.

So, very little natural  history going on here, but it was a wonderful family vacation.  I always feel blessed to spend time with my children, and am especially fortunate that they are my best of friends as well.

Lakeside- Karlson's Photo Class

Sunday Morning of the OOS Conference, I climbed the stairs of the pavilion at the lakefront to attend the Kevin Karlson Photography class.

"Storm watch" at Lakeside Dock

The view, overlooking the dock from the classroom windows, was inspiring. The clouds were rolling across Lake Erie, giving threats of a North-east storm.   

Fall weather on Lake Erie is bi-polar: lovely or brutal. 

 Gordon Lightfoot referred to the "gales of November."  It is a legend on the lakes, immortalized in "The Edmund Fitzgerald."

Kevin Karlson teaches our class about focus and composition of a photo.  If you get an opportunity to take his class, sign up!  We covered a ton of great info including-

the basic principles, like the "rule of thirds."

Lake Erie's sky rules in thirds.

As I looked out the window, the heavens were blessing Kevin's class.

Our Lake becomes Eerie

It is not a spoof or a Halloween trick, it is a fact Ohioans need to come to grips with: Lake Erie is a scary place these days. A new report by the National Wildlife Federation has started to make waves in the press, but do average citizens realize how bad this situation has become?

Hardly what you would call a "day at the beach." Toxic algae can't be a healthy environment for our wildlife.

A recent stroll at the Huron pier left me feeling sickened by the waves of blue-green algae washing into shore. It was thick, foul smelling and almost as far reaching as the eye could see.

This year our lake has reports of algae blooms up to 2 foot deep, affecting much of the western basin. This toxic algae outbreak is the worst in history, surpassing the levels in the 1960's when the lake was declared "dead." The algae has plagued several inland lakes as well, with huge negative impacts already felt on fishing and tourism at Lake St. Marys. State agencies have been studying how to reduce farm run-off feeding the high phosphorus levels. We know the cause and now must resolve to make the tough changes required to improve our water's health. The stakes are too high to lose.

Meanwhile, we must take these events seriously. The food chain in the Great Lakes is collapsing. Fish and fishing is in decline- after all who wants to catch or eat "slightly" toxic fish? Once you have seen these sickening waves of eerie green- you'll reconsider any desire to swim or sail in these waters. Above all, Lake Erie is the source for drinking water for most nearby communities.

We can't sit back and hope someone will figure out an easy answer. The lake is our most precious natural resource and life in Ohio will not be the same until we take a good hard look at the way we are squandering our best and most beautiful asset.

Let's hope we can get our act together... soon. For the full report from National Wildlife Federation go here.

On Being Thankful...

It is not a traditional day of turkey and pie for me- but that doesn't make me a bit less thankful. A cooking incident that went horribly awry has left my house a difficult place to for me to be, while the smoke residual is cleaned away. Hopefully, it will be put back to order in a week or so. Until then, I find myself in need of being away.... no matter.


For I have wonderful friends with whom to share the most beautiful locations in Ohio (Huron Lighthouse.)

I can see birds that make my heart soar... (Sabine's Gull)

And spend time with people who love nature, respect the awesomeness of our natural world, and work to preserve it for the future.

...

It all makes little things like kitchens and pies seem less important, and family- especially my family of friends- more important.

So no matter what life hands us, as long as we count our blessings- like the call of tundra swans on the wing, ruddy ducks paddling about our reservoirs, and gigantic sandhill cranes... the rest is not important. I can always bird.

This Land is Our Land...

Today is a good time to reassess what is important in our lives and in our county. For me, our natural resources- and nature's beauty- ranks high on that list. It is our right and privilege as Americans to protect (and gladly pay taxes for) our natural areas.




Chagrin Falls- great natural beauty can be found even within our cities. The wise planners of this city capitalized on the falls and promoted their most scenic natural feature. Too often we do not stop to realize, Ohioans are fortunate to have so much biodiversity to appreciate and revere. From the hills of Shawnee to the waters of Lake Erie, Ohio's nature may seem boundless and endless to us. But it is a fragile beauty- easily scarred by man's greed.




...
A recent trip out west illuminated the importance of America's open spaces and protected lands. International tourists comprised nearly 60-75% of the traffic we found in the National Parks, like Grand Canyon (shown here) and Zion. German, French and Japanese tourists travel half way around the world to see the vast open spaces and grander of America. Nothing of this scale can be found in their counties.

...

...

Ohio's inland sea, Lake Erie is one of the United States' greatest bodies of fresh water. The Wall Street Journal just noted 10 major cities in our country are running out of water, and we barely note our abundance of clean, fresh H2O. We better be "invested" in our lake. If we do not protect and preserve it for the future, there will be no future. Clean water is a necessity we cannot live without.

...

This is the only drilling I want to see on our shores.

...

Lakeside Daisy is a federally endangered plant, preserved on the rocky outcroppings of Marblehead, Ohio. Ohio's biodiversity is a gift we all must protect for future generations.

...

Living free, breathing clean air, drinking pure water and abiding in concert with flora and fauna does not happen without good planning and protection.

...

Live, be happy... and vote well.

Clean Water

Photo of sunset of Lake Erie, from Catawba Island

Earth has been called the "watery planet", and indeed 74% of its surface is covered in water. However, only 3% of it is classified as fresh water. Once you consider underground water and soil moisture account for 22% , while fresh water stored as ice is calculated at 77% -and declining everyday, that leaves us with a precious 1% of fresh water.

In Ohio we too often take this "gift of life" for granted. With Lake Erie's bounty to our north and reservoirs spotted throughout the state, we give little consideration to our liquid assets. We ego-centric humans have always touted blood as the gift of life, but without freshwater, life as we know it would soon come to a screeching halt.

Turning on a faucet in mid-Ohio is so easy, one never registers the rarity of this natural resource. If you lived in Arizona or Florida and endured water rationing and watering bans, the concept becomes a bit clearer. On a global perspective, many still carry water for miles for that life giving sustenance of human, livestock and agricultural needs.

Plants, butterflies, birds, fish, humans- we all need clean water. Take a moment to ponder this gift of life and reconsider your choices. Do you need to use that chemical on your lawn? Is agricultural run off impacting our streams and rivers? Can parking lot residuals creep into our waterways? Protect and conserve our water- learning about Rain Gardens is one step in the right direction.