I was on the St. Lawrence River for a barbecue with my entire mom's side of the family. It was a very special time; the food was great, the people were lovely, and the food was mouth-watering.

The St. Lawrence River is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle of North America. It connects the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. It is considered the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin. It is 744 miles long.

Habitat: wetland/river

I went on a hike when I was visiting Chateaugay, NY. I came across lots of beautiful flowers. Here is a photograph of Penstemon flowers. They are a large genus of North America and East Asia flowering plants. They grow to be about 4 to 5 feet tall, at a mature age. Native Americans used to use roots of the Penstemon to relieve toothache.

Habitat: forest

What I found interesting: the color of these flowers are very "happy" and bright. Immediately caught my eye as I was walking by.

I walked down to the river on April 6th with a few friends. It was such a lovely day. When we arrived at the river we sat there for a while, chatting. I ended up walking down onto the sand after spotting a trace of an animal.

This is a photograph of a cluster of "Forget-Me-Not" flowers. When I took this photo I was on a walk to a waterfall, I had to walk across a bunch of rocks and this is what was growing between some of the rocks. I couldn't help it, so I made a pit stop and took a few photos of the pretty blue flowers.

I went to Chateaugay, NY for my first time this past summer. A good friend of mine has a lakehouse there. We spent a few days there, filled with lots of nature walks, hikes and kyaking. I found a patch of Black-Eyed Susans, also known as Rudbeckia. I was blown away by how beautiful the flowers were; so bright and happy. The colors of a Black-Eyed Susan are so appealing to me, the orange-red and yellow go together so nicely. Flowers are very interesting to me, I love to look at them and research the meaning of each.

For lab we went to the Wild Center in Tupper Lake. I wasn't sure what to expect, when I arrived I was blown away. The place was amazing. First we were learning about "Planet Adirondack", after that they brought out an owl and a porcupine. I was very shocked we were able to take photographs with flash of the owl. I am very happy we were able to, I got a few neat photographs of Olivia the owl. We had plenty of free time to walk around and explore the Wild Center. It was such an incredible place.

12 hours of full-on winter climbing. What an exciting day! This was actually a dual slide traverse of Gothics; up the Rainbow Slide and down True North Slide on the other side. The link below describes it all with the bonus of placing a group of hikers (members of a forum) on each of the High Peaks on February 23rd, 2013...the second successful year. Red line is for inset reference ONLY; conditions change daily.

Full details at: http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showthread.php?t=20716

Look for this encounter featured in the January/February issue of Adirondac Magazine!

This was the perfect Adirondack winter climb...cold temps, cobolt blue sky, a trusty partner and a picturesque mountain. Route was about 12 miles with roughly 4,150 feet of elevation gain. The red line is for photo inset reference ONLY, not as a defined route; conditions change by day.

Full details at: http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showthread.php?t=20607

There wasn't much snow in the flat lands, but the High Peaks were already holding about 36" of fresh snow. What a way to kick off the winter season! 15 hours, 12 miles and about 4,300 feet of elevation gain.

Full details at: http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showthread.php?t=19910

Winter 2013 on one of the Adirondack's most remote High Peaks.
Route was about 16.5-17 miles with roughly 5,300 feet of elevation gain.
The red line is for photo inset reference ONLY, not as a defined route; conditions change by day.

Full details at: http://forums.adkhighpeaks.com/showthread.php?t=20907