Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

On Friday before Labor Day and again on Labor Day, I took a hike down the trail to the Henry Clay iron furnace at Coopers Rock.

These days, it's pretty rare for me to come across a new plant.   And this one is doubly notable, because it's also an orchid.   Meet the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens):

This shot composed of two different shots that were combined in PhotoShop is not very good, but I wanted to be able to show the entire plant.

Most of my shots showing the leaves were blurry.  I need to stop farting around and use my tripod!  This is the best of the lot:

I wanted to show the leaves because of their reticulated pattern.  Oddly, when I tried to find the origin of the orchid's name, the emphasis is on their resemblance to the plantain.

Sadly, I missed catching this orchid in bloom.  Here's the inflorescence as I found it:

I was surprised to read that Goodyera pubescens is considered to be the most common orchids native to eastern North America.  How is it that I've only now stumbled across it?

SX-70 Alpha 1, Model 2

In an earlier posting, I described the Polaroid SX-70 that I recently acquired.  I ordered a laser-cut leather skin from Etsy, and over the Labor Day holiday I started on removing the old skin.

I watched some YouTube videos about removing old skin, so I did not go into this unprepared.  However, I'm not particularly proud of my results.

I got some Pro Power Goo and Adhesive Remover, which was recommended in one of the how-to videos.  This helped some, but  the old glue was incredibly stubborn.    I used a straight-edge razor scraping tool and I tried to be as careful as I could in removing the skin and adhesive, all the while being careful to not get any of the Power Goo into the camera.  The glue was like a rock.  I managed to slip a bit along some edges where I left some scars.  I used a dremel tool to smooth out those scars, but the end results were still far from perfect.

Here's the finished product.

I'm showing the side with the worst scarring.  Note the left side of the triangle above the bellows.

Did I ruin this camera's resale value?  Maybe.  Probably.  It's still one hell of a nice camera, though.

Morning Woods

On Friday, August 30, I was hiking back up from the Iron Furnace at Cooper's Rock State Park.  Off the side of the trail, my eye did see something a bit unusual.

It appears that a branch or another tree altogether was growing out from a crack in the main trunk and reentering about a foot or two up above.

If you believe in pareidolia and your mind is in the gutter, you may see something of a different nature.