May 26, 2013

A prairie walk...

... in Governor Nelson State Park today... with all the euphorbia...

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That's Meade... with trekking poles...

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... trekking on into the woods...

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... where the wild geraniums bloom....

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59 comments:

lemondog said...

That's Meade...

No dogs?

Like the way you caught those clouds.

Methadras said...

What is the point of the trekking poles? Is that shit white people like?

Ann Althouse said...

"What is the point of the trekking poles? Is that shit white people like?"

1. Rhythm

2. Stability

3. Weapon

rhhardin said...

Reimpregnating the universal ash tray to give renascence to life in its most elementary form: grass.

Francis Ponge, The Prairie

Ann Althouse said...

Here are 10 reasons.

And here are 25 reasons.

Anonymous said...

If you go down in the woods today you better not go alone

It's lovely down in the woods today but safer to stay at home

For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain

Because today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic

lemondog said...

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.

mesquito said...

Before I read The Professor's Apologia, what's up with the gay-ass poles?

mesquito said...

Trekking poles are an essential tool for hiking or mountaineering."

Looks to me like Meade is walking across a goddam pasture.

chickelit said...

I can tell Meade misses cross-country skiing.

chickelit said...

Were you two soaked with Nature's fecund blessings?

sakredkow said...

OMG the pictures are amazing. The second one down, wow.

edutcher said...

He boldly went where his wife had gone before.

Weapon?

At whom were you planning to launch it?

And should we all start passing the hat for a hired gun?

rhhardin said...

Prairie

Kid involved with prairie.

Rusty said...

Methadras said...
What is the point of the trekking poles? Is that shit white people like?

In my case it takes some of the pressure off my knees and lower back.

Rusty said...

They also come in handy for moving the leaf litter around when mushroom hunting.

Strick said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Strick said...

"Here are 10 reasons."

A disadvantages listed is actually an advantage if you're walking for exercise - they use more energy and raise your heart rate higher than just walking.

That's why I use them walking for exercise in town - or crossing pastures.

David said...

Look at all those trunks!

David said...

8. They can help to defend against attacks from dogs, bears and other wildlife. Swing them overhead to make yourself look bigger or throw them like a spear.

Not relying on this one.

But the older you get, the more useful they are in preventing a fall, especially on rocky downhills.

Ambrose said...

Who was Gov. Nelson? Why do so many things have to be named for politicians?

Anonymous said...

Thrust outward properly, Trekking Poles can protect you from marauding members of Norwegian Death Metal bands.

Unknown said...

@El Pollo
Mrs. Smiling: It's bad to be dewy-eyed around smart people, but you can always secretly despise them.

this

Anonymous said...

Trekking Poles are the Hiker's Umlaut.

Ann Althouse said...

"Who was Gov. Nelson? Why do so many things have to be named for politicians?"

He was the Gay Lord.

He started Earth Day.

Anonymous said...

From Wiki: Euphorbia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae... The common name "spurge" derives from the Middle English/Old French espurge ("to purge"), due to the use of the plant's sap as a purgative.

"Purge" is also a French Death Metal band*. According to metal-archives-dot-com their lyrical themes include:
Death, Destruction, torture, submission, hate, war.

Doesn't say anything about Prairie Walks; could just be an Oversight.




*Yep: French Death Metal. We are All Escargot on the Silver Plate of Doom.

Rusty said...

We are All Escargot on the Silver Plate of Doom.

OK. That's just funny as hell.

Nena's 99 Luftballons Song said...

Life Ball 2013 Vienna Austria, Saturday May 25 with A-Listers: Bill Clinton & Barbara Eden charity fundraising for HIV-AIDS awareness. And of course EJ in the house !!

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/barbara-eden-78-wears-dream-jeannie-costume-life-223000578-us-weekly.html

edutcher said...

I saw that. In her Jeannie costume.

No.

Ann Althouse said...

Who was Gov. Nelson? Why do so many things have to be named for politicians?

He was the Gay Lord.

He started Earth Day


You are in a sprightly mood, Madame.

chickelit said...

When I was little, the park was still farmed or privately owned. My parents rented a farmhouse adjacent to or on the property. The house is no longer there. I have no memory of that house but there are family photos of me there. A year or two later, we moved to Middleton, but my mother stayed in touch with the neighbors. I remember the family that lived in an old farmhouse which still stands (as of last year) across highway M from the entrance to the park. The basement of that old house scared the hell out me when I was 3 or 4. I think I saw something nasty in the woodshed.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Gorgeous!

gspencer said...

Where are the hounds?

Chip Ahoy said...

Euphoria (in the weeds)

edutcher said...

I was a little worried, Chip.

Can you have euphoria in the euphorbia?

kentuckyliz said...

Envy. My arthritis sucks. I can barely hobble around my ordinary day. Using a cane makes me lose the feeling and motor control in my dominant hand, so I walk with the constant feeling of almost falling.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

A café with plant names is a trail trek with a pole, one which by any other name still swings just as sweet.

After all these years, the word which still a source of incomprehensible frustration for me. For the life of me, I cant seem to effortlessly memorize it once and for all.

Can I go for the rest of my life avoiding it.

Michael McNeil said...

“What is the point of the trekking poles? Is that shit white people like?”

1. Rhythm
2. Stability
3. Weapon


That's why during medieval times common folk typically trod about carrying stout staves. Aristocrats could and did try to keep commoners from bearing knives, swords, or bows. But nobody could stop people from carrying a walking stick (though I'm sure the modern Brits are trying) — and folk of that time made themselves quite proficient with them as weapons — as we see illuminated in the Little John versus Robin Hood encounter in legend.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Memorize how it spells that is...

That's the problem with words, as I see it, the are meant for other people to understand.

That sucks for me right off the bat w/o a swing strike three.

I will never forget the day Althouse personally corrected my spelling of three... for which I had spelled as tree.

It did the trick. I Learn by naked embarrassment. Some Adam and Eve Freud thing I'm sure.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Speaking of bats swings.

The Red Sox came back in the spectacular form of a bottom of the ninth walk off variety.

I stayed after everything seemed lost when the Cleveland closer came in to mow us down.

The Sox came back from a 5 to 2 deficit.

Anonymous said...

Re: ". I Learn by naked embarrassment."

Death Metal Speedos will Provide Comfort in your Anxiety.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Oh, I forgot to include the naked robot in my list of... agitators.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I fool myself into thinking I have it... only to discover I was just dreaming of a nice day out for a stroll in the woods with my trekking pole.

Anonymous said...

Re: "... where the wild geraniums bloom...."

Naked Bob Dylan Robot recognizes"
"Bring It On"
by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds


The geraniums on your window sill
The carnations, dear, and the daffodil
Well, they are ordinary flowers
But they long for the light of your touch"

Naked Bob Dylan Robot recognizes no "kings of Tyrus" nor their "convict list" yet:


The Quality of "Mercy Seat" is Not Strained.

Anonymous said...

Does Meade have "The Red Right Hand?"

Anonymous said...

George Takei has a Trekking Pole.





It is Not All Norwegian Death Metal.

Anonymous said...

Re: "Blogger kentuckyliz said...

"Envy. My arthritis sucks. I can barely hobble around my ordinary day."

My Sympathies: My Wife shares that Affliction (although not to that Degree, I suspect).

I wish you Ease.



Lem the artificially intelligent said...

In NJ trekking poles require a conceal carry permit.

Anonymous said...

Naked Bob Dylan Robot examines the Allman Brothers and finds:

Sometimes I feel
Sometimes I feel
Like I've been tied
To the Trekking Poles
Tied to the Trekking Poles
Tied to the Trekking Poles
Good lord I feel like I'm Trekking.

Anonymous said...

In n NJ poking poles require a conceal carry permit. And at least a Twenty.

Anonymous said...

If Ming The Merciless had a Trekking Pole it would Have a Laser.


Two Trekking Poles = Two Lasers.

Anonymous said...

Three Trekking Poles is a Tripod.

Gene said...

Meade, I gather, is quite a coordinated guy. Why does he need ski poles to walk across a flat field on a sunny day?

Anonymous said...

Tripod Lasers have Triangulation.

You are only Safe in a rhomboid, Flash.

Anonymous said...

Naked Bob Dylan Robot finds Led Zeppelin:

"Friends, you get some silver?
Did you get a little gold?
What did you bring me, my dear friends?
Keep me from the Trekking Poles?"

Anonymous said...

Lungwort wore Naked Bob Dylan Robot out: his Batteries can Only Take So Much.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gadfly said...

In further denial of its Woodward-Berstein heritage, Obama's WaPo tells us that Petraeus caused Benghazi-gate.

edutcher said...

And on Memorial Day.

Slime.

kentuckyliz said...

Envy. My arthritis sucks. I can barely hobble around my ordinary day. Using a cane makes me lose the feeling and motor control in my dominant hand, so I walk with the constant feeling of almost falling.

I can only sympathize. I have a bad ankle that goes funny on me occasionally, so I can understand the feeling when the ground turns to tapioca.

You are a brave lady to try to stay active.