Some photographs of Fall and Winter 2010

I've completed six of nine pages of photographs for my fall and winter photo albums.

Here they are:

A page for the ENTI 2010 Conference in Strasbourg.

And the ENTI Conference culture tour of Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle and Colmar.

And my photographs of Strasbourg, France.

And other parts of Alsace, including Colmar.

I have some photographs from Thanksgiving and December on this page.

And more photographs from the days around Christmas are here.

I've put up some photographs from winter Boy Scout activities.

And I also have a page of general fall photographs, mostly of Boy Scouting events.

2009 Lincoln Pilgrimage

Every year at the end of April boy scouts from all over the United States come to Springfield, Illinois to parade from Lincoln's tomb to the Old State Capitol where Lincoln often worked when he lived here. The day before, many scouts participate in a trek from New Salem to Springfield, a walk of nearly 30 kilometers (almost 20 miles).

Here is Johnny Smith carrying the American flag at the end of the pilgrimage, near the corner of Jefferson and 6th.

Here is a view of the scouts marching through the streets of Springfield on their way between the tomb and the historic center of the city.

Here are the scouts leaving the cemetery where they assembled at Lincoln's tomb. One boy or girl from each troop or pack carries an American flag at the head of the parade.

Here is Sebastian marching in the parade.

This is Sebastian the night before the parade, when he was cleaning up dishes after dinner out at the campground in New Salem.

Here I am, one of the assistant scoutmasters.

Some new photograph web pages

  It's been a busy weekend.  We celebrated father's day and honored Sebastian's birthday (which is actually June 16th, but since his grandparents were here, he opened many of his presents on Sunday the 15th).

   I've also put up a few new web pages full of photographs.  Two of these show Sebastian and Arthur with their cousins, my nephews and nieces.  A third page shares pictures from a boy scout trip we took last weekend when we went to Fort de Chartres. 

  Enjoy the pictures.

Troop 3 at Klondike Derby

This weekend, with temperatures down between -11 and -19 Celsius, most people remained indoors. Yet, over a hundred of us from all over Central Illinois were camping at Camp Illinek. The boys had a lot of fun trying to demonstrate their skills and solve various problems at stations around the camp. From troop three we had four boys participating: Jack, Johnny, Matt, and Mike. Here are some photographs of the guys enjoying the day.

The key to having fun and staying comfortable in such temperatures is to dress appropriately. If you're wearing enough warm clothing and wearing it correctly you can feel quite good in such temperatures. Sleeping in such weather is another matters. It's not as easy to stay comfortable when you're not moving.

The first image shows Jack mashing up the pancake the boys prepared at one station. They started a fire with sparks from a flint and quickly had a little flame they fed with tiny sticks until the fire was large enough to cook a pancake.

The second images shows all four boys making it across an imaginary river using a couple boards and some logs.

The third image shows Matt, Johnny, and Mike as they start to take down a little tower they built to keep themselves above the ground where an imaginary flood was threatening.

The fourth image shows Jack guiding Johnny through a maze. Johnny is blindfolded, and must rely on Jack's oral commands.

The fifth image shows Mike starting out across a rope bridge the boys made.

Klondike Derby

My Great-Grandfather Jack Turner was a gold miner in the Klondike. He also served on the Yukon Executive Council or Legislative Council for a few years before it was temporarily disbanded by Ottawa in 1919. So, this weekend I went out to a local campground here in Springfield where scores of boy scouts were enjoying the Klondike Derby.

Here are some photographs I took. Well, the first photograph is from the Yukon Territory, and you can see my Grandma Nel in the arms of her father, my great-grandfather Jack Turner. That's the summer. In the winter in the Klondike the temperatures bounce around between -40 Celsius and -10 Celsius.

There is a photograph of myself studying for the course I teach on social welfare policy. This was on Friday evening when it was still pretty warm, about -7 Celsius. The other picture of me shows me early on Saturday morning, when it was about -18 Celsius. If you dress warmly (as I did), it's not a problem when the temperatures get down to such low temperatures, but it can be difficult to sleep in a tent. One problem is that the condensation from one's breath can form an ice crust on whatever blanket one has over one's face, and if one doesn't use a blanket or mask over one's face, then one's skin (nose and cheeks) get cold. Another problem is that water bottles freeze up solid, so it can be difficult to get a drink.

Anyway, that photo of me on Saturday morning shows that my skin is rather pink. It becomes so in cold, as blood seems to rush to the skin surface, perhaps to bring warmth to the skin cells and to prevent them from being destroyed by feezing.

The fourth image shows Matt, Mike, and Jack, three boy scouts who were camping for the Klondike derby.

Ice Storm

Springfield has had several ice storms over the past few years.  We had two bad ones last year, and already we had a significant one this past weekend.  Here are some images I took at Camp Cilca on the morning of Sunday the 9th.

All night and morning while we were at Camp Cilca the sounds of crashing limbs and branches filled the forest.  These are truly awesome sounds. We saw several large limbs crash down just a few dozen meters from where we were standing, and even limbs crashing to the forest floor in the distance made a loud sound like thunder.

No one lingered under trees!

Cabins at Camp Cilca

  The cabins at Camp Cilca are all right. We like to have big fires to keep warm during the December nights.

On this post you can see Sebastian, Mr. Green, and ASPL Andy. 

  The dark image I took by resting my camera on the rails of a bunk, using a timed exposure (so my hand wouldn't touch the camera and shake it while the shutter was open), and forcing the camera to use no flash (and use a one second exposure instead).  You can see my bunk in the center of that image.  I was warm this year, as we had a balmy night with temperatures right at the freezing mark.

Camp Cilca

 Sebastian and I went out to Camp Cilca with Troop 3 again, as we have done these past few years.  

Two years ago the night temperature was in the single digits (about 18 degrees below freezing in Celsius), and last year the temperature went into the upper teens (about 11 degrees degrees below zero in Celsius).  The cabins at Cilca have no insulation, and there are many cracks and gaps between the boards that make up the walls.  There are also no bathrooms aside from the chemical toilets about 60 meters away from the cabins.  So, those past couple years were too cold.  On the other hand, both previous years there was deep snow to make sledding quite enjoyable.  

This year, for the third straight year, we had snow again, and sledding was possible. The snow was more like a thin glaze of ice and snow, and we had freezing rain and an ice storm with only a few hours of dry weather in which to enjoy a game of capture the flag.

Here are some pictures of Jim, Jared, Sebastian, and Kody.

Starved Rock State Park

Our visit to Starved Rock State Park was marked by wind and warm weather. Here are some images from the canyons in this state park, all carved suddenly by a swift and massive drainage of a lake that burst out into the Illinois River and Mississippi River when an ice dam broke during the retreat of glaciers in a recent ice age (or so I was told). The sandstone in the park is soft, and erosion has continued to sculpt these canyons.

Starved Rock

On October 20-21st Sebastian and I went to Starved Rock State Park with Boy Scout Troop 3 (Abraham Lincoln Council). The leaves were glorious.  

These are photographs I took while we were hiking around the state park. 

Biking in Springfield

I'm going to post some photo blog entries now. A couple years ago when I started this blog it was difficult to add photographs, but it seems that things have been improved.

I'll start with six images from a bike hike Boy Scout Troop 3 (of the Abraham Lincoln Council) took on September 15th of 2007.

We have at the top two images of Sebastian and Oliver riding along the bike trail that leads from Springfield to Chatham. This trail starts quite close to our home, so we enjoy riding this route from April through November, when the weather is fair.

The third image shows Lake Springfield. You can notice a Great Blue Heron hunting for fish and frogs in the lake.

The fourth image shows Robert Warren and Bradley, as they bike over a bridge on the bike trail.

The final image shows a sunflower I noticed along the bike trail.  There were several in bloom in mid-September.