Things to do: June 2008 Archives

A zebra swallowtail takes a quick sip from a clover flower in Newberry Township. The smallest of the swallowtails in the area -- called swallowtails because of a "tail" trailing from both wings--the zebra is not nearly as common as the others, including the spicebush, tiger or giant swallowtails. The caterpillar feeds entirely on young paw-paw bushes. (Photo by Bil)

Not the football team. (Sorry, I'm a Cowboys fun!)

Hubby and I did another of the county parks Eight for Eight hikes yesterday, this one along the shores of Lake Williams in Kain County Park.

This was a bit less strenuous than the last hike in terms of hills, although we had some pretty good inclines. We also had quite a few more people than last week, including a group of Boy Scouts.

Among the nature spotted: A zebra swallowtail moth (the first one I'd seen; it was beautiful!) Enough minnows to sink a boat. And one very special piece of York County that I wasn't expecting...

Colorado potato beetle; image from Wikimedia

Daughter Sarah and I collected our third letterboxing stamp and read some facts about beetles today at Sunset Lane Park in West Manchester Township.

A nice walk around the park - which I found out has horseshoe pits, how cool is that?!

And, did you know there are more types of beetles than there are types of plant species total? Scary.

I mentioned my daughter's work in the letterboxing challenge sponsored by the libraries, the local parks and Keystone Activity Zone.

Well, on Sunday, we were out at the Book Nook Bonanza at York Suburban Middle School - brought home four new boxes of books, yay! - but, after lunch at Perkins, we figured we'd check out some of the eastern York County parks, as we don't often get out to that end of town.

So, that's where Sarah got her first two letterboxing stamps - and learned some bug facts from her logbook - one at Springettsbury Township Park and the other at Rocky Ridge.

Bill Styer and his reptiles are a big part of Repile Week at Nixon Park, but 4-year-old Jake Sampson of Salem, Va., wasn't quite sure he wanted to experience the 75-pound Burmese python in this photo by Bil Bowden.

What I forgot to say was that it was the beginning of "Reptile Week" there, which continues through Sunday.

So, hubby and I had a fun (and free, and environmentally friendly, AND good exercise) date Saturday morning, courtesy of the York County Parks Department.

We've decided to take part in the parks' "Eight for Eight" hike series, which leads you through - you guessed it - eight of the county's parks in 2008.

Saturday's was a two-hour "ridge to ridge" hike in Nixon Park. It was the second in the series, though we'd missed the first one. I would HIGHLY recommend future hikes to you all, but first, let's look at some lessons learned.

Rose and I went to check out the Blues Traveler concert at Sovereign Bank Stadium on Saturday night. I haven't even gone to bed yet, and it's 4 a.m., so you know it was awesomeness.

Check out the professional story with the professional photos here, then come back and read more of my blog to get my less-than-perfect but still fun take on the concert and some less-than-perfect but still great photos, too!

(First, though, here's photo proof that I made it to the show.)

Lots of fun going on today and into the coming week up in Dover, courtesy of the Greater Dover Historical Society.

Many of you might know about the society's project at Dover borough's Alda Ketterman park, setting up a working replica blacksmith shop.

Well, the society holds an open house at the shop in Ketterman Park, Butter Road, Dover, from 10 to 2 p.m. the second Saturday of each month through October - including today. You can visit the reconstructed blacksmith shop and watch resident smithy Ted Ziegler forge hot steel on the anvil.

What else is the group up to?

A reader on the Exchange is echoing this post I made last year about the former Zimmie's... I loved going when I was in school. That place was great!