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Malaga Lake Park: Franklin Houses Perfect Retreat For Nature Lovers

tony — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:28:57 +0000

FRANKLIN — Living at the head of the Maurice River means there is no lack of natural lakes and waterways for outdoor recreation seekers.

That’s not to say nature can’t benefit now and then from a helping hand.

Whose thought it was to divert a skein of small streams to form Malaga Lake is a detail lost to history, but the good times still flow for visitors more than a century after a dam put almost 105 acres of farmland under water.

Malaga Lake and the park that now wraps around it is a popular stop for fishing, swimming and nature watching. The site is dedicated to Sgt. Ippolito Gonzalez, a township police officer killed while on duty in 1995.

“We happen to be blessed in this town with lakes,” township Administrator Mike DiGiorgio said.

malaga lake park

photo: Charles J. Olsen

Malaga Lake Park also may be more popular with outsiders, who often travel from other counties to use it, than it is with Franklin residents.

Last year, the township banned swimming because of budget problems. Swimsuits still show up along the lake and especially at its beach, though.

Landisville residents Hector and Amanda Gomez discovered Malaga Lake Park several months ago. The couple and their four children, ages 2 to 6, now come as often as they can.

“I heard about it from a friend,” said Hector Gomez, who originally is from Paterson. “We liked it so much I took the kids out the first time and they started fishing. And right away, they hooked some fish. And they loved it. They just fell in love — the park, the fishing.

“I actually purchased a boat this weekend off my friend because we like it so much,” Gomez said. “We plan on coming here virtually throughout the summer. It’s close to home. It’s a beautiful park.”

Part of the attraction is the seclusion the park offers, despite its location inside a triangle formed by heavily traveled routes 55, 40 and 47.

“I don’t have to worry about my kids,” Gomez said. “I let them run around the park. I don’t have to worry about somebody snatching them up or something like that.”

Malaga Park Drive, running off Route 40, is the entrance to the 272-acre park’s eastern side. A marked nature trail winds through pine, holly and cypress trees with benches spaced over the trail for walkers to catch their breath.

Article source: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/20110723/NEWS01/107230314

Add A Little Splash Of Nature To Your Life

tony — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 15:28:57 +0000

In the morning or late evenings, I like to commune with nature. Now granted, I’m communing with nature while sitting in a nice chair, on a concrete slab, protected by walls and fences, with an air-conditioned house a few steps away – and maybe a cup of coffee, but I think that’s how a lot of people commune with nature.

You may not think of this as “natural” but we can’t all live in Yosemite or sit on the beach. First, I think we can agree that communing with nature is a solo gig. Too many people ruin the experience. You never see an ad for some beach resort where it looks like a marathon run. Who wants that?

Second, we would quickly ruin the forest or the beach if we all communed with nature in the most beautiful places. I guess these points are generally the same, but if you’ve ever seen an empty campsite after a bunch of kids spent the night, you know what I’m talking about. Nature is pristine!

Instead of searching for the perfect spot to commune with nature, I suggest we take in nature all around us, as we find it, where we find it. A little sky here, a tree there, some dirt, maybe a bird; you know, nature …

You also can “create” a place of harmony and peace with nature. I’ve discovered that it’s much easier to relax with nature, given all the conditions I mentioned, if you are near water. That’s why today’s column is going to cover waterfalls, ponds, and fountains. All of these water features have a couple things in common.

Sound: Unless you have a very weak and full bladder, nothing is as relaxing as the sound of a babbling brook or the roar of a waterfall. Why? I think it’s because it’s the perfect excuse for not listening to people. You can see the mouth moving but all you hear is water. They should install some waterfalls in Washington and Sacramento. That would be a relief from all the current babbling and roaring.

Movement: Water features are also relaxing because there is movement. But it’s a special kind of movement. Watching a ceiling fan or a freeway is movement, but there is no relaxation there. Water is very different … fluid, you might say. Watching water on an endless cycle of movement where individual pieces of water never seem to show up in a pattern, is why water features are relaxing. If you have some fish to watch or feed, that can add to the relaxation for some folks. It doesn’t work for me. Watching fish makes me want to get out my pole and frying pan. Fish don’t seem to relax when I’m around either.

Movement can go hand in hand with lighting. If you can watch the sunlight or have a pond light at night, all the reflections help you relax and … reflect.

Now that we have an idea of what to include in your place of harmony, we can begin to see what will work best for you. Face it, it’s hard to put a waterfall on an average apartment patio, but a fountain can come in all sizes. So, my first point in water features is size. It can also cover the related question, location.

Waterfalls, true waterfalls, tend to be large. The reason for that is that they generally are attached to a “river” or even a “lake,” sometimes even an “ocean.” If you don’t have the space for a roaring waterfall, then you need to consider a pond or a fountain. By the way, if you really wanted a roaring waterfall for the purposes of not listening to people, consider that they probably don’t want to listen to you either. Maybe you can agree to be quiet around your pond or fountain.

Ponds and fountains come in many sizes. The thing to consider, in my opinion, is the “distance to splash ratio” and “volume of water ratio.” Truthfully, I just came up with those ratios. The point is, you need to have enough splashing sound and that’s made by a combination of the distance the water is flowing and the amount of water that is running.

I filled one of my fountains too high. The amount of water was fine but it wasn’t falling far enough to make the proper relaxing sound. I removed more than half the water and now I have perfect splashing ratios. I’m one with nature.

Now, if I can adjust the flat screen, I’ll be in harmony too.

Have a home improvement or real estate question or comment? Send it to Matt Le Vesque at P.O. Box 1527, Highland, CA 92346 or Matt@CZRonline.com., or call him at 800-841-1999, and he will consider it for his column. Please include your full name and city of residence. Le Vesque is a general engineering/building contractor and Realtor in Redlands

Article source: http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_18532639

Owl Imprint On Window Pane

tony — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 05:43:49 +0000

Sally Arnold returned from her vacation to find the imprint of an owl on her window. Hopefully the owl wasn’t hurt, since there was no body to be found (we are not CSI wannabes, by the way). Anyway it sure took a lot of courage for the owl to fly straight into somebody’s window to get such a clear imprint, which I understand was left by the powder down on the owl’s feathers.

(photo by Sally Arnold)

Owl Imprint In Window

Lucky Squirrel Crossing The Road

tony — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 06:52:51 +0000

This is one lucky squirrel. Caught on camera crossing the road just about the time a Lamborghini is speeding through. A close up of the squirrel shows that it has lost nothing more than part of its tail.

Rainbow Toad Re-Discovered

tony — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:47:43 +0000

Scientists have rediscovered a rare endangered species of toad known as the Borneo Rainbow Toad or Sambas Stream Toad in the Malaysian jungle. Listed in the “World’s Top 10 Most Wanted Lost Frogs”, it was last sighted in 1924 in Borneo.

Borneo Rainbow Toad

It was only after months of searching after dark in the Sarawak jungle in Borneo the team, led by Malaysian researcher Indraneil Das found the missing toad up a tree and subsequently found two more specimens of this rare species of toad. The Virginia-based Conservational International said in a statement that this discovery gave hope to the world that more endangered and near extinct species could be found and conserved before they disappeared forever.

Super Mario Bros – Real Live Video

tony — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 05:31:13 +0000

An interesting video on the Super Mario Bros, a very popular video game developed by Nintendo. This time everything is in real live action. Coordination is superb.

House Advertisement – An Unusual Angle

tony — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:12:17 +0000

With the spending power of people increasing tremendously in some communities (where does all this money come from, I wonder), one of the things you can do to show others that you have arrived is to buy an exclusive luxury property in some exclusive location. Or better still, buy a few luxury properties. To take advantage of this pent-up desire to be one up on the Joneses, housing developers are also gearing up to offer bigger, better, more expensive and more exclusive luxury houses, some being sold fully furnished with all the trappings of wealth such as private swimming pools and spas. The majority of the newer developments offer gated communities with round-the-clock security. As always, the air of exclusiveness is a major selling point in the typical exclusive luxury house advertisement. Everybody wants to be unique and belong to some exclusive community.

Some housing developers who want to be one up on the competition even offer unusual benefits such as free overseas trips. Not to be outdone, this developer offers a rather unheard of advantage in his house advertisement:

House Advertisement

Or could there be some spelling error somewhere?

The Power Of Words

tony — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:38:13 +0000

Contributed by Kayla

“It is not what you say, but how you say it“.

This simple piece of advice that illustrates the power of words is so often ignored. You may have a brand new massive marketing campaign to introduce a new concept, product or service, but if you fail to describe it in words the audience or your market understands and relates to, and better still, arouse his feelings, interest and passion so that he will do whatever it is you want to do, whether it be to enthusiastically buy your product or service or subscribe to something. He does it with enthusiasm.

Change the world. Use your power of words to send a clear message to your audience.

The power of words is so well illustrated by the following YouTube video:

Funny Song About Singapore

koolguy — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:36:13 +0000

contributed by koolguy

Comedian Dick Lee sings a funny song about Singapore. Hilarious!

The Wave – Beautiful Rock Formation

tony — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 07:07:27 +0000

One of the most beautiful of rock formations in the world is known as The Wave. The Wave is a sandstone rock formation situated on the Coyote Buttes in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness in Arizona. It is very famous among landscape photographers who say that if you have not photographed The Wave, you are not a landscape photographer. The distinguishing feature of this rock formation is its appearance of that of a cresting sea wave frozen in time. Added to that is the fact that in order to limit the extent of damage by visitors, there is no man-made road to this rock formation.

Access to this rock formation is limited to only 20 visitors per day, and eligibility to see The Wave is determined by a lottery draw. Access to The Wave starts from Wire Pass Trailhead in Arizona. No driving to this magnificent natural formation: you have to hike a 3 mile hike in the open desert through hot temperatures that surpass 100 degress, strong winds, dust storms and little or no shade. Water is a crucial item you need to bring along.

Because there is no formal trail to follow, The Wave is very challenging to find. You either find it using your GPS or by using a prominent landmark called the Black Crack, which is sited in the Coyote Buttes region, just above The Wave. There are countless persons who have taken to hiking to find this rock formation, get lost, and never see it. Occasionally the local county sheriff’s office has to undertake search-and-rescue operations to locate lost hikers who have somehow wandered off the planned route.

At the end of it all, however, in spite of all the hardships one has to endure, the goal is worth it. The Wave has been described as a photographer’s dream.

The Wave Rock Formation