During my daily errands, I drove down to the Medford Boat Club, and I noticed that they are releasing water out of the tunnel. This surprised me quite a bit, because we had heavy rain, snowmelt, and a flood watch earlier this week, and the tunnel was not used. However, I think this illustrates how the DCR is trying to manage the water level on the upper Mystic Lake. If you read my dam story, you'll remember that I talked about how there was some concern about dropping the water level in the upper Mystic. We are now facing elevated flood threat conditions all weekend, because of heavy rain. There is a flood watch through the end of the weekend, I think. So I expect that the DCR decided to try to take the water level of the upper Mystic down in order to get ahead of any potential flooding.

 

They admitted during that forum that there is not much storage potential in the upper Mystic, and that it takes 4 days to drop it by four feet. They only got about 24 hours in of tunnel release before the rain started in earnest this morning. I imagine that over the 4 days, the release is not linear - i.e., I expect the first few feet come through a lot faster than the next two, but of course, this is just speculation. I also don't know if they have to pump water through the tunnel, or if it flows by gravity. I'm assuming that they just open a valve, and it flows.

 

We'll have to keep an eye on this this spring. If they are concerned enough about the rain and flood potential this weekend that they've opened up the tunnel, then we should all keep an eye on the water level in the upper Mystic, lest it should get high enough that the spillway winds up being used. The existing spillway runs water through a residential neighborhood on the Arlington/Winchester line, and those folks would probably be very unhappy if they got flooded out. 

 

 

 

Silly me. When I first wrote about Medford's WWII memorial, I took a trip out to survey the site. Noticing they had cleared the trees behind the sidewalk, I assumed they were done. WRONG. They had better be done now, because they've ripped down almost every tree in this tiny plot. Folks, I think you have enough space now. Please don't cut down any more trees.

 

Those crazy Tufts people. There they are sailing today, when the ice isn't even totally off the lake.

 

 

Once again, this was taken during my daily errands, which regularly take me down Mystic Valley Parkway. Since the family is still away (they return tomorrow night), I decided to try more sunset photos, since the ice is still hanging on in the lake. Unfortunately, nature didn't cooperate this evening. So I took a good, old fashioned traffic trail shot.

 

 

It looks a bit wierd, but I really didn't do much to it outside of my usual standard processing. The original is a bit darker with just a touch less contrast. The ice in the foreground is backlit from streetlights in the parking lot (I'm standing on the roof of the Tufts boat house taking this photo). The sky really was purple, although a bit of underexposure helped bring that out.

So I'm out to do some errands this morning and I see this big thing on the ice in the upper Mystic Lake. Very odd. So of course, I pulled in and took a picture of it. I really couldn't tell even from shore - I thought it was a floating swimming platform, but it was really part of someone's dock.

 

 

Then, this evening, I went out at sunset to see if I could take another ice-out picture. And lo and behold, the dock is not there. It's completely gone. I was amazed. I had no idea what happened. It's hard to imagine that someone actually took a boat out on the upper Mystic Lake, but what else could have happened?

 

Two things, actually. You see, I was waiting on the shore in Winchester and the light was really not what I was hoping for. Eventually, I concluded that it was a wash, and I went to Brooks in West Medford. Picked up some dinner, oh never mind. Anyway, of course, the second I walk out of Brooks, I see that something is indeed happening in the sky at the very edge of nautical sunset (that's the period after the sun goes down when there's still a little light around). So I run back over to the lakes, frozen pizza and all, and when I get to the boat club, there is a bright red line slashing through the clouds. Very spectacular, but I completely missed it. I went running down the access road to shoot it from the tunnel, but by the time I got there, it had moved over across the dam to the upper lake. By the time I got to the Tufts boat house and got the camera up on the tripod, it was done, and I mean completely gone. Still, I was there, so I took this photo.

 

 

So there I am, standing on the Tufts boat house roof wondering whether or not I take more pictures, or just bag it, since now the light really is gone. And I look down and see the floating dock washed up against the boat house dock. Doh! That's what happened. Or is it?

 

I'm actually a bit skeptical, because as you can see from the picture above, the ice is still kindof connected. I suppose it might have drifted in and out. But there's another thing. If the dock was going to float anywhere, it would float right to the dam, because that's where the flow of water is going. No, there's another detail here that I didn't tell you about. I did actually also see the first fishing boat of the season tooling in and around the ice. I didn't see it hauling the dock, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. By the way, it's not crazy to be fishing now. I am starting to see fish activity in the water; I used to fish for crappie around this time of year, and found them to be quite active.

 

Anyway, I don't know who's dock it is. I think it's quite possible that the rise in water related to the rain and runoff lifted the level of the upper Mystic Lake to the point that this dock came loose. This illustrates a couple of interesting points. First, the level of the lake (and its change over time) really does have an impact, and secondly, if you own a dock you should really make sure it's secure.

 

Finally, a super, super set of kudo's go out to the folks (presumably from Tufts) who cleaned up the parking lot by the dam this week. Things are getting better there. Somebody, presumably the DCR, removed the furniture, toilet, and construction junk that had been sitting there for some time. And then a few days ago I saw a bunch of what looked like Tufts people gathering around the dam and by the end of the day there were stuffed trash bags in nice little piles for pickup. Thank you and nicely done! (The Mystic River Watershed Association is going to run a Mystic Lake's cleanup in the spring - I'll have details here I'm sure).

 

Oh, and there are more mersengers than you can shake a stick at.

Almost. The clounds were supposed to clear right at sunset, which can lead to dramatic light. They didn't. But a few little spots like this one still looked nice. Both this and the shots from Saturday were done with pretty unspectacular light to the naked eye, but with a polarizer and careful exposure, they make pretty photos.

 

 

 

I had been planning to attend a press session in Medford Square this morning on the options for the revitalization plan, but I got too busy with other work. I'm still planning on attending the upcoming public session at the Medford Public Library.

 

Also, I saw the mersengers again today. They really like the cove across from the bottom of the middle access road up to Pine Ridge. I drove past it twice today doing errands, and the first time through there were five or so in there, the second time there were a couple.

 

Also, I downloaded and burned a Murder Weapon CD to see what it was like.  "He's Gone" was one of the songs they played at the Hard Rock, and I remembered it well - it's pretty good. They are developing a very cool style, and I'll be interested to see how they do.

Very rainy. We're under a flood watch - there's still some snow around. Still, I was out and about today, and I saw some very interesting birds while I was heading over to Arlington. They were in a cove off Mystic Valley Parkway, but by the time I got the car turned around and checked it out, they were halfway across the lake.

 

 

I'm not really a birder, but since I had the pictures, I went and looked it up. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're looking at a happy mersenger couple -- the female on the left and the male on the right. By the way, if you are keeping count, there were actually seven mersengers on the water - there were an additional four males and one female. I couldn't tell if they were offspring or just a happy flock.

 

Or it may just look like a plain old duck picture. But I gotta tell you, when you see these things up a bit closer, they are really, really awesome looking ducks.

 

This is what happens when your wife and kids go away for a week. You wind up at Blondie's Country Lounge in Fall River, MA having the time of your life watching DiggerDawg.

 

 

To be fair, Fall River is a long way away from Medford, so I was only able to stay for a couple of sets. Still, it was a nice place, the sound was great, there was some dancing, the crowd was small but with a lot of regulars, and they really seemed to enjoy the band.

 

As for pictures, the conditions were terrible. I was shooting a digital camera at ISO 1600 wide open with no flash. They turn the stage lights down during a set and up during the break with a dimmer. And the second set I photographed was a half a stop darker than the first due to the vagaries of dimmer positioning. Which made it very tough indeed because it was very, very dark.

 

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the pics. The one of Kim also shows off her very sweet new guitar. I know it's nice because she let me touch it during a break. Thanks Kim. Although you do still owe me at least one sunburst '69 Gibson Les Paul, by the way, maybe two.

 

By the way, DiggerDawg guys, I know you sang at least one original last night. Let me be one to publically encourage you to sing more originals, especially with the big gig coming up this summer.