Hi everybody, it’s me, Penny! I know I haven’t been around much, but mom and I have been really busy.
Me at school this week. Mom needed more practice.
A couple weekends ago I took mom to a dog training facility that we don’t visit very often. My Aunt Dianne trains there and she told us about an obedience trial. She and mom thought I might be ready, so mom enrolled me way back when she had confidence in us.
I am not good at waiting my turn.
As the date got closer she got a little (lot) more worried. You see we’d tried to qualify in the beginner novice three times already and we’ve only earned one leg. That means we’ve NQ’d (didn’t qualify) two times!
This is me starting my figure 8at the trial.
Mom says I am very creative and have found new ways to NQ at trials and even at fun matches. I pride myself on being a good thinker. Yep that’s me. Always thinking.
This is me letting the nice lady judge pet me.
Anyway, mom had to make two trips out of town just before this trial and she was worried that we hadn’t practiced very much. Friday night, the night before the event, she put me on her lap and hugged me and whispered in my ear that no matter what happened on Saturday she’d always love me.
I licked her face and asked to get down.
Mom got us to the venue way too early and they were running behind so we had to wait and wait and wait until it was our turn. Toward the end of us waiting I started telling mom that I was over it and started grumbling loudly about the whole thing.
She was sure I wasn’t going to cooperate.
I knew exactly where my mom was at all times. But I didn’t move my behind. Cause mom said STAY!
But guess what? The judge was moving right along between tasks in the ring and there was no time for me to go into a deep think about what I was doing. So I just trotted along with mom.
OK, so my heeling was, as mom says, sloppy. And I moved one of my feet when the nice lady judge petted me. But I stayed still and didn’t move anything but my swivel head when I sat in the middle of the ring and mom walked (quickly) around the perimeter.
Keeping an eye on my mom while she walks around.
And my recall? It was perfect.
Waiting for mom to call me. Come on mom, CALL!
I earned a 196 out of 200 points and second place! Mom said she had tears in her eyes when we walked out of the ring.
Here I come, mom!
This weekend I’m signed up for trials on Saturday and Sunday. I only have to get one more leg for my Beginner Novice Title.
I love you, mom. Also there’s a treat, right?
Mom says she’s not counting her chickens. I don’t know what that means, we don’t even have chickens. I’m already a barking fool, if she adds chickens to our house it’s gonna get crazy!
Me and my relieved mom. And the nice judge lady too.
I’ll add a postscript to this after our runs Saturday and Sunday. Wish us well!
All the photos of me working were taken by Cathi of Cathi Winkles Photography. The images of me sitting around waiting were taken by my mom. (Who also doesn’t wait very well.)
Talk later, your beginner obedient girl, Penny.
PS: It’s Saturday evening now. Mom said I should let you know I qualified and earned my Beginner Novice Title!
Mom, me and another nice lady judge.
AND…I met my sister too!
This is Becca. She was the little one in my litter.
This pretty boy is spending his days flying from the crab apple tree to our laundry room window.
He’s been doing this for at least the last 5 days, most of the day, in all kinds of light.
I know he sees his reflection and is protecting his territory. But you’d think he’d be exhausted by now. The windows, just recently washed are covered in stripes of waxy bird grease where he’s slid, flapping his wings.
I hope he figures it out soon. Now I know where the term ‘bird brain’ comes from.
Last Sunday my community band played our first concert of the season, a Halloween concert, complete with us dressing in costume.
We all had a great time listening to and playing the spooky music.
Yesterday I went to a big box store to buy 50 pounds of oiler seeds for my demanding wild birds. Though Halloween itself isn’t for another couple days I was immediately struck by how Christmas festive the store was.
The forest of lit Christmas trees made me smile.
The giant Santa made me question whether people really need to spend that kind of money. I mean, you could buy a cart of groceries for the same amount! 🙂
And as I gazed over the entire area I realized just how much our seasons, Halloween to Christmas, have really been folded together.
I’m not done with the pumpkins yet, and though it was kind of cool, in a shock to the system sort of way, I’m not ready to even think about Christmas.
Tonight is the first game of the 2026 World Series. It’s being played in Milwaukee and that fact brings up a distant memory for me. Last time Milwaukee played in the World Series was 1982. Forty-four years ago. I know because I looked it up to confirm my memory.
I don’t know this because I ever lived in Wisconsin, or because I’m any kind of baseball fan.
A fall evening in Alabama.
It’s just that on that day in 1982 I was driving from my parents’ home in Alabama to my home in Hancock, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and traveling through Wisconsin. It’s a long drive, between Alabama and the UP, but for some reason I was feeling good and got into Wisconsin while it was still reasonably early. I figured I’d make it up to Green Bay before I stopped for the night.
Crisp Lighthouse on Lake Superior.
Trust me. I was young and foolish.
I arrived in Milwaukee about two hours before the start of the first game of the World Series. I had no idea the World Series was starting that night. Even if I had known that, there’s no way I had any idea who was playing and I definitely didn’t know the game was a ball toss from the freeway I was on. The traffic was horrendous and I spent hours moving through game traffic before I could exit the north side of the city.
Katie visiting the Alabama House in 2018
So when I hear where game one is tonight I can’t help but be transported back in time. I wonder if any of the other folks caught in that traffic remember that day in 1982. Probably not.
I have no baseball related images to insert into this post. So I’ll go find a couple images of Alabama and the UP.
You probably read my less than conventional Walktober a few days ago. I enjoyed seeing all those birds and sharing them with you.
In my neighborhood, just down the street.
But yesterday I was running errands and the sun was out and the sky was blue and the color in the trees was ….well…very Walktober-ish.
One of my favorite fields in all seasons.
So I’ve decided to show you around my neighborhood and yard on this beautiful October day.
Crabapples, reminding me of July’s cherries.
We have had some spectacular days here in lower Michigan and it would be a shame if you didn’t get to enjoy it all with me.
One of my favorite country roads.
I drove around a few country blocks first, those tree lined dirt roads are always quintessentially Michigan fall, especially if you happen to run into (not literally) a horse.
I pulled over and let them go by me.
Then I went to Katie’s park, because from the road, which is quite a bit higher than the parking lot, I could see the hills across the way were showing off their gold and rust oak trees.
She met me as soon as I got out of the car at Katie’s park.
I figured there would be a spot in the park that would look out across the wetlands and showcase the hill.
Bittersweet. Which was how I was feeling on my walk in Katie’s park.
Turns out there wasn’t a view of the hills as I should have known because Katie and I have walked that trail hundreds of times.
Next year’s milkweed.
So since I was there I walked the trail anyway, with her in my heart, remembering all the things she loved about being out there. I thought I’d just walk a little bit of it, didn’t think I’d go all the way out to her viewing platform because my heart was hurting too much.
But I did.
The view from one of Katie’s favorite spots in her park.
She was definitely there with me.
I always used to set her up under these big trees for a photo.
And on the way back to the parking lot I walked up to the road and shot that hillside that had lured me to the park in the first place.
Back at home as the sun was going down I got the last shot of my last 2026 Walktober.
This one turned out to be for Katie, my girl who will forever be at her park and in my heart.
I’ve been feeling disinterested in painting lately. A sort of murky glum feeling. I mean, how many cards for nursing home residents can a person paint?
This batch was fall related. Most of the leaves were from my own yard and made good traceables for me.
I’ve probably painted a few hundred.
They’re all (mostly) different. It’s a good way to try something new, doing it small scale, being sent away regardless of whether or not I like it. Someone will like it.
Pumpkins feel like fall, right?
Well, to be honest, there’s been a few I haven’t sent. After all, nursing home patients don’t really need to be subjected to everything.
But we’ve had lots of sunny fall days and the color outside my window is beautiful right this minute, so there’s no time to lose.
Just need to add a cheery howdy inside and these are ready to be shipped.
Next up? Christmas cards for folks in nursing homes. Yep. It’s right around this painter’s corner.
I love October, and I love Robin’s Walktober. I’ve been joining in for many years and I always look forward to posting about some adventure that I’ve done especially for this post.
It was a beautiful day with streaky blue skies and hazy sunlight.
If I’m totally transparent, this was actually a drive rather than a walk. But all is fair in love and Walktobers.
Some of the refuge is flooded in water, other parts are huge meadows where fox and deer play.
For this year’s Walktober I visited the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge, which is about an hour north of me and just 5 miles north of Frankenmuth Michigan. There’s hiking trails along the dikes that manage the water and a motor drive around the perimeter of the portion of the park that’s public.
There was a little bit of color along the beginning of the drive.
The drive is only open from June 1 to September 30 every year. So, being totally transparent, this Drivetober was actually done on September 30. Not even in October!
Early afternoon, the cormorants and egrets were napping.
Still I think Robin will stretch the rules for me this one time. I hope.
This egret was a touch miffed to be bothered during his nap.
On the drive you’re not allowed to just stop wherever you want. But people do, for the fleeting moment it takes to grab a photo, especially if no one is behind you.
Big stretch after lunch.
There are a couple of spots designed to pull off the road, but rarely is there anything you want to see from those spots. The drive is mainly on the top of the dykes, with water on either side, so you don’t have a lot of options.
Sometimes you need to pay attention to stuff a lot closer than those egrets way out in the water.
I’ve been known to drive the 6 mile loop twice during a visit. I haven’t been up there for the last couple years so I was excited to see what I’d find.
I was specifically looking for pelicans.
It’s all about territory and who gets to stand where.
Mostly I saw egrets (big white birds) and blue herons (big grey blue birds) and lots of little unidentified birds.
Great blue heron taking off because I stopped to get his picture.
If I’m honest it was mostly egrets. I’ve always had trouble photographing egrets because they’re all white and so often end up blown out in a photograph where the camera sets the shutter speed for the rest of the image.
Not to be left behind, the egret followed the heron.
I shot 1800 images. As you can imagine, some are not so good.
There was something to see no matter which side you were scanning.
But I weeded it down to 130 images that I’m mostly pleased about.
Not pelicans though I thought they might be when I first saw a bunch of white birds.
And no, I’m not going to subject you to 130 pictures of egrets. I’ll try to pick the best or most interesting, but sometimes I might slip one in that has a soft focus because it was the best I could get. I hope you’ll understand.
Along the side of the road were shrubs and grasses which sometimes made a pretty frame for the subject. Sometimes they were just in the way.
I can say most of these birds were a really really long way from the car.
Fishing is a full time job out here.
I think I want a 600m lens for a photo shoot like this. Especially if I’m in a car and not lugging it four miles through the woods. Which, if I’m honest, isn’t very often.
Sometimes lunch comes in small packages.
Maybe I should rent one on the few occasions I got back up to the drive. Anyway…as I said I was mostly looking for pelicans.
Bet most of you don’t know that Michigan even has pelicans. I didn’t either until I started seeing photographs of them out at this magical place. And I don’t always find them at all.
Jackpot! About ten pelicans very very very far away. They looked like white dots without the camera.
But I found them, far off in the middle of the water, mere specks with my naked eye. And of course, like most of the rest of the birds I’d seen that day, they took off as soon as I stopped the car.
Pelicans plus a sandhill crane and a seagull.
It was a thrill to see them, and once I had, I felt the trip was worthwhile. Even though I didn’t see one bald eagle.
They landed just a little bit up the shore, so I guess I wasn’t all that scary.
I headed toward the exit smiling…when suddenly….
Mr and Mrs. wood duck
…wood ducks! The side of the drive was tall with grasses, so it was hard to get a shot. I thought I’d maybe just step out of the car to get above the grass…
Beautiful in flight or on the water.
…but of course they flew instantly. That’s OK, I found these 3 guys just up the road.
Male wood ducks cruising the swamp.
So….herons, egrets, swans, pelicans and wood ducks. I can’t wait until the drive opens again next June. There will be babies to photograph by then. And you just never know what else. If I time it with migration there will be hundreds of sand hill cranes, or lots of little bouncy warblers.
Just plain old Canadian geese, but still pretty.
Meanwhile I’m sure I’ll be up there a time or two to hike the trails. It’s harder to see birds in the woods, and no matter how quietly I try to walk they always hear me coming, but it’s a beautiful place on foot too.
An artsy image, just because.
If you’re ever over in my part of the world, let me know…I’ll go back up with you to see what we can see!
Thank you, Robin, for hosting Walktober again this year. I wouldn’t miss it, and I’m looking forward to seeing where everybody went on their own adventures!
It’s October. That means I should be writing a Walktober post. Penny has already done hers. I am slower than my dog. But that’s always been the case. She didn’t have photos to process, plus she had a servant to do all the work involved in posting.
I have photos to process for my Walktober.
Anyway, I’m home from two short back to back trips and now I’m behind in everything and today is my first attempt to catch up. So am I writing that Walktober post? Nope. I have a bunch of photos to process for that first. So let me take you on today’s little adventure.
I was doing errands, you know, the dry cleaner, the grocery store, the bank. Somewhere between the grocery parking lot and the bank this guy attached itself to my driver’s side window. He or she was hanging on for dear life as I was tooling along.
I pulled into an abandoned bank parking lot as soon as I noticed him. I got out, collected a couple red maple leaves from the bank’s decorative tree, and scooped the big ole bug up, intending to put him on the lawn under the tree.
He flew up my arm. I screamed like a girl. Then found him on the pavement by my feet.
I tried to shoo him toward the curb. That didn’t work. So I found a piece of wood from the bank’s mulch and he crawled up on that.
I deposited (see what I did there?) him and his stick in the grass. He seemed happy enough. I wish him well.
So what the heck is he?
(Sometime this week I hope to get that Walktober post up! But I have a lot of photos to sort through.)
