dawnkinster

August 22, 2023
by dawnkinster 26 Comments

Then there were stars

After the bagpipe parade my sister and I began to prepare for a night trek through the cedar forest and along the sandy beach out to the end of Sunset Point. The wind was picking up and we were worried that waves we heard crashing somewhere out in the lake would be washing over the point.

At 11 p.m. we decided to head out there and check it out for ourselves. There was a certain amount of anxiety as we wound our way through the woods and along the beach, but we were relieved to find there were no waves anywhere near the point and we were able to set up on a picnic table out on the point with a perfect view of both the Milky Way to the southwest and the Big Dipper to the north.

I lightened these somewhat for Facebook, but you’ll still want to look at them in a dark room if you can, and on a larger screen.

*My first composition included more of the water in the bay. The light on shore is someone with a flashlight, probably also out looking at the meteor shower.*

She sat in a chair and watched the northern sky, exclaiming in excitment every time she saw a meteor streak across the sky. I focused on the Milky Way, deciding to include some of the bay in my first set of images, and then moving slightly to the left to include all the trees in the next series of shots.

*I like this composition too, with more of the trees we walked through to get out to the point included.*

But she was seeing so many streaking meteors that I decided to turn my camera around and see what happened. I liked the rocky point jutting out into the dark lake.

*I was lucky enough to get the meteor in the shot – barely.*

And then I asked her to go sit on a rock at the edge of the gravel, still many yards away from the water, and sit very still for 20 seconds while I took a shot of her watching the sky.

*The green might be air glow, or it might be northern lights. There was some pink in the sky too.*

I love this shot so much. The image looks peaceful, but in actuality the wind and wave noise was so loud I had to signal when the shot was finished by flashing a light at her.

Then we realized I could set up the camera and she could push the remote shutter release while I sat on the rock watching the sky.

This was sooooo cool, to sit out at the end of a rocky peninsula and look at the stars. In this image I think there are 3 meteors, though at the time I didn’t see any of them.

My sister had been watching part of the Milky Way which was directly overhead and she asked if I’d take a picture of that, so I pointed the camera straight up and pressed the shutter release.

But when we looked at what we had we realized the clouds had suddenly moved in. Our night of shooting stars was over. Our window of opportunity had been less than 2 hours. I was very glad we went out there a bit earlier than we had planned. I was happy with what we had captured and we hoofed it back down the point, across the beach and through the woods to our waiting car.

Back in camp, snug in my tent, I scrolled through my images on the back of my camera. I couldn’t see much detail in the small screen, but I knew it was there. I was smiling so big it was hard to go to sleep.

*During our exploration walk out to the point earlier in the day.*

I don’t know if I would have gone out that night, given the roar of the lake and the gusty wind, if my sister hadn’t been with me. Thanks to her we had a magical couple of hours, and now you get to share in it too!

August 21, 2023
by dawnkinster 24 Comments

The adventure continues

Time is marching on, faster and faster, and if I don’t write this post now I will begin to forget all the fun stuff we did on our four night camping trip in Ontario Canada, on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron.

*The beach in downtown Kincardine. It reminded me of the beach on a Caribbean island.*

We were able to stay two nights at Point Farms Provincial Park, but they were booked for the weekend, so we planned on packing up Friday morning and moving to our next reserved campsite at MacGregor Provincial Park about an hour north, beyond the town of Kincardine, where the bagpipe parade would happen on Saturday evening.

*The beach at Point Farms, early in the morning.*

Very early Friday morning the sound of the lake roaring woke us. We hadn’t heard the lake from our site during any part of our two day stay, but Friday morning it was obvious something was going on.

Both of us popped out of our tents and said, “Is that the lake??” Then we scurried down the long set of stairs to the beach to see what there was to see.

The sun was just getting high enough in the sky to start illuminating the water and there were pretty little puffy clouds turning pink along the horizon.

We spent a long time wandering the beach and taking pictures. Good thing we had until 3 to vacate our site!

Eventually we went back up to the campsite and began to pack.

*Didn’t count the steps, best not to know how many.*

Normally it takes about an hour to get everything stowed in the car. It takes longer than that if everything is kind of wet, which it was.

But we only had to go about an hour north, so no worries. Plus there were lots and lots of pretty barns between where we were and where we were going to be.

I guess I’ll show you those in a separate post, there were so many!

*Well, OK, here’s one of the pretty barns we saw that day.*

Finally we arrived at Kincardine, but we were too early to check into MacGregor Provincial Park and our site. So we explored the town’s beach, watching beautiful sailboats and clouds move at the horizon…

*A steady wind caused both the boat and the clouds to move right along.*

…and a very large boat come into the marina….

*The boat’s name was 2nd Seabatical, and it was from Houston.*

….and of course we saw the town’s lighthouse.

*The photogenic lighthouse next to the marina.*

Kincardine is another pretty town, and we enjoyed walking on the beach…

…and eating a quick lunch sitting on a bench along the boardwalk watching people and their dogs.

*We talked to this doggy grandma about her dogs and the town of Kincardine.*

Eventually we made our way to McGregor Provincial Park.

*This is a giant bat house near the ranger office. They said no bats lived in it, they chose to live somewhere else. Silly bats.*

This park had sites tucked in among the trees and brush, so there was quite a bit of privacy, though noise from other sites certainly carried over to us.

*Setting up at our very nice site, which was surrounded by poison ivy.*

We explored the park; the beach that didn’t allow dogs…

….and the beach allowing dogs. The dog beach was definitely the better choice.

And then we walked out to the end of sunset point, to consider whether that might be a prime stargazing location. It seemed promising.

*Friday afternoon out on Sunset Point. There would be no stars that night.*

But we were really there to see the bagpipe parade, the parade that had sparked this entire trip. So… did we find the parade? Well of course we did! Even better, as we walked into the park where the bagpipers were congregating, we met Quinton, a beautiful little sheltie boy and his owner.

*Quinton showing off his tricks and getting a treat, of course.*

We had a great conversation with Quinton’s dad, learning some of the history of Kincardine, what the winters were like (not as snowy as they used to be), why the parade route was altered (Queen street was being dug up to replace ancient pipes underneath), our mutual love of shelties (he had 2 before Quinton, one died of kidney failure at age 7), and where to stand to get the best view of the parade.

Then we went to listen to the bagpipes warm up, talked to one of the pipers and headed over to the parade route, smiling in anticipation.

The sun was setting over Lake Huron as the pipers began to march and play.

It was pretty magical, though odd, as they marched down the street for a block, then did a complicated turn and marched back up the block again, then turned and marched part of the way down again.

I hope when Queen Street is opened again they might be able to march further in one direction. I imagine they hope so too.

*They do this every Saturday evening all summer!*

After the ‘parade’ the musicians moved to the center of the park, formed a big circle and played for the several hundred members of the appreciative audience that had settled on chairs and picnic tables.

*It felt like the whole town turned out.*

Kids played in the grass, neighbors caught up on their personal news, extended families gathered, people nodded and tapped their toes to the music. It was a beautiful evening of community togetherness.

*Even the lighthouse showed up to give high fives!*

My sister and I were both smiling as we made our way back down to the beach where we had parked. Mission accomplished, we’d seen the bagpipe parade, the event that spurred this entire trip.

*One of many beautiful buildings on our walk back to the car.*

But….would there finally be stars on this, Saturday night, our last night in Canada?

I guess you’ll have to wait and see.

August 19, 2023
by dawnkinster 32 Comments

Canada isn’t just about yellow brick

I jumped ahead with that last post about the yellow brick, because it was post something yellow week, but I should probably tell you why we were in Canada at all.

My sister has retired and is finally in a position to travel and we decided just about a year ago that we were going to visit Kincardine, Ontario, because there’s a bagpipe parade there every Saturday evening during the summer months.

You might wonder how we knew that.

Well, the wonderful blogger and photographer Backyard Bird Nerd visited the town last summer and wrote about how beautiful it was. Given my sister is a bagpiper I thought she’d be interested and forwarded her the blog post. Together we decided we’d go check it out someday, and that someday turned out to be last week!

On Wednesday we packed up the car with two tents and enough stuff to house a small army and set off across the Bluewater Bridge from Port Huron Michigan into Sarnia Ontario. We had camping reservations at two parks, Points Farm for Wednesday and Thursday and MacGregor for Friday and Saturday nights. She was hoping to see a bagpipe parade. I was hoping to see the Milky Way.

And so our agenda was set.

*Visit this place if you’re ever in the area!*

But along the way we found other wonderful things, the first of which was a beautiful blueberry farm just past a stunning sunflower field. We actually turned around and went back to the blueberry farm, intent on buying some fruit to snack on. But we found so much more.

The owners are wonderful, happy and friendly people who have spent years improving this farm. Along with the blueberries there is an art gallery featuring work from local artists. And they have plans to expand into other areas, including medicinal plants.

*Proud papa, mom and a couple of babies were on the floor of the pen.*

They gave us a tour of the property and it’s truly beautiful. If you’re ever traveling Canada’s Highway 402, not far east of Sarnia, take a few moments to stop in, and definitely buy something!

*They added a pond to the farm for added beautify.*

And then it was on to the lake. Just like my Lake Michigan, the eastern shore of Lake Huron is sandy and beautiful, with the same Caribbean blue and green water.

We had a lovely wide campsite, the bathrooms were clean, there was a beach that allowed dogs, and wonderful walking trails.

*A nice wide site with lots of space between neighboring campers.*

The first full day there we went into the closest town, Goderich, to use the library’s internet. We wanted to find out more about Kincardine’s pipe parade.

*Just one corner of a large central downtown square.*

The town is adorable, with a central square and shops all around it. As we got out of the car I thought I heard bagpipes. But it was Thursday afternoon, and we weren’t even in the right town. Maybe it was my imagination.

But when I heard it again we followed our ears to the center of the square where we found an outdoor stage with a bagpiper, a fiddle player, a keyboard player and a bass player! They were doing a sound check for a Celtic concert that was happening that evening!

*Several people sat and listened to the sound check.*

Well, forget going to the library! We sat there and listened to them warm up and play and then we went to an early dinner at a local restaurant while we waited for the show to start.

*The food was good but the service was oh sooooo slow.*

What a fun evening! Three groups played, the whole town looked to be in attendance, people were swaying and taping their toes and singing along. Some even danced.

Little kids ran around and danced to the music up front. Everyone was smiling.

*These little girls danced for the entire hour and a half concert.*

It turns out we stumbled onto a Celtic festival week in Goderich that apparently happens every year, where professional musicians teach classes during the week and put on a festival over the weekend, along with this free outdoor concert on Thursday night.

*The harp music was beautiful and unexpected.*

And we just happened to be there.

Friday we went back to the library and looked up the information we needed to find the pipe parade on Saturday evening. The library had a turret just like the library I used to go to as a 7 year old a few decades ago.

I felt right at home.

*So similar to the library I went to as a kid.*

So how did the star search go? Well, other than seeing a few Celtic stars we didn’t have much luck. Wednesday and Thursday nights were cloudy.

We had a big storm blow through one night and we got a little ~~damp~~ wet.

But that’s another story. More to come.

*It always rains at least once on any camping trip. That’s some sort of universal rule.*

August 17, 2023
by dawnkinster 22 Comments

Follow the yellow brick homes

Terri over at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives has challenged us to post about all things yellow. This works out perfectly for me because I’m just home from four days spent camping in Canada, where one thing became very obvious — some time in the last century building beautiful homes out of yellow brick was a thing.

We were driving up highway 21 through small towns along the eastern coast of Lake Huron and every town had a lot of yellow brick houses. They were all beautiful, big or small.

Some were out in the country.

Many were along shady streets in town.

The town of Kincardine had so many of these beauties along one street that we just had to park and walk a few blocks admiring the houses and their gardens.

I’ve traveled in Canada a few times and have always noticed how beautiful their gardens are. On this street almost every house had flowers in full bloom from the front porch to the street.

I’ve got lots to show you from our four day camping/bagpiping/starry night trip, but I still have lots of images to sort through.

Bur I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to show you yellow from a Canadian point of view. I hope you enjoyed seeing these beautiful homes.

If you ever get a chance to drive up the eastern shore of Lake Huron you’ll find the same thing we did; friendly, happy people, cute little towns and stunning landscapes.

I’ll show you more soon.

August 5, 2023
by dawnkinster 29 Comments

Saturday randomness

I was making cornbread for dinner. The kind that has creamed corn and sour cream and butter and eggs and cornbread mix. Talking to my sister who was busy making Brunswick stew, I pour the mixture into the prepared 8×8 pan and pop it into the preheated oven. My work is done. But as we chat and I casually clean up bowls and measuring cups I pick up the cornbread box to toss it into the garbage and realize it’s heavy. Heavy with the cornmeal mix still inside. Which means it’s not in the cornbread that’s in the oven. I quickly haul the pan out of the oven, scrape the creamed corn, sour cream and egg mixture out of the pan, stir in the Jiffy Mix, pour it back into the pan and shove it into the oven.

I’m not telling anyone and I hope you can keep a secret.

I’m vacuuming the house in preparation of visitors coming tomorrow. Working my way across the living room I stop to roll the big long red and blue tunnel to the other side of a carpet runner so I can vacuum up the rolling dog fur hiding underneath. It occurs to me that maybe most people don’t have an agility tunnel permanently affixed in their living room.

I kind of feel sorry for those that don’t.

Penny the sheltie-girl is whining to go out. We figure she has to poo so I hook her up to her leash and my sister and I head out to take her for a walk up the street. She puts her foot down at the end of the driveway and refuses to go further. Apparently she only walks up the road if we’re practicing her heeling, including appropriate treats. I have two dusty pieces of kibble in my pocket and that gets us almost to the next driveway but she’s not going further without rewards. My sister picks her up and we carry her past another driveway to the lawn where she likes to do her business. We begin to laugh, because who carries their dog to a neighbor’s lawn in order to get her to poo? We laugh so hard our stomachs hurt, then my sister puts Penny down and she proceeds to do her stuff, which we promptly bag.

And then we all walk happily home.

August 4, 2023
by dawnkinster 28 Comments

So much fun!

Hey, hey hey! It’s me, Penny, your adventure girl!

Well, I haven’t had many adventures lately but I’ve sure been having fun! Mom took me to the park last week and I wasn’t as afraid as the other time.

*I didn’t even notice this snake when we walked by it. Mom kinda screamed though. Mom is a wimp.*

Mom is noticing I am happiest when I’m out in the open where I can see the sky and not so happy when we’re in the woods where it’s dark and there are strange sounds.

But this is the second time we’ve been to this park and I liked it a whole lot better this time. I ran up and down the hills and explored lots more and mom says she was very happy with my ‘progress,’ whatever that means.

*I even stopped to take a peaceful little breather on a big hill.*

Then over the weekend my friend Lance and his sister Payton came to visit me! They brought their folks too and we all sat out on my deck.

*Lance and I discussing our photo/treat ratio requirements.*

I guess if I was honest there wasn’t a whole lot of sitting for me and Lance. We mostly chased each other around the deck. We had sooooo much fun! I’m as big as he is now and I can play just as hard!

I tried to play with Payton (she’s my angel sister Katie’s half sister) but she told me off, so I went back to jump on Lance. The folks had to make us stop and rest cause we were all about the game.

I had so much fun with them that I had to sleep for an entire day after they went home. I think Lance and Payton probably slept too. Mom calls that recharging. I wonder what she’s talking about?

Anyway, I know you like to hear what’s going on in my world, so I thought I’d stop by and give you an update. My Aunt is here right now, and I’m pretty busy entertaining her.

*What’s your favorite toy today Aunt B?*

Play, play, play, a sheltie-girl’s got to keep the fun coming all the time. It’s such a big responsibility, but I’m up for the task!

Talk later, people, I have to go get a toy for my Aunt so she doesn’t get bored!

Oh, and thanks to Lance’s parents for driving so Lance and Payton could come and play! We had so much fun.

Life is good!

Your girl, Penny.

July 31, 2023
by dawnkinster 30 Comments

Two night camping adventure

Hmmmmm…I seem to have gotten off blog topic. I was supposed to show you the rest of my two nights of camping up in the Upper Peninsula. The intent of that trip was to take another crack at capturing the Milky Way. But as you know, there are only a few hours a night, and a few nights every month, when the Milky Way is best photographed and weather doesn’t always cooperate.

*Don’t worry, it got better later on in my stay.*

When I left you last I was setting up camp during a torrential rain storm. There was so much water surrounding my tent, and a huge bubble of water under the tent that I decided to just drive away and go exploring. I figured I’d sleep in the car the first night and let things dry out.

I drove down the Garden Peninsula toward my planned destination of Fayette State Park which houses historical buildings.

The Garden Peninsula is beautiful in it’s own right, full of scenic pastures and barns. Truthfully if this was all I saw over the weekend I’d be happy enough.

But I was curious about the historical buildings. Would they make a fantastic foreground for a Milky Way shot?

I arrived at Fayette State Park late in the afternoon when the sun was lowering and making the cliffs glow.

The buildings looked beautiful in the golden light. I tried to figure out which way was south, knowing that the Milky Way would rise from that direction later in the evening.

*The building in front wasn’t square, it was so interesting.*

Mostly I just enjoyed shooting the buildings in the soft light and imagining what life was like back in the day.

*One of the buildings that had smelted metal.*

And then I began to wait in my car in the parking lot for it to get dark. Gradually the other visitors left. And as they left clouds began to roll in. Soon enough it was clear that there would be no stars that night. Plus I was beginning to feel creepy about being there alone.

So I drove back to my damp camp and worked at getting the puddle out from under my tent, then I went to sleep to dream about stars for the rest of the night.

The next day I visited Seney Wildlife Refuge, not as early as I’d hoped, but still morning. Almost immediately I saw this loon family snoozing.

*Expand this image to see the sleeping family.*

They were a long way from me and even my zoom lens didn’t get them really close enough, but it was cool to see all four of them, mom, dad and the two little ones resting after breakfast.

Then I realized that the milkweed, which was growing everywhere, was covered in monarch butterflies.

*You can almost smell the sweet milkweed.*

I had so much fun stalking butterflies, trying to get that iconic monarch image. They moved a lot, but at least they were closer to me than the loon family!

Eventually I moved on and found a couple of swans…

*Notice the clear skies. Will there be stars tonight?*

…and a Canadian goose family with teenagers.

Still, I wished I could have gotten a good photo of the loons. And then I rounded a corner and there was another family of loons, focused on breakfast, much closer to the road.

I parked so fast and quietly got out of the car. I didn’t even close the door. The car was parked in the middle of the road with the door open and I didn’t even care.

I was so happy to get some closeups of this beautiful couple. Their youngster, an independent singleton, was swimming and eating on his own quite a ways from mom and dad. He was not so easily photographed.

But I got quite a few nice images of the adults. They made my day. I felt that regardless of what the weather did to my star hopes I was happy with the trip just because I’d been able to watch the loons.

Then, not to far from the end of the refuge road I came across a dead tree. I could see something hoping around in the branches so I stopped, once again in the middle of the road with the door open.

Turns out there was a single elusive cedar waxwing, who managed to always have his head turned away from me…

…and a king bird who never sat still long enough to get a clear photo.

*Too busy hunting lunch to wait around for me.*

I stayed there a long time but never did get any better images of either of them. And then I headed back to camp to wait for it to get dark again. I took a nap and considered where I was going to go if there were stars.

*It turned out to be a nice site, wider than others and with shade.*

I couldn’t talk myself into driving the 14 miles back down the Garden Peninsula, I felt like I needed someone to go with me if I was going to hang around historic buildings in the middle of the night. So I just went out to the boardwalk a couple miles away and shot straight out over Lake Michigan.

*There was lake fog and a few clouds near the horizon.*

Nothing exciting in the foreground, and a stupid big ole streetlight behind me (but that did light up the grass in a kind of cool way) and not anything like what I’d hoped for. But the lake was gently lapping the shore and the air was warm and the stars were shining.

So I was happy.

*Letting a little bit of the lighthouse beam into the shot.*

And I have a couple of people that are interested in going back there sometime to shoot at Fayette State Park. I’ll contact the park rangers first and make sure we’ll be allowed to be there after hours, and we’ll scope out just where to stand to get the sky and a building in the shot.

Stay tuned. It’s going to be awesome.

July 30, 2023
by dawnkinster 36 Comments

Better

Company is coming and I’m trying to do the last minute dusting and picking up and organizing food and checking the bathrooms and Penny is weaving between my feet, grabbing at the dust cloth, barking hysterically at the plastic wrap drawer.

Everything is harder with her.

I am frustrated and decided to take her out for a walk, maybe she needs to go to the bathroom, and she’s jumping and playing with sticks and tugging on her leash and nipping at my feet. She doesn’t go to the bathroom.

Everything is harder with her.

Walking back into the house I am hit out of the blue with the memory of the last time I walked Katie back into the house.

I begin to cry.

Penny stops tugging on her leash and stands on her hind legs, front paws on my waist and cocks her head. I pick her up and she licks the tears from my face then snuggles in for a hug.

Everything is better with her.

July 29, 2023
by dawnkinster 20 Comments

A green morning

I’m supposed to be sharing with you images of my short camping trip to Michigan’s UP. And I will…really. But this morning as I was busy washing dishes I happened to look out the window and, surprise, this guy was standing on our deck railing.

This is a green heron. They fish in the pond across the street, and they used to nest every summer in the vacant land behind us. But there’s houses back there now.

I haven’t seen the green herons all summer, nor last summer either that I remember. So this was really special and I just had to share him (or her) with you!

Wordless Wednesday

July 26, 2023 by dawnkinster 19 Comments

Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Author Archives: dawnkinster