Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Saturday night music

Last Saturday evening I and some of my fellow Clarkston Community Band members, along with a few hundred other people, attended the Southeastern Michigan Wind Ensemble (SEMWE) spring concert. The talent in this group is stunning, it’s members are mostly current and retired music directors. People who have devoted their entire lives to making and teaching music.

I try not to miss any of their concerts, and I’m certainly glad I went to this one.

It turns out they were honoring two of their group who have passed away, Jennifer Ginther who suddenly died last December, and the other our own CCB music director who died in February of this year. Here we go, I thought, sitting out in the audience, time to focus on not crying.

But their choice of music didn’t make me to cry, not outright anyway. It was beautiful, just the kind of music Shelley would program herself. The first piece, Resplendent Glory by Rossano Galante was so very beautiful and, I think, my favorite of the evening. The link above wasn’t from Saturday’s performance, but it gives you an idea of the uplifting piece that made me smile even though I was sad.

I enjoyed all of the music at Saturday night’s concert, but especially a piece played by one of the middle school teachers, Ross Taylor, on the marimba. He was amazing. You’d have enjoyed it too, Concerto No.2 for Marimba and the Wind Orchestra, Movement 3, by David Gillingham. I could only find movement #1 on YouTube, but you’ll enjoy that movement too, and it’s similar to what we heard.

What a treat! We applauded and applauded…and then we applauded some more when he finished. The poor guy had a hard time getting off the stage, we just kept applauding.

In fact the whole concert was a treat. When I left the auditorium after the program I was still missing my friend, our music director, but I was oh so grateful to have spent time in the presence of other people who also loved her, people making music to honor her and Jennifer from a place deep inside each of their hearts.

Then, leaving the building close to 9:00 p.m., we all gasped in awe. The sky was a brilliant pink and gold. I immediately knew, at least for me, that sky was Shelley saying “Good job! I enjoyed it!” I can hear her voice and see her big, beautiful smile.

And so I smiled all the way home.


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Bird spring

I was looking at my most recent posts and realize that almost all of them revolve around birds. Even Penny has noticed my obsession.

Kensington Metro Park rookery, as viewed from the boardwalk.

But I can’t help it. They’re so beautiful, and interesting, and entertaining. I could watch them all day.

Reflecting on her anticipated brood.

Wait!

Sometimes I do watch them all day! Like Easter Sunday when I went out to Kensington on my own. I figured it wouldn’t be busy because everybody else would be getting ready for church or family dinners or both.

There’s more than just the rookery to look at, lady!

I was wrong. There were plenty of people, mostly photographers, out there. But we all work around each other and it’s fine.

Outta my way, I’ve got places to go!

I started out walking on the boardwalk near the heron rookery, an island with huge trees filled with heron nests. Every year the heron couples choose a nest and then have a set of little herons there.

It’s fascinating to watch.

Ready for takeoff!

Easter Sunday there was much heron coming and going as the couples updated their fixer-uppers in order to make them meet current esthetics. They definitely favor wood floors over carpet.

This couple appears to be going with a new build v.s. a fixer upper.

I spent a long time out there on the boardwalk watching all the work being done, and then I wandered back into the woods to see what else might be around.

This guy was snapping sticks off the tree, tossing them aside and snapping another until he found the one he wanted, then he flew back to the rookery with his prize.

Stay tuned.

Being a homeowner is so much work!


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Mini adventure

Last week a friend and I decided we needed an adventure, but neither of us had time for a long, fully planned and packed adventure.

From across the river on a grey day.

But I have been feeling a keen need to find something amazing to photograph, something outside my own home and local parks. My friend had explored a colorful place, several weeks ago, just an hour north of us.

I asked her to take me there.

From the road along side the silos.

I mean — Saginaw Michigan just screams adventure. Right?

Of course right!

Ripples of color.

Saginaw is near the Shiawasee National Wildlife Refuge where you’ve all hiked with me to see pelicans and eagles and sandhill cranes.

My personal favorite.

Saginaw is not far from the Chippewa Nature Center where I’ve brought you along to find stunning color in the fall.

Can’t go wrong with birds.

Saginaw isn’t even far from Midland Michigan and it’s Dow Gardens complete with a walk in the tree canopy. You’ve been with me there too, at least a couple times.

The colors, all vibrant and saturated just go together.

But this time we went to visit the Saginaw Shine Bright Mural Project.

I liked the industrial grey edges surrounding the art, and the nondescript truck parked below.

And let me tell you, this place satisfied all my photography cravings in one big ole splat of gorgeous color.

A person sat playing music and reading.

Though I don’t know that it’s a location I’d want to explore alone, and certainly not at night, it was fun to spend a bit of time there with someone else who appreciated the art. It’s huge and it’s bright and it will definitely make you smile.

Paint spills artfully.

No matter the angle you view it from, whether you sit in your car and admire it from across the river or get all up close and personal, it’s well worth the visit.

All angles.

And on the way home we stopped for a barn.

I liked the red car trying to camouflage itself in front of the barn.

Of course.


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Orange you glad…

Most years the orioles arrive at my feeder around May 5. Hummingbirds too. But a friend of mine, living about an hour west of me, had an oriole on her feeder Easter Sunday!

So I put my feeder up a few days ago and Friday evening, during an hours long torrential downpour, my first oriole visited! I wasn’t sure I saw him, –it was getting dark and the rain was coming down in sheets.

I didn’t get a photo.

But the next morning, after I went out and emptied the water from his feeder and filled it up with grape jelly, he showed up!

He was still skittish and I got no images, but I stayed very still, holding Penny tight, and watched him eat his fill.

And late in the afternoon, as I stood across the room, I saw him again. My camera was within reach and I got these images, focus soft, but capturing the joy I felt to see him here.

And guess what? Later in the evening I realized there are TWO of them here! They chased each other around the beach tree which acts as the landing area for all birds visiting our feeders.

I can’t wait to set the camera on it’s tripod and use a remote shutter release. We’ll see what we shall see.

And today the hummingbird feeder goes up. If the orioles are here, the hummingbirds are too.


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Katie speaks

I was driving to Kensington Easter Sunday morning. On the way I passed a place where Katie and I have walked together a few times. Every time I drive through this town I think of her.

“Oh Katie.” I said out loud.

“I love you mama,” she replied, also out loud.

Proof that it’s possible to continue driving, even when your eyes are leaking.


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Lots to report

Shhhhhhhh! It’s me, Penny! I’m trying to give you an update on things I’ve been doing without letting the mom know. Cause as you can see, she’s not giving me nearly enough online exposure. So I’m doing what they call an ‘end run’ around her and getting on here myself.

Mom has been taking me on lots of walks in my parks.

She’s sharing lots of stuff about her silly birds, and hardly anything about me and my adventures. All you’ve seen of me is the Easter picture. And to be honest I did that under duress. I mean pink is not my color!

“Hey mom! I didn’t bark at those bikes!”

Anyway.

Since I last wrote to you all I’ve been very very busy. I had a play date with Levi at his dog park which is about an hour away from my house.

Me and Levi. I was watching my mom come back from the car.

We had lots of fun and I made Levi chase me a few times.

We both love to run.

Mostly we did our own thing, you know? He was into running and chasing his frisbee…

Levi loves his frisbee.

…and I was just into running.

I just love to run!

Levi is a very handsome dude and of course the moms wanted a picture of the two of us together. And of course, as is stipulated in the sheltie bylaws, we made it very hard for the moms to get said picture.

“OK here’s the deal. We never both look at mom at the same time.”

Sit next to each other? No way. But maybe on our next play date we’ll be nicer to the moms. I guess it depends on the quality of treat being offered.

“Listen, mom, we’re not going to SIT. So get the shot and let us go play!”

And I also did a Rally Trial where mom signed me up to do two runs. A run is where you and your mom or dad walk around in a ring doing a bunch of stuff at little signs. You’re supposed to take your cue from your mom or dad who is supposed to be able to read the signs correctly.

Frankly it’s a bit boring because they don’t let you have treats while you’re in the ring. And without treats, what’s the point anyway?

Mom said I did great and she’s proud of me.

I did real good on the first run, I got 96 out of 100 points and second place in my group. But then mom rushed me right over to the other run without any breaks (and no treats!!) and we were all of the sudden in there walking around and I was sort of more interested in getting out of the ring, and also I forgot what the word “sit!” means.

Mom says she’s always glad when we make it to the “finish” sign!

I guess I just had a mental block. I don’t know what the big deal is, mom has those all the time! I still got a qualifying score, 80-something, but I didn’t place. Mom says that’s just fine. She says we have two legs of the three we need for a title in Novice Rally.

I’ve been taking her to doggie school every week to practice reading the signs. Between you and me, this past Tuesday afternoon she couldn’t read much of anything right and I got really frustrated with her. So I decided I didn’t know how to sit straight anymore. Or heel. Or wait. Waiting is my hardest thing anyway.

Mom says we’ll be in the basement working on that stuff this week.

Come on down, mom! And bring the cheese!

In fact, talking about the basement, my friend Lance and his folks came over and Mom and I did some work in our new basement, teaching me the tricks of Beginner Novice Obedience! Mom say she has great plans for me. I say I’m all in as long as there’s cheese involved.

Lance and me being patient with the moms.

Oh – and on Friday evenings I’ve been going on group walks with another trainer and a bunch of other dogs and their people. We’re walking around small towns and getting used to traffic and other people and other dogs. Mom says it’s working. I don’t go as crazy now when we’re out and about as long as mom has treats on her. She’s pretty happy with me and we have a lot of fun on the walks!

A perfect evening to walk around an historic little town.

I just know there’s more news to tell you, but mom’s almost done cleaning the kitchen so I better go inspect. Have I told you that the kitchen is my favorite room in my house? I call it the Food Room. You never know what will appear from hidden places there.

Mom’s been taking me shopping too. I don’t know what the point is, she never buys anything.

Talk later, your gal Pen.


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It’s early, but we’re ready!

We’ve had such crazy weather, things began to pop up in my garden earlier than normal. The red winged blackbirds were here early, too, and had to endure a few snowstorms after their arrival.

Everything seems early.

And now, a college friend, who lives about the same latitude as me and about an hour west of here, has had her first baltimore oriole visit! The males always come north first, scouting I suppose, and there he was, sitting on her feeder Easter Sunday!

I usually put up my oriole and hummingbird feeders the first week in May. But today, on the 22nd of April I went down to the basement, grabbed my oriole feeder, and filled it with grape jelly. I stood in the door to my deck, surveying my birdfeeder domain, and wondered how to rearrange things so that the oriole feeder would be prominent.

Last year’s oriole, announcing that the grape jelly was running low.

Eventually I decided to move the suet to another hook on the other side of the house and put the oriole feeder front and center, out in the sunshine where it would attract attention. I worried somewhat that the suet, being moved, wouldn’t be found by the birds who have grown dependent on it. But I figured it was almost past suet time and they should be out looking for bugs or something.

Then I sat down to write this post intending to document when I put the oriole feeder out. As I sat I glanced out a window and saw a female downy woodpecker contentedly chowing down on the suet in it’s new location.

Last year’s downy woodpecker and female hummingbird sharing a lunch date.

I guess I don’t need to worry about my birds. If there’s food, they will find it. But when they’ve finished this batch of suet I’m taking that feeder down for the summer and putting the hummingbird feeder up. If the orioles are on their way the hummingbirds won’t be far behind.

A 2022 image. I’m waiting for him to show up this spring too. I put his favorite food in the flat feeder this morning. Just in case.

Spring has, indeed, sprung.


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Love my goldfinches

I’m really enjoying the goldfinches this spring. Some years we don’t see many, but this years there’s an abundance of them.

Wait! That’s a hairy woodpecker!

I’ve watched as the males turn from an army green, similar to the color the females stay year round, into their exuberant and brilliant summer gold.

And that’s a blue Jay!

They sit in the beech tree not far from the finch feeder and sing for their supper. If there are a lot of them in the tree I know that the feeder is probably nearing empty.

Where’s our lunch, lady?

They don’t tolerate it getting too low.

Well I guess there’s time for a little kissy face while we’re waiting.

They’re used to me being out there and don’t leave their tree, if the feeder is empty, even if Penny and I are on the deck.

That’s enough! She’s watching us!

They are picky and only really like the finch food I buy from a specialty bird store in the town just north of us. The employees there know me.

This feeder is definitely empty!

The finches are so much fun to watch, though they are eating me out of house and finch food!

This place has the best food around!

Soon they’ll be busy raising their families and we won’t see so much of them. But they’ve sure brightened my spring!

I’ll sing you a song, lady, to say thanks for my supper!