Yesterday started out with fog but ended up warm with sunshine filling my space.
It was 70F with sun by the end of the afternoon!
Like most evenings since I’ve been here, there wasn’t much of a sunset even though there were a few floaty clouds overhead.
Wispy bits float by
The sun quietly slid below the horizon while I was busy talking on the phone.
Evening falls on a fine day.
It was a good way to end a day I’d spent mini adventuring. More on that in another post.
This morning, just like a certain sheltie-girl who will remain nameless, the light woke me at 6 a.m. The strange glow in the room had me leaping out of bed searching frantically for my clothes and then the camera.
Because this was outside:
This hasn’t been edited. This was the color I wasn’t sure I was seeing.
The whole world was orange and I knew it wouldn’t last.
It looks like a sepia photo from my grandmother’s time.
Sure enough, after only a minute or two the grey fog began to creep in, damp on my cheeks and the camera lens.
The fog moves in, obliterating the light.
And the whole world changed to grey.
Turned to black and white.
But wasn’t that orange moment worth getting up early for!
Katie says that would be a lesson well learned.
I have faith the light will return.
Edit: If you want to see an extraordinary sky, check out this post from 3 years ago about now when I was down here with Katie-girl.
Katie here. I had to borrow daddy’s ‘puter cause I can’t find mama’s laptop. To be truthful, I can’t find mama either.
Morning
But I don’t want to admit I’ve lost her. After all, it’s my job to know where she is all the time. And trust me it’s not easy, especially with my propensity to nap and her propensity to wander. Mama’s always moving around on me. I rest my eyes and when I open them again she’s in some other part of the house.
Only this time I looked in all her favorite places and I can’t find her!
Clouds
I think she’s playing hide and seek with me, and I think she seriously needs to cut it out! There must be a secret room somewhere in this house, and I’m going to find it.
Right after I rest my eyes.
Barn
So anyway, it’s a good thing I can find my dad. He’s been really good about taking me on walks and making my supper and stuff. But I still wonder where mama is.
Visitor
Hey! I just had a thought! Do you think she’s off adventuring without me? No, that can’t be it. Mama would never leave me behind.
She’s not off taking pictures of stuff that’s not me is she?
Artsy-fartsy
Making new friends?
Horses
Exploring new places? Or…..no this couldn’t possibly be it….she’s not off exploring some of my favorite places without me.
As you know I’m in Alabama. You’d think it would be warm being in the South, and it sort of is. It’s warmer than up where I came from. But it’s not really warm.
Looking at both sides.
I arrived late Friday night. Saturday was cold and rainy, but Sunday the sky brightened and turned into big puffy white and grey clouds and it got way up into the 60s! I just knew I had to take advantage of the weather, so I headed over to Smith Mountain.
The beginning of the fire road around the mountain. One of Katie’s favorite places to walk. Mine too.
You’ve heard me talk about Smith Mountain before. You can climb up the mountain and then climb up a fire tower that sits on top of the mountain and you have a glorious view of Lake Martin.
From another year, another hike up the mountain.
It’s one of my favorite things to do, but I didn’t do that on Sunday.
No, Sunday the parking lot was full of cars when I arrived and I didn’t want to deal with a fire tower filled with masked or unmasked people. Plus I wasn’t in the mood to climb the mountain.
So I took the walk around the base of the mountain. It’s one of Katie’s favorite places to walk, a big fire road that circles around to the back of the mountain.
The water is low, but the area behind the mountain is still beautiful.
She and I never tried to go all the way around the mountain, because I wasn’t sure if the road actually did that and I didn’t want to get stuck with her and have to make her walk all the way back. So we usually turned around on the backside of the mountain.
She was never happy about turning around.
Little stuff caught my attention too.
So this time I thought I’d just see if the road (which I used as a trail, though it is not part of the trail system, went all the way around. It made sense that it might end up right back at the parking lot.
Lots of interesting shapes and colors.
I was so confident I didn’t look at the map posted at the beginning. I figured it would all work out. I also didn’t take any water. And I accidently left my phone in the car. But I had my camera, so all was good. Right? Of course right!
Such pretty colors on Sunday!
I stopped and got lots of pictures, and when I got to the spot where Katie and I always turned around I figured since the road/trail continued, a nice wide path that had obviously been used, I’d just keep going too.
Hmmmm, are the clouds looking kind of stormy?
Eventually I got to a spot that said “To the tower this way,” and “To the parking lot this way.” Bingo! The parking lot was only .4 miles away! (disclaimer, I was already sort of tired and was disappointed it was .4 miles away, I figured it should be around the next corner.)
This looks promising!
So I kept going on the nice wide path, covered in pine needles. Which got narrower and narrower and there were no more signs and it didn’t seem to be going in the direction that I thought the parking lot should be.
Eventually I saw a pink mark on a tree, and I thought “GOOD! At least I’m on some sort of trail. Maybe I can figure out where this goes!”
Is this trail really going anywhere I want to go?
But shortly after that I saw houses off in the distance where there should be no houses, and water on my left when it should have been on my right. And I knew this was not going to get me to the parking lot. Plus I’d been walking a long time and surely had traveled .4 miles by now.
So I turned around and went back and eventually crossed a trail that had a blue mark painted on a tree and I figured maybe that was a good sign (if I’d looked at the map I’d have known I needed to stay on blue!) Using the sun as a guide for which direction I was going I headed out, hoping it was toward the parking lot.
Maybe THIS is the right way.
A fisherman came the other way and I asked him how far to the parking lot (acting like I KNEW I was on the right path) and he said about half a mile. Sigh. But at least I knew I’d get there eventually!
I see a car!!
When I finally made it to the parking lot I smiled a lot, and then I studied the map, and figured I had taken some of the blue trail, some of the fire road, some of the pink trail and a whole lot of who knows what. I wasn’t at all sure where I’d been, but it sure had been pretty!
When I finally got home I had sweated through my shirt, sweatshirt and jacket. I opened all the windows, and enjoyed the lovely breeze.
After a long drink of water I decided to download the pictures, and noticed that the memory chip that belongs in my camera was sitting on the kitchen table. Which meant it wasn’t in my camera during that walk. Sigh. Double sigh.
I was really sad.
Monday it was very cold, no sun, sleet and rain. No walking around the mountain for me.
But Tuesday, oh Tuesday was bright and sunny! Not a cloud in the sky. I set out for the mountain, determined to retake the best of the pictures I’d gotten on Sunday. And ready to figure out the right way to walk around the mountain.
OK. Here’s the map. I’m sure you’d have had no trouble figuring this out. But most of the fire road isn’t even ON this map.
I studied the map again before I started out. I even took a picture of it in case I needed it out in the field. I am a slow learner, but I eventually figure it out. The fire road isn’t on the map, but it connects two sections of the blue trail and you need to stay on the blue trail to get back to the parking lot…except when it’s a white trail. Either way, DO NOT GET ON THE PINK TRAIL.
Tuesday was windy, with no clouds. The tall pines were waving in the breeze.
And just before I started I checked my camera to make sure the memory card was in there. And remembered this new camera has 2 slots for 2 memory cards. And guess what? There were two memory cards in there.
It was a beautiful day, not as warm as Sunday, so I wore my winter coat.
Which means there was probably a memory card in the camera on Sunday. Which means that the pictures I took on Sunday were probably on that other card. Which means that I really didn’t have to walk around the mountain again.
Pretty stuff everywhere. But pay attention to where you are this time.
Except I really wanted to prove to myself that I could figure out the right trail.
So I did.
And here’s what I learned. It might apply to life in general too.
When you come to an choice of paths to take and there are no signs, and one path seems easier, wide and sunny and covered with soft pine needles, and the other path looks tough, uphill, rocky and narrow, take the harder path, and look for signs that you’re on the right one.
This is where I made my mistake on Sunday. See that path to the left? I never saw it. The sign that says parking lot .4 miles? It has an arrow that points slightly UP. The correct path is the one on the left. The easy path is the one on the right. But that takes you to the PINK trail! WRONG WRONG WRONG!
The easier path will never get you where you need to go.
And that’s the truth. Every place I had to make a decision, if I took the easier choice I never saw a blue (or any) mark on a tree denoting the correct trail. So I’d backtrack and try the other option and there would be that comforting mark.
Even when it seems like you need to be a mountain goat, follow the harder path, it’s the right one.
Every single time if I took the harder option I soon learned I was on the right trail.
Keep your eye out for trail markings, those blue rectangles mean you’re heading in the right direction.
Let that be a lesson for us all.
If you just look there are always signs to point you on your way.
And may you always find your way, following your own personal markers in life.
Signs of spring.
PS: Happy birthday, Dad. I’m at your house, adventuring in some of your favorite places. I know you’re with me. But you would have looked at the map first. I know. Lesson learned. 🙂
There was a weather window of opportunity and I took it and ran. In between major storms crossing the country were a couple of snow free days.
Interesting sky made me stop in mid-Indiana farm country.
It’s fourteen driving hours from my home in Michigan to our lake house in Alabama. And that’s if I only stop for gas and bathroom breaks.
Can’t resist a red barn glowing in what little light there was.
Seriously? What are the odds I only stop for gas and bathroom breaks?
The the sun began to fight it’s way through the clouds and this farm lit up.
Either way that’s two long days of driving, and this trip I had a meeting to attend virtually too. That’s an hour a half spent sitting in a parking lot while on the phone, making no Southerly progress.
They must have had an ice storm the day before, when the sun came out I could see the trees were covered in thick ice.
But on the whole I had a nice drive, the roads weren’t bad, traffic wasn’t horrible, and I got to see some pretty stuff along the way.
I stopped only five hours away from home but after more than seven hours of traveling, in Columbus Indiana. After checking into a room, I went out looking for something to eat. I ended up following the road right into the next town over, Seymour.
The bridge looking back toward the west.
Which happens to have a stinking cute bridge that perfectly frames their county courthouse as you travel west to east. I didn’t get a photo of that because I didn’t have my camera with me that evening, and because there was nowhere to park. So you’ll have to image driving up over a winding entrance to the bridge, and bursting out at the top to see the tower of the courthouse framed in the red tubes of the bridge.
An almost whimsical building, with fussy details and beautiful colors.
I went back to Seymour the next morning, found a place to park in town and explored the bridge, and the courthouse grounds.
This modern sculpture next to the more victorian architecture of the courthouse struck me.
I couldn’t resist checking out the tall sculpture, even though it meant more walking and it was a bitter 17F degrees.
Reaching toward the sky.
Turns out it is the county’s homage to their fallen war veterans. The interior walls are scribed with names and dates. And letters home.
There were long letters, and short, each with the name and date of death of the author. Some were killed only days after sending the letter home.
It was heartbreaking.
A grandson’s love.
After spending almost an hour wandering Seymour I figured I’d never make it to Alabama at the rate I was moving south, and I got back in the car, resolute not to stop again until I needed gas.
Five miles down the freeway I glanced to my left and saw white farms shrouded in a layer of fog rising from the snowy fields under a blue sky. And there was an exit right in front of
me.
Couldn’t NOT stop.
The fog was freezing thick on everything.
Nature’s art.
I was on a narrow country road with not another person or car in sight. So I stopped for quite a long time.
Frosty fencing.
But I knew time was flying by and I’d only progressed a few miles down the road, so as the sun rose I tore myself away, and headed back toward the freeway.
One more image. Really, only one more this entire trip. 🙂
By focusing on the road and not the pretty sights I finally made it to Kentucky.
Kentucky had snow on the ground! I chose to think of it as cotton instead.
But do you know what they have a lot of in Kentucky? Yes, you are right.
Saw this guy from the freeway, and there was an exit right there!
I only drove a couple miles down one little road which was running right next to the freeway and I found three barns.
A little jewel.
I call that a worthwhile diversion.
I turned around here, I’m sure there would have been more just over this hill.
Someday I’m going to have to visit Kentucky instead of just travel through it.
And then there’s Tennessee…
I always enjoy this sculpture at the Tennessee welcome center just across the state line from Kentucky.
… which thankfully is a narrow state if you’re traveling north or south. So I could feel like I was finally there when I got to the Huntsville Alabama welcome center.
Celebrating Alabama’s contribution to space exploration.
Of course it was a false sense of being home. I still had four hours of driving to go.
Welcome home, ya’ll.
By the time I made it all the way to the house it was dark, so no views of my lake. But I knew it was out there, and that was all that mattered.
I had a great trip down, and for those of you wondering where Katie is on this grand adventure, well, she is having some dad time at home. I thought about bringing her, she hasn’t had an adventure in a long time, but mama needs to get some sleep and Katie is a persistent little girl who has decided she wants her breakfast somewhere between 2:30 and 4:00 a.m. Every single day.
All I have to say is good luck daddy!
Remember you can make any image bigger just by clicking on it. I’ll see what I can find pretty down here, it’s raining this morning, but it’s not snow, so that’s a win in my book.
Talk later, as my girl says, time for mama to take a nap.
Edit: I thought that grey barn felt familiar. Turns out 2 of the three I found on that road this trip were featured in a post I did in June of 2018 on my way down to Alabama!
Late January, here in the Midwest, we don’t always get to see a lot of sun. It’s cold, sometimes windy, usually snowy, but not often very sunny.
The James Scott Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle in Detroit.
So last Saturday, when the weather people were actually right about the fact we had sun, I knew I didn’t want to squander it. But I also wasn’t sure I wanted to go to my regular parks, they would likely be overrun with people just like me, out to catch a few rays, on the lookout for something spectacular to photograph.
This pair was pulling up lunch from the bottom of the pond.
I’ve been seeing in a Michigan wildlife Facebook group that there were special things down on Detroit’s Belle Isle. I figured there was more space there, and maybe fewer people, so I decided to see what I could find.
Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory.
The color in these images haven’t been touched up, it really was a spectacular blue sky with lovely soft light making everything glow.
Detail of Belle Isle Casino
And it was busy. Most of the parking spots on the western part of the island, the part which gives you the best view of the Detroit skyline, were full. That’s OK, I just parked further away and walked back.
Detroit, with Ambassador Bridge to Windsor on the left.
It felt good to be outside walking around.
I drove around the perimeter of the island several times, catching glimpses of things I wanted to photograph, and stopping back to capture things on my next round. I didn’t feel like I was taking a lot of pictures, but I was pleased with those I got.
Saw this bridge out of the corner of my eye, stopped for a photo the next time around.
Did I ever find the special image I was looking for? Well, yes, yes I did.
For some time I’ve been reading about a pair of bald eagles that live on the island, but I’ve never driven the hour down to Detroit to see for myself. On this beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon this guy was hard to miss.
This is the guy I drove all the way to Detroit to see.
My first clue was the number of cars parked on both sides of the road. The second clue was the brilliant white head and tail feathers, just glowing in the afternoon light.
He was very good about posing for us down below.
I and a couple dozen of my closest photographer friends spent 30 minutes or so watching him watch us. He would look to his left, to his right or straight down at us, but he never moved a wing. When a kid skidded a rock across the glassy ice below him he watched with interest, but he wasn’t fooled into thinking it was anything but a rock.
“You people need a different hobby!”
I was smiling the whole time I stood there…and even now, just thinking about him being amused by all of us makes me smile again. The only thing that would make me smile wider is if I were to buy myself a bigger, longer lens.
Yep. That would surely make me smile.
What’s made yousmile this week? Write a post and link it to Trent’s. He’ll gather them all together and post a recap on Monday. We could all use a smile, share yours!
I think I’d be happy spending the majority of my days photographing birds. Or trying to anyway. And I’m lucky that, even with the pandemic keeping us home more, I still have lots of birds to study, right in my own backyard.
I get a lot of images like this. Not intentionally.
Of course I am frustrated by reflections in windows, and sheltie girls that move just as I’m getting that shot, disrupting the carefully posing feathered ones.
The male cardinals get so much attention, but if you really look, the females are just beautiful.
I’ve tried to get around the sheltie interruption by sneaking past her when she’s sleeping, but it sure seems like she only closes one eye lately and she’s always up to see what I’m focused on. She assumes there’s trouble outside if I spend too much time at the window, and she feels a responsibility to handle it for her mama.
Look at all the different colors she carries around with her.
And of course I’d love to be outside with the birds, not shooting through a window, and I’ve tried that. The birds aren’t too frightened if I stand in the far corner of the deck and stay still. I’m sure they’d get used to having me around and come down from the trees when I put out fresh food if I keep trying.
A dancing chickadee comes down for an irresistible peanut.
But then again, there’s the sheltie-girl who puts up a howl when I’m outside and she’s not. So more sneaking around might be in order.
OK, the guys are pretty too. It’s just that they’re so OBVIOUS about it.
Once I tried taking her with me out on the deck and only the chickadees would tolerate her. Plus she doesn’t know how to stand still. She’s a princess you know, and a princess does not stand in the corner.
My first time seeing a Carolina wren at my feeder. She (I decided it’s a she) was sooooo cute!
And I’m thinking about getting a longer lens so I don’t have to crop so much. So much detail is lost, and so many interesting things are just outside the reach of the lens I have, though it’s a very nice lens.
Lots of people don’t like these starlings, but just LOOK at the color!
Still. I have so much fun trying. I’m pretty sure you don’t mind looking at my birds either, right?
This little guy used to be shy but now he’s one of my vocal visitors. Especially if the feeders are empty.
Katie says she thinks you’d rather look at her, and that might be so, but this is not called Katie’s blog, so once in awhile I think we have to focus on something else.
Now this is another prevalent bird…er….how did HE get in this series?
But don’t tell her that, I don’t need a mutiny here at home. Especially during a pandemic.
Even if you don’t live in the United States you might have heard that this was a very big week here. Yes, Wednesday was Inaugural Day, where we had a peaceful transition of power between Presidential administrations, based on the November election. You probably also know that this year it wasn’t so easy because the former President never conceded that he lost the election.
But this post isn’t about all that controversy. It’s about things worth smiling about.
My first broad smile on Wednesday was also laced with tears, as I watched the honor guard salute Kamala Harris as she walked with her husband toward the West Front of the Capital where she would be sworn in as Vice President. The fact that they were saluting her made me realize the importance of the moment. I was witnessing history.
Smile one.
Then there was the President’s speech, full of hope even as we face huge challenges, politically, racially and from the virus. So many things that need immediate attention. I smiled a few times while he spoke, but I smiled the deepest when he said:
“Let’s begin to listen to one another again, hear one another, see one another, show respect to one another. Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.”
I think this is key to our moving forward as a nation. I don’t think it will be easy, we’ve all pretty much entrenched ourselves in our respective views. But suppose, just for a moment, that we could try to put what we believe aside and ask pertinent questions and then listen to the answers from those that think differently from us. Just suppose what we might be able to accomplish.
Smile two.
And of course there’s Amanda Gorman, America’s Youth Poet Laureate. She radiated fire and hope and possibility and made me smile as soon as she stepped up to the lectern. She was spellbinding, both her words and her movement making their points so fast I was afraid I was missing something and I focused in a way I haven’t for a very long time.
I read her poem in full the next day and realized I had indeed heard every bit of it, but it’s something I think we’d all do well to read periodically. There’s something to be learned and understood in her words. Right now my favorite lines:
“Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished”
“That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious
Not because we will never again know defeat
but because we will never again sow division”
“A country that is bruised but whole,
benevolent but bold,
fierce and free
We will not be turned around
or interrupted by intimidation
because we know our inaction and inertia
will be the inheritance of the next generation”
And of course the end…
“The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it”
Yes, Amanda Gorman made me smile, through tears I admit, the broadest of all. Because she represents the future of our country. And just see what we have to look forward to!
Smile three.
And then, as just a bit of an extra smile this week, a Carolina wren landed on my feeder this morning.
Just to make sure my week kept on smiling.
What made you smile this week? Write a quick post and link it by Sunday to Trent’s blog so we can all smile together!
Yesterday was Inauguration Day. Depending on where you stand it might have been a wonderful, uplifting day or it might have been a tragedy. I have thoughts about all that swirling around in my head – they may or may not spill out eventually.
But that’s not where my head or heart are today.
Because, you see, last night, after a day where the world focused on the big picture, after the sun set in a show we haven’t seen here in years, once the world went still, my neighbor left this earth quietly, his departure marked only by family.
The end of an extraordinary day.
I tell you this not because it was a tragedy, though they will miss him fiercely, but because it reminds me this morning of what is important. It’s not the arguments over real or imagined fears, it’s not the friendships destroyed by political influence, it’s not cabinet appointments or policy changes.
What’s important, really, are the relationships we all have, with our family members, with our friends, with our neighbors. Those are what need to be protected, those are fragile, those will not last forever. Those are what we must work on now.
Last night the birdhouse our neighbor made for us many years ago fell from it’s tree. And last night our neighbor broke free, no longer in pain, no longer confused, no longer in tears.
God speed Jack, Katie and I will miss sitting on your front porch in conversation, or near the end, in communal silence, watching the world go by. She looks toward your house when we’re out on walks and will still tug me toward your driveway. Thanks for always giving her an ear scratch. She’ll miss your, “Whatcha doing girl?”
Change Is Hard 