Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.


by 35 Comments

The long drive home

Tonight I was sorting through the pictures from my drive home from Alabama. I liked so many of them I feel like I need to share some of them with you. So…here’s the end of my vacation, with it’s long drive home.

A neighbor’s dog stopping in for a little belly rub.

I spent my last evening at the lake sitting on the dock waiting for the sunset, and reminiscing about times in years past when we all spent time there together.

It wasn’t a great sunset, but the clouds in the water were cool.

I thought about Katie a lot too and how much she loved the lake house. She’d spent plenty of evenings out there on the dock with me waiting for the sun to set. I hope someday Penny will be able to do the same.

The moon was coming up as the sun was going down.

Then, in the morning, I set out for home just under 1,000 miles away. It was hard to leave.

Bye! See you next time!

I took a new way back to the freeway, a couple hours away, to avoid the traffic of Birmingham. Even though it was Saturday morning and the city traffic wouldn’t be that bad, I wanted to see if this new way might work.

White barn with fall color.

Plus it put me directly in farm country. And you know what that means.

Red barn very near the lake house.

Barns. It means barns.

I only got off the road once to pursue barns. I can’t remember for sure but it might have even been my second day of driving. Though I can’t promise I showed such restraint.

This was the barn that made me get off the freeway.

There were so many great barns in the area that I did a couple of big country blocks.

At one point I ended up in a tiny little town where I saw this interesting house. I only slowed slightly because I could feel the eyes of the residents following my car with it’s out of state plates.

In a little town maybe 2 or 3 blocks of houses total.

And then of course there was no entrance back to the freeway right there, so, darn, I had to do another country block.

Little or big, I love all barns.

And then up ahead I saw this.

Is this what I think it is?

What is that you say? Well, let me crop the image a bit more.

Oops, I think he saw me.

Yep. A bald eagle, in a dead tree right by the narrow dirt road I was on. I held my camera out the window. I knew if I tried to get out of the car he’d fly away.

Look lady, you’ve interrupted my lunch!

Which of course he did anyway. But oh my seeing the eagle made me smile!

And then I was back to looking for the freeway and noticing barns. Lots and lots of barns.

This one might need a little tender loving care.

And lots of beautiful fields too.

The sun kept peeping out from behind the clouds, causing stripes of light.

All complete with dramatic skies.

I was so lucky on this two day drive home. It rained, but not a lot, and the traffic wasn’t horrible. Driving on Saturday and Sunday helped.

Red is just so classic.

My favorite barn on the trip back? Why this one, of course.

So much drama!

I hope you enjoy it too and all the other barns I got to see on my drive around the block.

I don’t’ know when I’ll be able to go on another barn hunt, but that’s OK. I’m sure I can find cool stuff closer to home this winter.

The road calls.

Thanks for being out there to share my experiences with me!


by 21 Comments

A Walktober summary

Thank you, everybody for having patience with me as I traveled. Last year when I did this summary I was smart and built it as you linked your Walktobers to my post. This year, for some unknown reason, I just left it until the end.

Which is now.

If after you review this post you find I’ve missed your Walktober, just let me know and I’ll go find it and edit this right away. But I sincerely hope I haven’t missed anybody!

So without further ado, let’s get to walking!

First up is Ruth who walked in her local nature reserve. She described it as ‘being in a little bowl of nature.” Doesn’t that just make you want to visit it yourself? Lucky for all of us Ruth included several pictures so we can pretend we’re right there with her!

Walktober – Local Nature Reserve

Next is the Widow Badass who was out and about with the celebrity schnauzer, Bowser. There’s nothing quite like a cute dog walking in brilliant fall leaves to make a person smile. We hope you’re smiling too as you read about their walk.

The Sunday Schnauzer – Walktober 2024

Speaking of dogs enjoying a fall walk here comes Monkey, a handsome sheltie, who likes to take his mom on walks whenever he can. I think he did a great job showing us around, don’t you?

Walktober with Monkey ’24

And then there’s Barbara showing us beautiful sculptures glowing in the sun. Such a pretty place she shared with us, and very unique too! I’m sure once we read about her walk we’ll all wish we had a park near us just like it!

sunlight on the sculptures

Linda shares with us her walk among the scarecrows that weren’t scary at all. In fact I think you will agree they are all kind of cute!

Scarecrow strollin’.

Debbie, who happens to be Monkey’s mom, took a walk on trails surrounding Lake Charleston in Illinois. My goodness, look at all the beautiful things she saw on her walk! I’m thinking we should not tell Monkey she went without him!

Walktober 2024

Next we have Lisa and her Walktober around her neighborhood. You won’t believe all the color she saw!

Dawn’s Walktober

Well, I managed to insert Lisa’s post twice, and so far I can’t figure out how to remove the duplicate…so I’ll leave it in for now. Just scroll on by, people, just scroll on by.

Dawn’s Walktober

Somewhere in the middle of all your walks I got my own in. It’s been so long now I can’t remember where I took you. So I guess you’ll have to read the post and find out!

Walktober (or maybe Drivetober) 2024

Next we have Jo’s walk She takes us to Tavira in Portugal! The wonderful thing about our annual Walktobers is that you never know where you’ll end up! And Jo got to meet a fellow blogger there as well, which is always special.

Jo’s Monday medley 6

From Portugal we move on to Canada with Dale, specifically over near Quebec, if I have done my sleuthing correctly. If not, maybe she will let us know ! Dale combines lots of beautiful fall colors with some sculpture as well on her walk about town.

Walktober 2024 – Parc Vincent-d’Indy & Surroundings

Back in the United States Carin takes us on a walk around her neighborhood with her sheltie Levi. Penny has met Levi in person and she would like you all to know he’s a very good host!

https://www.catchatwithcarenandcody.com/2024/11/a-walktober-post-in-november.html

Up next Linda takes us on a lovely walk around a pond in the Armand Bayou Nature Center near Houston Texas. It’s one of the largest urban wilderness preserve in the country, and we’re lucky to see some it right here through the magic of Walktobers!

Walking the Edge of A Pond

And Jo has decided there’s another place in Portugal that we’d enjoy, so she’s taking us all to visit the River Guadiana in Alcoutim.

Jo’s Monday walk : hugging the Guadiana

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t include Penny’s Walktober. After all she started the whole thing this year!

The official launch of the 2024 Walktober

And once again I have a duplicate post that I can’t delete. WordPress is giving me fits, but I decided to try and publish this as is versus spending even more time trying to fix it.

Hopefully you all enjoy each other’s walks, and that’s what this is all about! AND, if anybody knows how to delete links that I pasted twice into this please give me a hint on how I can clean this up!

Walktober 2024 – Parc Vincent-d’Indy & Surroundings

I am already looking forward to Walktober 2025! I hope you are too! And thank you to everybody that participated in our October tradition. Thanks again for all your patience with me!


by 26 Comments

Reflections

I’m headed home now from a week at my parents’ house on the lake. I hadn’t been there in a few years.

First covid happened and then we had other priorities for a couple years. It was hard to find the time to go South.

While I was there I had a few days without any agenda where I mostly sat on the deck and watched the water in the lake change over the course of the day.

Years ago my mom used to try to convince me that folks in Alabama enjoyed fall color, though I’d always argued certainly not the color we have in Michigan.

I was down there, this year, at the perfect fall time, with yellow, green and red popping under warm southern sun.

The leaves across the way reflected in the lake as I sat on the dock, memories of years past flitting through my mind.

I wished my parents were with me at the lake house. I wished my mom was making potato salad. I wished my dad was telling stories.

I spent the week surrounded by memories of times when we were all together. It was both a sad and a happy week.

Mostly a nostalgic week.

Which, I suppose, was the purpose of my trip.


by 23 Comments

Four Seasons Part 2

Penny here.

You might have noticed that mom is still missing. I’m kind of worried, even though daddy said it was all going to be just fine. But I’m also a bit miffed, cause mom has more beautiful pictures of me and she hasn’t posted them! So I guess I’ll have to do it myself.

Katie warned me there would be days like this.

So without further ado, here are the images from our second 4 season photo shoots! I think you will agree I am simply stunning.

Ahem.

November of 2023, where it all began:

Winter of 2024:

Spring of 2024:

Summer of 2024.

Fall of 2024! (My personal favorite.)

I hoped you liked my second set of 4 seasons images. Mom told me she had fun too, but NOBODY has as much fun as me!

Talk later,

Your professional model (who will be increasing her fees if she has to do all the work around here),

Penny


by 13 Comments

Barn hunt II

I’ve been down at the lake for a couple of days now, but for all you barn lovers I’ll do a short post from my second day of driving south.

I saw a promising area, with rolling hills and what seemed like a lot of barns somewhere in Kentucky off of I 65. I pulled off at the exit and turned onto what looked like a service drive to head back and look for the barns.

Even as turned I began to feel faint bits of recognition. It felt like I’d been down this road before.

Then I started thinking, ‘if the road curves sharply to the left and then goes up a hill I’ve definitely been here before.

And it did.

Even funnier is that I think this is the third time I’ve been down this road, each time on the way to Alabama, and each time enticed by beautiful barns visible from the freeway.

This year, not having a dog with me, I went further down the road and found some ‘new’ barns — structures I hadn’t seen before.

And as the sky darkened with an oncoming storm, I saw in the distance a white church spire that I had to go find. So I did.

I wandered around the cemetery a bit, and shot some barns off in the distance. Then I high tailed it back to the freeway for the rest of my trip home.

I’m going to try very very hard next time I’m driving down to Alabama not to be seduced by this road and it’s barns again. I think three times is plenty.

Don’t you?


by 26 Comments

One Moment Please

Penny here.

Has anybody seen my mom? I can’t find her and she’s been missing for at least 3 days. Maybe more!

I’ve looked and looked in all her favorite places. You know, like in her bed, and on her sofa, and in her favorite chair and at the dinner table.

Maybe she’s lost in one of my parks! I’d drive over there to look but I don’t have a driver’s license!

I asked my dad, and he said not to worry, he says mom is fine, she’s just taking some “Penny-free time” for herself.

Penny-free?!?!?!

What the heck does that even mean?

Anyway dad said to tell you all not to worry, and that mom will get that Walktober collection post done as soon as she gets home. I figured you guys would want to know.

Meanwhile I’m going to sleep in her bed next to my dad every night. Maybe if I make her jealous she’ll come home to us.

Your lonely girl,

Penny


by 13 Comments

Traveling slowly or Barn Hunt!

I’m headed for a short visit with family down in Alabama. Which means I’m driving through farm land. Lots and lots of farm land. I’m beginning to think you could throw a dart at a map of the US Midwest and there’d be a great barn to photograph right there.

A rest stop floor.

Yep, everywhere I look I think, “I need to come back here, find a campground, and spend a couple days hunting barns.” Sort of like looking for places to shoot the Milky Way, but I’d get to be out with the camera in the daylight instead of tromping around in the dark.

Yesterday’s hotel carpet.

Just before I crossed from Michigan into Indiana I saw a barn out of the corner of my eye…and since there was an exit right there I took it.

These aren’t the barns I saw from the freeway, but they made me smile.

I never did find my way back to the barn that caught my attention, but I found this one.

Not the one I was looking for, but it is beautiful.

I thought it was beautiful, the white of the barn and the gold of the tree.

And, while going around the country block to find my way back to the freeway I found this one…

More a corn crib and a shed than a barn.

….and this one.

Used to match the tractor, I’m sure.

AND, my best find on that little side trip was this:

Just sitting in a field near the road.

I LOVE it. Old trucks rank right up there with old barns in my book.

And just so you can enjoy a little more fall color, this was at the last rest stop before I stopped for the night near Louisville KY.

There’s still lots of color down here.

Tomorrow I hope to get all the way to the lake. We’ll see. It will depend on whether I take any more barn hunting side trips.

What are the odds I make it all the way without straying?

Pretty slim, I’d say.


by 15 Comments

Four seasons, part 1

A year or so ago Karma, over at Karma’s When I Feel Like It, suggested we work on getting 4 seasons of an image from a single location. That means it’s a year long project, one you have to be conscious of as the seasons change. It requires some planning.

I knew when I saw this location that I had found my spot. Penny agreed.

Our first visit to this part of Penny’s park was in November of 2023, so technically this image is late fall. Or early winter.

And then I waited for some snow to fly, and we went back. Snow made it officially winter, at least in my mind. Penny said snow makes everything more fun.

It wasn’t long until winter gave way to spring. Spring was so pretty over in Penny’s park.

And then it was full blown summer, hot and muggy, but still fun.

I could hardly wait for fall, and I wasn’t disappointed. Penny and I went over there more than once, it was so pretty.

I guess, that makes five seasons, but I just couldn’t leave that first image out. I hope you enjoyed this series….because Penny and I have another one to show you soon.

She’ll probably do the honors because she is, after all, the star of the show.


by 23 Comments

Definition of a friend

What should you do when a friend sends flowers out of the blue because you said you were stressing about a number of things, most of them out of your control?

And later in the week, after you’ve thanked her for the flowers she offers to come and help you do the fall cleanup in your gardens because the job seems so large and you just don’t have the energy to complete it alone.

Even though she has yardwork of her own.

What should you do? You thank her again, but that seems inadequate. And you can reassure her that you’ve (sort of) got the stuff you have control over figured out, and you’re going to try hard not to worry about the stuff you can’t fix.

But mostly, in honor of your friend, you should remind yourself that there are still really good people out there in the world, ready to drop their lives and hop on over to yours if you need help. And that you should probably ask for help more often.

And you should keep an eye open for someone else out there that might need help too, and emulate her friendship.

Thank you friend. You know who you are. I appreciate you very much.