Well it’s been a minute since I last posted, leaving you wondering what I saw on my drive home from Alabama a month ago. That’s because I took a few days this week to camp in northern Michigan, so I’ve been away again.
I came across these three trees that called to me.
Of course that means I have MORE photos to sort through. But let me finish up my trip south first.
Isn’t this an amazing home?
There’s this farm that I’ve noticed on several previous trips down and back, a stately home and a couple barns, very near the freeway. But I usually see it out of the corner of my eye just after the freeway exit and I’ve never tried to find it before.
While trying to get back to the farm I saw this field of soy beans. I liked the lines of it.
Until this last trip north.
It’s a stunning home, and I took several images from a couple different locations on the road. If I had to guess I’d say it was built in the late 1800’s? Or early 1900’s. What do you think?
As you can see it was a dark and stormy day.
Then, trying to find my way back to the freeway I did a big country block and came across a home that looks to be from the same era. I actually had to drive further, find somewhere to turn around and go back for it.
Which way should I go?
I couldn’t leave without it!
The “city” version of the same house.
Back on the road it wasn’t long before I saw the perfect barn and once again had to get off the freeway and find a service drive that led me back to it.
It just needs a little TLC.
It was the only real ‘barn’ image I took on the trip north. I figured it was time to get home and one barn was enough. I should really stop dilly-dallying. After all how many barn pictures does one photographer need?
I always want to see what’s around the next curve.
It’s been two, maybe three weeks since I was in Alabama. And you know that I took a few photos while I was there.
Arriving after 2 days of driving.
Maybe you’d want to see a few of my favorites?
Every morning I’d take a picture of the lake. Most of the time it was so quiet.
Of course who really defines the term “few?”
That red soil is a dead giveaway you’re in the South.
As it turns out most of the images I took this time revolved around birds. Why do you think that is? And are the birds much different in Alabama than they are in Michigan?
Maybe a king bird, maybe something else. Was sitting at the top of a young oak tree on an island in the lake.
But we weren’t always birders, we also took a couple boat rides on my brother’s lake. One in the middle of the day where we saw the bird above and one to see the sunset.
Sunset from behind the mimosa tree
And on our boat rides we did, of course, see birds. This was a big bird. This is the Osprey that builds a nest every year in the very tall power towers on my brother’s lake.
Osprey parent taking a sunset break from the demanding babies up in the nest.
There were very noisy babies in residence when I visited. They cried all day for mom or dad to feed them.
What are you looking at, lady?
And there was a bluebird couple remodeling the nest for their next brood, hovering around just over our heads as we sat on the back patio.
I keep telling him it’s a total gut job.
They didn’t seem worried about us at all as long as we didn’t move too quickly.
I think it’s fine the way it is. The kids will just poop all over it anyway.
And a brown thrush singing away and then scuttling along the lake shore looking for something good to eat.
I’m pretending to be a speedy roadrunner bird!
And, back at the cabin’s lake, we climbed the mountain and then the fire tower to view the large expanse of Lake Martin.
A small part of Lake Martin.
Actually, you can, even at that height, only view a small portion of this giant lake.
A fisherman was having a quiet moment when suddenly jet skies zoomed by.
And of course I went out in the kayak a couple times, not going too far, just down to the end of this bit of water, or that bit over there.
I spent a long time in the kayak trying to get these two glowing trees.
We have martin gourds at Lake Martin and this year the birds have taken up residence in at least one of them.
Incoming!
Babies there too.
You’re not my mama!
So all in all it was a good trip. I’m glad I went and I’m hoping to get down there again before this summer is over.
An orchard oriole in my brother’s back yard.
We’ll see.
Home away from home.
Oh…you ask…on my trip back to Michigan did I see anything interesting?
Have you ever seen a great blue heron? (I feel like I should capitalize the heron’s name, anything with “Great” in it’s title seems like it should be capitalized, don’t you think?)
Do you see him out there?
We have lots of them around here, and I’ve taken you out to Kensington to see the heron rookery more than a few times, so of course you’ve all seen a Great Blue.
Here’s a closer image.
But have you ever seen one take a bath? (I think this would make a great children’s book title; Have You Ever Seen One Take a Bath?)
I wonder if he blows bubbles or holds his breath when his head is under water.
I was sitting, a couple of weeks ago, on my brother’s patio looking out over his lake. He has a wonderful view down the lake, but what I was focused on was the tip of his peninsula where a heron appeared to be standing or sitting up to his chest in water while flapping his wings. Or her wings I suppose. But I’m going to assume this was a he.
Coming up for air.
I had my camera in my lap so I started shooting pictures, trying to figure out what he was doing. Was he fishing? Was he caught in fishing line? Was he dancing to some song only he could hear?
There was much flapping.
No, he was taking a bath! Unfortunately many of my images are terribly out of focus, but I’ve found you the best of them so you can enjoy what we wittnessed.
He was a very enthusiastic bather.
He flopped around and preened in the chest deep water for quite a long time, and then he moved over to a sunnier spot and did what all well behaved herons do.
He’s a very proud and regal bird.
He stood, spread his wings and dried himself in the sun.
Because there’s no nicer way to end a warm bath than to dry off in the evening sunshine.
As some of you have figured out I’m away from home. I took an opportunity to spend a few days with family down in Alabama.
I couldn’t resist stopping when the wheat was golden in the morning light.
And though I could have flown and made the trip South faster, I chose to drive, because I love to drive and I enjoy seeing whatever there is to see along the way.
And to find a wheat field AND a barn…well….of course I stopped!
This trip went easier than my last trip in November. The road didn’t seem so long, nor the traffic so busy. Not to say there weren’t the normal amounts of stress getting through Indianapolis and Nashville and especially Birmingham Alabama.
I appreciated the art of a farmer’s tracks through rolling fields of grain.
But Sunday morning as I left my hotel in Bowling Green Kentucky I noticed the wheat fields were ripening and the early light was making them glow.
I’m just a sucker for an old barn.
All day Saturday I hadn’t stopped for a single photo. I even managed to resist the exit I’ve been lured into by photogenic barns the last three times I’ve driven down.
I went around a big country block to get this one.
So I thought it was only fair that I take thirty minutes and find a barn or two in wheat fields.
Eventually, last Sunday, I made it here to one of my happy places.
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!
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.
On my drive north from Alabama last week I took a quick (or not so quick) detour 50 miles east of my route home to see Burgess Falls. Husband and I had been to see it several years ago in the middle of a summer when there was significantly less water flowing than this time of year.
A little waterfall on the hike back to the big one.
It rained hard the evening and night before I drove over to the falls, and it has been raining for months in the Southeast. There was a squishy walk of about a mile back to the falls. I didn’t mind, there were plenty of pretty things to see along the way. Plus I knew I had hours of driving ahead of me. A little walk would be just the thing.
Everything was damp and green and muddy.
The river was roaring, over it’s banks and moving fast. Just like all the other rivers I’d crossed the day before and would cross on my trek north.
My first clue that the waterfall would be ferocious.
I remembered, as I walked, our last visit to this park where we had trekked down a steep metal staircase, and then climbed over boulders to sit at the base of the falls. I was pretty sure that wouldn’t be possible, judging from the volume of water rushing down the river.
And I was right. See those boulders and trees down there in the river? That’s an island and we sat on those rocks and watched people swimming in the pool below the waterfall.
So much water. And the noise!
You wouldn’t want to be out there now. Still, some steps led down ‘to the falls’ so I went down to see what was what.
Wonder what’s down there?
Personally I think those stairs should be closed. It leads you right to the top of the falls where it would be so easy to slip and fall into the raging river.
Teenagers throwing sticks into the water. I couldn’t watch.
I scurried right back up, and told the family at the top who were contemplating the trip down not to do it, it wasn’t worth the climb, and it was too dangerous for their kids.
Other than that I enjoyed my brief time at the falls, and I’d go back again when some of the water dries up. I’m sure there will be plenty of repair work to do before it’s safe to go down to the bottom again.
It was worth getting a little muddy.
Regardless of the water flow this is one stunning waterfall and worth a detour to see it! And I got to see a few barns on the way over there.
Couldn’t resist stopping for this one.
And some more cows.
Cows and their barn.
So even though it added a few hours to my trip home I think it was all worth it. That’s the best part about a road trip –turning left instead of right once in awhile.
I’m back in Michigan, and it’s lovely here, with sun and blue sky, a bit of white snow left on the ground. It might get to 50F this afternoon.
My last night at the lake the sky finally cooperated and provided a worthy sunset.
Still.
The fact that it was a foggy morning made it somewhat easier to leave.
In Alabama it was beginning to warm up too, daffodils were blooming, and when the sun broke through the rain clouds we enjoyed temperatures in the 70s.
For weeks, this trip, I passed this field and remembered one year when cows where there and how photogenic the spot was. But I never saw any cows there until the day I was leaving town.
My last day in Alabama I sat on the deck and enjoyed listening to the birds singing. The brown thrush were chasing each other around the yard. Blue birds were flitting everywhere. Robins sang in the morning and ducks and geese gathered in the lake.
I took tiny little two lane roads that curled through the mountains as I headed north. The better to find interesting things to photograph.
It would have been wonderful, after almost a full month of rain, to sit there for a few more days.
There were a lot of interesting places along the way.
Still.
You don’t always have to have a structure to make an image interesting. Especially with fog.
My husband and my Katie-girl were in Michigan and I’d been gone a long time. I felt somewhat guilty lounging around in the South while my husband dog-sat the demanding princess.
So many old, abandoned homesteads tucked in the hills.
Still.
I think about all the families whose dreams moved on to somewhere else.
My sister and brother are in the South and I hadn’t seen either of them in more than two years, so it was great to spend weekends with them, painting with my sister, going on a boat ride with my brother. It would have been nice to stick around and spend more time with them.
So many barns hanging on.
Still.
So many decisions to make.
My girl, who lives in the moment, had spent enough moments without her mama. She must have felt like she’d never see me again.
A high point in Alabama. Plus the sun started to break through the fog.
Still.
Lots of barns still in use.
There were more adventures to be had in the south.
I turned around to get this, because of the car.
Still.
A cozy barn nestled in the hills.
There are adventures to be had in the north too.
Solidly facing a new day.
So here I am, enjoying sunshine while wearing a coat, tickling the princess tummy, feeding my birds, watching the squirrels. And it’s good.
Some grey barns are by design, not by age.
Still….
Photos in this post are from my last evening at the lake, and my drive north.
I’m still driving home from my month in Alabama. I should be home tomorrow afternoon.
Walking on the Gulf of Mexico beach early in the morning.
Today I left a friend’s house in TN a bit later than I might have had I stayed in a hotel, but it was so much fun to visit that I didn’t mind. And then I took a 3 hour detour in the wrong direction so that I could see a big waterfall.
Sunset at our lake house.
Which I saw, but the pictures of which are still on my camera and I don’t have time to download them tonight, my last night on the road.
Sun making water sparkle.
I’m not even totally sure what day it is…or whether I posted a ‘smile’ post this week.
A long walk in a wildlife preserve.
So in case I did not, which is highly likely, here are a few things that made me smile this week!
Change Is Hard 