This juvenile male oriole learned all about bathing this week. When I first noticed him he was standing on the edge while a little brown bird splashed around. He stared at the brown bird. I went to get my camera. By the time I got back he was in the bath too.
He seemed a bit unsure, but it didn’t take long until he was fully immersed in the experience. Literally.
This morning I was headed out the back door when I saw, directly in front of me, a deer staring back. We both had that kind of ‘deer in headlights’ look. I quickly sidestepped out of sight and walked quietly over to the living room to get my camera. And then it hit me. It was a fawn I saw. By the time I slowly and quietly slid back to the door the fawn had moved.
I felt disappointed that I had missed the beautiful, full faced, shot. But I was also very happy.
Very happy because in early summer we had seen only one mama deer with one baby. And a few days after seeing mama with her newborn, I came across a fawn stretched out in the road as if asleep, but clearly not. I have only seen mama once since, with no baby in tow. I silently told her how sorry I was.
All summer I haven’t seen the mama deer. I assumed she had left the area to grieve alone. But this morning, here was a large fawn, so maybe our little one hadn’t been killed? And where was mama during this visit?
Oh, yes, there she is. Watchful as always.
And then the baby took off across the yard so fast I couldn’t see where he or she went. I switched windows to watch the yard. And then this happened.
Such joyful running, in big loops around the backyard. Racing from behind shrubs, circling the white pine, at full speed. Over and over and over this little one danced with glee through the yard.
I shot 300+ pictures. Some of them almost in focus.
He or she kept on running. I kept on taking pictures. Until finally he (I’ve decided it’s a he) stopped behind a blue spruce and snuck a peek over near where mama stood. I think he was tuckered out. He went over to mom who had come out from behind the bush to reign in her kid.
But what is this?
A 2nd mama? Is my little guy being mothered by two moms? Or is this daddy and mama and baby?
But wait….what’s this?
Another baby! Two mamas and two babies!
The little group hung around in the shadows for a bit of time before moving off.
But not without one last look at the house.
By mama and baby. Just so I knew they knew they were being watched.
Glad to have you in the neighborhood, family. You made me smile.
Hey everybody, it’s Penny here! I’m interrupting mom’s travel and photography posts to tell you about me! Cause I know you’ve been missing me. Speaking of missing, mom was missing for almost an entire week! No one got my permission for her to go gallivanting but I guess my vote doesn’t count. Anyway, she was gone from last Saturday to this past Friday afternoon.
And on Saturday and Sunday morning she had registered me for an obedience trial! So when she got home Friday mom and I got right into the ‘working’ mode. I know what the word work means. It means treats! Special, extra good treats! So we went to the trial Saturday morning. Mom said she had zero expectations, given we had N-Q’d last time and she had been gone the week before this trial.
But guess what? I did great! I did all 5 exercises pretty perfectly. I sat when I was supposed to sit, I paid attention to mom and I stayed when I was supposed to stay. I ended up with 198 points out of 200, and first place! I guess, though, I have to admit that I was the only one in my class, so as long as I finished everything I was destined to get first place! Mom said she was very proud of me.
Then on Sunday we went back to the trial to do it again. Mom was a little worried because I generally don’t like to do stuff more than once, but she thought maybe given it was a day apart it would be ok. And again, I was doing great. Sitting when I was supposed to sit. Paying attention to my mom and heeling like a good girl. I let the guy judge pat me on the head during the sit for exam without protest.
Then came the stay where I’m supposed to sit in the middle and watch mom walk around the perimeter of the ring and then back to me. And guess what? I got bored so I laid down. Mom almost made it around the room before I gave up, but I think she needs to learn to walk faster.
Oops. That disqualified us right there. We still finished everything, and my recall was beautiful. The judge and mom were very sad. I, however, just wanted to get out of the ring so I could get my jackpot. I know what my priorities are!
Anyway. I’m now 1 for 3 in my Beginner Novice Obedience trials. Mom says we’ll keep trying. I only need two more legs to get my title! LOL No rush mom, I’ll get there! On my schedule, not yours.
Talk later, your Beginner Novice Wantabe, Penny.
I’ve been out of town for most of the last week. I, of course, took lots of images. But the main reason for the trip was to experience dark skies in South Dakota.
I’m lucky enough to have a friend from high school who lives on a farm away from city lights. For years we’ve talked about me going out there to see the stars.
So last week it finally came together and my sister and I drove out there. We were so lucky that the skies were clear for all three nights that we were there. We spent a few hours each of two nights staring up at the sky with warm breezes keeping the bugs at bay.
I have 3 sets of night images to process, the barn, a tractor and the gate. But I need to learn how to stitch skies and foregrounds together in Photoshop. The learning of that will likely take me awhile.
For now I’ll share these single take images of my sister and me. When I learn how to process the rest of them I’ll share those as well.
We had a great time and want to thank our hosts so much for sharing their lives and their skies with us!
(PS: WordPress makes everything darker. I’ve used the lighter of my images but if it’s still dark, try looking at these in a darkened room on a bigger than your phone screen.)
I wasn’t going to post today. I’ve got lots of stuff I need to do and posting wasn’t high on my to-do list. But moving the images from my camera to storage was. And I promised myself I wasn’t going to look at them. Because I don’t have time, you know.
But I did. It was raining one morning this week and I was shooting birds (not literally) through the window. This one made me laugh out loud. You never know what you’ve got until you look at them on a bigger screen.
So I’m sharing it with you. I hope you smile too.
I was painting a card this morning, intent on sending it out today to Eva, a woman who rescues very old dogs, often shelties, from kill shelters in California. Since she works with old, very sick dogs, she was a wealth of information when our Katie-girl was struggling with gall bladder issues and then kidney disease. So I try to support her efforts to give old dogs their best lives during their last days or years.
I saw this card online somewhere, maybe FB, maybe in an ad, I don’t remember. But I liked it enough to save it and this morning I recreated it. The background in each box is metallic paint, a light purple and a light brown. You can’t see the sheen in this image, but it’s pretty. I painted that in after the flowers were done with regular watercolor.
Actually I was surprised at how much measuring and plotting it actually took before I could begin to paint. The painting part is the fun part. Figuring out the math isn’t really my thing. I wonder if I could have done it just by splashing some metallic squares around and painting the flowers on top.
In the end I didn’t do that and I like it just fine the way it is. But boy my fingers were itching to put those gold lines around the outside edges of the metallic, flowery squares. It sure is hard to wait for all the paint to dry. It’s one of the hardest things about watercolor, waiting for layers to dry.
I wonder what is it about the gold liner pen that is just so satisfying? I should use it more often. It’s a lovely, shiny way to start my day. Now to get it into the mail!
A week ago today I took three people to Kensington to feed the birds. They had never done that before but they’d heard about it and wanted to have the experience.
They had to drive almost 2 hours but they thought it was worth it. I do too. Though we arrived early in the morning, when the birds are most likely to be hungry, we weren’t inundated with begging feathered ones. But we had our fair share.
Mostly it was the woodpeckers, in different varieties that were interested in us. Though an occasional red-winged blackbird stopped by.
And the bluejays were always nearby.
In fact this visit turned into a ‘toss a peanut’ experience. The red-bellied and the red-headed woodpeckers and of course the bluejays are all very talented at plucking a tossed peanut out of the sky.
We spent much of our walk through the woods tossing peanuts into the air where they were eagerly snatched by a winged one.
And of course we walked out onto the boardwalk to check on the blue heron rookery.
The heron babies are now teenagers, testing their wings and making a great deal of noise whenever an adult ventures by. Just in case there might be breakfast arriving.
All in all, though we weren’t swarmed by birds I think everybody had a great time and I hope they come back for another adventure!
Last week a storm on the sun was predicted to send some major northern lights our way. A storm big enough to be seen even down here in southeast Michigan. But since there’s so much light down here, what with cities and towns all over, a friend and I decided we’d drive the three hours up to the tip of Michigan’s thumb and try our luck.
When we arrived there was a kind of mist hanging over the lake. It was several hours until sunset, but we didn’t mind hanging out on the beach and waiting.
Or photograph the swans hanging out just up the beach.
But finally the sun began to set and we became hopeful.
Maybe the night would be the night we’d dreamed of. We were ready.
As the sky darkened we could see two planets, Venus and Jupiter. They were the perfect “stars” to practice our camera focus as we waited for the light show to start.
We waited. We noticed clouds in a bank along the horizon and some in the sky. But aurora would look spectacular among the clouds. So we waited some more and practiced focusing on more stars.
As time passed the bank of clouds rolled across the lake toward us and we had to change our focus and practice on the stars directly above us where the sky was still clear.
But by midnight the sky was completely clouded over and the light storm hadn’t yet hit earth. We decided to pack it up and head home. No amazing aurora. No milky way.
Were we disappointed? Or course. But we had hours on the beach, little waves rolling up on the sand, and stars overhead. Sometimes you don’t get what you want, but you always get what you need when you head out into the night to photograph the sky.
Guaranteed.
Sunday afternoon I drove about an hour to attend another community’s band concert. They were celebrating the 250th anniversary of our country too, and I was curious what they would play.
I’ve never been to one of their concerts, but many years ago our community band and theirs planned a joint concert in their town. We anticipated having another joint concert the next year at our high school.
I can’t remember if it was a blizzard or an electrical outage, it very well could have been both, but the school was closed the day of our performance and we never did find another date to make that concert up. I’ve always felt sad about that, both bands had prepared music that we didn’t get to play.
Sunday’s program began with a subset of the band, doing jazz numbers, complete with a singer, and there was also a drum and fife band that marched in and played several pieces. The drum and fife players were aged 12-18. It felt good to see young people involved with something so historical. There is hope for our country!
The Community Band was wonderful. It is larger than our band, there were 75 people listed in the program, including twelve clarinets! They completely fill the stage and their sound fills the hall. They were awesome and I’m so glad I went.
Music in the spring and summer is so hopeful. I feel better just attending, even though I didn’t know a single soul in the audience or on the stage. I can say with certainty that everyone was smiling as they left Sunday’s concert. I plan to go to another concert this one located closer to home and outside, this week. You’ll probably hear about that one too. 🙂
You can’t beat community music. Look around, find some local music. I encourage you to take some time and attend something in your town. You’ll be supporting your neighbors and you, too, will walk away with a smile.
Guaranteed.
Change Is Hard 