Everybody has seen a moon image somewhere on social media today. Or maybe you saw the moon yourself last night, so many of us stood out under the sky as the full moon rose.
I thought about going to a darker location with a clear view of the horizon, but I couldn’t make myself go scout for a place like that before dark fell. So last night, about 9:30, I stood in my front yard and watched the moon rise above the neighbor’s trees.
It was sweet.
I didn’t even mind if I got the shot. It was just nice to be out under the stars watching the moon and thinking about all the people all over the country who were out there doing the same thing.
Night sky photography is a kind of community, even if you never meet any of the others you feel good knowing they’re out there looking at the same sky, no matter where they, and you, are.
After the bagpipe parade my sister and I began to prepare for a night trek through the cedar forest and along the sandy beach out to the end of Sunset Point. The wind was picking up and we were worried that waves we heard crashing somewhere out in the lake would be washing over the point.
At 11 p.m. we decided to head out there and check it out for ourselves. There was a certain amount of anxiety as we wound our way through the woods and along the beach, but we were relieved to find there were no waves anywhere near the point and we were able to set up on a picnic table out on the point with a perfect view of both the Milky Way to the southwest and the Big Dipper to the north.
I lightened these somewhat for Facebook, but you’ll still want to look at them in a dark room if you can, and on a larger screen.
My first composition included more of the water in the bay. The light on shore is someone with a flashlight, probably also out looking at the meteor shower.
She sat in a chair and watched the northern sky, exclaiming in excitment every time she saw a meteor streak across the sky. I focused on the Milky Way, deciding to include some of the bay in my first set of images, and then moving slightly to the left to include all the trees in the next series of shots.
I like this composition too, with more of the trees we walked through to get out to the point included.
But she was seeing so many streaking meteors that I decided to turn my camera around and see what happened. I liked the rocky point jutting out into the dark lake.
I was lucky enough to get the meteor in the shot – barely.
And then I asked her to go sit on a rock at the edge of the gravel, still many yards away from the water, and sit very still for 20 seconds while I took a shot of her watching the sky.
The green might be air glow, or it might be northern lights. There was some pink in the sky too.
I love this shot so much. The image looks peaceful, but in actuality the wind and wave noise was so loud I had to signal when the shot was finished by flashing a light at her.
Then we realized I could set up the camera and she could push the remote shutter release while I sat on the rock watching the sky.
Such a perfect place to star gaze.
This was sooooo cool, to sit out at the end of a rocky peninsula and look at the stars. In this image I think there are 3 meteors, though at the time I didn’t see any of them.
My sister had been watching part of the Milky Way which was directly overhead and she asked if I’d take a picture of that, so I pointed the camera straight up and pressed the shutter release.
Uh oh, clouds have invaded.
But when we looked at what we had we realized the clouds had suddenly moved in. Our night of shooting stars was over. Our window of opportunity had been less than 2 hours. I was very glad we went out there a bit earlier than we had planned. I was happy with what we had captured and we hoofed it back down the point, across the beach and through the woods to our waiting car.
Back in camp, snug in my tent, I scrolled through my images on the back of my camera. I couldn’t see much detail in the small screen, but I knew it was there. I was smiling so big it was hard to go to sleep.
During our exploration walk out to the point earlier in the day.
I don’t know if I would have gone out that night, given the roar of the lake and the gusty wind, if my sister hadn’t been with me. Thanks to her we had a magical couple of hours, and now you get to share in it too!
Time is marching on, faster and faster, and if I don’t write this post now I will begin to forget all the fun stuff we did on our four night camping trip in Ontario Canada, on the shores of beautiful Lake Huron.
The beach in downtown Kincardine. It reminded me of the beach on a Caribbean island.
We were able to stay two nights at Point Farms Provincial Park, but they were booked for the weekend, so we planned on packing up Friday morning and moving to our next reserved campsite at MacGregor Provincial Park about an hour north, beyond the town of Kincardine, where the bagpipe parade would happen on Saturday evening.
The beach at Point Farms, early in the morning.
Very early Friday morning the sound of the lake roaring woke us. We hadn’t heard the lake from our site during any part of our two day stay, but Friday morning it was obvious something was going on.
Both of us popped out of our tents and said, “Is that the lake??” Then we scurried down the long set of stairs to the beach to see what there was to see.
Good morning!
The sun was just getting high enough in the sky to start illuminating the water and there were pretty little puffy clouds turning pink along the horizon.
Pretty big piece of driftwood.
We spent a long time wandering the beach and taking pictures. Good thing we had until 3 to vacate our site!
Early morning light on gull wings.
Eventually we went back up to the campsite and began to pack.
Didn’t count the steps, best not to know how many.
Normally it takes about an hour to get everything stowed in the car. It takes longer than that if everything is kind of wet, which it was.
Time to move on.
But we only had to go about an hour north, so no worries. Plus there were lots and lots of pretty barns between where we were and where we were going to be.
On the way out of Point Farms.
I guess I’ll show you those in a separate post, there were so many!
Well, OK, here’s one of the pretty barns we saw that day.
Finally we arrived at Kincardine, but we were too early to check into MacGregor Provincial Park and our site. So we explored the town’s beach, watching beautiful sailboats and clouds move at the horizon…
A steady wind caused both the boat and the clouds to move right along.
…and a very large boat come into the marina….
The boat’s name was 2nd Seabatical, and it was from Houston.
….and of course we saw the town’s lighthouse.
The photogenic lighthouse next to the marina.
Kincardine is another pretty town, and we enjoyed walking on the beach…
This post’s artsy-fartsy image.
…and eating a quick lunch sitting on a bench along the boardwalk watching people and their dogs.
We talked to this doggy grandma about her dogs and the town of Kincardine.
Eventually we made our way to McGregor Provincial Park.
This is a giant bat house near the ranger office. They said no bats lived in it, they chose to live somewhere else. Silly bats.
This park had sites tucked in among the trees and brush, so there was quite a bit of privacy, though noise from other sites certainly carried over to us.
Setting up at our very nice site, which was surrounded by poison ivy.
We explored the park; the beach that didn’t allow dogs…
It was nice to sit in the sand.
….and the beach allowing dogs. The dog beach was definitely the better choice.
That’s sunset point out there.
And then we walked out to the end of sunset point, to consider whether that might be a prime stargazing location. It seemed promising.
Friday afternoon out on Sunset Point. There would be no stars that night.
But we were really there to see the bagpipe parade, the parade that had sparked this entire trip. So… did we find the parade? Well of course we did! Even better, as we walked into the park where the bagpipers were congregating, we met Quinton, a beautiful little sheltie boy and his owner.
Quinton showing off his tricks and getting a treat, of course.
We had a great conversation with Quinton’s dad, learning some of the history of Kincardine, what the winters were like (not as snowy as they used to be), why the parade route was altered (Queen street was being dug up to replace ancient pipes underneath), our mutual love of shelties (he had 2 before Quinton, one died of kidney failure at age 7), and where to stand to get the best view of the parade.
A very good boy.
Then we went to listen to the bagpipes warm up, talked to one of the pipers and headed over to the parade route, smiling in anticipation.
Warming up.
The sun was setting over Lake Huron as the pipers began to march and play.
Waiting for the start of the parade.
It was pretty magical, though odd, as they marched down the street for a block, then did a complicated turn and marched back up the block again, then turned and marched part of the way down again.
Making the turn around.
I hope when Queen Street is opened again they might be able to march further in one direction. I imagine they hope so too.
They do this every Saturday evening all summer!
After the ‘parade’ the musicians moved to the center of the park, formed a big circle and played for the several hundred members of the appreciative audience that had settled on chairs and picnic tables.
It felt like the whole town turned out.
Kids played in the grass, neighbors caught up on their personal news, extended families gathered, people nodded and tapped their toes to the music. It was a beautiful evening of community togetherness.
Even the lighthouse showed up to give high fives!
My sister and I were both smiling as we made our way back down to the beach where we had parked. Mission accomplished, we’d seen the bagpipe parade, the event that spurred this entire trip.
One of many beautiful buildings on our walk back to the car.
But….would there finally be stars on this, Saturday night, our last night in Canada?
Terri over at Second Wind Leisure Perspectives has challenged us to post about all things yellow. This works out perfectly for me because I’m just home from four days spent camping in Canada, where one thing became very obvious — some time in the last century building beautiful homes out of yellow brick was a thing.
We were driving up highway 21 through small towns along the eastern coast of Lake Huron and every town had a lot of yellow brick houses. They were all beautiful, big or small.
Some were out in the country.
Many were along shady streets in town.
The town of Kincardine had so many of these beauties along one street that we just had to park and walk a few blocks admiring the houses and their gardens.
I’ve traveled in Canada a few times and have always noticed how beautiful their gardens are. On this street almost every house had flowers in full bloom from the front porch to the street.
I’ve got lots to show you from our four day camping/bagpiping/starry night trip, but I still have lots of images to sort through.
Bur I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to show you yellow from a Canadian point of view. I hope you enjoyed seeing these beautiful homes.
If you ever get a chance to drive up the eastern shore of Lake Huron you’ll find the same thing we did; friendly, happy people, cute little towns and stunning landscapes.
Hey, hey hey! It’s me, Penny, your adventure girl!
Want to go on a walk with me?
Well, I haven’t had many adventures lately but I’ve sure been having fun! Mom took me to the park last week and I wasn’t as afraid as the other time.
I didn’t even notice this snake when we walked by it. Mom kinda screamed though. Mom is a wimp.
Mom is noticing I am happiest when I’m out in the open where I can see the sky and not so happy when we’re in the woods where it’s dark and there are strange sounds.
I think I can handle this, mom!
But this is the second time we’ve been to this park and I liked it a whole lot better this time. I ran up and down the hills and explored lots more and mom says she was very happy with my ‘progress,’ whatever that means.
I even stopped to take a peaceful little breather on a big hill.
Then over the weekend my friend Lance and his sister Payton came to visit me! They brought their folks too and we all sat out on my deck.
Lance and I discussing our photo/treat ratio requirements.
I guess if I was honest there wasn’t a whole lot of sitting for me and Lance. We mostly chased each other around the deck. We had sooooo much fun! I’m as big as he is now and I can play just as hard!
We raced around and around that deck!
I tried to play with Payton (she’s my angel sister Katie’s half sister) but she told me off, so I went back to jump on Lance. The folks had to make us stop and rest cause we were all about the game.
Payton wasn’t in the mood.
I had so much fun with them that I had to sleep for an entire day after they went home. I think Lance and Payton probably slept too. Mom calls that recharging. I wonder what she’s talking about?
Aren’t we all just adorable?
Anyway, I know you like to hear what’s going on in my world, so I thought I’d stop by and give you an update. My Aunt is here right now, and I’m pretty busy entertaining her.
What’s your favorite toy today Aunt B?
Play, play, play, a sheltie-girl’s got to keep the fun coming all the time. It’s such a big responsibility, but I’m up for the task!
I get lots of hugs cause I’m so cute.
Talk later, people, I have to go get a toy for my Aunt so she doesn’t get bored!
Oh, and thanks to Lance’s parents for driving so Lance and Payton could come and play! We had so much fun.
So when I left you last I had backed away from a crane scuffle and had resigned myself to photographing plants. But I really wanted to get great shots of birds.
I was feeling discouraged.
Bee balm and…well…bee.
I moved slowly through the wetlands, enjoying the wildflowers but keeping my ears open for bird calls. Eventually I made my way back into the woods where the light was dim but a few birds were happily fliting around.
The light was gentle under the old trees.
I felt a bit of hope. I decided that every trip out to this park taught me more about photography and even if I didn’t get my dream shot, the experience of just being in the woods was worth all the blurry bird images I was likely to capture.
Robins aren’t interested in oilers or peanuts but they are curious about what you’re doing in their woods.
I walked slowly, and didn’t offer any birds seed from my hand unless they were obviously asking for something. It was late morning and most of them would have finished their breakfasts long before I showed up.
In fact everything seemed pretty quiet.
Cleaning up after breakfast.
I used the Merlin app on my phone to listen for any interesting birds. I wasn’t hearing very much.
Hey! You’re not going to put that on Facebook, are you?
Then I remembered that I was going to try and stand still and wait while I was out in the woods. That moving around, even slowly, made most of the animals and birds skitter away.
A camouflaged titmouse asks for a treat.
So I stood.
And very soon, flying fast up the path at the level of my head, was a male red-bellied woodpecker.
Just toss me a peanut and nobody gets hurt.
I offered him something from my hand, but he wasn’t having it. He was, however, obviously wanting something to eat. So I tossed a peanut onto the trail behind me and immediately, even before the peanut hit the ground, he was on it.
Nom, nom, nom. Thanks dad!
And so was his youngster, waiting to be fed. They were in the shadows so the image of him feeding the young one is grainy. But it was so cool I wanted you to see it anyway.
Then they both flew up into the tree, dad on the front to ask for more food, and junior on the backside waiting for his free meal.
Come on dad, pour on the angst, she’ll give us a suet ball if you act pathetic!
Poor dad worked so hard. He’d grab something from the trail where I tossed it and fly to a tree where two young woodpeckers noisily followed him. I don’t think he got anything to eat himself.
Here you go, son. But pretty soon you’re going to have to do this for yourself!
The trio followed me for a good quarter mile. He’d zoom past my head and land on a tree trunk, and I’d toss him something that he’d take to his two freeloading kids.
The two youngsters were tag teaming dad.
Meanwhile other birds were gathering to watch. There was a young nuthatch who would have enjoyed an oiler, but was afraid to enter the fray.
Hey buddy! Some of the rest of us would like some attention (and food) too!
And a disgruntled blue jay.
This is ridiculous. Some birds just think they are all that.
And overseeing it all, strangely quiet, was the neighborhood blackbird.
So much ruckus. It’s not seemly at all.
Eventually I got away from the family of woodpeckers and started seeing other little birds.
Thanks lady! It’s always good to have a snack before our morning nap!
It was getting toward noon, the sun directly overhead, and most of the birds were settling down.
Nope, don’t want anything more to eat, lady. Time to rest.
They weren’t hungry, but if I was still I could see them tucked in among the branches.
A fluffy titmouse settles in for a snooze.
I figured it was time to head back to car. I could use a snack myself.
Everybody seemed ready for a nap.
But on my way back to the car my Merlin app said there was a common yellowthroat nearby. And guess what? I found him!
Way back in the shadows, such a cool looking bird!
And just up the trail, hopping around in a cedar tree was a female common yellowthroat! I’ve never seen one before, it was so exciting!
Everybody overlooks me, but I’m just as pretty and I don’t need to wear a mask to be cool!
But what about the yawning cardinal, you ask? Oh yes, he was settling down for a nap in a bush when I walked by.
Not singing, no sound at all, just a big yawn.
I guess I was boring. Or maybe he was just too sleepy to be polite.
Oh, and on the drive out of the park I stopped to watch the osprey and her 3 young.
There was much wing flapping, they’ll be out of the house soon.
It turned out to be a spectacular day. And I learned more about photographing birds. I can’t wait to get out there to try again.
One morning last week I gave in to my itchy shutter finger and went out to Kensington to try to photograph birds who aren’t the regular suspects.
A flicker hides from me.
I’ve been watching, on a Facebook group, nature photographers capturing some stunning images of birds from my favorite park. I asked one of the photographers if he was finding these birds on the nature trails there.
I stalked this yellow ‘bird’ until I realized it wasn’t one.
He said he was wandering around other areas of the park, and that made sense to me. Sure the titmice and chickadees and nuthatches were hanging around looking for a treat, making them easier to photograph. But what about other birds, those that aren’t into landing on hands or snacking on oilers?
While I was waiting for a bird to show up I noticed this pretty pink flower.
So I went out to the park and stopped at a picnic area quite a ways from the nature center. It had a picnic pavilion and a swing set and quite a large open area, surrounded by large, mature woods. I was the only person there. I used my Merlin app to find out what birds were near.
A very fluffy robin was preening.
The place was overrun with robins. But there was also a flicker singing right at the tree line. I followed him for quite awhile…but didn’t have the right settings when he flew up from a branch.
He was in decent light, but I needed to up the shutter speed.
Still, I sort of like the image. It would have been stunning if the wings were sharp.
I adjusted my settings.
I found a bluebird who agreed to sit still for me, though he was a long way away and cropping the image shows the noise. Still, he’s cute, and everyone loves a bluebird.
Hey lady! Get your shot quick, I’ve got to go pick up lunch for the Mrs.
Mostly I chased the flicker around, and never got a better shot of him. Eventually I gave up and drove over to the nature trails where I found myself walking behind this couple.
Just going for a walk.
They were in no hurry, so neither was I.
But then there arose a loud screeching of another crane pair coming in for a landing.
What’s that noise over there?
The original cranes were less than happy and much squawking and wing flapping ensured. The woman at the other end of the trail and I stood still, not wanting to get involved.
I was busy backing away so I missed the most exciting parts of the greeting between the two couples.
Eventually I backed up and headed down another trail where I found beautiful things to photograph that don’t move around so much.
The last of the spring irises.
It’s so much easier to photograph plants.
Joe Pye is just beginning to bloom.
And they make me smile too.
I don’t know what this is, but it sure was pretty!
So I wonder….did I ever find any more birds to photograph? Was I successful at getting any good shots?
Cherry picking is a long standing tradition in my family.
As far back as I can remember the six of us would drive to an orchard and pick tart pie cherries, buckets and buckets of them, then schlep them all home and sit around the kitchen table pitting them and measuring them into freezer bags for future pies.
Now that I’m the only one still living in Michigan it’s mostly my job to go get the family cherries. It’s not a bad job. Last weekend the weather was perfect and I went out early Sunday morning to the orchard we used to visit as a family more than fifty years ago.
Lots has changed since then. What was once a simple fruit orchard now has a gift store and a winery and farm animals and a wagon ride out to the picking locations.
For many years when I’d visit I’d consciously look for families that looked like mine. Sometimes I’d see someone that looked like my dad, or like the four little blond kids that used to fill their buckets with the shiny red fruit.
Sunday I was there pretty early and the picking was outstanding. I was able to pick fourteen pounds in less than an hour, so I was back in my car before things got really busy.
But I got to watch a few families as they picked. One little boy kept exclaiming how beautiful the cherries were. (He was right.)
Another child was focused on finding the perfect tree. And another child in a different family was having deep conversations about tractors and cars with his dad, all the time picking away.
These are adventures they’ll remember forever. And maybe someday when they’re senior citizens they’ll pick cherries in this orchard and watch a new crop of families and smile just like I did.
Change Is Hard 