Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Lake Martin


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Favorite Alabama images

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?

Well…what do you think?

Mom! That lady’s looking at me again!


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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.


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Torn

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.

Kinda missing this place now.


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Smiling?

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!

Light in general.


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Mountaineering

Today, after our regularly scheduled morning rain, I decided to climb Smith Mountain. This is something we always do at least once when we’re here at the lake.

The goal on top of the mountain.

You have to climb the mountain before you can climb the fire tower. It’s a long way up.

At the beginning of the trail I encountered this sign.

Well darn. But the access road will get me to the same place.

Huh. I like going up the trail, it takes longer than the access road but it has some ups and downs. Unlike the access road which goes up. And then it turns a corner and goes up some more.

Just the beginning of the upward climb.

Along the way I stopped, ostensibly to take pictures of pretty things.

Luckily there were plenty of pretty things to stop and take pictures of. Like this orange lichen on a big rock.

But really I stopped so I could breath. Did I mention that the access road goes straight up the mountain?

As I was walking a work truck crawled slowly past me, headed for the top as well. I seriously considered jumping on his tailgate.

I thought this stone, embedded in the asphalt near the top of the mountain, looked like a sketch of a girl hiking. I might have been delirious from lack of oxygen.

Once at the top I read some of the newly placed signs, about the wildlife, the birds, flowering shrubs. Anything that would stall the hike to the top of the fire tower.

But it turned out to not be that difficult. Guess the mountain warmed me up for 111 stairs. That’s one of the numbers I stopped to read about on the way up.

This sign was about 1/3 of the way up. Lots of interesting facts. Like the gazillion gallons of water in Lake Martin!

Once at the top I spent some time just enjoying the lake. I love being up there. I especially love being up there when there aren’t a lot of tourists around.

That little spit of land, with the trees reflected is on the back side of the mountain, where I walked my first week here.

Unfortunately, on this Monday there were workers down below, complete with generator going full speed to power up their tools. They’re fixing the stairs you’d climb at the end of your trail hike if you came up the mountain via trail.

Three guys and their generator sure can make a lot of noise.

I guess that’s nice. But it sure would have been nicer to listen to the wind in the pines and the birds calling. But I’ll be back, once they’re done with their project. Meanwhile I enjoyed the lovely poofy clouds and the red-ringed lake.

The Sandy Creek Narrows (I only know that’s the name of it from the new signs on the way up the tower) out to the ‘big water.’

I love this lake, it’s so beautiful, and not completely built up like most lakes are.
Sure, it’s more crowded than it was when my folks moved here in the 80s, but it’s still has a lot of empty land filled with trees and wildlife.

I loved the stripes of green fur trees against the empty limbs of the deciduous trees. Also the two turkey buzzards flying below me.

The clouds were beautiful, and sometimes the sun would peek out.

Bits of blue sky.

As I walked back down the 111 steps and started my way back down the access road I was happy that I’d made the effort to climb the tower on a beautiful afternoon. Even if it wasn’t as peaceful as I’d have liked.

It’s always a good feeling to see the world from way up high. If you’re ever this way you should definitely climb the mountain!

Standing tall, waiting for my next visit.


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A fleeting moment

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.