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Overachieving Walktober
Hi, hi, hi, HI Everybody!! It’s me, Penny!
Mom was talking about Walktober this week, and I wanted to know what it was, cause I’m only 10 months old and I’m curious about everything! When Mom explained it to me I just knew I had to get right on it!
After all, I’m a sheltie and shelties love to go for walks!
Right away I knew I should tell you all about the three great walks I’ve already had this week! And it’s only Friday!
First off, last Sunday, I got to go on a walk with mom and her friend and her friend’s dog Whisky! Whisky is an 11 month old cocker spaniel and he was very excited to see me!
We walked in a beautiful little park, Dinosaur Hill, that I understand was one of my sister Angel Katie’s favorites. It had a river that ran right through the middle of it and I sat on the bridge with all that fast moving water under me without freaking out!
Mom was very happy with my “behavior” as she calls it.
Then a couple days ago mom took me to a park in town. She thought she’d photograph me around the playground stuff.
But there were moms and kids playing there, so we pretty much stayed around the perimeter at first. Mom found this cool musical instrument.
Mostly we walked around and read the dedications on the benches and under trees that were planted in memory of people. One tree in particular was very sad. It is for Madisyn who was one of the 4 victims at a school shooting that happened just up the road from us a couple years ago next month.
Then mom got a chance to photograph me with some playground stuff, but while we were there a big group of high school students arrived to take pictures.
But we met a new friend! Meet Lulu! Her dad was walking her in the park and stopped by to talk. Lulu is a 5 year old mini Australian Shepherd.
Lulu wasn’t that into me, though we did exchange pleasantries. She and her dad wandered away and mom took me over a bridge to the park pavilion for my final portrait of the day.
What do you think? I’m thinking I’m growing into quite the regal young lady.
My last walk (so far) was yesterday. It was rainy outside and mom said we needed to keep training, so she took me for a walk at the Home Depot! Wow, that was a different kind of walk!
First we stayed outside and I checked out the pumpkins. Mom wouldn’t let me buy one, but they still smelled good.
We went inside and I barked at a man getting a cart! Mom said no bark, but geeze, that cart place was super noisy!
We heeled around the aisles a whole bunch. I was a little squirrely at first, but eventually I settled down. We did sits and stays too. Everybody smiled at me but no one asked to pet me. I guess they knew I was working.
Then on our way out mom introduced me to some tall dude in a red suit. I was not at all sure about him, no siree!
Mom said I did really good at the busy store. I slept all the way home. And now she says I am going on an epic walk this Sunday!
Well gee, mom, I’m not sure the nice people want to hear about another walk of mine. You better be at the top of your game if you want me to share that one with them too!
Anyway, I need a snack and then a nap. In that order. I can’t wait to see where you all go on your Walktobers! Mom says she has no idea where she’s going to do her walk because she’s so busy taking me places! As it should be.
Hee, hee, hee.
-Your Walktober girl,
Penny.
Don’t forget Walktober this year!
As you read in a previous post, Robin is a little busy so I’ll be collecting your Walktober adventures this year.
If you’re new to the concept of Walktober, it’s pretty simple. Sometime between October 15 and the 28th go on a walk (or a bike ride, or a boat ride, or a car ride, or a jog, or a hike, or climb a mountain, or explore a town or show us your backyard!), take a few (or a lot) of pictures and show us around your part of the world by writing a post and linking it to my official Walktober post.
I’ll be posting the official start to Walktober on October 15th. But if you want to walk earlier, feel free to link it to this one! I’ll find it.
And sometime not too long after October 28th I’ll write a post with all the links to your walks, so that everyone can see where everyone else went! And if you need some more time, just let me know. I’ll wait to post that last compilation till you get yours written.
I can’t wait to see where you all go. I haven’t decided where to take my official walk. So many options, so little time!
Stay tuned!
Pictures in this post are from Shiawasee Nature Preserve, a walk taken a few years ago. I figured you wouldn’t mind seeing them again.
Penny practices posing
Hey guys!
Mom is busy doing stuff that doesn’t involve me so I stole her laptop. I don’t think she’ll even notice unless one of you snitches on me. Which I’m sure you won’t.
So anyway, it hasn’t always been this way with her being so busy. She’s been taking me to a lot of parks lately.
She says the weather is just perfect, a little cooler, but sunny skies and the trees are just starting to change colors.
She says we can’t waste days like this, so she’s been taking me to a new place almost every day, and I thought you might like to see.
Mostly she’s been training me to pose for her. I wasn’t so sure of this concept at first.
But eventually I figured out that after I pose I get a treat, and that big black thing in front of her face isn’t really scary after all.
Plus I talked to my Angel Sister Katie who told me that treats were an integral part of park visiting and especially posing. I think I’m getting it!
But I could always use more practice, so I’m bugging mom every day to take me somewhere. I find that poking her hard in the knee works pretty good. If you have any other suggestions let me know.
I’m not above taking good advice, no I am not!
Talk later, your professional poser, Penny-girl.
Wanna come play?
Hi everybody! It’s me, Penny!
Mom’s been off doing adventure stuff without me a lot this summer. But don’t worry, I’ve been having lots of fun right here at home.
I have the best backyard and I thought you all might want to come over and play with me!
OK…so maybe it’s not fenced in so it’s a little scary for you humans, especially if we doggies don’t come right back when we’re called.
I mean, I try to do my recalls, but sometimes, especially lately while I’m going through what mom calls my obstinate teenage years, I forget.
Anyway, one of my most favorite things to do is to chase this little frisbee my dad bought for me.
I don’t always bring it back to them, but I sure love to chase it. And sometimes I surprise mom or dad and come running back with it!
Of course I don’t actually give them the frisbee, they have to come get it. After all, I need to maintain the hierarchy around here.
Anyway, I thought you’d all like to see my backyard, and especially me! Mom says it’s not always all about me, though I can’t imagine why not.
Can you?
Heads up, it’s almost Walktober time!
I look forward to it every year. Hosted by Robin over at Breezes at Dawn, it’s so much fun to go for a walk and take a picture or two (or more if you’re me), blog about it and share it with others who are also out there taking walks and documenting what October looks like in their part of the world.
This year Robin needed a little help so I’m going to host our annual Walktober for her. That just means that I’ll be collecting all your posts and will put publish a blog after we’re all done with links to everyone’s walk descriptions.
How about we say the official dates of our Walktober will be October 15 through the 28th? Of course things are pretty informal around here so if you need some extra time just let me know and I’ll wait for you. And of course you can go on your adventure prior to the 15th too!
Even more important, it doesn’t even have to be a WALK! You could roller skate, or go on a bike ride, or ride a horse, or take a drive with your windows rolled down. You could climb a mountain, or dive down to a corral reef. Show us your city, or your countryside, or a favorite river or lake. Explore your own yard or travel to another country, it’s all fodder for a Walktober post.
Just get out there and show us your world.
Go on your adventure, write about it and include photos if you want to, and then link back to my blog. I’ll post an official kickoff on the 15th of October and you can link to that. But if you accidently link to something else let me know and I’ll go collect it!
We can’t wait to see what you choose to do! Happy Walktober!
Under an umbrella of stars
A few days ago 3 other intrepid women photographers and I ventured forth to a new destination, Big Sable Lighthouse, at Ludington State Park.
We were, of course, looking for a dark place to shoot the Milky Way. We are all members of an online Milky Way photography class, though most of us had never met in person.
We put this particular adventure together quickly, with a barrage of text messages flying between us, when we realized there was a clear night coming up. Then, the day before, someone did some research and messaged the group — “Do you know there’s a 2 mile walk out to the lighthouse?”
Uhhhh, no, no we did not know that. This caused a bigger flurry of messaging and then someone finally just booked a campsite for us all at the park and we decided to go for it.
We had a beautiful night for our adventure, and the walk was shorter from the campground than from the lighthouse parking lot, only 1.5 miles through the woods and dunes. And of course 1.5 miles back in the dark, but underneath a star packed sky.
Our biggest obstacle turned out not to be the getting there but the lights that surround the lighthouse. There is a big streetlight shining in front, and an obnoxiously orange light in back making the whole back of the lighthouse and most of the grounds glow neon.
According to our apps the Milky Way, now pretty vertical, would be right alongside the tower about 10 p.m. We were convinced it would be a stunning shot.
If it weren’t for the orange light…and that big tree.
So we did the best we could with the lighthouse itself and then we spread out across the beach looking for other interesting things.
There was a gentle breeze sweeping away the bugs and the stars were hanging above us and no one was in any kind of hurry to leave.
When we finally did begin to pack up around midnight I noticed my backpack was pretty wet from condensation. I began to realize the trouble I had had focusing on the stars, or anything for that matter, might have been because I had condensation on my lens.
Condensation which would have been eliminated if I had put my lens heater on the camera at the start. The lens heater I bought the week before and lugged 1.5 miles out to the beach, but left in my backpack.
Yep. One more lesson in a whole list of lessons I’ve learned on this Milky Way journey.
As a side note, there’s been quite a bit of death tangent to my life this past week. Not people directly tied to me, exactly, but people important to people important to me. I guess the heavens gained a few more stars.
Late that night while listening to the lake murmur and wandering the dunes, watching the Milky Way slide across the sky I noted the newcomers.
And then we all walked back to camp under the umbrella of the starry night, content in our imperfect images, happy that we went, ready to do it again the next clear, moonless night.
Imperfect perfection.
Almost lost track
I took myself to Kensington a week or maybe more ago, hoping to get some great bird photos. There’s always something to see out there, and the warblers are migrating, so maybe…I hoped.
But the entire time I was at the park I had camera lens focus issues.
My images were so bad I almost forgot about them. But regardless of the quality, I’ll share with you the best of what I consider a pretty sad batch of images, just because no matter what I capture, even if it’s not much of anything new, I’m always glad I went to Kensington.
And I’m always glad to share with you my adventures, as tame as they often are.
A lot of the time on this walk I took pictures of plants. Because, as I told one photographer last year who was noticing me focusing on berries instead of birds, plants don’t move.
In fact, this trip to Kensington I spent most of my time looking at the way light played in the dark woods.
Turns out it plays rather well, don’t you think?
But of course the birds kept bringing me back as they hovered over me, sometimes landing on my camera lens, asking for something to eat. They are very persistent.
It’s pretty hard to ignore them, even if you aren’t happy with the images you’re getting.
Sometimes I just feed them and don’t even bother trying to capture the magic.
Other times the birds and the light work together and I get something interesting.
I had so much trouble on this walk through the woods, capturing anything the way I wanted to, it got discouraging.
Focusing on plants as a last resort I wandered some more.
I eventually decided it just wasn’t going to be my day, and headed back toward the car.
But just before I got to the parking lot I saw one more trail, one that headed out to where I sometimes saw unusual stuff. It wasn’t a long trail.
Maybe it was worth a bit more walking.
And there I found a dead tree, quite a ways away, but full of some sort of woodpecker family.
I thought it might be a group of red headed woodpeckers. The light made it difficult to see anything but silhouettes. But looking at the images later I saw the yellow on the underside of a wing, and I believe this was a flicker family.
Regardless, they were very busy hopping around the tree looking for bugs and flitting from branch to branch.
And while I was focused on them I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye, way down at the other end of the bridge. Something fliting around the touch-me-not flowers, far from where I was standing.
I shot blindly, not seeing anything in my viewfinder…
…but hoping for something. And the most beautiful female hummingbird showed up when I looked at the images at home.
She sure made me smile.
And then there was a noise on the other side of the bridge and I found this little female common yellowthroat. She made my day!
So the moral of my story is don’t give up. Walk down that little extra trail even if all you’ve had before is disappointment.
You never know what you’ll find. It could be magic.
And Kensington never disappoints.
