Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Michigan


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Cats in Northport and other tales

I spent a week at the beginning of October in Northport Michigan. It was an idyllic week, filled with brilliant blue skies, warm temperatures, aqua water and cats.

On the way, this was the most color I saw all week.

I was there to hang out with a couple of mischievous cats that belong to friends of mine who were taking some time to travel. They were off having fun and I was having fun in their space and with their cats.

A moment of peace before the crazy.

The cats, a boy and a girl, were adorable and I have more pictures of them than the beautiful place I was living.

You’re not looking at me…are you?

I can tell you that cats are as hard to photograph as birds. You see a great image, grab your phone and by then they have moved. Multiple times.

Don’t bother me, I’m hunting.

The best and easiest time to photograph cats is when they’re asleep.

Snoring next to my buddy.

Which, if I’m honest, they did almost as much as they caused mischief.

I like to match my backdrop.

Aside from the cats I also got to enjoy the beautiful area.

Though I didn’t go on long nature walks this trip, I did wander around the village of Northport, looking for color.

Above the road on the way into downtown.

After all, this could be my Walktober, showing you the cute little town of Northport is, right?

Color, color everywhere.

There were plenty of flowers still blooming. I was particularly smitten with these California poppies, blooming away on a corner.

Hanging on into fall.

And the asters were beautiful as well. Purple and pink, blooming in front of storefronts.

Seasonal color.

Though the downtown itself is only a few blocks long I found plenty of interesting stuff to photograph.

Unsure why a skunk, but he demanded to be photographed.

It’s a tiny town, but it’s also a close knit community.

If I liked beer I would have stopped in.

I think it’s probably a town where everybody pretty much knows everybody else. I didn’t talk to anyone during my visit, I just wandered and took pictures.

Not open the day I was wandering or I definitely would have stopped in.

It was so warm it felt like a lovely summer afternoon. There were lots of people out and about, waiting in line for pizza, sitting at outdoor dining areas of restaurants.

Come sit for a minute and enjoy the October sun.

While I got images of most of the village, I know that I missed at least an entire block, as well as the marina. Of course that just gives me an excuse to go back up for another visit soon!

Come on up and sit for awhile!

I hope you enjoyed our short walk through Northport.

When I left, very early on a Tuesday morning (in order to get home in time to attend band rehearsal) it was still dark.

I was taken by the glowing orbs in the trees as I entered town.

I loved the reflections in the puddle.

And then I walked around the darkened streets and caught a few more images of Northport asleep.

Resting before the next round of customers.

I liked doing that as much as I had enjoyed my daylight walk.

Only the witch, the full moon and I were out and about that morning.

I hope you did too.

So..was this my Walktober? I don’t know. There’s another one to show you, but I don’t have the photos ready to go yet. We’ll see.

Meanwhile you still have a couple weeks to do your very own Walktober. Take a walk, a drive, a ride, a hop, skip or jog. Take a photo or two or three, write a post and link it to the official Walktober post (see link above) and I’ll put them all together in one place in early November.

Let’s see what you’ve been up to!

The cats want to know.

Whatcha been doing, people?


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OH NO!

I’ve been junco’d! I say that every year.

When I see the first junco my heart drops but it also fills. Which seems a thought at odds with itself, doesn’t it?

Dark eyed juncos are only here for the winter months. And they are the first harbingers of winter, so my heart drops. But they are also adorable little round birds, and they will hop around under the feeders all winter, delighting us with their antics. So my heart fills that they’ve chosen my yard again.

No matter that the red winged blackbirds, the sign of spring and summer, are still here eating me out of house and black oiler seed before their trips south. No matter that we had temps approaching 75 degrees F yesterday (23.33 C) and will most likely again today.

Winter is on the way. Proof, a junco arrived today. Time to get out the winter coats, find the snow shovel, and check the antifreeze in the cars.

Welcome Mr. (or Ms.) Junco. I’m glad to see you again, but did you have to arrive so early?

PS: The pictures aren’t in focus. I was a long way away, and this little one popped up on the driveway, almost blending in with the asphalt. Still, I can’t fool myself into thinking it’s a sparrow. Can you?


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Baltimore orioles for a little bit longer

Every summer we are lucky enough to have orioles visit our feeder. They never stay long enough, many adults leave sometime in mid to late August which seems too early.

This lady serves gormet grape jelly!

The juveniles stick around a couple more weeks, eating the jelly as fast as they can.

What do you mean I have to feed myself?

Even though the youngsters are pretty, I always miss the adults.

You’d think the lady would put a roof over our lunch!

But last year and this year, after quite a long break without seeing any adults, I’ve had adult males and on occassion an adult female stop by the feeder in late August!

You shut up! No YOU shut up!

I’m always excited when, long after I think they’re gone, they show up for a few more days.

I need to grab a snack before those two come back!

I guess they’re fueling up for their trip south to Florida, or Central America. That seems like such a long flight I can’t imagine.

I thought I’d check out the finch food. Not as good as jelly.

And it seems even harder to imagine the youngsters being successful at the trip on their own. I wonder if families reunite once everybody is down there or if once they leave they’re leaving their family forever.

You’re not my mom!

I know they’re gearing up to leave me. But I bought a big jar of jelly this week, hoping they’re around long enough to finish it all.

Thanks lady, see you next year!


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Camping objectives

Sometimes I go camping just to have a few days away from everyday responsibilities. Time to nap and read and snack and daydream.

Just one exit up the road from home.

Sometimes I go camping with a specific goal in mind. I’m hoping to get that perfect Milky Way image, or find a new bird to photograph, or see a part of the state I haven’t seen before.

My favorite site at this campground.

Last week, at the last minute, I got to reserve 3 nights in my favorite campsite at the local state park. It’s a spot where Katie and I camped many times. This trip I hoped to introduce Penny to campground noises.

“Did I hear something over there, mom?”

She’d been there for a couple visits last year, but it was all overwhelming to her, and even with her dad and me right there she was pretty nervous about all the people and cars and noisy trucks with trailers driving by.

“Hey! What’s my tent doing out here in the woods, mom?”

This year she’s older and wiser and a little bit calmer. Though she still looked when noisy things including people with their dogs walked by, she didn’t automatically come undone.

“I’ll just stay real close, OK mom?”

She was only visiting me for a few hours each day, and while she was there we took plenty of walks around the campground, letting her sniff the vacant spots…

“I approve of this one, mom.”

…and moving swiftly past those occupied.

“Nothing to see here, just protecting my bikes.”

She even got to walk past a couple of pitbulls and their flustered dad. She was a rockstar.

See them coming around the corner up there? Penny’s tail was already up in alarm and I didn’t notice them until they were much closer. She knew right away. She never barked, she just heeled with me right by them.

We spent about an hour on her second visit inside the tent as evening fell. I think she would have been fine spending the night in the tent if I had insisted. But she was a little restless after an hour and if I’m honest, I wasn’t looking forward to packing up in the morning with her on site.

“I guess this is OK mom. But daddy has air conditioning and a bed. Just sayin.”

It takes me an hour to pack up without the distraction of a curious dog. But next time, if she’s willing I think we’ll spend the night in the tent. Maybe she’ll begin to understand it’s all an adventure and mom’s got her back.

“Umm, excuse me mother, let me be clear. I’m not taking a shower.”

The other reason I jumped at a chance to camp at this site is the opportunity to photograph birds. Every time I’ve been at site 16 there have been birds flitting around. Their images are hard to capture, they’re not like Kensington birds, posing for treats.

A really poor image of a cardinal that swooped in and then out.

These birds are never happy when they stop by and you’re at their site. I sat for hours, still in my chair, camera ready, and didn’t catch a good look at one bird, though I heard redstarts and vireos and wrens all around me.

Mostly I got bird imposters like these brown leaves.

Then this guy bounced out of the underbrush.

A gorgeous brown thrush.

After looking at me he hopped up on a vine with his back to me. In a moment, though, he turned his head to make sure I got the shot, and then he took off.

“Did you get my good side, lady?”

I smiled, at least I got one decent image of a bird!

And then I noticed this little red squirrel looking a bit worse for wear. She skittered around the campsite and then disappeared.

A skinny little red squirrel.

While I’m looking for her, tossing a few blueberries in the direction she ran, a opportunistic chipmunk showed up, very happy with the blueberry offering.

“Hey lady! You got anything to spare?”

Meanwhile Ms. red squirrel, apparently a tired mom, was up in a tree at the edge of the campsite, happily chowing down on a nut.

Nom, nom, nom…

She was happy until she noticed the chipmunk was feasting on blueberries.

A special treat!

That seemed to make her very unhappy. She watched the chipmunk more carefully. I tossed a few more blueberries. She was conflicted.

“Wait! Those blueberries were for ME!”

And then she ran as fast as she could down that tree and back out into the site where she scored a blueberry of her own.

“That chipmunk got one, but he’s not going to get the rest!”

It all made me smile.

Camping generally makes me smile, even when it rains, which it inevitably does at least one day on every camping adventure. At least this time it was overnight. And in the morning the sun rose again.

Another beautiful morning.

Time to get packing and head home. A little fuzzy girl was waiting for me to provide her next adventure. She’s kind of demanding that way. I don’t mind.

Another adventure in the books.

Till next time, site 16. Thanks for the new memories.

Camping art.


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Penny says

Hi everybody! It’s me, your best girl Penny!

Mom gave me permission to write on her blog this time. She says she wasn’t even going to bring this up. And she doesn’t want to talk about it. So now it’s up to me.

You see mom and I have been working really, really hard on obedience. At first I tried my darndest to get her to be more obedient, but that wasn’t working, so I decided maybe I could get more treats if I tried to be more obedient myself.

A girl can grow intellectually even when she’s already full grown physically.

So anyway, mom and I have been practicing in my basement training room and out at a friend’s training barn. I like training a lot. When mom starts chopping up cheese I get all excited and run to the top of the basement stairs, ready to run down to my cheese training room as soon as mom turns the lights on down there.

Then mom and I went to a ‘fun’ run on Sunday, to see if what I am learning would translate to an obedience trial setting. Mom was pretty sure we’d do OK, maybe not perfect, but definitely OK.

Mom was wrong.

I didn’t like the noisy place with all the other dogs and when it was my turn I wanted to run somewhere safe, and I forgot how to heel and I certainly didn’t remember I was supposed to sit when mom stopped. Mom, for her part couldn’t read the signs right and was flustered with my inattention and tripped over her own feet.

And when it came to my recall, when I get to run to mom (I love running to mom) I decided it was safer if I just made myself as small as possible and sat very still. Very very still. On my behind. Not moving.

Even when mom moved closer and offered me cheese.

Mom says she was very discouraged and also worried about me because I was so scared and she felt bad for putting me into a scary situation.

But then!

The next day she took me to the groomer! What was she thinking. After that I got really mad at her and barked at her all the way home.

And then!

We went to my Rally class in my regular building last night and in between running rally courses mom took me to a back room and we heeled enthusiastically and I sat when she stopped and I did three different recalls almost perfectly.

So mom thinks I’m OK and not scared anymore. Which is good because the real obedience trial is this coming Saturday.

Mom says it’s very possible we will still NQ (Not qualify) but she says that’s OK as long as I’m not scared and get used to working in different places. She says this is not a sprint. She says it’s a marathon. I don’t even know what that means.

I’d like to remind mom that I’m still a puppy. (I’m going to milk that concept as long as possible!) And that I love her and daddy and I want to be a good girl. Sometimes I just need more time.

SO… please think about mom and me on Saturday afternoon!

PS: Pictures are stuff mom took of not me in my yard. Silly mom. I’m still the prettiest thing around.