Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Spring


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When a three night reservation turns into two.

Six months ago I reserved a campsite on the shores of Lake Huron during a new moon cycle, intent on doing some Milky Way photography. Many years ago Katie and I camped at this state park and I remembered a lighthouse located just a few miles north that might work for night photography.

This is the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse.

My sister drove all the way up from Alabama just to go with me on this photography adventure. Last Monday we set out early in the day so that we had time to scout out the lighthouse location for potential night shots.

My sister noticed this split in color on the lake.

You see, the weather didn’t look promising beyond Monday night. That’s what happens when you have to book something months out. Weather is always the unknown element. We expected a clear night Monday, but rain and cold Tuesday and Wednesday.

We discussed going back home Tuesday if it was miserable.

Monday was a beautiful day.

And we knew we’d only have one night to get the Milky Way. So we needed to be ready.

The lighthouse was just as I remembered it, standing tall on the shores of the Great Lake. We wandered the beach looking for something interesting to put in the foreground.

The bench might look fun under the Milky Way.

Eventually we decided we needed to be quite a bit behind the lighthouse in order to be shooting Southeast where the Milky Way would be. We found a place that might work, tucked low behind a small dune, and made a big X in the sand so we could find the spot in the darkness of 2 a.m., our planned shoot time.

Probably not this angle though.

Then we explored other places on the site, including Baily School which wasn’t open, but we got an interesting shot through the window anyway.

A school room from back in the day.

We wandered down the beach to the south, thinking maybe the rocks out in the water might be interesting. Even if we didn’t end up shooting there at night, they made a nice, minimal, image in the sunshine we were enjoying.

Maybe we could light paint this rock.

Eventually it was time to go check into the campground. If all three days were as nice as Monday we’d have a wonderful time. If only.

Our campsite, right on the shore, was small, but we managed to make it work.

Maybe the weather forecasts were wrong.

We did note that of the handful of people camping along the shore we were the only ones in tents. Perhaps we were a touch too early in the camping season.

The view from our camp site looked promising.

Not to worry, we each had electric blankets and we were confident that we’d be fine. This was not our first spring camping experience.

Our beach. Though it was too cold to swim.

So…you might ask…what happened on Monday night? Did we leave our nice warm, snuggly beds to drive up to the lighthouse at 2 in the morning? Or did the waves lapping on the shore lull us back to sleep after our alarms rang?

Stop! Don’t drive into the lake!

I guess you’ll have to wait and see.


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We’re behind!

Hey everybody! It’s me Penny.

Mom says we haven’t had internet for a million years. Ok, maybe it only FELT like a million years, maybe it was just about a week.

Mom told me to sit on this bench. So I did.

Anyway I’ve been to lots and lots of parks lately ’cause mom and dad are getting stuff done on the house and I tend to bark a lot while stuff is being done on the house.

But mom! I’m not sure about sitting next to a BOY!

Plus mom says it’s really nice to have the time to go to parks and work on my behavior issues. Seriously mom? Does it look like I have behavior issues?

Deuce seemed to tolerate my curiosity, but I don’t think he was thrilled to sit next to a GIRL either.

I didn’t think so.

Mom says she has some really nice pictures of me that she will share with you once she gets them edited and stuff. Which could be a million years from now.

Or a about a week.

Pictures in this post were taken by my Aunt Karen, Deuce’s mom.

Hard telling with mom.

Signing off for now, your photography model and exemplary citizen,

Penny.


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Bird saga continues

A couple weeks ago I introduced a friend to the bird magic that is Kensington. You saw the angst with the red headed woodpecker, but there were other bird shenanigans that morning. For instance there was this grackle dad and teenager who seemed not to agree about something very important.

“Hey dad, can I have the keys to the car tonight?“
“No! Your legs aren’t even long enough to reach the pedals!“
“I never get to do ANYTHING!“
“And don’t ask me again!”

Soon dad will be busy with a new brood and teenager will get more freedom. But until then, from the looks of jr’s face, there are more ‘discussions’ in the wind.


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Bird tails

I was at Kensington last week. We were lucky enough to find the red-headed woodpecker and his friends on this walk.

They don’t care about you, dove, they just want to see me!

Hey, settle down woodpecker, they left enough stuff for all of us.

Yea, I guess you’re right. I feel bad about my behavior now.

Sorry, man. Help yourself.

We can still be friends…right?

Hey blackbird, I was just telling the dove that there’s enough for everybody.

I’ll just take mine to go.

Sometimes I forget it’s not all about me.


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Karma’s photo challenge – signs of spring around here

As usual, spring in Michigan is a mixed bag. Since we had 60 (15.5C) degree and sometimes higher temperatures in February we were owed several days or even weeks of temperatures in the 30s, (-1.11 C) sometimes lower, in March. With wind and snow to make everything feel extra special.

Still, signs of spring persist even here.

The first sounds of spring, the thing that solidifies the concept of spring for me every year, are the red-winged blackbirds. They announce their arrival loudly with a very distinctive call.

Feathers puffed up to keep warm in our 30 degree windy spring mornings.

I usually hear them before I see them. But a day or so after I hear them singing over in the swamp they will have found my feeder. They come in mass and gobble up everything, much to the dismay of the smaller birds.

“Hey! Do you have food over there?”

They’ve been around for a few weeks now and are disgusted, just as we all were, with that last snow storm.

And when I see my goldfinches start to turn yellow – well – than spring is well and truly on the way. It seems that one day they are all olive drab, and the next day the males are sprouting gold spots.

Diving for goodies fallen from the feeder

And then suddenly those show-offs are entirely, brilliant, yellow.

Almost in full summer uniform.

In fact yellow seems to be the color of spring. Between the daffodils, which are the only spring flowers we can have due to our hardy deer population…

Evening light warms up a chilly spring day.

…to the forsythia in the back yard…

Ok, the forsythia isn’t in bloom here yet, I forced a few sprigs of it to brighten up my kitchen.

…to the cowslips in the nearby woods…

A definite sign that spring has sprung.

…if you see an abundance of yellow around these parts you can almost guarantee spring has sprung.

No guarantees in March, no siree, not around here!

Almost.

Thanks, Karma, for hosting this photo challenge! I remain hopeful that that last snow was our last snow. If you know what I mean.