Fun filled week, will post later!
Wordless Wednesday – Family visit!
Tag Archives: summer
Nothing to see here
What to say, what to say. There’s nothing happening around here, yet I feel a need to share photos with you. Photos of regular life in summer here in Michigan.
Little League at Katie’s park under a summer sky.
The grass is growing, the birds are sucking down food from the feeders, trees are fully leafed out and the afternoon skies are often filled with clouds.
It’s been pretty amazing.
Though we’ve seen lots of storm clouds we’re really short on rain. The yard is already turning brown. Watering the gardens will soon be a daily if not twice a day ritual. We’re not even to July yet.
No rain in these clouds.
It’s finally warm enough at night to camp and Katie and I have been on one adventure, but plan on scheduling a few more before the leaves start to turn. It’s still an adventure if it’s scheduled – right?
Hey mama! No rainfly!
For now we’re enjoying the air conditioning and watching the oriole feeder right up next to the window. Lots of things besides orioles visit.
Got any more oranges lady?
They all apparently watch for me to fill the feeder and then rush in to get their share. Or more than their share, depending on their size and boldness.
There you go Mr. Woodpecker!
The flowers have been beautiful so far this season. But now we’re moving into the dry heat of summer so we’ll see. A lot will depend on our watering habits.
Lantana smiles every day.
Really, so little to say, so much to show you. Guess I need to take you on a more formal walk sometime. Lots of beautiful places to go; what would be your choice? A lake? A woodsy park? The back yard? A bike path?
Wonder where that path goes?
All good choices, but each will require me to leave my comfy chair. And I can’t do any of them until I get some weeding done.
Still weeding is better than working a job…so I can’t complain.
Katie can, and does, but it’s all in fun.
Hey mama!
Shelties know how to paw-tee!!
Paw-TEE!
Katie here. I’ve had to bug and bug and bug mama to let me tell you about the Sheltie get together held over at one of my parks. Mama says there are more important things to write about and it’s not my blog, but as we all know there is nothing more important than me, and of course this is my blog!
Mama is getting old and a bit senile if you ask me.
Anyway. Last Sunday was the 2nd annual Sheltie Meet and Greet. Maybe you were even there! If I didn’t get to meet you I’m sorry. I did stay a little stand offish; being a princess and all I let people stop by to meet me! I didn’t do too much mixing and mingling because it was very hot and mama knows I can get a bit cranky when I’m hot. And I don’t allow any butt sniffing either. No way. A princess does not tolerate that at all and I tend to snap at any doggie that tries. So mama didn’t let most dogs get too close.
Lots of sniffing going on. I did not partake.
Mama said the party was all about the people getting to see all the gorgeous dogs and less about us dogs getting to meet and play. I think she’s delusional.
A special sheltie.
My goodness there were a lot of beautiful dogs! Ninety shelties said they’d be there and bring their people. We didn’t count, but there sure were a lot!
There was plenty of ear skritching…
That’s the spot!
…and tummy tickling.
Don’t stop!
I got to visit for a few minutes with Cookie and Zohan and their folks. We met them at last year’s sheltie party. They were just as calm and collected as I remembered, hanging out with their parents in the shade.
Going with the flow, hanging out with mom and dad.
And I met a new friend named Blue and his mom. He was calm too and we liked hanging out together.
Hey! Got anything to eat?
But you know what I did? (Seems like I always do something at these things that embarrasses mama.) Blue’s mom got him a piece of doggie cake, and when she put his plate on the ground he was sort of sniffing it and nibbled off a little piece, just testing you know? And I swooped in and grabbed the whole piece and gulped it down!
I’m sorry Blue. I shouldn’t have eaten your cake.
All I left him were a few crumb! Mama was mortified. I was lucky Blue didn’t bite my nose off, but all he did was calmly lick up the crumbs. He even stayed my friend. Mama says I should apologize right now, so I will. But geeze mama, why didn’t you just go and get him another piece! No excuses that it didn’t occur to you, mama. As I said, you’re starting to get senile.
Blue was a gentleman, and even after I stole his cake we were able to settle down together and watch all the other shelties. It’s a comfortable friendship.
Hanging out together.
I had a good time, other than when we all marched up to a hill to get a group picture. It was so hot I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to sit in the sun. I didn’t want to be next to a whole lot of other shelties and people I didn’t know.
See me sitting by myself over there toward the left? Mama was taking a picture!!
Mama didn’t make me sit there very long. We got up and walked back down the hill, I went to sit under a picnic table in the shade and mama took more pictures. I’m a good girl and sat patiently under that table while she tried to get the whole group in one shot.
Only part of the group.
It was impossible. There were just way too many people and beautiful dogs. Shelties of every size and color…
Big and little, sable and blue and tri and more.
…every face was beautiful…
Such a sweet face.
…every dog was adorable…
Want to play?
…and lots of fun was had by all.
Can’t stop grinning!
I didn’t play at all, and only interacted with a couple dogs, but I enjoyed watching the rest of them greet each other….
Emily Ann, the rock star, meets Harvey one of the greeters.
….and play with each other…
Attack!!!!
…still, I had a good time. I want to thank the organizers and hosts, Linda and Ty, and anybody else that had a hand (or paw) in putting this together. I know it was a lot of work and I appreciate you giving me a chance to take my mama to my park and hang out with so many other nice dogs and people!
Look at all these shelties mama!
Mama is always coming up with something new to do and I appreciate her effort. But I think our next adventure should include air conditioning. Can you work on that mama?
I’ll go take a nap now in preparation.
Love ya mama!
Cee’s black & white photo challenge: Buildings
One World Trade Center in New York City
An amazing building, on a beautiful summer day.
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Sculpture
Our Lady Liberty, from our trip last summer to NYC. She’s the biggest sculpture I’ve ever stood next to.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Chaos
New York City can be pretty chaotic. It’s a city that can chew you up and spit you out, and by the end of my ten day stay last July I was exhausted.
Near the end of our visit we rode the Staten Island Ferry over to the island and back. It was a relaxing trip, and I expected to get some nice night shots of the city.
But the vibration from the huge engine deep within the ship caused everything on board to vibrate too. Including me and my camera. So versions of this is what I got.
I was disappointed, but didn’t delete all the blurry images. Some of them were kind of cool and I figured I’d find a use for them. And even if I didn’t, looking at these reminds me of the boat trip across the warm night water, of the floor vibrating beneath my feet, the rails shaking under my hand, the lights shimmering along the shore.
And I think this particular shot provides a beautiful and impressionistic image of the chaos that is New York City.
It’s early in this challenge, but here are a few of my favorite chaos entries so far.
You have time to play along, this challenge continues until next Friday. Look around. I bet each one of you has a bit of chaos in your life! Show it to us, it might reduce it to fun for a moment.
And that’s worth a lot.
Staten Island orange.
A man and his dog
A walk on the beach with a dog.
And then I noticed them. A man walking his dog on the beach. The dog was having fun trying to pull a stick out of the dune. They were quite far from me, even using my zoom lens, so most of the rest of these photos are cropped.
“I want this stick Dad!”
The dog wanted that big stick real bad. He pulled and pulled but just couldn’t get it loose. So his Dad gave him a hand.
Thanks Dad!
Turns out it’s a huge stick! Way bigger than he was! But what a stick! So much fun to run with it!
Mine mine mine mine mine!
Along the way the dog enticed his Dad to play. And it usually worked.
Tug! It’s a wonderful game!
But most fun of all was running triumphantly down the beach with his stick.
This is the jackpot of sticks!
They were moving toward me, I was walking toward them, shooting picture after picture.
Try to keep up Dad!
Finally we met, on the beach in front of the house where I was staying. I got to talk to the man and admire his dog. The dog kept playing with the stick. He was a very very happy dog.
No time to talk lady!
And then the two of them wandered past me down the beach, stopping to play at the edge of the water.
Having fun in a beautiful place.
It was so much fun to watch them.
Come on Dad!
And it made me realize it was time to go home to my own Katie-girl.
Moving along.
Something about that sky
Many of you know that I love the photographic work of Snap Happy Gal. If you study her images you’ll note that the sky is often a big part of the picture; her clouds low and robust, the light always mesmerizing. I can spot her work on Facebook even before I check to see who posted.
Sky is a big deal to me too. So on my drive up to Northport yesterday I noticed when the heavy dark clouds rolled in as I navigated morning rush hour through Flint. And how they rolled and twisted as I reached the flat land near Bay City.
Farmland anticipates rain.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to get off the freeway and see what I could catch. I thought to myself as I drove the back roads – “This is a Snap Happy sky.”
There’s a big lake just past Grayling and it always catches my attention. This trip was no exception as the clouds kept rolling in. I had to stop.
Dark and stormy Lake Margrethe
And so it was, and continues to be this morning, here on the big lake. Lake Michigan swells quietly beneath an ominous sky, caught between summer and autumn.
Summer leaves reluctantly.
Living in a wide open space you can watch the weather approaching. It’s almost like watching it on radar, the way the clouds move across the water. But it’s better than radar because you can actually feel the changes — you’re surrounded, as if you’re sitting in the biggest 360 degree 3D movie theater in the world.
A clear blue sky would be boring.
I think it’s possible we’ll have clouds for all three days of my visit. Some people might be sad at the lack of sun and blue sky.
Me? I’m thinking this is going to be cool!
Evening quiets.
Wordless Wednesday
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Change Is Hard 