Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: summer


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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge

I’ve been trying to figure out how to convert photos to black and white for a long time. Maybe years. Oh, not constantly – just when I see something I think would look better in black and white. I have Adobe Photoshop and it should be easy, but I’ve frequently poked around there searching without any luck. So I did what I’ve heard lots of people do when they get stumped about something.

I went to YouTube.

Apparently people are right; you can find instructions for anything there. After watching a couple videos, and going back to figure out exactly which version of Photoshop I had, I figured out the basics. Then I tinkered around a bit more and came up with this:

Still working on the farm.

Still working on the farm.

It seems to fit in perfectly with Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge, specifically a shot of something with an engine.

This old farm truck sits out by the road advertising events held at the farm. Soon it will be pumpkin picking time. Seems too early doesn’t it, but seasons come and seasons go.

This old workhorse has seen a lot of them, and I think it remains beautiful, and certainly photo worthy, no matter what the season.


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Bet you miss me!

Katie here. I bet you’ve missed me a whole bunch cause my mama won’t let me blog very often. She says it’s not all about me. Whatever do you think she’s talking about? Everything is all about me! Anyway since she’s sleeping in after our big adventure I thought I’d just hijack this blog and tell you all about it. Hurry, she could wake up any minute!

Last Tuesday mama started packing stuff in the car. Well! Last time she did that she left without me, so I made sure to stay underfoot all the time so she didn’t forget me. And guess what? Next thing I know I’m in my crate and we’re on our way!

Ready for take off mama!

Ready for take off mama!

We didn’t drive for very long and we ended up here at my favorite campground. We had a big campsite all to ourselves, and it had lots of grass for me to sniff! It was a pretty campsite, though not as private as the last place we camped. Still, I liked it a lot. So did my mama.

This is my tent. I let my mama share it.

This is my camp. I let my mama share it.

Mama set up the tent. I have my own bed and pillows. I like pillows on top of my bed because I can see out of my own private window better. And because I’m a princess. But just to make mama laugh I often sleep next to my princess bed. On the floor. Without pillows. Cause I’m a crazy camping girl and always do what I want regardless of what mama thinks is good for me.

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?


I do that outside too. In the morning when the grass is wet mama gives me a towel to hang out on. Just to prove my point I go lay down somewhere else. In the wet grass. Because I can.

I don't need a towel mama!

I don’t need a towel mama!

I don’t think mama understands me at all.

But anyway. We had a lot of fun. I got to go on lots of walks and take lots of naps…well not really a lot of naps. I stayed awake all the time protecting my mama. Yes I did. A camping dog’s responsibilities are very demanding. You have to be very vigilant!

Just resting my eyes.

Just resting my eyes.

Our second night mama says we had a visitor to our campsite. She thinks it was a raccoon. Or a camp monster. It stayed around our tent for at least an hour and mama was kinda upset. I slept through most of it until the ugly smell woke me up. I think the racoon monster needed to take a shower. I barked once at it and lunged at my window, but mama held me and said ‘shhhhhhh’ and so I went back to sleep. It appeared she had it under control and I was tired. Mama was sad because she wanted to go outside right about then to watch for meteorites, but she felt like it was easier to control me while we were inside the tent rather than us being outside with the camp monster. Sigh. At least that’s what she says. Personally I think she was just scared.

Don't be scared mama!

Don’t be scared mama!

I love camping. All you doggies out there — I can’t encourage you enough to get your moms and dads to take you camping! You’ll get to spend quality time with them under the night sky and on walks and just hanging out at the campground! You’ll get to meet other dogs too. You won’t believe how many dogs get to go camping! All kinds! And the smells! Amazing! You’ve just got to try it! Even if you do get a little damp!

Damp curls.

Damp curls.

Yep, I had a wonderful time and as always I was sorry when mama took the tent down. But she says we’ll go camping again someday. Now I have to go take a nap. I’m going to dream of sweet green grass and hundreds of stars in the dark sky and the fresh air blowing the leaves on the trees, and special smells, and lots of love.

Until next time!

Until next time!

Cause that’s camping!!

I took mama's chair.

I took mama’s chair.


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There’s a Christmas card on our bird feeders

I have often thought, as I watch the birds visit our feeders, that it looks like a familiar Christmas card. You know the one…where a different kind of colorful bird peeks out from behind all the letters in “Happy Holidays!’ on the front? Just a few minutes ago I was reminded of that card again and went to get the camera, moving slowly, carefully, quietly.

If I had gotten the shot this is what you would have seen:

A huge bright red male cardinal lording over the flat feeder, the feeder I had just moments ago filled with black oiler seed. A female, or perhaps a juvenile cardinal, a chickadee, a house finch and a titmouse were all sitting on the feeder with him, some grabbing a seed and flying up to a branch to eat before coming back for more. He didn’t move from his spot. A juvenile oriole and another female cardinal sat on the top of Katie’s kennel a few feet away waiting their turn. A small black and white woodpecker slips in, grabs a seed and departs. The bright orange male oriole swoops down from the trees to the oriole feeder. There is no grape jelly left. He hops to the top of the pole and stares into the window, voicing his displeasure with a quick burst of machine gun chirps. The male cardinal, impatient with all the activity on his feeder systematically chases all the smaller birds away. Most go to sit in a line on Katie’s pen. Waiting. When he’s done gorging himself and flies off the activity on the flat feeder picks up again. Bright yellow goldfinches have stuck to the thistle feeder throughout all the antics. They are pigs. And a female hummingbird zig zags nervously around her own private feeder.

Can you imagine all of that? I hope so because I didn’t have a chance to get the shot.

As soon as I moved to the kitchen and picked up the camera, turning slowly back around to head to the living room Katie woke from her spot in the dining room, raced to my reading chair next to the window, leaped up and commenced to barking. Because if mama is grabbing the camera and heading toward the windows there must be something out there!

So you’ll have to be satisfied with a picture of the princess instead. After all, she says, nothing else is as beautiful.

Yes I know I'm beautiful.

Who;s the prettiest one of all?

Sigh.


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Photogenic farms

As most of you know I love to photograph farms. And on my way back from Northport this week I drove, slowly, through miles and miles of farmland. It was all so beautiful that I was constantly stopping to catch a shot, and there were many more that I didn’t get. Those were recorded only in my memory.

I’ll show you a few of the beautiful farms I saw on my trip home. A trip that usually takes four hours took almost twelve. And I loved every minute of it. I hope you do too.

What is it about barns that are so photogenic? This first one is not far south of Northport itself, still ‘up north.’ I’ve photographed it before, and while I was parked on the side of the road two more cars drove up and stopped.

Tucked into the hills.

Tucked into the hills.

I guess I’m not the only barn lover out there. I especially liked the wild sweet peas blooming in the foreground, and the way the barn is set against the hills behind it.

And with nowhere to turn around to continue on my way I wandered down a back road that dead ended with this view. How could I resist?

Fields of grain.

Fields of grain.

Sometimes getting a bit off track will find you a beautiful place few get to see. I never mind getting lost when I’m out with the camera and unlimited time.

Further downstate (which to you that don’t live here means further south) I came across the windmills. Once again I was on a road I hadn’t planed on traveling. But the faster way home was under construction, so there you go. Another nice surprise.

Making electricity.

Making electricity.

I got off the freeway and drove down empty country roads to get up close.

Power amid the corn,

Power amid the corn,

They are controversial. Some people love them. Others don’t. There’s a hum that comes from them that I suppose could be annoying to those that live under the giant wings. I think they are beautiful, but I think the final vote should be from those that live with them day after day.

As the sun got lower in the sky I couldn’t stop shooting. There was beauty everywhere, and more than once I turned around to go back and get something. Like this tractor in a shorn field set against a wall of clouds.

Resting after a hard days work.

Resting after a hard days work.

And these wagons filled with bales of straw, glowing in the last bits of evening light.

Full up.

Full up.

And who wouldn’t stop and turn around when a field of sunflowers nodding in the late day sun suddenly appeared?

Makes you smile.

Makes you smile.

Even after hours on the road I was sorry when the light and my photo shoot came to an end.

So much beautiful farmland. So little time.

From years past.

From years past.


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Moon over Michigan

This morning I was out early, thanks to Katie the Sheltie-girl, taking pictures of the moon.

Amazing

Amazing

Were you out in your yard looking up at the big full moon this morning too? I wondered, as I stood, feet in the damp grass and a bit of chill in the air, how many other people were out just as the sun was beginning to tip the tops of trees with golden light, all staring up at the beautiful moon shining down on us.

I was busy fiddling with the camera when I heard a flock of geese. I lifted my head just as they flew overhead and thought to myself….”Well..THAT would have been a great shot.”

Noisy moon watchers

Noisy moon watchers

Turns out I got the last couple of them, though I didn’t know it until I looked at the photos long after the sun came up. What you can’t see is that the underside of each of them was rosy with morning sun even though the moon was still hanging low in the sky.

But if you use your imagination you can see it in your heart.

Good morning moon.

Good morning moon.


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Overnight in paradise

Peaceful

Peaceful


I went north to Nortport this week, specifically to listen to Loreen Niewenhuis talk about her latest book “A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Island Adventure.” This is the third in her trilogy of Great Lakes adventures — I loved the first two; the first about her walk around Lake Michigan and the second about her walk on the shores of portions of all five Great Lakes.

Her talk was excellent and I can’t wait to read the new book. I opened it at random in three places last night and laughed out loud each time. She can write! Even while you’re learning about things you may never have thought about you’re enjoying the adventure of it all in her books.

Sunset glow

Sunset glow

I love Northport, the little town at the tip of Michigan’s pinky finger. I can’t think of a place more lovely, more welcoming, more serene. Lucky for me I have a friend or two there, so I was able to camp on a lawn near Lake Michigan on Tuesday night after Loreen’s talk at the local library. The sunset that night was spectacular.

Beautiful water.

Beautiful water.

I didn’t take a lot of photos this trip, other than the sunset, at least there on the lake. Instead I enjoyed swimming in the cool clear water of Lake Michigan, listening to a bit of jazz at a local restaurant, conversation with friends, and sleeping out under the stars.

OK. So I didn’t really notice the stars much. I slept better out there on the front lawn than I’ve slept in a good long while and I don’t think I woke at all until morning. Must have been the lake air.

It’s cherry harvesting time in Northport and I stopped on my way out of town to get a photo.

Looks like a good year for cherries.

Looks like a good year for cherries.

Don’t they look good? In my family we love tart cherries even more than the sweet versions. I wanted to grab a bucket and pick a few pounds, but I guess that would be stealing. So I bought a quart at a stand and ate them on the way home.

Have I mention I really love this place?

Sand clings to my memories.

Sand clings to my memories.


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Hard hit

Stormy times

Stormy times

The safety of everyone on our roads and highways took a big hit last week. The Comprehensive Transportation and Consumer Protection Act of 2015 (S. 1732) passed out of the Commerce Committee and is headed to the full Senate complete with all the anti-safety aspects that we fought to extract. The ability for a truck company to hide safety statistics from the public, to allow the hiring of 18 year olds to drive across the country (some states had higher minimum ages, but this will now be overrun by federal law), creating more hoops for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to jump through in order to mandate higher insurance requirements, all of these and more are still included in the bill. Every amendment presented by a safety conscious Committee Member lost by one vote, or by a voice vote. Every amendment offered by a American Trucking Association supported Committee Member passed.

The voting was straight down party lines.

I don’t understand. If you’re elected by the majority of people in your state, but you’re only going to vote the party line without listening or even considering another opinion, what’s the point of discussing anything at all? If you can’t listen to the safety concerns of many of your constituents, if you can’t let the overwhelming evidence sway you even the slightest toward safety, if you are more concerned about your campaign contributors than the safety of regular citizens, well, then there is no hope for the future.

I’ll be honest. It has been a difficult few months. It’s hard to look forward and figure out what the next move is. Obviously the next move is to call Senators when S1732 gets to the floor of the full Senate. But sill, it’s been so discouraging. It would be easy to just let it go. I’m beginning to wonder if we’re wrong. Maybe this is what the population wants…larger trucks, younger drivers, longer driving hours, the public shouldering the expenses when a crash occurs…if so, so be it.

I was driving this morning, looking for a photo challenge shot. Out in the cornfields of rural America I had all sorts of negative thoughts bouncing around my brain. But as I drove the dirt roads, past farms and small towns, other voices started to push their way into my brain. Voices of the families. The sons and daughters, wives and husbands, siblings, grandparents, and parents of those we’ve lost. I remember saying years ago that if we saved one life my family would be even, and my sister responding emphatically that no we wouldn’t. We’ll never be even, never be whole, no matter how hard we work.

But that’s no excuse for giving up. It’s no excuse for abandoning those who can no longer speak, no excuse not to expose the horrors and the grief, no excuse not to push for change.

By the time I made my way back home I had taken a deep breath and begun thinking about what’s next. There is more than one way to approach safety. If we can’t get it done through Congress maybe we can get something done through the DOT. And if the DOT can’t get anything done then maybe we go straight to the big trucking companies. We’ve already done that with one, that company realizes that safe can be profitable. Maybe we just have to spread that word. Meanwhile we still provide support and advice and love to the families who have been forever changed by truck crashes, one family at a time.

We lost big time this month. But we won’t give up and we won’t go away. There’s only one way to move and that’s forward.

Did I get the photo I was looking for? You’ll have to wait and see.

Clouds around every corner.

Clouds around every corner.