Cherry picking is a long standing tradition in my family.
As far back as I can remember the six of us would drive to an orchard and pick tart pie cherries, buckets and buckets of them, then schlep them all home and sit around the kitchen table pitting them and measuring them into freezer bags for future pies.
Now that I’m the only one still living in Michigan it’s mostly my job to go get the family cherries. It’s not a bad job. Last weekend the weather was perfect and I went out early Sunday morning to the orchard we used to visit as a family more than fifty years ago.
Lots has changed since then. What was once a simple fruit orchard now has a gift store and a winery and farm animals and a wagon ride out to the picking locations.
For many years when I’d visit I’d consciously look for families that looked like mine. Sometimes I’d see someone that looked like my dad, or like the four little blond kids that used to fill their buckets with the shiny red fruit.
Sunday I was there pretty early and the picking was outstanding. I was able to pick fourteen pounds in less than an hour, so I was back in my car before things got really busy.
But I got to watch a few families as they picked. One little boy kept exclaiming how beautiful the cherries were. (He was right.)
Another child was focused on finding the perfect tree. And another child in a different family was having deep conversations about tractors and cars with his dad, all the time picking away.
These are adventures they’ll remember forever. And maybe someday when they’re senior citizens they’ll pick cherries in this orchard and watch a new crop of families and smile just like I did.
Margo, over at her blog, That Little Voice, posted a black and white photo for a challenge. It reminded me how much I enjoy black and white photography, and I said as much. We both mentioned that we don’t do many these days, and I suggested this week we each try to post one black and white image.
So I went out with Penny looking for an opportunity.
For me the thing about black and white is finding simplicity. I like images that aren’t busy, trending toward modern art.
I didn’t exactly find that on this search. But as soon as I took this shot I knew it could be interesting in black and white.
This is Penny exploring a boat ramp at a local lake when the lake was mirror smooth. I was letting her decide if she wanted to get her feet wet. She wasn’t excited about the chance, the only one with wet feet at the end of the day was me. She was curious about the water, hence the ripples around her nose.
I think I’ll keep an eye out for another black and white image when Penny and I are exploring. You never know when you’ll spot something cool. Thanks to Margo for inspiring me to go out and look for black and white!
Mom says I talk too much. You should hear me talk when she’s emptying the dishwasher or opening the tinfoil drawer! But I just had to tell you about mom making me march walk down a park path for a whole mile!
This was the beginning of my 1 mile walk!
OK, maybe she chose the time and day to go to the park because she figured not many other people with dogs would be out there. We have a lot of Canadian wildfire smoke right now and mostly people are staying inside.
Ok, let’s get this party started!
We have been staying in too, but when you stay inside too long certain doggies get slightly insane impatient. At least that’s what mom says.
Look mom, I found you some flowers!
I have no idea who she is referring to.
Mom says it’s important to look both ways before you cross the road.
Mom was going to take me to a different park, but it was further away and I started complaining as soon as we were in the car. Mom and dad took me to the vet this week and I was certain she was taking me back there, so I told her I was not happy.
Ok, I’ll sit pretty mom, but don’t expect me to do it again!
She decided we’d go somewhere closer and prove to me that not all car rides end in a vet visit.
Mom’s artsy-fartsy image from this walk. Boring, mom.
This was was my very first time walking on a bike path! Good thing hardly anybody was around cause I did not stay on my side of the path. At all. But I had fun.
I am NOT sitting on this bench, mom!
We only went to the half mile mark and then turned around. Mom didn’t want to overdo, she’s old you know. Plus it was warm and smoggy.
I’m not sitting at the turn around mark either, mom!
On the way back I decided it would be fun to play with the leash and leap around a lot and generally get in trouble.
I don’t know why mom doesn’t think this is a fun game.
Cause I’m a puppy, and that’s what puppies do. So I’m told anyway.
I got all tangled up in my leash. We took a break in the shade.
We had fun, mom got some pictures and I got to see some things I’ve never seen before. The teacher in my puppy class says it’s mom and dad’s responsibility to introduce me to 3 new things a week.
There were great chewing sticks under the bench!
Let’s see. I saw a lawnmower, a guy on bike, and a bench! Not to mention the crosswalk and a lady driving a golf cart. I think mom’s homework this week is done!
What the heck is that thing, mom?
I hope next week’s homework assignment includes more wonderful treats experiences!
Not sitting near these yellow flowers either, mom!
I’m going to help mom plan more trips. I think I like checking out new places.
Well OK, if I get to eat some I’ll sit here.
But since I’m just a little puppy, I need ideas. Where do you think we should go this year?
One more artsy-fartsy image. Sigh.
I’ll get mom to make a list. I’d do it myself, but she doesn’t let me on the laptop very often. Something about getting dog hair in the keyboard.
This week I’ve been ‘camping’ in the back yard. We haven’t had rain for a long time and none is predicted for a long time into the future. So I’ve been sleeping in the tent without the rain fly.
The first night, a cool breeze touching my face and tucked under my blankets, I was looking up trying to see the few stars that shine in my light polluted neighborhood when I noticed a flash, almost out of my line of vision. I stared in that direction for several seconds but didn’t see anything, so I returned to my search for stars.
The flash happened again, higher but still almost beyond the open space above the tent. I stared some more. Nothing.
And then it happened. TWO lights blinked, right above the tent and I realized the lightening bugs had arrived for the summer! I couldn’t contain my smile. Lightening bugs, stars and a cool late night summer breeze. A perfect summer night in Michigan.
I have no pictures, but I’m sure if you close your eyes you can imagine it all for yourself. And I’m thinking you’ll smile too.
Today marks three months since you went over that bridge alone. I think about you every day. But you know that, don’t you.
It’s your favorite time of year, sweetie.
This morning I went to your park to take a walk. It’s the first time I’ve been there alone since you left.
Morning light made the flowers glow.
You know your daddy and I were at your park just after that day, with your Aunt Beth, and she played the bagpipes for you near the pond.
You’d be upset at how much algae is in your pond.
I haven’t been able to go back since, sweetie, not without you. It hurt so much to be a Katie’s Park today, but I had a mission.
I’ll get to that in a bit.
The goldenrod is beautiful this year.
First of all I parked at the township office instead of where you and I always parked. I didn’t think I was ready for everything to be the same and yet so different. So I parked in a different spot.
That helped me get out of the car.
Blue sky and yellow fields.
The park was beautiful, as always. You would have loved it, the air was cool and the sun was just up over the treetops.
Loosestrife, I know it’s invasive but it’s so pretty.
But you wouldn’t have loved getting your feet wet. The path was overgrown, here at summer’s end, and the grass was long and heavy with dew.
You always spent a long time sniffing that corner at the beginning of your path.
The good sniffs might have made up for your wet paws though. I imagine you wouldn’t have grumbled too much, you loved walking in your park so much.
I smiled at that thought.
Lots of wet spider webs. You’d have stuck your nose into a few of them for sure.
I was pretty proud of myself, that I smiled at all. Because mostly I was crying as I walked along. I imagined you everywhere. All our favorite places.
Leaves are beginning to turn. You always looked so good in the fall foliage.
Your turtle friends were out but I didn’t see much else. That might have been because my eyes were all leaky.
I think they were wondering where you’ve been.
It was even hard for me to tell if stuff was in focus on my camera. Yes, silly, of course I brought the camera. Though it wasn’t as much fun without you.
I took a picture of my favorite trees, though it’s hard to understand how they can still be standing when you’re not here.
Anyway, my mission was to hang a memory tag on the remembrance tree. You remember when your Aunt Karen and you and I hung some tags for Reilly and Denny and Norwood, right?
Three beautiful boys remembered. Now there are more we should include.
Well, she had a special tag made for you and she gave it to me after you had to go. I haven’t been able to hang it on the tree until today. I put it right next to your handsome fiancé Reilly’s tag.
Can you read what it says, sweetie? Of course you can.
I know you and Reilly are together now, and you’re both loving the beach and the woods while you wait for your people to arrive. It makes me feel better to know you have so many friends there with you.
Everything in it’s season.
Today I hung your tag at your favorite park, sweetie. I just wanted you to know. Miss you baby-girl.
Love, Mama.
See you around the next curve, Katie-girl.
Well, of course I know mama! Where do you think I was while you were wandering around and crying all over my park? I was right there beside you. Silly mama, I’m always right there beside you. Thanks for hanging my tag, it’s real pretty. Thank Aunt Karen for getting it for me too, OK?
Love you always, mama. Tell daddy I love him too. Got to go now, Reilly wants to go run on the beach.
So what does a person do all day while waiting for true dark to arrive? Besides nap that is.
Working on the river.
Well, on the one day the skies were clear while I was in the UP I wandered the Manistique waterfront looking for other things to photograph while impatiently urging the sun to hurry up and sink.
If you zoom in you might be able to read about the lighthouse.
The mouth of the Manistique River was being dredged so I watched that for awhile. It was sort of interesting, but you can only watch so many piles of mud being moved before you have to move on.
Scoop after scoop of muck was dug up from the river bottom and poured into the barge.
I couldn’t resist walking out on the causeway leading to the shiny red lighthouse. It was such a pretty day.
A wide cement walkway made the trip out there easy to navigate.
I spent quite a bit of time out there waiting for the sun to go down. And watching the light glint off the water.
It’s not a long walk on a pretty day.
A couple of guys were fishing but they hid behind the lighthouse for me to get some shots.
All metal, it can withstand some nasty weather. But none was forecast while I was there.
But as the sun lowered I came back into shore.
The flowers glowed, loosestrife, an invasive, and goldenrod.
The evening light makes everything so pretty.
The last bit of light before the magic begins.
And then, slowly, slowly, the sun sank and the blue hour began.
Let’s take a walk down this boardwalk.
Earlier in the day I had scoped out a place to set up, hoping that the Milky Way would be near the lighthouse from my vantage point. The compass said it should be. But I knew I only had one night so I hoped I wasn’t wrong.
The beginning of blue hour on the beach.
I waited impatiently. It takes forever for the night to get truly dark. And then….a few stars decide to turn on their lights.
Here we go…
I still couldn’t tell exactly where the Milky Way was going to shine…but the stars made me smile anyway. And then….finally, finally, there it was. It was pretty darn amazing. I don’t know why the beach wasn’t full of people just staring.
Take a moment and just look.
I stayed out there a long time. A lot of it not shooting, just standing there, in the moment.
Because, really, how many shots can you take of the same lighthouse with the Milky Way? Well, as it turns out…several dozen. You see, the dark sky requires that you have a high ISO and a wide open aperture and that causes grainy shots.
Beautiful without the lighthouse too.
But you can stack them. Did you know that? There’s software that will lay your photos, one on top of the other, and match up your stars and eliminate anything different. And that clears up a lot of the grainy noise. Huh. So I was taking 7 shots of each shot, in preparation for stacking. But I learned, just this week, I should have taken 10 to 15 shots to stack.
Ah well.
Many of my images had these streaks. I never saw it when I was on the beach, but some people say this light in the sky is the Sky-Link satellites.Zoom in and see what you think.
So, anyway, these are single images, no stacking here, just a little editing to bring out the whites and sometimes to lift the shadows.
I still have so much to learn…so many technical things that I can do to make the images more clear, more beautiful. But the Milky Way season here in Michigan is almost over. There will be one more chance in October, just a few nights, and then I’ll have to be patient until 2023.
Just to show you, we are never alone, the sky is full of stuff flying around.
Yea right. I can hardly handle waiting for the sun to set in a single evening. How am I going to get through months of no Milky Way?
Let’s see…last you knew I was hanging out in Mackinaw City waiting for it to stop raining so I could continue on over the bridge to my next adventure.
It was such a beautiful night.
Yep, I was feeling pretty good. Almost kinda certain that I had gotten some decent Milky Way shots at my last location. Of course I didn’t really know, but was feeling good about it.
The other end of the Milky Way.
And I was so excited to be heading to a new (to me) location to find more dark skies. I had a campsite booked for three nights at Fayette State Park which is located at the bottom of the “Garden Peninsula,” a piece of land jutting down into Lake Michigan from the southern edge of the UP. Should be perfect, right?
Well…wrong. When I arrived at the park about 4 p.m. and drove to my site I found a very small site (not necessarily a deal breaker) that was entirely sloped, about the size of 2 cars, and totally a mud pit.
Out of focus because I was speeding away.
I sat there in the drizzle for the amount of time it took me to say”H*LL NO,” and then I drove the long 14 miles back up to civilization where I sat beside the road and searched the internet for a cheap hotel.
Where do I go now?
Along the way, down and back up, I did note that the Garden Peninsula itself was beautiful. With lots of barns and windmills and such.
So that made it a bit easier when I had to drive back down there again to formally check out of the campground that I never camped in so that I could get a refund for the other two nights.
A barn being renovated.
A sixty dollar refund was worth the drive too. I should have just checked out the evening before when I decided not to stay but I was so freaked out by the campground I just ran.
Mama cow wants me to move along.
I made reservations at another state park, Indian Lake, which pretty close to the town of Manistique. It was a much nicer place, with larger camp sites and grass. It wasn’t full my first night so I had a distant view of the lake, though the second night someone camped behind me. Still, I had plenty of room.
Much better. Grass and a view.
And it was only three miles away from the lighthouse where I spent a lot of hours waiting for a sunset and hoping for a chance at a decent Milky Way image.
Did I get that image? Well, as usually this post is getting too long, and I still have lots of images to edit. So I guess you’ll have to wait and see.
Not much of a sunset….but there was the anticipation of stars.
I just had another 2 hour lesson from my Milky Way teacher and I now know more about what I don’t know. I guess I need to get out there for another practice session!
Change Is Hard 