One World Trade Center in New York City
An amazing building, on a beautiful summer day.
Cee’s black & white photo challenge: Buildings
Tag Archives: trip
My drive home – a study in green (plus a few other colors)
Click on any photo and you’ll be able to scroll through larger versions of all the images above.
I stopped at a few places on the way home. What would have been a five hour drive turned into nine. And I got rained on. A lot. Still, it was so much fun.
I have lots of other things to show you, but they weren’t necessarily dominated by green…so they didn’t fit here. I suppose that will mean a post with random photos coming soon.
On the other hand, Katie-girl has much to say and you know how hard it is to silence a princess.
A study in blue
Saturday on Lake Michigan.
A walk in the woods…and sunset too
Yesterday, after the fog lifted I wandered in the Leelanau State Park hiking trails that wind through cedar and beech trees, then up to the dunes that separate the woods from the shore of Lake Michigan.
Come with me for a walk in the woods!
It’s a magical place, and I was lucky – there were very few bugs! I loved how the light sifted through the newly minted leaves.
Spring green.
And though there were few bugs, there were plenty of natives scurrying around in the leaves on the forest floor…
Anything good to eat down there?
…and scolding me from behind tree trunks.
Stay away lady!!
I enjoyed the cool trail through the damp deep woods…
What’s down there?
…but after a bit the trail left the dark woods and began to climb up and around sandy and more open dunes. The trees changed too, from deep dark forest to open and airy.
Let the sunshine in!
Eventually the trail spilled out onto perfectly beautiful dunes and provided a view of the lake. What a pretty picture!
Such a pretty place.
I probably should have climbed over those dunes to the lake. You never know what you’ll find. But it was getting late in the day, so I headed on through the woods. I met a new friend sleeping in a sunny spot on the trail. He wasn’t as excited to meet me as I was to notice him, and he silently moved away.
See you later lady!
And just before the parking lot I found a sweet little patch of forget-me-nots.
As if I could.
Later in the evening I waited in anticipation for sunset. I must have run down to the beach a dozen times, hoping that this was the one great shot. Turns out it was a pink and purple, more gentle kind of sunset. Still it was pretty. I’ve put together a short slide show for your enjoyment.
That way you don’t have to do all those stairs yourself.
Magical
Foggy morning
No swimming today.
Overnight I listened to a lighthouse fog horn warning ships that the shore wasn’t visible. This morning the horn was still blowing and the lake had disappeared behind a heavy veil.
My plan for today was to explore nearby orchards; I’ve never been here when they were in bloom, and I saw several on my drive that looked promising. But in the fog?
Mysterious beach.
I thought about it while I was eating cereal, staring out into grey nothingness. Contemplating. After all, a flowering tree is beautiful in the sun, but might it be more interesting in the fog?
Certainly worth a walk.
Going for a walk.
Everything is so green up here, and the fog made it seem to drip green dew into the green air.
Green green everywhere.
At the top of a hill was an orchard in full bloom.
Standing in formation despite the weather.
I’ve tried many times to catch the patterns and symmetry of orchards. It’s hard to show the patterns, they’re so large. But every time I’m up here, whatever the season, I try.
Trunks create a pattern.
I guess I find orchards fascinating.
Rows line up.
I love the patterns and textures, especially when they’re in bloom.
So pretty.
Later this afternoon the sun came out. I went for a walk in the woods, and on my way back I drove by the orchard to see what it might look like without fog.
Hills full of orchards.
Turns out they are just as pretty in the sunlight.
Sun shines through blossoms.
I’ve got to organize the photos from my walk in the woods. Maybe you’ll see those tomorrow. But the sun is still shining here, sparkling on the water. There’s a chance we’ll get a sunset tonight.
If so you’ll probably see that first.
Sun diamonds.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Evanescent
ev·a·nes·cent [evəˈnes(ə)nt]
adjective:
Soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing.
Only here a moment.
I saw this unusual trillium on my walk in the northern fog this morning. I’ve never seen one like it. Trillium season is so short I’m lucky to get an extension by being in the north this weekend.
The skies they are a changing
I’m off on a little vacation; just me myself and I plus one cat. And a really big lake.
On the five hour drive north I saw a couple sights worthy of stopping, even though it was a drizzling, damp, grey, kind of nothing in particular sort of day.
New corn.
Still, there was evidence that spring was marching on regardless of the dreary weather.
A hillside full of trillium.
At the lake mist was still clinging to the hilltops above the gentle giant of a lake.
Misty morning on the lake.
I went for my first walk along the shore, glad to be near the water, not caring what the weather would bring. And then I noticed a lightening of the air; the sun was fighting the low hanging clouds.
A bit of blue to brighten the day.
But looking the other way down the beach, the clouds were piling in.
Purple clouds.
The sun and clouds tussled the rest of the day, until late in the afternoon when the sun finally broke free.
Sunshine, clouds, it’s all good.
I thought perhaps there would be a spectacular sunset, but now mist is moving from the horizon toward shore. There probably won’t be any sunset at all.
An lake freighter slides through the mist.
Which works out fine, because I don’t think I can stay awake that long anyway.
Happy to be here.
WordPress Photo Challenge: Reflecting
On a clear night, down in Alabama, the lights across the way were reflecting in the lake.
So were the stars.
See more reflecting at the link above, or here, here and here.
Safety first
Safety is no accident!
Those of us working for truck safety appreciated all your support and kind words as we worked together to increase the safety on our roads. It’s been a tough few days for us as we gathered with determination to make a difference, many still raw from recent loss.
But it was amazing too.
I saw people with grief fresh on Saturday, sobbing through the initial telling of their stories, grow to tell those same stories calmly and firmly at the press conference on Tuesday. Friendships were forged that will last forever. People know they are not alone and progress is being made
Working the halls of Congress.
One of the most exciting things I saw during the conference was a short video clip of a side underride guard being tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. In the first clip a mid-sized car was sent into the side of a semi trailer at 35 miles per hour, the standard speed the IIHS uses in test crashes. Without a side guard the car slides right under the trailer, the car’s safety features useless because the front of the vehicle doesn’t collide with anything. Air bags don’t deploy, the test dummy heads strike the side of the trailer. Death is probable.
In the second clip a side guard has been attached to a semi trailer, and the car sent speeding toward the trailer. The front of the vehicle crashes into the side guard, crumpling as it is designed to do. The passenger compartment is protected, in fact after the crash the driver door still opens and the occupants would have been minimally injured.
The passenger would survive!
Success!
Side and rear underride is a major safety issue, and one that The Truck Safety Coalition is focusing on this year. For many of our families it’s proof that finally someone is listening. So many of their loved ones died by sliding under a truck and finally we are making progress to stop that from happening in the future. The guard we saw is affordable, relatively light, and easy to install. And future iterations will be even lighter and more affordable. We believe that soon you’ll see them on the trucks driving near you on our nation’s roads.
I’m proud to be a part of this year’s Sorrow to Strength conference, proud to walk the halls of Congress, meet Members, talk to staff, support safety. Regardless of the political climate there is good work that will be done, good people to work with, good ideas that will be supported.
It wasn’t easy. My feet are tired and so is my head but my heart remains strong and my vision is clear. The roads are safer because of people like us, groups with no agenda other than safety. It takes work. But we’ll work on it forever.
Because safety is no accident.
Spreading the news.
Wordless Wednesday
Change Is Hard 