Mike, over at MLCreatons and I had a short comment thread talking about being photographers that are always on the lookout for that one tree standing alone out in a field. I have had similar discussions with other photographers, so it must be a thing.
Anyway, Friday I was out with Penny when we came across this tree.
Not in a field exactly, but a lone tree with a pretty nice reflection on an unusual sunny day.
Made me smile.
Go check out some of Mike’s images, guaranteed to make you smile too.
Hey, Penny here again.
Mom says you guys don’t need to hear from me so often. She says it’s her blog and shouldn’t be all about me. I like to point out regularly that her life is all about me.
Ahem.
Anyway, she’s had a couple important thoughts on her mind and has been meaning to blog about random stuff for awhile now. As you may or may not know, she’s meaning to do a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t get done. So I decided to help her out by putting together a random blog with some of her thoughts and some of my thoughts.
You can judge which thoughts are most important.
No pressure to vote for mine or anything.
So,anyway, she watches a lot of HGTV. Mostly because there isn’t any violence or scary stuff and no one looses anything most of the time. Mom doesn’t like conflict. But she knows that most of it is staged, ’cause there’s no way all those couples can like totally opposite stuff and still be together. One wants to live in a city high-rise and one wants to live on acres in the woods? How’s that supposed to work out?
Don’t you wonder if some of them are still together?
And how come so many of the women come off as so controlling and well…b****y? Sometimes mom has to turn it off because the (mostly) women annoy her so much. And how come the closets are always hers? Where’s he supposed to put his cloths? In the kids’ rooms? Maybe the garage?
Of course mom has her own closet drama. We won’t go there.
I on the other hand wonder why people’s dogs don’t get to decide where they’re going to live. I think any dog would opt for lots of fenced in land to run on. I don’t know a dog around that likes to go on a walk by first getting on an elevator. And those high-rise balconies? You call that an outside space? What if a little doggie falls off? Huh??
Mom also wonders about this open concept thing. It seems to be what almost everyone wants and she wonders if these people, particularly the young people, have ever lived with other people in that kind of space.
Mom and Dad’s house is open concept. They remodeled it long before that was a thing, and in general I like it cause I can run really fast with no walls to slow me down, but mom says if you live in an open concept house you have to listen and watch whatever the other people want to listen to and watch.
Sometimes mom would just like it to be quiet. She says she’d advise all those people looking for open concept houses to make sure they each have somewhere of their own to retreat to when they need a little quiet.
Just image if there were a bunch of kids too! Kids and dogs racing around a big open concept house. Yep….I think that would be perfect, but mom says it makes her head hurt. What do you think?
And mom’s been thinking about the cable/internet bill. She hears so many people talking about streaming stuff, and she’s not sure she’d even know how to do that. We don’t have any of those subscription things, and sometimes something she’d like to watch is shown only on Peacock or Hulu or Netflix or any number of other services that she hasn’t even heard of.
The cable bill is big enough, why would you want to pay for more when we don’t even watch all the channels we have? Yet….maybe it would be nice to have some other options. Still, shouldn’t we be satisfied with the stuff we already have? Cause mom says we have a lot.
Personally I don’t care one way or the other. It’s all noise to me. Just don’t have any doorbells or dogs barking on there. And nobody up on that screen better move too fast either. Cause I’ll be on guard, yes I will. I’m watching you all the time, even when I’m sleeping. Constantly on guard to protect my people, that’s me.
In fact, mom and I just came in from a neighborhood walk and about the time we got back to our driveway four trumpeter swans flew over. They sure make a lot of loud, weird noise when they fly! Mom thought it was cool. I just stood very still and watched.
After they were gone I pulled on my leash and stood up on by back feet and barked very loudly in the direction they had gone. I told them! They won’t be back any time soon! Don’t come near my mom you guys! Yes I can make myself very big, like a grizzly bear, when I want to scare something off.
Mom says I’m nothing like a grizzly bear, and I’m only brave after whatever riled me up is gone. Big brave girl, she calls me. She says this habit of mine doesn’t bode well for future camping.
I say she needs a grizzly bear camping with her to keep her safe. What do you think?
Signing off from all this randomness,
Your clerical girl, Penny.
Hey guys, it’s me, Penny!
Mom says Karma has come up with a photo challenge, something about before and after.
Well. I told mom that I wanted to play too, but I couldn’t take any pictures, mostly because I don’t have thumbs. So I assigned her to get some great pictures of me in before and after situations.
I think you will soon agree I have this before and after thingy down pat. And that, for once, mom followed directions!
We had a big storm last week, then most of it melted and then we got 5 unexpected inches of snow yesterday!
By the weekend they say we’ll have sunshine and temperatures in the 40s! Wow, sunshine! All this beautiful snow will be gone again. Mom said we had to hurry today before it started to melt!
When we were walking out there today big poofs of snow kept falling off the tree branches and dropping on me! I was freaked out until mom told me to stop being a baby.
I guess I’m still a little girl, I’m only almost 14 months old. I got braver the longer we were out there. But I did giggle just a little when a big poof of snow fell on mom and cold water ran down her neck. Hee hee.
Anyway.
Mom took me to this same park earlier this week when there wasn’t much snow, and then today we went back so she could get more pictures with the beautiful snow!
Boy I had fun on both visits to the park. I loved sniffing along the way, and chewing on as many sticks as possible.
Mom keeps telling me I can’t chew on every stick in the woods…but I think I want to try!
So tell me, do you think I got the before and after thing right? Inquiring sheltie minds want to know!
Talk later,
Your photogenic pal, Penny.
Karma, over at Karma When I Feel Like It, has challenged us to a couple of photo challenges. One of them she titled “Before and After.”
For this challenge I was looking for something that changes…where I could show the before…
…and the after….
I honestly thought she’d be a bigger mess. We walked through snow and mud and leaves and puddles. Maybe she’s a Teflon dog.
She says she wants to share more about her latest walk in the woods, but she’s busy napping. Maybe someday soon she’ll be motivated to finish her post.
You never know.
After the snow and cold it got warmer. Typical Michigan weather, changing all the time. But all that snow was still on the ground, and it had been cold for almost two week, so inevitably one day we woke up to fog.
So I went looking for water and trees dripping in fog. I had something specific in mind, but sometimes things don’t work out the way I plan. Eventually I gave up on the foggy lake idea and settled for foggy farmland.
I was somewhat happy with the few foggy farmland photos I had when I remembered the National Cemetary, not far from my house. I reasoned the rows of white tombstones could look interesting in the fog.
And I remembered there were a few dead trees around a small lake too. Surely there would be something perfectly foggy to photograph out there.
In the end I’m really glad I stopped at the cemetery, though it had begun to rain by the time I arrived. The tombstones looked even more somber than usual in the grey light. I took quite a few photographs. They look almost black and white, but they aren’t.
When I was finished photographing things near the front of the cemetery I figured I’d go to the back on the off chance I’d see the eagles that nest there. Every time I visit this cemetery I look, but I don’t always get lucky and see them.
This time I did.
Score.
And double score on the way home when I found a red barn.
Yep, I ended up being a happy camper, even on a dreary, foggy, rainy, winter day.
A couple weeks ago we got some real snow, the first of any significance this season. It came to us blowing from the northeast, unusual for around here, and it was wet, sticky snow.
It stuck to all the tree trunks and branches, outlining everything. From a distance most of the woods around here looked like birch trees.
I wanted to get out to get some pictures. It was so pretty for so long. But the weather was also miserable for a long time, the roads covered in slippery snow, the wind blowing, the temps in single digits.
I don’t want to even talk about the wind chill temperatures.
Still, I’d look out the back windows and it was sooooo beautiful.
So one afternoon, with the sun peeking out from behind the typical Michigan winter clouds, and temperatures above zero, I ventured out.
I went to a park in the next township west of here. I didn’t walk very far, but I enjoyed being out there, and I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Those of you that live in warmer climates….this is what you’re missing!
Now…stop laughing, and no fair sending me pictures of blue skies and golden beaches!
Really. No fair.
Penny here!
Hey! Did you know we got a bunch of snow a week ago? I’ve never seen so much snow in my entire life! Well, OK. My entire life has only been 13 months, but still.
I kept bugging mom and dad to take me out to play and they kept saying it was too cold. Too cold? Are they crazy? I’m a sheltie for goodness sake! I love the cold!
But mom and dad said I didn’t understand, with the wind chill it was something like -18 degrees Fahrenheit which, for those of you in Canada is about -27.7! Mom said that is really cold and I wouldn’t want to be out there.
I said yes I would too, and I begged and begged to go outside. Mom and dad said I was quite annoying. I call it persistence.
Finally mom dug around in some drawers and found my sister Katie’s boots. My feet are bigger than Katie’s feet were, but she still managed to get them on my feet. Only because I let her, I might add.
I was not amused by the boots, and she doesn’t have any still images of me wearing them. She took a short video of me, short mostly because I wouldn’t walk much wearing them. I thought they were ridiculous.
When we went outside I accidently (on purpose) lost 3 of the boots in the snow drifts. Mom had to go back out into the dark and cold to find them. She says she’ll get them on tighter next time.
Sure mom.
Anyway, finally it got a little warmer, and today it was warm enough to go play in the back yard!
Boy I had fun! Mom threw the frisbee and I chased it down, pounced on it, and brought it back to her.
Then, usually, I chewed on her ankle until she threw it again. You have to keep moms on their toes, you know.
Then I saw a BIG STICK in the yard and I headed right over there. You all know how much I love sticks, right? Well this one looked just perfect!
But then mom called me, really loud, and I knew she had treats in her pocket, so I turned around real quick and headed back.
I scored big time for coming right back to mom when she called me!
We spent a lot of time out there in the back yard. She kept trying to get me to stay while she walked away.
I don’t know what that’s all about, I like to be right up next to her all the time. She backs up to get a better shot and I scoot forward the better to get a treat.
I personally think that makes me a very smart dog. Don’t you agree?
Anyway, mom got a few good shots of me playing in the snow. They say it will all melt next week, so it’s good I convinced her to go out with me.
Next week I’ll be muddy. I’m sure mom will think I’m just as cute.
Right? Right!!
Talk later,
Your snow-girl, Penny
Last week we got our first significant snow of the season. We’d been enjoying unseasonably warm weather for most of December and January, while at the back of our minds we worried about our landscaping that needs a blanket of snow to survive until next spring.
A definite benefit of being retired is that we don’t have to worry about commuting to work in a blizzard. If we don’t want to go out we don’t go out. It’s just one great perk of getting older.
Sometimes we forget there are benefits to aging.
Anyway, I digress.
After days of warning from the pessimistic weather folks the storm hit us very early on Friday. First there was rain, then ice, then snow.
Early Friday, while taking the dog out for her morning ritual and stepping carefully down the icy driveway in the dark, we noticed a neighbor mincing his way down the street with his dog.
Of course we went out to road to talk. Penny got to kiss Oliver, (the dog) who is somewhat besotted with her. The neighbor said there were some trees down up the road. I said I hadn’t looked out back yet.
As the morning filled with light I saw that we, too, had some bending trees, some limbs down, the typical damage we usually sustain in an ice storm. I sighed. Little by little our birch trees are coming to the end of their lives.
We’ve lived here over 30 years, I guess it’s expected. Nothing lives forever, right?
Throughout the weekend the snow came down, blowing sideways from the northeast. We made very limited trips outside, only for doggie necessities.
Mostly I sat in my chair with a view of a couple of our birdfeeders, watching the frenzy. And eventually, over the weekend, I got a few shots of the birds frantically eating, puffed up, trying to stay warm.
I had to fill all the feeders, the thistle, the oiler, the peanut, the suet, at least twice a day. I even spread extra oilers on the deck railing, and under our rocking chairs that are turned upside down for the winter.
Little birds, and bigger birds too, were everywhere. As the food ran out they waited anxiously in the trees, coming down to wait closer as soon as I’d step out the backdoor. My birds know I’ve got their backs.
And I know you’ve all seen photos of my birds at the feeders before. So in this post I tried to show you more unusual shots, a little attitude, a bit of wing.
I feel very lucky to be able to sit in my chair by the window and watch the entertainment happening just on the other side of the glass.
I hope you all enjoyed it too!
Change Is Hard 