Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: yard


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“I want your smile”

I think this morning, the Sunday morning after Charlottesville, we could all use a smile. Not to trivialize what happened there, what is happening in smaller and less splashy incidents all over our country, but to give our broken hearts a tiny bit of relief.

The sun always rises.

There’s this guy named Trent who writes a blog and weekly asks us to tell him what made us smile during the previous week. I haven’t followed him long, or even regularly, but I happened to read him this morning and knew that I wanted to share the things that made me smile this week.

I wasn’t on an adventure, not camping with Katie-girl, or off exploring by myself. I spent this week at home with the camera, just shooting regular stuff — the things we all see but rarely stop to really look at. Like things in my garden, during this end of summer time when the gardens always look their best even though they’re becoming a bit frayed around the edges.

A pop of color.

And it rained a lot this week, as happens on late summer afternoons. Gushing downpours that wash away the humidity for a bit.

It’s a monsoon!

I stood on my front porch and shot the rain hitting the driveway. Sometimes it seemed as though the drops were creating tiny little fireworks, as if they were celebrating summer.

Celabrate!

After the rain I took Katie-girl to her park. The temperature had dipped down into the high 60s (15.5c) cool enough for a sheltie to enjoy a summer walk. We were surprised mid-walk by another thunder storm.

The light before the storm.

The wind blew and the rain drove down in sheets. We got wet, though the camera was safe inside my pack. Katie and I both smiled.

And of course I’m totally smiling over the fact the orioles are still visiting my feeder. Sometimes they get confused as to which feeder, but they’re still visiting.

Wrong cafeteria, girl!

I expect them to leave for the season any time now. I’ll miss them all. This morning there were two males and at least four females all vying for the feeder. I think that signals that they’re getting ready to head out for their winter home.

Gotta get my share before all those girls come back!

And last night I went out into the backyard after midnight to look for meteorites. Here in Michigan it’s supposed to be the best time to see them, and I did see one which was amazing. And no, that’s not the it, that’s a plane. The meteorite was much much brighter. Still I thought this was a cool shot.

All kinds of light last night.

Our backyard is too full of light, mostly from the neighbors huge yellow light over his garage, to really get great pictures of the night sky, but I had fun messing around with the camera anyway.

Starry starry night…

So these are some of the things that made me smile this week. What about you? What did you smile about? Care to share? Just link to Trent’s blog, we all need another smile!

She always makes me smile!


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Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: A new photo

For black and white images I like to use bold but simple patterns. Some repetition is good. I look for something that can fill the frame without being too busy.

Katie the dog and I took a walk around the yard yesterday looking for something that might fit. Something natural, with pretty shapes. Something interesting.

In a flower bed I found nasturtiums pushing their way through the fence. I’ve always loved their flat leaves, the veining pattern, the rounded shapes.

Hmmmm…repeating patterns.

So this time leaves take precedence over blossoms. They’ve waited a long time for the attention, but yesterday they were the focus of my new photo.


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WordPress Photo Challenge: Textures

I loved the silky textures of the jay’s feather caught in the prickly branch of a bayberry bush.

This is such an interesting challenge – texture is one of the things most photographers notice, and there are so many options to showcase here.

Want to see more? Just go to the link above, or, if you’re time challenged, here are a few of my favorites. So far.


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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!


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Visitors

What are you doing out there lady?


We’ve been enjoying the orioles again this spring, as well as lots of other pretty birds.

Tonight I took a chair out into the yard, trying to get a shot of the orioles glowing in the evening sun. Boy they are suspicious birds.

Do I have jelly on my beak?

Though I was sitting far away from the feeder, and using my long lens, they were still skittish. Especially when this face appeared in the window only inches away from their feeder.

Hey mama! What are you ….ooops…sorry mama!

Even with the distraction the male and female oriole each showed up for a few fleeting moments.

You can’t see me if I hide behind this pole. Can you?

The goldfinches, on the other hand, are much less finicky about paparazzo like me.

On the lookout. The food lady needs to fill the thistle feeder.

Earlier today we had a visitor who had a hankering for jelly. He’s been here before, and has, in fact, enthusiastically chewed the feeder trying to get the last drop.

Hey lady! It’s not my fault if you don’t have a squirrel baffle on this feeder pole!

And yesterday Mr. Grosbeak dropped by. He’s not shy at all, and told me right away that I had inadvertently allowed the safflower seed level to drop to an unacceptable level.

This is unacceptable lady! You are a slacker!

I fixed that immediately. Sorry sir.

So hard to keep peace among the youngsters.