Photo Journal

Reflecting

Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of the one who sees. - RUMI

September 17, 2022 - Building Cairns on the Beach

cairn building (a fragment)

smooth stones,

clear water,

blue sky -

today i am free

to create something (else) fragile

and temporary

September 14, 2022 - A fallen insect on Pier Cove Ravine Trail

September 14, 2022 - I saw this little bit of gold on a green leaf while i was running. It is strange how this happens. I run past, and the thing i saw registers in my brain. So i turn around to see what it is. I thought it might be a small dragonfly, but i learned that dragonflies all have two sets of wings, and this only has one. I think it is a crane fly. Whatever it is; it is beautiful and broken. Those transparent wings - so delicate. Just amazing that something so small can have so much intricate detail.

It is obviously dead. I actually take a lot of pictures of dead things that i never share. There is so much fragility and honesty in death. Everything that lives also dies. We are all connected by this. We die, but we never really disappear completely. We are changed. It is a mystery.

September 16, 2022 - Evening Walk.

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all that you are traveling for.” - Louis L’Amour

This week I am taking it easy. Slow. Doing only what’s necessary, so I can fully appreciate the last few days of summer. Wandering along the lakeshore and into the woods behind my house. Breathing in warm air. I am so lucky to have this freedom. I am so grateful.

September 17, 2022 - I follow an account on Instagram @everysevendays2022 (they change the account name every year) that is an ephemeral art project. Every week a new theme is posted and as a participant, you walk outside and gather things that suit the theme - to you. It is always open to interpretation. This week, the theme was “Loss.,” which seems to flow with what’s already on my mind.

With that theme loosely in my head, i started gathering fallen feathers as i walked along the lake. I found so many. I used them to form the shape of a heart in the sand - i kind of enjoy the way it splays out and is a little abstract. I don’t know if birds notice when they lose a feather. It seems like it would hurt more than losing just a hair on your head; but maybe not. I love that this little project raises questions like that for me.

The picture below is September 18, 2022. We had a storm overnight, and i went down to see what happened to my feathery heart. It was nearly swept away. Sigh…

September 19, 2022 - Sleepy Hollow State Park. Taking a brief overnight camping trip at a State Park near Lansing, Michigan. Couldn’t get a monarch to stay still anywhere long enough for a picture, but this pretty butterfly practically posed for me before flying off. I love those striped antennas.

September 19, 2022. Queen Anne’s Lace Curled up into a nest.

September 19, 2022 - Sleepy Hollow Sunset. I was going to watch the sunset from the fishing pier; but some people were still there fishing; so i found a hidden path; not too well groomed, where i could watch it through the leaves. It was an uncomfortable trail - I had to walk through some spider webs and duck below some low-lying branches - but once i found the clearing; it was magical.

September 20, 2022 - Sleepy Hollow State Park. Got out early for a five mile hike in a different direction, passing by swampy ponds through the woods. Through a clearing i saw this great blue heron perched so perfectly on a fallen tree - it’s almost like they do it on purpose. I mean. They do it on purpose; they’re looking for food; but the pose and his position in the clearing and on that branch framed by the other branches…you’d almost think he was modeling for a photo. I’m so glad i went that route; and sorry i didn’t have my “big” camera to get a clearer shot. But then again; the sort of dreaminess of this is nice too.

Harvest Moon Week

“To say it was a beautiful day would not begin to explain it. It was that day when the end of summer intersects perfectly with the start of fall.” - Anne Patchett

September 9, 2022 - Sunflowers and blue sky

Like a sunflower

you are my sun

when i can’t see

the other one.

September 8, 2022. I sat outside on my deck intending to get a picture of a chipmunk. Chipmunks have been chirping and chattering around the back porch all summer long. They do some damage to plants and dig holes in the pots and all over the yard, but I can’t see them as anything but adorable. Wild things have such hard lives, living out in the elements. And this little guy is still brave enough to sit on the edge of the deck while I take his picture from my comfortable chair.

September 7 2022 - Sunset over the bluff

September 8, 2022, evening. Sunset walk. Looking through fading blossoms over the lake while this part of earth turns away from her.

September 8, 2022 - Sandhill cranes flying over the field near Waypost

September 8, 2022. I arrived at the barn just as the sandhill cranes were taking off. It is a bit of a blur. It’s amazing that birds this big can actually fly.

September 9, 2022 - Sunflowers by Waypost Brewery

September 8, 2022. Sunflowers are in full blossom in front of the fence at Waypost Brewery. I couldn’t resist stopping to look at them against the perfect blue sky this morning. The bees and grasshoppers couldn’t resist them either.

September 9, 2022 - Swan Circle in Wade’s Bayou

September 9, 2022. I was mesmerized by the swans circling each other in the morning at Wade’s Bayou in Douglas. Dipping their long, graceful necks below the smooth blue surface as they swam, cool water dripping from their bills as they lifted their heads. It was a dewy dream.

September 10, 2022 - Early morning harvest full moon

September 10, 2022. Saturday morning, the moon was full, and it was going to set around 7 a.m. I walked down in the dark from my house and saw that bright light shining at the end of the street. Not bright as day; but easier to look at and enough to guide my steps. Oh, how lucky i am to have so much beauty around me.

“Who could be so lucky? Who comes to a lake for water and sees the reflection of moon.” Rumi

September 10, 2022 - Harvest moon shining over Lake Michigan

September 10, 2022 - View from Crow’s Nest during Mount Baldhead Challenge

September 10, 2022. Later that morning, I ran the Mount Baldhead Challenge. Hard, beautiful race. This is one of the payoffs - the view from the Crow’s Nest trail around Oxbow School of Art. I stopped for a minute to catch my breath and take it in.

September 11, 2022. Coming home through the woods after walking the neighbors’ dog; I caught a glimmer of gold in the corner of my eye. This amazing box turtle was caught on a little fallen branch trying to cross the path. His shell looks painted. I didn’t realize he was caught until it dawned on me that he wasn’t moving away from me as I was getting in close for his picture. Sometimes I am slow; but I did set him free so he could get on his way.

“Take a walk with a turtle. And behold the world in pause.” - Bruce Feiler

September 12, 2022. This is 126th. At the end of the road there is a small park overlooking Lake Michigan. These beautiful, green trees will all be turning colors in a few weeks. I hope to capture the changes as they happen.

September 13, 2022. Pareidolia is “the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). Like in this picture. I see a giant bird flying under the moon. What do you see?

And here, I see a dolphin playing with the moon.

September 13, 2022. Evening run with my Saugatuck running group friends on the Saugatuck Dunes South Trail. The sun was just beginning to drop in the sky, casting golden light on the dune grass halfway through the run when I reached the lake. So glad I looked this way.

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Silent Wanderings

Delight in meditation and solitude. Compose yourself, be happy. You are a seeker.

Gautama Buddha

Marigold

from the shadow of silky petals

an insect emerges

waving his tiny legs

08/31/2022 Along the path behind my house

August 31, 2022

Walked the path leading from my house through the woods and around the neighbors this morning. Even when the sun is high in the sky; you can only see it filtered in streaming rays through the trees. I am so lucky to have neighbors who also love the woods and had the idea to cut a path between our houses. This is where I go to walk alone.

August 31, 2022 The lake was a little choppy today; crashing in frothy white over the rocks I call the Three Sisters (because I am one of three). The morning sky on clear days is like a muted rainbow; before the sun fully clears the trees. I don’t know what causes the effect; but I do love its beauty.

August 31, 2022, Sunset - Instead of walking down to the water for sunset I walked the road along the lakeshore. After I long afternoon of sitting at my computer, I wanted to move my legs. The wild plants growing along the bluff look like they are reaching out to try to catch the sun before it falls into the lake.

September 1, 2022 Reflection of splashing water

September 1, 2022 - Another clear beautiful morning. Starting to turn cooler. Taking photos of reflections is something I really like to do with the iphone camera, because it can be held so close to the surface. Today there was a pool of water on the beach side of the Three Sisters, so I was taking a few shots in the still water when a wave splashed over the middle sister… the serendipity of a moment.

September 1, 2022 - afternoon - My studio is in a barn a few miles away from home. Some of our friends planted an earth friendly garden there, and today I noticed their sunflowers were finally blooming. The bees were loving it. These sunflowers have personality, one was bold as anything - face up to the sky; one was shy just peeking out from its petals, and another looked like a giggly little child covering its laugh. The are happy flowers when they open up. It was a difficult day to get photos because the sun was so bright and they either got washed out or were too deep in shadows; but these few turned out okay.

September 2, 2022 A swan pruning its feathers

September 2, 2022 - On my way to the farm market in Saugatuck from my yoga class in Douglas, I walked along the Veteran’s Walk, partly to avoid traffic but mostly because it’s so pretty. It’s a boardwalk between the edgewater of Kalamazoo Lake and a wetland area on the shore. When I got near the end, right in the little bay area of the public boat ramp, swans were pruning their feathers, stirring the water into circular ripples and geese were just waking up and wading into the water. All of us going about our Friday morning business.

September 2, 2022 Geese wading in the water near the Douglas Veterans Walk

September 3, 2022 Bee still on the giant hyssop

September 3, 2022 - I have been looking for monarch butterflies. I know they are endangered, but I usually see some in late August and early September. I thought there might be some on these giant hyssop blossoms; but there were only bees. Which also made me happy.

September 3, 2022 Blurry bee in flight to bigger blossoms

September 5, 2022 A Walking stick on the eaves

September 5, 2022 - It has been a week of unexpected sights. Today, while cleaning the screened porch outside; I saw a walking stick moving in its slow long steps up to the eaves. Usually, they are so camouflaged by the branches that you don’t notice them; but this one stood out in full tree-like color against the dark gray eaves. Glad they move slow. I ran in the house to get my camera, and when I came back, he was pretty much in the same spot. Have to admit; at first, I thought the back end was the front end; so, I took a lot of close ups of the “wrong end” before I realized …

September 5 , 2022 Walking stick from a side angle

September 6, 2022 Daisy Fleabane by the road

September 6, 2022 - I took my little hiking camera on my walk today looking for macro subjects. This is a way to learn. Step in, get close to a tiny subject, and take a very tightly focused photo. Sometimes you even get a surprise – like the little insect hiding in the marigold; but almost always you see detail you didn’t expect, or when you get home; learn the name of a plant you didn’t know before. Like that tiny daisy-like weed by the side of the road…daisy fleabane. Now – I wonder why they call it “fleabane”?