Reflection in Creek Pool

 

Remains of an Old Orchard

 

Without the Color

Because it was the silhouettes 

that I found entrancing.

Today's Images NOT Colorful Leaves

Late Summer's Subtle Tones

Tall mullein spikes are flowering, and milkweed leaves are turning brown and gold, amid the lavender carpet of pesky, invasive spotted knapweed. If only the beauty of that invader's blossoms did not tint entire hillsides and fields with the color that tells us summer's end is drawing nearer --. If it were not quite so successful in taking over, it would doubtless be easier to hate. Instead, when morning walks or evening drives take me past open expanses in their August hues, I am carried back in memory to long-ago August vacations, the one or two weeks Up North that my downstate job permitted, and I feel again the poignancy of that fleeting time.

Closeup Magic

I have a story about horsetails that I'll save for another time. Today you should simply appreciate the beauty of sunlight on morning dew on these little prehistoric survivors. And the closer you get, the more magical they will appear.

Love the Look of This Field

Roadside Queen

Storm Coming Over Garthe Pond

Morning sky in the east was cloud-dappled with sun coming through.

A while later, north of Northport on Kitchen Road, something different was brewing over Garthe Pond.

I took time to shoot a brief video and then ran with Sarah to the car. We made it all the way to the bookstore before the downpour.

Pretty Mama

That vineyard below the orchard....

Need I Say More

Leelanau Township, Michigan,

October 15, 2014

Wednesday afternoon

Encounter on Back Roads

Joe-Pye-weed with goldenrod in foreground

See the bee?

I turned up a side road on the way home, a side road that is one stretch of my usual backroads route to town in the mornings, because I wanted to photograph Joe-Pye-weed and goldenrod. Flora cooperated. An insect joined in. 

Then down near the bend, something more exciting came into view. A great blue heron had just skewered a frog and was making repeated attempts to get it down. Then, being a heron and clearly still hungry, he resumed a statuesque pose and waited patiently. Sarah and I continued to watch from the truck, also trying not to move.

Slowing down to look more closely at wildflowers paid unexpected dividends.

Seen on My Way to Work

The Woods in Spring -- No Better Place to Be

A Snow Drift or Soft-Serve Dairy Product?

Again with Those Wild and Crazy Turkeys!

Progress of the Leeks

Natural arch, forest style

Every summer brings a new obsession into focus.
This year it's wild leeks in the woods,
from first appearance to --
how far can they be followed?
Stay tuned!

Single cluster of leek flowers

Great Year for Orchids in the Woods

It is a fabulous year for lady's-slippers. They love it cool, and they love it wet, so they are loving this season we've been having. Other years -- hot and dry -- there have been so few of these beautiful orchids that rumors of poaching were rife. Only a greedy fool, however, tries to poach lady's-slippers. They do not like to be moved. They will die when stolen. They are a perfect example of Jeremy Bentham's self-punishing violations of law. Please enjoy them and leave them for others to enjoy.

To New South Wales, With Love, From the Leelanau

Dear Kathy and Grahame,

If you were visiting, this is where we would dine al fresco--out by the neglected and overrun garden. 

Yes, sorry to say, this garden has gone dreadfully to grass and weeds, and I find neither the time nor the energy (nor the inclination, obviously) to bring it back to its former, relatively orderly self. Still, the birds visit, and the flowers bloom.

The birds are happy as long as they have fresh water...

...and the flowers have made no objection to having weeds as close neighbors.

Well, there was this little renegade lot (below), who up and moved themselves clear out of the garden altogether.

Now they bloom like a bright secret, tucked way down in the grass, but I sort of like the effect.


The garden area directly in front of our old farmhouse is not yet completely out of control. It is here on our boardwalk that we enjoy our morning coffee while watching birds and dreaming of future improvements to our outdoor summer life.

There are no plums on the two plum trees, but one tree is newly planted this year, and it's been a bad season for stone fruits in northern Michigan. For now, the trees seem happy with leaves, and I'm happy with the trees.

It is no Varykino. Well, maybe the caretaker's cottage?