Pow! Surprise ending to the day.

I had all sorts of good intentions of finishing up my new minifigures 'portraits' yesterday. But best laid plans ... and all of that.

Charlie and I went for our afternoon hike and checked on the ice in the creek. There still was some! I didn't take pics of it.

While we were in the dry bed part of the creek, I did some rock hunting. I didn't find anything special but I always look just in case. The rock below had moss and grasses on it this past summer. I just thought the patterns were interesting.

I found a lot of places where the moss was sending up shoots of sporophytes for this year. Of course I brought the wrong lens to work with that. But a challenge is a challenge no matter what!

...and then I found old sporophytes with their tell tale color of orange glowing in the sunlight on a log. One can sometimes get pretty decent macro shots even if they are not using a macro lens.

The rest of the afternoon was spent building and sorting while hubby was awake. I'm almost sorry this project is almost complete. I had to laugh on Monday when the Hospice nurse came by. Rich was deep into sorting Lego pieces and just waved at the nurse until he sat down. 

Then as I was getting into bed, I decided to peak a look at social media. A friend had posted a photo from his cell phone about the Aurora Borealis in the sky.

Well, off I went in my coveralls into the summer pasture to take a gander myself.

 The show was just bright enough to see pink with the naked eye, but the camera really picked up the colors along with the stars...oh and a stray airplane flying through the frame.

I did a star trail shot of 15 minutes for fun. I just love the stars swirling in the colorful sky!

It lasted only about an hour and by 10pm it was fading fast.

But I got two last shots in before my camera battery died.

Over the pasture...

and then over our shed.

It was worth losing some sleep over.  All my flubs and practicing night/star/Milky Way photos have finally paid off because I can remember how to set this up quickly and get the job done.