September

Here it is nearly the middle of September. 

At least we've had a few beautiful sunrises this past week! Here is another one. The old pine tree is gone now giving me a clear view of the ancient oak on the fence line to the east.
 

This was this morning over the east meadow where the spider webs were. The Orb Weavers were not out anywhere this morning.

Here is a damaged maple up the mailbox when I went to collect our mail from yesterday.

I thought I'd find more bees in the morning on the Golden Rod, but I only found this solitary one. 

However, I did find quite a few when I went into the volunteer patch of odd pumpkins in the mule pasture.

Here is my latest haul from the volunteer patch.

I need to send a text to the moms of a couple of young kids up the road so I can let the kids come down and pick out a few to take home. The colored and odd pumpkins always go for a higher price when you go out to purchase them. 

I tossed old ones out in the pasture last fall and the mules ate some and must have stomped the seeds into the dirt. Viola! Volunteer pumpkins!

I've always loved the crazy bumpy/warty pumpkins and cool gourds. 

Hubby commented on how hard I worked on that patch.

Wink wink. 

You planted with care and then weeded and nurtured those plants!

Manure and mud. That's my secret recipe.

I'm still struggling with a few little digestive issues, but I think I am coming along. I fixed the fence, put the skid steer back on the battery maintainer, and started filling holes in the yard [from tree cutting].

Most afternoons, I still chill out with the weather being pretty warm. 

I ordered a minifig Doxxie to assist mini-me [aka sigfig] in all things fun. Isn't he adorable?

This way I can still have adventures!

Life is good.

I am on this side of the ground!

Thank goodness for links...

 Drats

I really messed up this week. 

There was a baby shower for my daughter in law today. I had the invite, I had a link to things they wanted. And because of Caregiver restraints, I didn't plan on going. Oh. I wanted to. Baby stuff is awesome, cool, and oh so sweet.

How stupid of me to set the things aside and remind myself. Oh, I'll get that later. 

Of course I thought things like: Oh. It's a way off, I'll get that later. 

Meanwhile I'll take care of the pony who had colic. Oh that fence fixing stuff. Oh wait get those gutters, they're full of leaves again just after I cleaned them a month ago!

This morning I got up and made my coffee as usual. I made Rich's coffee after pouring mine into a thermos. I decided to start the day with fresh crisp air.

Charlie and I left the house in the semi dark. We heard owls talking in the distance. They weren't calling out Who Who Who Cooks for You?? 

It was another kind of owl. The world was mostly silent except for the birds starting to wake up and move about.

The sky was amazing. I sat down in the soybean field and decided just to watch the sky for a while.

All summer we had a drought with no cloudy and brilliant mornings, some mornings were dull with heavy forest fire smoke. This was gorgeous.

The colors kept changing rapidly.

This photo was edited to bring out a painted effect. 

What can I say, it felt a bit like a magical morning.

I was enjoying the fresh air when I stopped in my tracks.

It was Megan's Baby Shower today! Wait, what? Wait...what? 

Oh NO!

I'm an Idiot, I'm an Idiot was my mantra as I walked back home. I shook my head and stomped my foot and told Charlie that I was dumb, I was an idiot. And...how could I???

I tried searching the link that I'd gotten on the card and then gave up. It didn't work for me. I racked my brains. Nothing I could do anyway now. It was too late.

I went about the day with this nagging feeling that even though I was replacing busted wooden posts with t posts, I should be doing something else. I felt wretched.

[Truthfully? I wanted to be part of that happy party where all young moms and old moms -- grandmas sit around and watch the new mom to be open up all those incredible beautiful gifts. I recall the fun and pleasure of being that new mom many many years ago and how overwhelming it was that kind people gifted me items to help me with my firstborn son.]

Finally just before supper I searched my smart phone for the link my son had sent me a while ago. I paged down looking through the baby list and at the bottom it had another link which led me to Amazon. At the bottom of that list was a wish list for diapers. They had a Baby Contribution Gift in which a person could pick an amount towards diapers. There was a monetary goal listed.

Rich and I discussed diapers and talked about it at one point. Diapers are not glamourous or something too ooohh and ahhh over. However I know from purchasing diapers for my youngest son when his two youngest ones were born...that the price was pretty eye opening.

I filled in an amount and sent it off into an Amazon Gift Thingy or Whatever it is called. A diaper Fund?

The best part? An email would be sent to Megan and Eddie alerting them that they had a diaper fund within minutes of me hitting the purchase button. Holy cow, Batman! I would get a gift to them on the proper day after all!

Thank goodness for links, lists, smart phones, and on line purchases.

Now to search high and low over the next few months to find someone to stay with Rich so when the new mom and dad are ready for this old buzzard to visit, I can go.

Whew, thank goodness I didn't delete the text my son had sent my awhile ago.

Below ~
Photo of my Grand daughter Elena from
December 2013

💖💓💞

Why I wake early

In the summer, I wake up without an alarm or even a nudge from anything else. My eyes open and my body says 'Wake up'

On these hot hot days I'm generally out the door as soon as it thinks about getting light out. Sometimes Charlie and I take a walk to on the gravel road to greet the day.
In some ways I think this is the best part of the day.

At least it is right now. It is cooler and the Air Quality Alerts aren't so bad.

Olive's Flower Garden

Mary Oliver says it quite well so I don't have to.

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety---

...
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

 

Waking up early

 

I haven't always been an early riser, but now I am. It is frustrating to have your eyeballs blast open while it is still dark outside and your body tells you "Get UP"!

I even try for a few moments to lull myself back to sleep. But it doesn't come.

So I decided to make good use of my early wake up time. I made some decafe coffee [yeah, decafe...but I am used to it now] and decided to go watch the sunrise over the ponds at Kickapoo Valley Reserve. 

The skies were brilliantly clear and beautiful with stars twinkling merrily.

Yeah.

Until I got into the river valley, that is.

Then.

Fog.

Dense fog.

But that was fine too. Not what I planned but not unexpected for this area especially near the Kickapoo River. 

I parked by the dam site and got out to look up. I guess I wasn't going to see a brilliant sunrise with the colors and clouds reflecting off the ponds as planned. It was murky and dark. I thought about getting back in the 'Ru and driving to another spot where I could climb a bluff. But tossed that aside.

After all, the dense fog was a challenge. What could I do with it?

The first thing I wanted to try was to catch the 'essence' of the predawn morning with a photo of Bridge 18. I had to use my headlamp to light up the bridge. But with a timed exposure, it didn't look very dark!

This is one of the things with fog, it throws the camera sensors into a frenzy of confusion. After an 8 second exposure it looked as if I'd just taken it on a cloudy day.

I tried a shot of the river but it looked weirdly bluish and strange. This was a 77 second shot.

I was tickled with the outcome though, because it was so strange looking and at least you could see how thick the fog was.

I walked down to the ponds and the fog got even more intense. 

In one photography class I'd taken, I was criticized for not planning far enough ahead. I was told that I should never depend on serendipity for a good photo. But here I was just having a fun time playing in the fog when I hadn't meant to.

I couldn't help myself but to be enchanted by the terrible conditions. So I thought Minimalism! How could I do that?

Easy, Nature was showing me how to do it. 
I didn't achieve true Minimalism though until I shot the middle of the pond like this:

Full version of the same scene:

I spent some time waiting to see if the sun would penetrate the fog. 

It felt weird to be this close to the Visitor Center and not see another soul. However it was still before 6AM, so I guess I was the weird one.

So I walked around the other little ponds to see if I could come up with something interesting. The western pond that has the blind in it was totally obscured by river fog. 

Eventually the fog started to brighten up and I decided to head home.

Parting shot of Bridge 18:

I didn't get out of fog until I got home. I had to leave the river valley. 

So I think .... hmmm, next time get up on the bluff and look down on the fog and gaze at the sky!

I was home before hubby woke up and all was good.

Whew. 

Guess I'll go to bed early again tonight!

Do Something

Instead I decided to take a morning drive and a morning walk into the deep woods.

Charlie came with me to supervise. We went down and walked along Readscreek which is known to the locals as Black Bottom not Readscreek.

I shot it in Infrared Chrome. 

The sunrise was not exactly spectacular however the light across the cropland was amazing. The low light accentuated the landscape.

The sunlight highlighted the land's gentle undulations.

I was simply stunned by the beauty of the land. I turned the Subaru off and got out of the car with Charlie. He thought the deer scents were more awesome than the scenery. I just took it all in.

I had this part of the day to myself. 

The landscape was taking my breath away...

Since Monday I'd been having a rough time with 'things'. That is all I will say.

I looked down at Charlie and said, "Two wrongs don't make a right, but three do."

He tipped his head at me and then I said. 

"If nothing is going right, let's go Left."

I dropped him off at home and headed down into the forest valley.  I dropped down through the thick woods and stood near the creek. It was steeped in darkness still. The sun was just beginning to shine down through the canopy through the creek fog.

I noticed some golden oyster mushrooms and decided to walk around the back of the tree to take a close look at them.

What I didn't expect was to see this...

The oyster mushrooms were releasing spores. And it was like watching a slow moving ballet of particles.

I was stunned. 
I couldn't move [other than to take some photos that is. I should have videoed it...].

Wow. Just.

Incredible.

This was what it was like to be

Alive

and then...

all felt right again.

This week's Cliff Notes

Mornings...and whatnot.

We still have frost on some mornings which can produce fog and make things look magical.

Frosted Daffodil

Below is Sven in his hot wire pen next to Little Richard in his pen. 

I had to separate the two the other day as the pony thought it would be fun to chase Sven and bite him on the butt. 

Sven ran like the dickens and jumped through the hot wires to escape. Sven can't stand to be too far from the pony so he just grazed in the open lane until I caught him. 

Sitting on the bucket in the back pasture is calming. I can listen to the birds wake up and watch the day lighten while sipping coffee.

Redwing Black bird singing  his
morning songs.

I've seen Tom Turkeys displaying their feathers and strutting around in the meadow. They are so awkward looking yet so determined!

One morning before it was light, I surprised this group of deer.

Wow, can they ever leap! 

This week has been a whirlwind of activity. I had something going on every single day!

The best part-sss of this week have been that the new young Primary Care doctor for Rich is amazing. She actually listened to him and his concerns. She didn't tell him to 'buck up and get over it' like some other doctor had told him. She asked him if he had a goal for this summer. She asking for a referral for PT with Pulmonary Therapy. He is actually looking forward to going. Best part? She is local and we don't have to travel 2 hours to see her!

His goals are fairly simple. He would like to be able to walk out to the shed and get on his riding mower and mow the yard in bits.

The change in his attitude of seeing a doctor that actually showed empathy and CARING improved his mental well being.

Other great things. 
Great hike with friend Mr. Bill. [more on that later]
Young friend Molly is back in town! I have a mule riding partner again! And Rich has a young gal who visits often to talk horses!

More on Molly from 2019 in Meet Molly.

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all moms. The weather looks like it is finally changing so I'll be out and about enjoying it. 

Morning Dew

Sunday Morning Coming Down...

The weather statement had called for heavy dense fog in the early morning on Sunday and Monday.

I love morning fog now that I don't have to drive through 30 miles of ridges and valleys in dense fog on twisted roads that some demented twit dreamed up. Actually, the roads are old established roads and are notorious for being steep, twisted, and difficult.

Charlie went with me to the Merry Meadow to watch the sunrise. We wandered through the pastures to watch the sun come up over PeeWee's meadow. 

I wanted to experiment with fog and longer exposures. What I did find ~ and it makes perfect sense now that I think about it ~ that a longer exposure like the one below ~ gave me a 'star' effect on the sunlight coming through the leaves! 

Was it the combination of the 100% humidity and the light plus the 1/4 second of exposure? Well, I guess. I'm still learning about this thing called photography. If you want to see a large version, click on the photo. I didn't 'see' it until I got back home and brought it up on my laptop.

I experimented with a 15 second exposure in the meadow to see if I could get more of the fog that was slowly wafting through.

It sort of worked. The fog/mist can be seen moving past the branches in this shot. Nothing to get excited about except that I now know that I can set up for a foggy shot in the woods if the conditions are right to get that eerie feeling. I've just never tried it before. 

The fog lifted and the air cleared.

Monday morning was even foggier! What a delight. I just grabbed the Infrared camera and headed out to wander around.

At the fence line to the east and across the meadow.

Lil' Richard through the window while I was grabbing some coffee...

Sundance in the area I have been working on for the past few years to clear of burdock and brush.

The Greeter in my Forest Garden.

Rain now...

We have beautiful rain.