Little me's big adventure...and the Aurora...

 

Hubby has coverage and meals all set up. He and Charlie get a break from me and I get a break from them. All the farm animals are taken care of. The weather looks good and I am so ready to go see my new little granddaughter and of course her folks.

I've decided to stay at a hotel near Lake Michigan and do a bit of shopping, walking, and seeing the sights of the town I used to live in years ago. 

The drive there will be casual. I'll listen to music and take a route so that I can visit a place called Paradise Springs again. I'll feel a bit like my life is untethered and free at least for a little while. That is about the nicest thing I can do for myself.

Last night I saw that we might be able to see an Aurora Borealis show. My neighbor -- who I share the driveway with asked if I was going to watch for it. She said she'd text me if she saw anything and I agreed to text her if I saw anything.

She did text me around 7:30 to say she saw faint pinks in the northern sky and it wasn't even dark yet!

I ran out and got this....

It was very faint to the naked eye but I was ecstatic! I set things up in our little valley and asked my neighbor if she wanted to come down and get the view of a bigger sky. She couldn't, the kids were in bed and hubby was at a meeting.

So I walked up to her place in the woods.
The show was still incredible.

When the skies did this....

I thought it would be fun to do a star trail. The Oly camera I use has a LiveComp setting which detects light movement and adds it to a composite as it happens.

I don't have to take 400 shots and then align them later. 

Each time the waves of color moved, the camera added that to the photo also.

What I ended up with after 25 minutes was wild...

👇

Airplanes and maybe some shooting stars passed overhead.

While the camera was doing its magic Cibyl and I stretched out on the gravel with our cell phones and took shots.

We even walked out to the road where she dropped into the ditch and laid back to view and shoot the sky.

Cellphone shots...

I mean, it was insane and we oohhheedddd and ahhhhhed and giggled like kids. 

Cibyl sent me a chart explaining the colors that we saw:

I took so many cellphone shots that it was crazy. They turned out okay.

But I enjoyed trying to nail something special with the Olympus.

Star Trails above her house when the sky turned red with green and yellow... the Aurora waves were so bright that they washed out the stars in the lower part of the photo.

It felt insane to see the skies turn red at night.

I commented that if it wasn't the Aurora...it would look like the end of the world...

It fluctuated and changed and seemed never ending.

Finally, we called it a night. Her hubby came home and the lights started to fade.

At least...

That is what I thought...

As I came down the driveway, my naked eyes saw something faint in the east...

still going on...

But I was tired and had miles to put on the next morning. So I thought I'd take a finishing shot over our house.

I was so pleased at what showed up.

The color yellow

I thought that I'd go with another color. I picked a really difficult one.

Yellow.

This is one of the pumpkins that grew as a volunteer plant in the pasture. It isn't truly yellow, but it is yellow and orange. Maybe orange can be the next color I target.

I chose to go out very early in the morning and look for yellows. This was a very hard task. 
Below is a macro of a yellow cosmos. These cosmos are both bright yellow and tinted orange.

I took a shot of the seeds below. They are so easy to collect and then simply reseed anywhere. 

For years, I wasn't a fan of any yellow flowers. I avoided orange and yellow flowers in my garden but the colors have really grown on me. Next year, I think I'll be adding many more yellows. I'm eyeing marigolds. 

Below is a pumpkin flower.

This one decided to grow in and among my Nasturtiums. So far, this plant has provided us with 3 small white pumpkins. [I gave out as many extras as I could to the little neighbor kids for their fun]

Finding the color yellow got harder as I left the porch and garden areas. I went out to the meadow to see if I could find some Golden Rod.

Most of the Golden Rod was too faded to provide a colorful photo.

But...

The Orb Weavers were Back!

This one was wrapping up her breakfast which was a grasshopper she had captured. When I shifted my position to 'get' a better and closer shot, she left her breakfast and sat still on her web. She didn't drop off the web like others, but waited patiently for me to leave.

The second shot is the first one I took of her, it is a close up of her wrapping up her meal. Does the yellow and orange colors on her count as Yellow?

I don't really love spiders. I do appreciate the work they do. They are absolutely fascinating to watch. When I worked in Security, I recall the nights I spent in the guardhouse watching an Orb Weaver create the most beautiful web. She showed up each night for weeks. 

We called her Charlotte.

The fog and mist were lifting as I headed back towards the house. I saw the box elder showing off some yellow and headed out towards it. The box elders really put out the seeds this year!

I checked the old oak tree and found just one or two leaves that had color. They usually don't change first so I was surprised. The branches must be damaged in some way to produce dying leaves right now.

Sunday promised another HOT day and it produced it. By late afternoon, it was 90 in the shade and even hotter on our porch which gets full sun through the fall and winter.

This last shot was up through the old oak, I was going for a sun star flare and got one.

The yellows were hard! I need to walk up into my neighbor's woods where he girded some maples which are showing off some great colors right now. This week is going to be a hot one. 

Stay cool.

Pretty and Fleeting ...

I thought we were not going to have much in the way of Fall Colors this year. In September the trees were turning and the undergrowth in the forest was dying off due to our drought. We've been getting rain since then and it seems the trees made a recovery and are now on schedule with bright and beautiful colors.

I think they are just showing off after such a tough year.

I like to take my photos of the leaves from under the trees in full sunlight. I use the sun to light up the leaves and make them glow with color. This past week I was limited in the morning by pet chores so I didn't get my usual morning shots. 

But this is what I did find and I am satisfied with it.

I like standing in the shadows of the trees and finding spots of light. I guess this has just how I liked to see things this year.

Apparently, according to the Leaf Color chart, our area is at 95%. I'd call it a full peak of color right now.

Of course I hope to get out this weekend and enjoy some of those colors in one of our county parks or perhaps a state park.

Color Blasts

 

The above photo was taken while it was drizzling and very overcast. Charlie and I decided to go to our favorite place to go for a hike despite the weather. When I saw the incredible colors on the hillsides, I found a side road to pull off on and stop.

I live in the likes of these hills and heavy forests. This side road is on the flood plain of the Kickapoo River. It is one of the rare 'flat' areas in the region. 

Since I live surrounded by large forests and valleys, I enjoy walking in the morning and afternoon to catch the sunlight that streams down on changing leaves.

The colors are beautiful as they always are. I imagine that things will really get going and be done within two weeks around here. 

The deep forest is still quite green in most areas but splashes of color are all peeking through.

This time of the year I generally walk up and down this old 4 wheeler trail and watch as the forest turns colors.

In a few more years, the forest will grow back over the trail and it will be hidden from view, but for now, I'll enjoy it.

Soon all these maples and other trees will start to drop their yellow leaves and the path will look golden. Then...it all disappears. In the late fall and winter, this makes for an interesting walk too. 

I went by one of the wild apple trees and decided to pick some for some apple sauce or more jelly. This tree is fun to watch in the late fall from a stand I have in my pasture. The deer come through late fall and winter to eat the fallen fruit.

Walking back to do chores I found another huge flush of Chicken of the Woods! This time on an old Ash tree stump that we'd tried to burn. This is our old brush pile.

Seems the color theme of the day was of reds, yellows, and orange colors!

I'm so pleased that my Lego People are always around to lend a hand.