Each year it seems that Morris's stuffed toys decide to go on some sort of adventure.
Sometimes they take a Tonka truck for a ride, sometimes they get lost in the woods...and occasionally they meet new friends such as mules...or new toys.
Imagine me carrying a gym bag full of stuffed toys through the woods finding ...'Just the right spot' to take some shots of the 'characters'.
Hint for the preview of the book.
Morris is getting the surprise of his life.
Lots of new characters are going to enter the story.
I'm looking forward to how these characters take me on an adventure.
Welcome Sterling Edward to this life. He had a bit of a rough start with an emergency C-section on September 30th.
There I am holding Sterling, next to me is Samantha the proud mom... step sister Lily, and Sterling's sister Elena!
It was a whirlwind few days of lots of emotion and happiness.
~~~~~~~
It was all over the news, the last lunar eclipse of the year was Wednesday morning.
I checked the NASA site for estimated times and set my alarm for 4am. At 4:15, I could see the shadow beginning so I made coffee and made the decision to await until the shadow had nearly covered the moon.
I drove to the ridge top and parked on the gravel road with the moon now turning orange.
So I kept trying exposures until finally I nailed a keeper.
It was still well before dawn. I think this shot was taken about 5:15AM.
Worth the wait and the nearly frozen hands! The moon was dim enough that it did not blot out all of the surrounding stars.
I patiently waited until the glow in the east started.
As the sun rose the moon dropped and returned to its normal color with the lower half still either in shadow or in atmospheric haze.
I finished up by jumping into the car and going to a higher viewpoint to watch the moon sink into the trees and out of sight.
Last night I made an attempt to catch yet another full moon after it peered down into our hollow.
It turned out more like a Halloween Shot instead. Of course, I didn't use a tripod and the clouds were not exactly cooperating.
Today is supposed to be in the 50's. Perfect for poking about in the woods to find colors.
Perhaps Morris, my assistant will come along and we can start photographing the new book in his series of adventures with toys....
It should be fun!
I was out with hubby and we went for an evening ride.
This camera was set up to catch the deer and turkeys that like to come to this area and entertain us with their antics.
However it caught me riding. I had a bit of editing to do to make it presentable...sort of a painting effect.
Other shots from the ride that made 'my day'.
The fall colors are changing hard and fast.
I don't really want to see them go.
But today is going to be sunny and warm. And it looks like at least for my 36 hours off it will be nice!
I hope to go out and enjoy some more color!
PS~ Siera behaved as if she has been doing this all of her life now. Of course the trail is one we take often so she doesn't get nervous about that at all any more.
I think this summer she has finally matured into a sensible mule!
Hubby was on Sunshine a mule out of my mare Cheyanne. Cheyanne was my first horse that I owned and this is one of her mule 'babies' who is now 16 yrs old and a very nice ride.
Sunshine has a sister we call Sundance. Hubby has claimed her and now he needs to get the job of getting her under saddle taken care of. Sundance is incredibly smart and willing.
Thank you Cheyanne for passing on your beauty to two mules. Your time here on earth was a blessing for me.
I'll always miss you too!
Hope you and Badger are playing in a huge meadow together.
I'd been itching for a ride. It was late and it looked like rain but I hadn't been to the valley in a long time.
I walked over to the pen and Fred bullied his way in past Siera who stood and nickered at me.
Fred seemed ready to go also.
I cleaned him up and tied my raincoat to the back of the saddle just in case it began to drizzle.
The skies were grey and very overcast.
But that only added to the brilliance of the trees once we entered the forest trail.
It did start drizzling so I stopped and put on my raincoat and we rode on. It was a light enough rain that we could here it on the leaves above us, but it didn't feel like it was going to get us wet or turn into a hard rain.
Fred's steps were muffled by the damp leaves.
The further we rode, the darker it got. So midway up the trail to the 'velodrome' I turned around and headed back.
When I glanced up I could see that rain would be coming and the light in the forest just kept getting darker.
Actually it was quite beautiful in the way that the colors were drawn out in the subdued light.
Although the point and shoot camera I had in my pocket had a very hard time with the light.
So this is why the photos appear painted in a way. I rescued them as best I could with a little photoshop magic and some Topaz plugins.
However the short ride did wet my appetite to go back today and enjoy the colors. The back valley ridge road is generally brilliant with yellows.
The skies are supposed to be cloudy which might make for great lighting again today.
I think I will take Siera and perhaps Morris too as he is my assistant and rides well on Siera.
I'll have to make it a point to dismount and take photos instead of trying to take them from Fred's bouncy back.
So here is to Fred for taking me for a nice evening ride in the light rain.
Fred, you are the last of the aged...grand aged mules we have and I hope to have your around for a lot longer!
Fall is my favorite time to go out and 'try' to catch spectacular sunrises.
In our area of hills and valleys we have fogs, mists, and very interesting skies this time of year.
So I always find myself plotting where I will go and see the sunrise to the best advantage.
Sometimes I get snookered like I did at Jersey Valley when dense fog moved in and obscured the lake.
So I thought I'd try and work around the dense fog by travelling to a high point above the Kickapoo River Valley to look down on the fog.
I waited in the cold for the sun to come up in the pre dawn light.
I found it curious that it appeared to be frost on the soybeans when it was 41 degrees, according to my car's thermometer.
I could see the fog intensifying as the sun rose.
Sometimes...getting 'the shot' requires a bit of creativity.
I probably would have gotten great cell coverage had I needed it.
And the road? It wasn't exactly the nicest one, but it got me up and down the ridge.
And back into the fog.
But all the effort in the end was worth it...
That is, until I stayed home this morning and was enchanted with this....
So I am guessing sometimes it is just as good to stay home!
No fog this AM, but the clouds presented the sky with brilliants hues and reflections.
Jersey Valley County Park, Westby WI.
As the sun began to rise the fog deepened until the whole valley disappeared.
But not without giving me a glimpse of the beautiful colors of the trees first!
I think I'm going to try and go up a certain back road to the top of the ridge overlooking the Kickapoo River Valley to look down on the fog this morning.
Certainly it will be a different perspective ... not being in it!
Duck Egg County Park is not hard to find and has two entrances. The upper entrance on the ridge and the lower entrance in the valley.
We chose to hike the lower end of the park and see if we could get some great views of the changing colors and get some shots of the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River.
Bad Axe River...that name is just so cool.
Anyway the drive into the valley was beautiful and very very twisted. You need good brakes and you need to be careful!
One of the more interesting things to try and do is take good photographs with a dog on a leash.
Some folks let their dogs loose but these trails are shared with equine and I really wouldn't want Morris to spook a horse. I know I wouldn't want to be spooked.
We walked in the valley and admired the beautiful fall colors.
As an experiment I only brought my Nikon with a 50mm lens and my new pocket camera.
I however did bring my tripod in hopes of getting a nice shot of the river flowing.
We walked out to the 'big' pond where we saw a Muskrat who was rather unconcerned about us.
Morris seemed interested in the smells on the shoreline, but I wanted to keep any encounters between Muskrat and Morris to a minimum.
My biggest fear was that Morris would decide to get into the river which was running rather hard from the 1/2" of rain we had the night before.
He proved pretty smart about that. Stuck his nose down into the river and quickly pulled back.
After that I wasn't too afraid of losing him to the swift current.
I used my very dark ND filter and was able to set up a shot by one of the foot bridges.
I let Morris loose and he stayed near.
This view is from the horse crossing. It was a hard shot to get as the light kept changing.
Then we found a small trail that led us to the edge of the river that was off the beaten tracks.
This was a very neat spot and I would like to return without my 'helper' to worry about.
The current was running pretty hard.
Then we set up at the second bridge to take some shots.
Note that my camera assistant is making sure no one disturbs us while we are on top of the slightly bouncy bridge. He actually stood very still so I could take some timed exposures.
What a great dog!
Facing downstream 30 second exposure. Edited for a bit of fun.
Facing upstream.
This is the only place I regretted not having a wider angle lens. But I still ended up happy with this shot.
Morris stood quietly while I packed my things up and we started back down the trail towards the parking lot.
Old Dog Morris was dragging his butt by the time we made it to the Subaru.
I asked him if he thought this would be a good place for him to bring his buddy Teslin.
He really didn't answer.
When he hopped into the car ....
...he fell immediately asleep and snored most of the way home.
