Technical Difficulties

Well, I'm taking a short vacation and visiting my family, so the kind folks hosting the Stampeaz website took the opportunity to change some of the code behind the scenes and something broke. 

Yes, Piper and I are grimacing about the whole thing. 

Connectivity out here in the woods is a little spotty, so it may take me a couple days to get things up and running again. Your patience is much appreciated!

Thank you!

The Commuters

This time of year is always bittersweet. I love the crisp air, clear skies and autumnal colors. 

On the other hand, my favorite birds, both large and small take flight and head south. The sandhill cranes are molting, exchanging their rusty summer feathers for their winter silver gray plumage. This particular pair has been coming to our family property for several years now. They've gotten to know us well enough that they don't fly off as soon as we show up at the field. Unfortunately, they weren't successful at raising a colt this year. That always makes me sad - we really enjoy watching the family groups and love seeing them bring up the next generation. These two will soon fly away south and I will miss these tall beauties until they return in the spring. 

I miss the tiny ones when they abandon us for warmer climes. There are only a few left and I will be leaving the feeders out and ready for them until at least a week after the last one departs, just in case there's a late commuter desperate for some extra energy. 

They're such amazing little emerald gems - the miles they fly on those tiny wings boggle my imagination. 

The bright side is that winter visitors will soon arrive to take up residence for the cold months. Nature would never leave us bereft of beauty! 

A Minor Mother's Day Mystery - Mapped

Here's the clue from yesterday, if you missed it - or so you don't have to toggle back and forth to check for the mystery's subject(s). 

The subject in question at the moment is close to the middle of the picture. Not quite perfectly centered (there had to be a little photographic balance, after all). And there is more than one, but the others will be frustratingly elusive from this angle. 

Every year, our family would spend Mother's Day weekend wandering around out in the woods looking for treasure. It was a search to rival any Easter egg hunt and we children had as good a chance to make great discoveries as our parents, since our eyes were lower to the ground and provided an excellent vantage point. 

This is the one you should be able to spot in the mystery picture. I tried to get another picture at the same angle, so you can look for shape and shadow. It's the one that put me on alert. 

Once a little lower to the ground (children's eye level) in an effort to gather the first specimen, its friends were easier to locate. 

My brother and I harvested nearly two gallons of black morels in our afternoon of hunting, but a lot of crawling along on hands and knees through brambles was required to accomplish the feat. 

However, there's nothing quite like a pan of fresh morel mushrooms fried in butter for hors d'oeuvres as a reward for the effort. Yum!

I have made morel mushrooms the subject of one of my block prints, and it was fun to try to keep some of the mystery of the hunt in the final image. If anyone's interested, I can post a picture of it. :) 

A Minor Mother's Day Mystery

This little mystery is especially for BetsyLee (which, in itself, might be a dead giveaway). 

As always, you can click on the image to enlarge it. I left it as big as I possibly could. 

This is on my family's property and reminds me of the group outings we would always take on Mother's Day. The reveal will come tomorrow. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

The Big Mon

I warned you that there would be one more post about mandolin camp and the fallout from the experience, so here we go. 

I had been interested in getting a better mandolin than the one my brother got me started with and he was encouraging me to upgrade, too. During camp, I asked each of the instructors for instrument recommendations (short of getting an antique Gibson or a custom made extravaganza that would be way beyond my budget) and they each had really good suggestions. Then, I did a bunch of research about each of the possibilities. 

My brother and I took a road trip to the Northfield showroom and tried out a number of mandolins (all of which had good features and would have served me well).  After playing and narrowing the field to a couple of favorites, this is the little beauty I ended up getting. It's not only quite lovely to look at, but it has an amazing presence and sounds fantastic. It's a way more marvelous instrument than I even begin to deserve at my level of ability, but I'm practicing hard and hope to eventually play up to its capabilities - or at least get a lot closer than I am at the moment!

I'm sparing most of you the excruciating details, but if any instrument affectionados are reading this and want to know the technical specs, just ask and I'll be happy to give more information. 

One of the camp teachers told me that I'd probably never need another mandolin after this. I believe him!

Mandolin Magic

There was enough interest in my mandolin camp adventures, that I am going to share a little bit about the experience, which was amazing.  

My personal mandolin saga began about five years ago, when my brother handed me a mandolin and asked me to play with him for an event in honor of an old family friend. I learned a three chord wonder song and sang harmony with him. We've been playing and singing together ever since. There's nothing quite like sibling harmony.

Since that fateful day, I've been trying to teach myself how to play, with books and online videos and just stumbling around. I had reached the point where I felt I was on the edge of beginning to understand something about the instrument and needed some help to fall off on the right side of that edge. I searched for mandolin camps in my state and there was one quite close to me, so I signed up! And, oh, talk about pre-camp jitters!

Great Lakes Mandolin Camp was held near the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, which is quite beautiful. This is the sunrise viewed through my bedroom window the first morning of camp.

It was a weekend full of mandolin immersion, with classes taught by superb mandolin players, jam sessions (structured and informal), individual master classes, student and faculty concerts and lots of great stories about mandolin legends.

Brian Oberlin, the camp organizer, Emory Lester and Don Stiernberg taught a number of different mandolin playing styles ranging from classical and jazz to swing, bluegrass and old time. You can look these artists up online and listen to some of their music, if you're interested. They all have YouTube videos, websites (and CDs you can purchase, if you are captured by the sounds). 

 

Music theory was the easy part for me, since I took both voice and piano lessons in my youth, but there was so much information that sailed right over my head that I have plenty to work on and try to master before next year's camp (I have been practicing like mad and I can at least dream about mastering the material, right?).  So, yes, I'll be going again, if it's at all possible. 

Oh, and there will be another post about one of the results of this weekend adventure. How's that for a teaser?

 

Dunes Buggy

I went to mandolin camp a couple weeks ago (yes, you read that right) and before I headed for home, I took advantage of the fact that I was right near the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore and took a lovely walk along one of the winding trails leading through the dunes.

Before making its way to the actual dunes, the path led through the woods, where there were all kinds of migrating birds chattering in the trees. I managed to catch a couple warblers perched and peering at me out of the foliage (you might need to click on the photo to enlarge it in order to find both of them, since they blend in with the yellow leaves - and are nearly the same size).

Sticking with the yellow theme for just a minute, after emerging from the woods, I came upon some showy goldenrod growing bravely in the sand. It is showy, isn't it? It belongs to the aster family and is quite popular with pollinators.

I finally got high enough to glimpse Lake Michigan over the dunes and, if you look closely, you will also see some birds dotted against the sky. We'll get back to those shortly.

There were spectacular views all along the trail, as well as interesting flora and fauna.

The birds I mentioned earlier were a migrating flock of horned larks and they would soar into the air whenever they felt disturbed by something and then swoop back around to alight in the dune grasses to forage, disappearing entirely - at least to the naked eye or my camera. I couldn't manage to get a closer look at these birds.

Snags left by long deceased trees created interesting sculpture gardens here and there. Those trees had a rugged life out in the wind and sand. 

Dune grasses were another visual treat, especially when juxtaposed with the blue of the sky.

Seriously, aren't the tans and blues beautiful together? 

 

So, all in all, it was a lovely and peaceful walk after an amazing four day musical immersion experience!  I may even share a little about that, if anyone seems interested!

More Babies in the Bean Patch

I came down to the family homestead for Labor Day to sing in a benefit concert with my brother and along the way, we downloaded some more pictures from the trail camera in the bean patch. There are some more great bird pictures.... And more babies!

This song sparrow loved being front and center. I downloaded and saved dozens of fun pictures of it foraging right at center stage. I thought I would prepare and share just a few today, since I haven't posted for a little while. (I ended up contracting the evil Covid and have been unfit for much of anything this past week, but at least I have very good company - my brother ended up with rebound Covid, which is how I caught it. I can't believe he came back for a second helping - it's not that much fun!) 

Sometimes, the sparrow was joined by a youngster or two that begged for delicious tidbits. You can see the little, short tail feathers that haven't grown to their full glory yet.

Being undersized and awkward doesn't slow this little one down much. It can still keep track of its food source and follow along quite handily. 

I love it when there's a really good action picture. I can just imagine mom wanting to escape junior for just a little while, achieving liftoff and preparing to fold in the landing gear.

Here's the other end of the spectrum, with landing equipment fully extended, getting ready for a gentle touch down. 

 And this one was just darling. The little guy zeroing in to claim a grasshopper reward for a well executed flight plan. Once again, the nearly nonexistent tail makes me grin. 

Then, just for extra smiles, I had to include this earnest little dove that stepped in front of the camera for a soft focus close-up. Very Hollywood. 

Poblanos!

I found some really nice poblano peppers and thought it would be fun to make some chiles rellenos to share with my brother and his wife while I was visiting. 

 

When I started to arrange everything on the plates, my sister-in-law said she thought I ought to take pictures, so I did.

I slid one plate down for a picture that would include the duck that my mother always filled with zinnias from the garden. It held pride of place on the dining table during the summer months and was a beautiful blaze of color. I'm glad the tradition has been renewed, now that we're planting zinnias again!

The peppers were roasted over an open flame, peeled and seeded, stuffed with sharp cheddar, and fried with an egg batter. I finally topped them off with freshly made pico de gallo. The sides are guacamole, home grown tomatoes and sour cream on a nest of shredded lettuce. 

Yum! I highly recommend this!

Sly as a Fox

My brother shared these pictures with me from his recent fishing trip in the Upper Peninsula. A fox couple came to visit the camp where he was staying. 

The female, or vixen, was beautiful, with the standard coloring of a red fox. She had black legs and the telltale white tip to her tail.

Isn't she lovely? What a beautiful face. 

I'm sorry about the dustpan in the foreground, but I still had to include this picture - just look at that contented, happy face!

Her mate, the reynard, or male of the species, was quite handsome. His coloring was a little more unusual, with the black of the legs climbing all the way up on his hips and back.

Quite striking, don't you think? I also like the little patch of white at the base of his tail, as well as the white tip.

The really tricky bit?  It turns out that they are terribly fond of having small pieces of cheese (probably large pieces, too) tossed in their direction. This fellow was trying to catch one on the fly. 

Wasn't it clever of this pair to get the humans to share their cheese? Pretty sly!

Adventures in Lawn Mowing

For the last couple of years, my neighbor's daughter has been providing lawn service. I thought that, since opportunities for making some spending money were pretty slim during the whole pandemic experience, she might enjoy a chance to earn a bit of cash.  She did a great job and I was hoping that she'd want to do it again this year.  Alas, she's getting old enough now that she would rather go to soccer camp, swim and hang out with her friends. I certainly can't blame her, but I had to come up with another plan for cutting the grass. Naturally, I thought it was about time I purchased a lawn mower. 

Doesn't this look like the perfect solution to the problem? Innovative, uncomplicated and doing extra duty as exercise equipment and functional sculpture - what more could one ask?

No, that's not the mower I bought, but when I saw this beauty while on vacation in the Upper Peninsula a while back, I thought it was brilliant and definitely worth sharing.

I Have Often Walked down this Street Before....

While visiting the town of my birth a few weeks ago, we took a quick tour past the old house in the old neighborhood. 

It's hard to believe that five of us squeezed into this little house (we didn't have a garage back then and the front gardens weren't nearly as spectacular, but otherwise it's much as I remember it). We did, however have a magnificent lilac bush in the back yard that had a child-sized opening I often crawled into. It acted as a grand house for tea parties and other creative play.  

The upstairs window that you can see in this picture was at the top of the stairs and my "bedroom" was the hall/landing right there. I remember that the head of my bed was up against the door to the attic - and if you don't think that gave a small child nightmares thinking about what could be hiding in that attic space, you clearly didn't have the fertile imagination I had! 

It was fun to see the old street and we remembered many of the families that had lived along it with us. Also, the park was still there, where there used to be a working May pole and they held various art classes and activities for children during the summer. 

Our house was at the bottom of the hill, sort of in the "hollow" and I loved walking up the hill through the fog on my way to the school bus. It was a magical start to the day. 

Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse

As part of our tour of the thumb, we stopped at Pointe aux Barques lighthouse, which I learned is one of the ten oldest lighthouses in Michigan. 

Not only that, it's still active today, making it one of the oldest continually working lighthouses on the Great Lakes. Pretty impressive. 

The Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society has been doing some amazing restoration work and, if you're in the area and like lighthouses at all, it's well worth the visit. Besides, there's a nice park right on the lake. 

(Did you notice that I managed to capture a seagull in flight when I snapped this photo? I didn't want you to miss that little bit of serendipity.)

Camping in Style

Coming home from my aunt's memorial service, we all took a tour of the thumb and camped along Lake Huron at a state park. 

We were absolutely charmed by this setup. Those folks knew how to camp in style. They were traveling with a canine, too, so they really did have it right.  

The Madness of the Month of May

What on earth do I disappear into the woods for weeks on end to hunt? 

The deliciously difficult to find (but easy to enjoy) morel mushroom, that's what.

There's a trick to pattern recognition, especially when they're hidden in thatched grasses that are virtually the same color as the mushrooms.

They can be hard to see, even when you know they are there and I have gotten down among them with the camera, right? 

As we frequently quip, "They can hide, but they cannot run." - and they do it so very well!

So, now you know at least a big chunk of what my family and I are up to during the merry month of May. 

Of course, the eating comes after the finding...

A Different Kind of Time Lapse

So, it's been a while since I posted on the blog, speaking of time lapses. I was doing pretty well until about the middle of May, when I took a vacation break for hanging out in the woods and hunting for tasty things to eat. Since the beautiful weather has kept enticing me out into the gardens and woods, it's hard to find a time to spend indoors working on preparing pictures and to share!

The good news about this particular lapse is that I have a fun series for this installment.  

Baloo smelled something interesting in a low growing juniper bush close to the beach.  He wanted to investigate further, but I spotted the eggs and kept him from disturbing the nest. There were eight little potential ducklings just waiting to be hatched.  

Mom Mallard was nearby dabbling in the shallows and worrying about her little ones, so we moved on to keep her from getting too nervous.

However, a few days later, we were able to catch Mom actually sitting on her nest.  If you look carefully, you can make out not just the wing feathers, but also her face and eye looking right at the camera through the greenery.  Look for the golden eye toward the top and a little left of center.  

We actually got to see the little ducklings in the nest one evening, but I didn't want Baloo to ruffle their little downy feathers, so I didn't get close enough for a picture.  They don't hang around in the nest long after they're cracked out of the eggs, so the next time we spotted them, they were already swimming out in the bay.

The whole entourage was out for an evening paddle.  I particularly like the little one in the back - doesn't it look like it's staring off into its own little wonderful world of adventure?