Posts Tagged ‘landscape photography’
Honorable Mention
There were many, many pictures taken over the weekend, most of which didn’t even make it into the photo contest. Some that were entered into the contest were overshadowed by those the panel of judges selected as winners. Today, I’d like to feature one such image from the most enthusiastic photographer in the contest.
Honorable Mention, Category: Nature by Abby S. (12yrs)
I’m a little partial toward it because I also submitted a view of the same frozen lake for the Nature category. Abby and I share a similar perspective when it comes to photography.
Even though the saying holds true that what happens at the lake stays at the lake, there are a few tidbits that are bound to leak. I figure that if I get out front of any rumors that may spring up, I have a better chance of controlling the narrative.
No one can blame me for drinking all the orange juice. And those cheese puff balls that only lasted a short time never once passed my lips.
One particularly noteworthy situation that I adored sprung up when Elysa showed off the fraying thumbs of her fancy knitted mittens. We’d hardly returned indoors when I found my sister, Mary, hand-spinning some yarn for use to repair those knitted thumbs. Faster than made sense to me, Elysa was showing off that her mittens looked as good as new. Way to go, Mary!
For four days, it seemed as though there was constant activity but it never once seemed like too much. With very little pre-planning, wildly entertaining games seemed to blossom out of nowhere.
I had never seen most of the games and found them to be equally enjoyable whether I was in the middle of the actions or calmly observing from a safe distance. Off the top of my head, here are a few wonderfully descriptive titles:
Ouisi- Trash Pandas
- Tripoley
- Sushi Go Party
- Happy Salmon
- Cribbage
- Code Names
- Pokemon
- Twister (outdoors)
- Golf (with playing cards)
If we weren’t playing games or editing photos, we were eating. Smoked bbq meatballs, white chicken chili with cornbread, breakfasts with gooey caramel rolls, spicy biscuits and gravy, fruit salad, pizza from Coops, scrumptious salads, and dessert treats that shall not be named so no one has to think about those calories.
Additional honorable mentions go to Tim for his seamless ability to light pilot lights that inexplicably needed lighting, for tightening a loose toilet seat, cleaning the kitchen to exceptional levels, and for helping Nick on a run to the liquor store that included a stop at a hardware store for a wing nut I needed.
To top off all that fun, conversations flowed amiably in a wide variety of directions that included precious memories, humorous stories, and thoughtful considerations.
Now I miss everyone almost more than I can stand. Stopping all that brilliant sweet family fun so abruptly is not an easy thing to do. It’s really hard to explain to Asher where everyone disappeared to now that we are home where it’s just me, Cyndie, and him.
Hey, family… let’s not wait so long to plan another sleep-over gathering event next time!
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Side Views
Asher and I spent a little time out behind the house yesterday morning in the space that I think of as our “side yard.” It produced this collection of views that caught my eye…
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I hope these provide a sense of the beauty and tranquility that we are blessed to enjoy in our little paradise. Maybe not so tranquil for the burrowing rodents that Asher seeks to root out, but otherwise, heavenly in the fall, under majestic old trees on a bright, sunny day.
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Foggy Morning
The weather app on my phone notified me that we were under dense fog conditions first thing this morning. That proved to be a spot-on analysis.
It wasn’t all that obvious in the woods where Asher and I were breaking spider webs that crossed our trails. When we reached the fence of the back pasture, it was as if none of our neighbors existed.
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The horses didn’t seem overly worried about their limited views. They were spread out with heads up when I came around the corner, appearing well aware of my arrival.
Every morning there is obvious evidence of burrowing critter activity in and around the barn overnight. There is enough spillage from the horses’ sloppy eating that barn pigeons and rodents find more than enough motivation to hang around. For some reason, this morning a couple of rodents didn’t wait until I was gone to emerge from their tunnels to scrounge. That’s the first time I have actually seen them.
Come to think of it, I haven’t seen the neighbor’s orange cat lurking around our property of late. I wonder if Asher would be okay with us getting a barn cat to keep the rodent population from exploding. In the meantime, we will be adding some traps in the barn.
One of our ash trees near the (vacant) chicken coop is proving to be our “canary in the coal mine” when it comes to the onset of autumn.
Every year it drops leaves sooner than most other trees have begun to change color. This year it stands out more than usual for being so bare-branched so soon.
Is the middle of September early for bare branches? Sure seems like it to me, especially when we have 80°F temperatures forecast for the coming week. It still feels an awful lot like summer around here, even with a cool fog blanketing the landscape this morning.
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Pretty Peak
We are witnessing pretty close to peak colors around here now. It’s hard to tell if the next day will become even more brilliant or if leaves will have abruptly dropped to the ground en masse.
There are a few straggling trees still holding green leaves but the ones that blaze the best colors are maxing out. We are doing our best to soak up the scenery with full in-the-moment appreciation, never knowing when the polychromatic party might end. The critical ingredient for maximum spectacle is direct sunlight, so the degree of cloudy skies in the next few days will play a significant part in prolonging the autumnal glory we have been blessed with this year.
Complicating the situation is the extreme degree of parched soil we have been dealt, so we are also longing for an extended soaking rain. I guess one way to look at it is that either way, we win.
If it gets rainy, we will rejoice over the moisture. If it stays sunny, we continue to enjoy the wonderful fall colors.
(For the purposes of this positive-thinking exercise, I will be ignoring the possibility of the skies clouding over without ever providing a measurable amount of rain.)
As of yesterday afternoon, we were peaking out and loving it!
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Morning Scenery
I got absolutely skunked by Cyndie in our rematch competition of CrossCrib yesterday. Four or five hands and I didn’t score a single point. In one case, she had 40 points before I counted my hand and the points in the crib. No contest from the get-go. I used to pride myself in defensive play but that ploy was entirely insufficient against her cards yesterday.
Cyndie also outdid me in capturing fabulous images of the early sunlight on a walk with Delilah while I exercised my world-class lethargy, staying in bed longer than I care to admit.
Wait. Did I just admit that?
Gorgeous.
It is my great honor to be given the privilege of featuring them on my blog.
Thank you, Cyndie! I’m happy to give up CrossCrib success against you forever if you will keep giving me access to your photo library. 🙂
As if I had any control in that.
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Long Approach
Cyndie was walking Delilah on the perimeter trail and paused to take a picture of the latest version of fall colors developing along our landscape. Then the horses noticed her. Cyndie kept taking pictures of the next few moments.
“Hello there!”
Of course, it was Mix and Swings who approached to see what Cyndie was up to. Light and Mia just kept grazing where they were.
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Never Imagined
I never imagined that in my lifetime the United States would become a laughingstock of the world. It’s rather embarrassing to witness our once-powerful democracy devolve into such a mockery of itself. We are probably the last ones to finally see the hypocrisies being laid bare with the blatant disrespect for last November’s election. The rest of the world has seen through our holier-than-thou attitude for a long time.
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Try as I might to preserve the sanctity of my mental space, I failed miserably last night at preventing the invasion of the outrageous gobbledygook related to an hour-long phone call of bullying malfeasance that was recorded for all the world to hear. Sad. So sad.
I sure wish there were swift consequences for such blatant abuse of power.
Thank goodness I have Cyndie and our chickens to brighten things up for me. In a perfectly timed intervention that adjusted my attitude splendidly, Cyndie shared this tidbit:
She decided to offer our chickens the aging remains of an unfinished apple pie from Christmas. She set the foil pie pan in the coop on Sunday night when she closed the coop. Yesterday morning, when she opened things up for the day, Cyndie said there wasn’t a single trace of apple, crust, or the oatmeal crumble topping anywhere in sight. Just a perfectly clean pie pan.
I guess it’s safe to say our chickens like apple pie.
They do not automatically eat everything we set out for them. Some kitchen scraps get entirely ignored. We get a little extra entertainment value out of the times we appear to have offered something that catches their fancy.
That little story lightened my outlook nicely. Like a sunny winter day after an overnight fog.
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Winter Landscape
It’s not as harsh as it sometimes looks. I don’t mean to be gatekeeping, but images of a winter landscape are viewed best with a reference of having walked in the pre-dawn quiet with the squeak of snow under boots being the only disruption of the brisk surroundings.
To know the difference between how below zero feels on the skin compared to a day when it gets above freezing.
To see the muted lighting first hand, in a way a camera will never equally convey.
To absorb the full expanse of the sky from one horizon to the next while feeling the icebox chill emanating from the snow cover below.
A winter landscape is so much more than a photograph is able to capture, but that never stops us from trying.
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Painted Skies
One of many fond memories I have of home during my adolescence is the variety of magazines that showed up in our mailbox. I’m guessing I have my father to thank for this. Weekly, I paged through Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated for exposure to the latest images and trends. I remember exploring Popular Mechanics, or was it Popular Science? Probably both. There was Reader’s Digest and a few along the lines of Good Housekeeping, likely for Mom’s benefit, to which I paid a little less attention.
For a spell, there was Arizona Highways with its glorious pictures of colorful western sunsets. I suppose that contributed to a perspective that Arizona was the place where that happened. Obviously, that perception has carried through to now because that magazine came to mind when Cyndie offered me photos she took of yesterday’s sunset and this morning’s sunrise.
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Beldenville, Wisconsin. Land of painted skies…
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Beautiful Views
Despite human industrial activity dumping carbon into the earth’s atmosphere for generations, grass and trees continue to jam carbon back into the soil. Imagine if we had enough forests and fields to reverse the changes our burning of fossil fuels has done to the atmosphere.
Thinking like that is more fun when gazing upon the beautiful views we enjoy than trying to wrap my head around the continuing damage that is being done every day, like driving my car for two hours a day during my 4-day workweek. Working from home on Fridays is a small token toward driving less.
We watched the NOVA episode, “Can We Cool the Planet?” on PBS last night. Seems reasonable to believe that we can cool the planet. The difficulty is whether or not humans will actually undertake the needed steps.
It certainly doesn’t hurt for individuals to strive to do their part, but the solution will require a collective global commitment. Based on the history of the human race, it is hard to picture how such a thing would even be possible.
Maybe an existential threat will be the difference that one day drives a coordinated response.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to plant trees and enjoy our lovely views.
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Relative Something 