Sunday, 11 October 2009
Just how important are ID photos? I mean, are they really supposed to look like the bearer? Or, are you supposed to look like your photo?
So, just to check the system, wear a wig, or iPod earbuds, or something distracting, next time you have to get an ID photo taken….
Saturday, 10 October 2009
Although this is a pretty darned big chicken, and locally may even be known as The Big Chicken, it’s a pretty modest-sized chicken when compared to Marietta’s Big Chicken.
Friday, 9 October 2009
Some of my chores today involved a bit of waiting, so I snapped a few pictures of the light coming through the maple leaves. Now I need to learn to ID the varieties of maples: sugar, silver, etc.
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Whatta treat! Today we returned to the Hurricane River mouth and Au Sable Point Lighthouse area, this time walking down to the light. Eastbound, we went along the beach for a ways, until the waves chased us back to high ground. We also checked out the shipwrecks. Fun!
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
I’ve been watching this corner of the field with particular care, to monitor the changing colors. We have had more moderate temps since the hard frost last week, so the maples have yet to develop many leaves in the dark reds and maroons. See?
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Rain plus back roads equals muddy running boards. Note: even after we went through the automatic car wash (coin machines were broken at the U-wash), the mud remained. The hose at the house took care of it, though!
Monday, 5 October 2009
Today we dodged raindrops and caught various views of Gitchee-Gumee, including at this spot by the breakwater/pier at Grand Marais. The weather patterns have given us dramatic skys, and that’s putting it mildly. However compelling the clouds have been, I found myself gently plopping the camera in the sand for eyeball-to-eyeball shots of the pebbles on the wave-washed beach. Finally, I did get the focus and framing right, but here I record my early brave attempts. Hopefully this photographic mania will pass quickly. After all, isn’t a rock just a rock?
Sunday, 4 October 2009
We took a purposeful touristy wander down the Garden Peninsula, to explore the Fayette Ghost Town, which was abandoned by 1900. Or at least, the iron processing the company town was established to do left in the late 1890s, and few people could have stayed in the dwindling community very long after that. This town was so tony they had a race track! We were fascinated by the limestone cliff on the north side of the harbor mouth and by the silvering piers that held up the docks, as much as anything.
We made a dash north from Fayette to Kitch-iti-kipi, and made it into the park before it closed, and rode the second to the last raft trip of the day. F. counted thirty-five lake trout languidly enjoying the cold waters. I thought there was more algae/plantlife in the spring than I’d seen before, but maybe it was the slightly overcast light. A very special place; its charms are difficult to describe.
We were sustained for these excursion by lunch at the Three Seasons Restaurant, on the east side of Manistique. I had whitefish (don’t know if it was from Lake Michigan or Superior), and we shared a pasty as an appetizer. Very yum.
We played footsie with rain all day, and our timing turned out to be impeccable. We had hoped to make this a Lake Superior day, but our decision to head south instead turned out to be per-fect!
Saturday, 3 October 2009
In amongst all the other hubbub of the day, I went out in the late afternoon and dodged a few raindrops and snagged a few apples. Most were from a tree with limbs that had succumbed to the weight of the crop, and, along with a few from the Macintosh tree, they made great sauce, although not the bright pink of last month’s varieties. The Botanist said he got the Macintosh tissue direct from the place/person in Canada that had the original. This would have been in the mid- or late-1940s or perhaps early 1950s, I think.
Friday, 2 October 2009
Down on the beach, I saw the usual mix of deer and bird tracks. We also had another recent visitor, a member of the Canis clan. I do not know them well enough to discern whether this is C. familiaris or a coyote.