Landscapes

Joan said: "There's a deer." Yup.

June 21 was a Black Fly day at Tahquamenon Falls in 2003. This very pretty pond justified the hike, though, and we were back (minus the flies) a few weeks later to explore further down the trail. Camera: Nikon N90s

A chilly and windy and beautiful day in central Michigan.

Beach, Pictured Rocks National Seashore, Lake Superior, Michigan.

Imagine, if you will, hundreds of four-foot-tall birds all landing at the same lake on a perfect October evening. This photo will help. Since we missed the 2003 Crane Fest, we spent this evening at Big Marsh Lake and watched the cranes come in with perhaps a hundred other mid-Michigan bird watchers. It was wonderful. If you live anywhere near where these birds congregate, I urge you to spend an evening with Sandhill Cranes. The sights are sublime; the sounds are incredible. Camera: Nikon N90s

Joan and I spend a couple weekends each year in St. Ignace, on the Straits of Mackinac. This is why.

Still another pic from Sunday's visit to the Bennett farm. It was a great day.

The first day of spring had this marvelous ending. Photo taken on Saginaw Highway between Mulliken and Sunfield.

Stepped out the door this morning, noticed the complicated sky and the delightful light, and grabbed the camera. I took several good photographs, which I'll likely share over the next few days. Since one of my objects was to capture the patterns in the sky, I headed down Mulliken Road and kept my eye out for an open shot. This view is just south of St. Joe....

Farm buildings through the morning's haze. Another picture from the same location as yesterday's shot, but with most of the scenery cropped away.

This was taken yesterday afternoon from my front yard, looking across Potter Street. We're surrounded by farms. When I was searching for a home, I stopped at the Mulliken Post Office and asked the postmaster about the town. He told me the place used to be a farm town, but was rapidly becoming a bedroom community--a distant suburb of Lansing. There's truth in that characterization. But it's not the whole truth.

The Tahquamenon has two falls--the great Upper Falls , and the less impressive, but very lovely, Lower Falls which are several miles downriver. The lower falls are actually a series of cascades on two sides of an island. This view of the lower falls area, which appears to be deliberately framed for folks leaving the visitor center, captures the charms of the place well.

Camera: Nikon D70

I've always thought this little pasture--just a small corner on a big farm which is mostly devoted to wheat, corn, and beans--was the prettiest place on my route to work.

May 25, 2004: That's a local farmer's field. Someone's been piling water on it.... Central Michigan is, well, wet. Took this picture on the way to work this morning; it's a couple miles down the road from the office. These soggy fields are pretty common around here these days. The water levels are down a bit from last Friday, but the meteorologists keep promising more rain. It's already the wettest May on record, and there's a real chance to break the rainfall record for any month.

One more view of the former McCargar place. They, or their successors, built a house beside and up the hill from the barn (out of this photograph; see here for clues ); these trees marked the limits of the home's yard. When I moved to the area the house was still standing, but abandoned and in very poor repair; it was taken down around the same time the barn was buttressed.

This picture was shot a mile or so from my workplace. The train's creeping along on the long siding by Lake Interstate (an artifact of the construction of I-69, friends) and will halt before it gets to the crossing. Presumably there was a train coming the other way. I kinda like the blackbird atop the sign....