The Daily - When September Ends

9/25/23 - Monday

 
Scott and I got our signals crossed and we each fed Charlie breakfast! Oh well, she probably enjoyed the treat. I did a 30 minute bike then took Charlie for a quick walk before going to the Y. I swam 26 laps and spent 15 minutes in the sauna.

 

 
Charlie, Hannah and I enjoyed coffee outside then I made my breakfast. Charlie and I went for a long walk around Porter park - so many butterflies out! I did some watercolor detail work to finish off some flower paintings and after dinner Scott and I took Charlie on her third walk of the day. We also threw the ball around the backyard. Scott bought her a “chuck it” big ball that she seems to enjoy.

 

 

 
9/26/23 - Tuesday

 
45 minute strength class then a medium walk with Charlie around the retention ponds. Coffee outside on the patio.

 
I did a Photoshoot with friend Julie from the Y and her two boys. I had never met the boys in real life but feel like Ive known them from birth since Julie posts a bit to IG on her stories. No joke this photo shoot was a bit of a challenge since the boys were a little bit antsy but I think I got several decent shots. I also got bitten quite a bit from the mosquitoes. still, it was a fun time.

 

 
9/27/23 - Wednesday

 
30 minutes of bike Boot Camp followed by another 15 minutes on the bike and some follow up yoga. Then Charlie and I went for a long walk around Porter Park. It was damp and gloomy, so we did not do coffee outside. Instead, I did research for the upcoming London trip. We now have a daily itinerary of activities for that trip.

 

 
It definitely feels like fall with cooler temperatures and mostly cloudy skies today. The sun came out briefly in the afternoon, Charlie and I went for a walk. I edited several of the photos from yesterday‘s photo shoot. Scott and I took Charlie on her evening walk.

 

 

 
9/28/23 - Thursday

 
It rained hard again last night so this morning was cool and misty outside. I did 45 minutes on the bike, then took Charlie for a short walk. Then I went to the Y to swim. After 20 laps and 15 minutes in the sauna I’m back home with the animals and we are now enjoying coffee on the patio Erica is en route home from London. She arrived in time to catch the 4pm train out of union station. I took Charlie to pick her up from the terminal and Charlie is so happy her mom is home.

 
I take another pass at Julie’s photos - I need to get things wrapped up before the weekend.

 

 
9/29/23 - Friday

 
I dragged myself out of bed at 4:40 to make it to the 5:30 Pilates class. Coffee with Brenda, Michael and Davonne afterwards.

 
I catch the setting full moon on the Prairie with fog rolling in. I double back, park on the side of the road to capture a photo. Totally worth the extra 5 minutes.

 

 
I make Erica pasta bake for her trip back to Wisconsin, sew her corset top to fix areas where the boning is poking out of the fabric.

 
She leaves at noon and I finish up Julie’s family photos and start packing for the weekend trip. I took a walk late in the evening and catch the red sunset west of Porter park. It feels weird not to have Charlie with me!

 

 
I’m almost home when I see My on a bike heading to the bridge over the slough. She tells me the full moon will rise over the stream so I join her. We wait at the bridge as a small red sliver emerges from the tree line. Of course I only have my iPhone and do the best I can to balance the lack of light with the red moon rising. I could have used my big camera!

 

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September 2021 Free Desktop Calendar - Sunset off Fish Creek WI

I hope this month's desktop calendar photo of the sun setting across Fish Creek Bay fills you with a sense of calm. Fish Creek is a small town along the peninsula of Door County, between Green Bay and Lake Michigan. I took the photo last September during an extended weekend getaway, while enjoying a sunset boat tour with Fish Creek Scenic Boat Tours. This lovely boat ride featured live music, history of the area and gave us a water’s view of Peninsula State park's Eagle Bluffs lighthouse and other mini islands in Green Bay.

 
Door County is a great place to visit and only a few hours from Milwaukee. These quaint towns offer shopping, water activities, biking and hiking trails; all sorts of restaurants, pubs, microbreweries and wineries. A highly recommended respite from any big city. 

 

 

 
To download September's calendar, click on this link from Box.com
Link --> September Calendar 2021 - Fish Creek Sunset

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November 2015 Desktop Calendar - Prairie Sunset

November marks the end of Daylight Savings time in the US, which means earlier sunsets. Many people dislike the earlier onset of darkness, but hopefully we get to witness the spectacular skies before starting the evening's activities. Personally, I am looking forward to the brighter mornings.

This month's calendar features such a sunset.

Photography captures a specific point in time that can not be replicated. Soon after I shot this, a cluster of high voltage towers and power lines were erected in the background field. This scene, with its empty expanse of sky, can never be captured again. I remind myself of this whenever I'm out with my camera and find myself uninspired.

The same analogy applies to each day, each passing minute - it can't be replicated - so cherish it, embrace the good with the bad and be grateful of it. I continue to remind myself of this, fitting for the month of Thanksgiving and Gratitude.

To download the November 2015 calendar for free at Box.com, click on the link:
Free November 2015 Calendar - Prairie Sunset

Have a wonderful, gratitude filled month.

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Along My Run |16 - Not Much Going On

Sadly, I spent most of my May in the pool or at the gym. I decided to give my calf a break from running, as recommended by the sports medicine doctor I saw mid-month. I miss the running, the scenery, the chirping of birds and all the stuff along the road that changes each day, but I know that the bigger picture is more important than the present.

The Sole Photo I Took While Running in May

I’m swimming at least twice a week and have tacked on pool running after my normal routine of swimming a mile. I continue yoga, strength training and an occasional spin class. But I prefer to be outdoors, so I take walks, enjoy the slower pace of things and still enjoy the beauty around me.

Sunset Dance

Half Time

Raiment

I also made a day trip to Chicago to drop my parents off for a weeklong Road Scholar program focused on the Windy City. I entered the city along Columbus Drive, through the heart of Grant Park. I realized the last time I visited Chicago was during the Chicago Marathon. We drove past the starting line, then into the bowels of the Randolph Street underpass. I recognized the intersection where I had chucked my long sleeve starting line shirt. Later, as I walked across the Michigan Avenue bridge (in the cold, 45 degF, windy, spitting rain weather), it felt so familiar, and immediately, I knew I had to run it again. I just don’t know if it will be this year. After three consecutive marathons, all spaced out in six month intervals, I’m kind of worn out. I guess if the calf is healed up by mid-July, I’ll give it a go as I have until September to defer my 2015 entry to next year.

Crossing the Michigan Avenue Bridge on a Cold, Misty Day

May’s Stats:
13.1 miles running
6.7 miles swimming
Several hours of yoga

Impromptu

Finally, this month's running quotes - because even if you can't run, you can still be inspired.
Running removes us briefly from the fragmentation and depersonalization of the digital world.
– Amby Burfoot
[The main reason why I run outside]

It's all those little battles with yourself that are the most satisfying to win.
– Mirinda Carfrae

Running is a kind of truth serum. It brutally strips away everything you put on and leaves you with only yourself.
– Marc Parent

When I run, I'm just a person among people. A runner among runners. And we all experience the same challenge of get up and go - regardless of ability.
– Sally Bergesen

To go the distance and keep going after that, the only sustainable place to start is from a place of gratitude and love.
– Kristin Armstrong

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The Sunset and Moonrise

What I saw while out walking this evening - the end of a perfect September day.

The sunset

I don't think I'll ever tire of sunsets (or sunrises) around here.

A Surprise

This is what my camera decided to Autofocus on while I was trying to shoot the sunset. Maybe my camera is smarter than me.

Another Surprise - the Moonrise

I wasn't even searching it out - and boom - there it was, this huge ball rising above the houses in the neighborhood. If I had been smarter, I would have been out along the prairie, watching for it. This is the lazy photographer's moonrise - and I'll take it - this time.

Did you see the Super Moon Rise last night?

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Weekending

Scenes from the weekend:

Dramatic skies:

Disclosure - taken Thursday evening, so not officially from the weekend, but close enough. One of my Facebook friends posted "Stop what you are doing and look outside at the sunset". I immediately got in my car and drove out to the park that overlooks the prairie. If I had walked, I would have missed the drama. This is the same Lone Tree I captured a couple weeks ago - it looks different today and has a friend...

The horses moved to new stable - this one is a lot closer and easier to get to.

Caesar and Cody are checking out the new pasture by eating their way through it.

The new stable is owned by my daughter's trainer, and she has a wide assortment of horses, including two large draft horses - this one showed interest in my camera:


Friend Heather came back to town for a weekend visit - that prompted an impromptu Sunday night cook out under starry skies and warm breezes. Great friends, food, wine, coupled with great conversations - life doesn't get any better.


We followed up Sunday night with a Memorial day lunch cookout. I also turned 47 on Monday, surrounded by friends, both in real life and virtually via birthday wishes via email and facebook.


Hope your weekend was as full as mine.

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Sun Setting on the Lone Tree

I went for a long walk Wednesday evening - to clear my mind. I found beauty in the Lone Tree as I watched the sun set.


See the shimmers on the very bottom of the photo? The sun is glinting off dandelion puffs - the only time I appreciate those dandelion seeds.

They reminded me of this photo I shot four (wow!) years ago - at the end of April, during sunset:

So surreal....

Back to the Lone Tree... which started to burn like tears in my eyes...


Until the fire ebbed, the sun dipped ....


Gone, The Lone Tree left in the ashes of the day ...

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Chasing Cars

I'm not sure why, but this song came on the radio as I drove to work and I can't get it out of my mind.

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone



If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough


If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

Let's waste time
Chasing cars
Around our heads

I need your grace
To remind me
To find my own


If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we’re told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all


If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?



Chasing Cars By Snow Patrol

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Along My Evening Walk

With Baseball season officially behind us, I found myself on Tuesday evening free of any sort of obligation. I suppressed the urge to pilfer that time away by lying on the couch watching Love It or List It on HGTV; instead I hauled my butt outside with my camera in tow.

[Side Note: If you have ever watched Love It Or List It, why is it that 90% of the time the family decides to Love It? I had to watch at least 10 episodes before the final verdict was "List It". I would love to see follow ups with the families a year later to see if they regretted their decision.
End of Side Note]

I should have headed out earlier - the evening sky was beautiful, but the light was fading quickly and I am sure there was a prettier show a mere fifteen minutes before I shot this one.


I crossed over the foot bridge over the local slough and spotted an egret. I have seen them occasionally around the retention ponds, but never this close, wading in the water. Edited to add - I have been informed by my mother that the bird is a great blue heron, not an egret!


Lucky for me, he was walking against the current, towards me on the foot bridge.


I may have spooked him a bit because once he was under the bridge, he took off.

It's not the greatest capture - my shutter speed was too slow to get a perfectly sharp image. What a beautiful bird - I am amazed by the wide wingspan, the elegant neck, the stick legs.



I'll admit I didn't walk very much that evening but I'd rather stalk a pretty bird anyways.

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Two Spring Sunsets

I love sunsets and we seem to get great ones here in the spring, like the one I captured last night at the stable.



But what really says "spring" is the emerging of farm equipment. That means spring plantings. And that same sunset is reflected in the window of this John Deere tractor:


Sharing with Mary and her Thursday Inspiration where this week's theme is Spring. I'm sure my interpretation of Spring is a little different today!

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Spring Sunset

We've been fortunate these past few days - things appear to be warming up ever so slightly each day, with ample sun and pretty sunsets. Tuesday night was no exception. Image captured with my iPhone.

Wishing you a peaceful Thursday.

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Dawn of A New Day

Not this morning's sunrise, because we are due for some rain, ice and snow. Probably some wind, too!



To think, a mere two weeks ago, I was watching this sunset:


Come on Spring.... Come on Spring.....

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Silo at Dusk

Two versions of the small grain silo at the stable.

The original:


Enhanced using Topaz Adjust plug in for Lightroom - I don't recall the exact preset I used, but I know it was a just a slight adjustment to increase contrast and make things "pop" a little more.


I purchased Topaz Adjust last year and have used it for HDR type effects. I think it is a great plug in - very affordable and easy to use. And while I don't use it every day, it is a nice post processing tool to have.

Another note - to get the starburst flare effect of the light on the side of the silo, I used an aperture of F22, the smallest hole on my lens.

Linked to This or That Thursday and Rural Thursday.

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Stormy Day

A hint of rainbow....


And just two miles down the road, a huge, tornado spawning cloud.

There were several funnel clouds spotted, but only one touched down and damaged a house to the west of where we live. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Then the Calm After the Storm:




Another spring day on the prairie.

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