Category Archives: Photo

Pepe the Stealth Cat

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Lunch was over, and I’d checked my e-mail accounts and dropped a few more EC cards on friends. It was time to walk down to the mailbox. It’s a tenth of a mile walk, so I usually take the camera in case something interesting should present itself.


The daffodils in the formal garden were nearly past their prime and the tulips are coming into their glory. And there are the eyes of a predator, and they are fixed on me. Nothing for me to fear — it’s only Pepe playing peek from behind the flowers. Well it may be nothing for me to fear, but evidence suggests that our boy has gotten a bird or two lately.


He’s only a bit over a year old, but he is a big boy and he is practicing his stealth technique. It is his nature and only to be expected. Besides, it’s fun to play games with him.


Now, he knows he’s busted. He may not be happy, but he won’t give up. Pepe has learned patience and stealth. I’d better get the mail now.

Tomorrow

On Thursday, the winner of the caption contest will be announced. It’s not to late to get in an entry.

My World ~ Ionia, County From the Air

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This week, I take you with me on a tour of southern Ionia County, Michigan.


It started on my birthday. Sylvia said, “Come with me. You are going for a ride. She drove me to the Ionia Airport and showed me the high-performance glider. In which I would be riding.


I was pumped! Up there with no engines — it would be a quiet ride, and one I wouldn’t forget. Soon I was sitting in the front and the pilot was belting in behind me.


The tow plane attached a cable to the front, and soon we were circling as we gained altitude. Before long we were crossing over I-96 and I took the shot above toward the west. The extra lanes in the foreground are for truck scales operated by the State of Michigan. The road intersection near the center is M-66, which bisects our county north to south.


We turned west and I took this shot of the Herbruck “Hennery,” an operation that produces more than a few dozen eggs each day. The gap in the buildings is where one of the units had burned just a couple of weeks earlier. This is located just south of I-96. M-66 can be seen near the bottom of the photo.


A few minutes later, the altimeter read 10,000 feet. I pulled the yellow knob as the pilot instructed. The tow cable broke free, and the tow plane dived for earth. We had the sky to ourselves. It was beautiful!

The shot above is of the City of Portland. We used to live there, just below the larger white building in the upper left.

After this, I became so thrilled with the sights that I forgot to take pictures for quite a while.


Finally, I realized that we were nearing our house. I took the above photo of our neighborhood. Our house and white barn are in the black circle in the lower left. Our church, which is a mile north of us in in the middle on the right side. Meghan and Curt of Beacon Bay Farm are around the corner from us. Their house and building are to the right of our house.


We flew just south of Ionia. The race track is on the grounds of the Ionia Free Fair. M-66 enters the picture in the lower right, goes north through town, takes a dog-leg to the west (left) and exits at the top. (The yellow circle near the top on the right side is a reflection of the cable-release knob that I had pulled earlier to free us from the tow plane.)


We are headed east as we come in for a landing on the grassy strip beside the runway. Don’t worry, it is nice and smooth. Hey! Lift your feet. That’s a truck in front of us on M-66.

I hope you enjoyed this brief tour of our beautiful rural neighborhood.

Falcons Win! 16 – 6

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Tuesday evening, Sylvia and I drove into town to watch our granddaughter, Briana, as her team hosted Portage in water polo. Barbara, her mother, gave us photos of Briana in her team gear.


Before the game, the captains gathered for the meet and greet. Briana is #7.


Early in the first half, Bri had the ball in front of Portage’s goal. With the ball at the full extension of her arm she fired a shot at the goal.


The ball rocketed past the goalie, and Briana slapped the water on her follow through.


The ball hit the back of the net. Another score for the Falcons!


In the second half, I caught this sequence of Briana taking a penalty shot. Sylvia’s Panasonic camera has a burst mode, and I used that to catch the following shots about 0.4 seconds apart. It illustrates the technique for effective shooting. It’s great to watch — especially for her fan club.


She lifts the ball.


Extends her arm.


Rifles in the shot.


With the ball in the back of the net, Briana turns and swims to the other end.


Her parents, Barbara and Bryant, are founders and charter members of her fan club.


You’ll probably see her grandparents, Sylvia and Chuck, at the home games. They really do try to not go totally berserk. Count on their enthusiasm to be sky high in any case. It is okay to pretend you don’t know them . . .

An Encounter on the Road

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Deer on our lawn.

Her attention was on something in the ditch on the left side of the road as our car topped the rise. Sylvia was driving and we were going to Good Friday services. Sylvia immediately moved her foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal and the car slowed to a walk. She heard the crunch of gravel beneath tires and lifted her head.

Curiosity got the better of her and she moved toward us, crossing the road as she neared the now barely moving vehicle. Her head was up and all of her senses were at full alert. She continued to approach.

Then, for no apparent reason, she whirled and starting trotting down the right side of the road away from us. Suddenly, she took a hard right. With two bounds and a graceful leap the young doe cleared the old woven-wire fence where it was broken down a bit. Quickly she disappeared into the brush.

We continued on our way as we thought about the brief encounter on the road.

17 -3 ~ Go Falcons

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Last night, Sylvia had to attend a Board of Administration meeting at church. I drove 35 minutes to our granddaughter’s high school to watch the gal’s water polo match. It was sure worth the trip. Thanks to you who had such nice things to say about her the other day.

Last night wasn’t about looking good. It was about playing hard and providing leadership as a co-captain should. The Falcons got the ball first and our #7 passed to an open teammate who was in position. The ball went in, we scored. On the home team’s next possession, #7 beat the opposition down the pool and she rifled in the team’s second score. A minute and a quarter of playing time and she had scored an assist and a goal.


I sure missed Sylvia! The pictures are a bit blurry, because grandpa’s hands shake. Especially when I try to hold them still. The action was fast and furious. The Falcons are coming together and their passing and shooting is getting better.

In the photo above, #7 has gotten way in front of the defense and now faces the goalie. Notice how far out of the water she gets her body and with the ball at the full extension of her arm. A split second later the ball rocketed past the poor goalie and into the back of the net. Thwack! What a sweet sound!

She scored 5 goals and 2 assists. She spent most of the second half out of the pool so that some of the less experienced players could get some time in the game. It was a great night! I loved every minute of it.

My World ~ At the Crossroads

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This is my first “My World” post. So join me as we walk down the driveway to the road. There we turn right and walk north along the road that you see in the banner at the top of this blog. Before long, we arrive at the intersection that marks the northeast boundary of our property. Next we’ll turn right so that we are facing east and we see the following as we look down the road.


You can almost see Curt and Meghan’s house peeking behind the tree on the right. Meghan is a fellow blogger so we’ll walk about 350 feet along the road so we can get a better look.


Can you see the lamb between us and the house? When we get back to the intersection we won’t be able to see the house on the northeast corner. So turn around and take a picture of the old Haller place.


That’s it. Hallers don’t live there anymore. A single fellow lives there now. He’s a friendly fellow and he has a couple of horses and a dog. Let’s go back to the intersection and look northeast to see his place from that angle.


You can see the barns, but the house is hiding behind the big barn. The horses don’t appear to be around as we take that photo. Now we’ll turn to our left and we are now looking northwest.


There is a deer blind. Our rural county has one of the highest rates of car/deer accidents in the state. In other words, there is no shortage of deer. I always wish the hunters good luck. It seems better to me for them to end up on the table than to be hit by a car. It is part of our rural way of life.

Turn left again and we are looking across Bob’s pasture field. A shallow drainage ditch runs across the pasture you can tell where it is, because the grass is greener there.


That pasture is across the road from our house. We don’t see it very well because of the trees and brush along our side of the road. A half turn left and we are looking south down our road. Bob and Rosemary live in the house on the right.


Our property is on the left and runs down to the big oak tree in the center of the picture. If you turn half left, you’ll see the house, garage and barn.


You are right. That is a lot of lawn to mow. I could not do it without the tractor. The tower supports the Amateur Radio antennas that Sylvia and I use. There are two of them, but you may not notice the shorter one at the corner of the garage. Okay, the picture shoot is done. Let’s go back to the house.


Here we are. Back at the house. I hope you enjoyed this short visit to my world.

Welcome Guests

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Easter Sunday turned out to be a sunny and very pleasant day. Early service at church followed by breakfast in the community center. The choir presented an excellent Easter cantata with DVD video. Then we returned home to prepare for visitors.


The first hyacinth is in full bloom now. As you can see, I’m still having a problem with macro focusing. The first violet is also in bloom.

The best part of the day was when our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter came for dinner. We had a good meal and then sat around the table playing Skip-Bo. All too soon, it was time for them to return home and we were left alone.


You might think I’m proud of our granddaughter who excels at academics and athletics. If so, you would be absolutely correct. We had a great time with her and her parents.

I hope you also had a blessed Easter weekend.

Recent Sightings

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Wednesday afternoon, Sylvia and I went for a walk. As we went out the door, we noticed that the hyacinth was beginning to open. I’m sorry, but a strong wind was blowing it around so the image is a bit fuzzy. We stopped to admire its beauty.


We walked around the house where some crocus blossoms were open. The earlier (more protected ones) are through blooming, but these are in full glory. The we saw the bee as it went about its busy work. Can you see her there on the right? Isn’t that great?


Our walk resumed and we continued to see the signs of spring everywhere we looked. However, the wind was strong and cold, so we returned to the house after about 20 minutes of discovery and shooting photos from the four corners. I’ll try to post them next week.

Other Sightings

Later we saw the eagle again. I first saw it as I sat here at the computer two or three weeks ago. While looking out the window toward the barn, I saw a huge bird come sailing around the barn very fast. It quickly disappeared behind the garage. What a surprise! What was it? It wasn’t a vulture, even thought they will be here in large numbers in a few weeks or days. It looked like an eagle. I’ve seen it several times since then and there is no doubt.

Grackles have come back and I’ve seen a couple of eastern blue birds. Warm weather can’t be too far away.

The grass is beginning to turn green and that means the snow blade and front-end loader will come off the tractor and the mower deck will go on.

Finally, the lead-gray skies are giving way to the beautiful dark blue skies that characterize our summers. Life is good!

The Glory of Spring

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As is my usual custom, I uploaded Monday’s post on Sunday and set it to post at 4 AM Eastern Time. For that reason the photo of the crocus flowers seemed appropriate at the time. However, Monday morning looked like:


There was already snow on the ground from over night. As I finished breakfast, it was coming down in huge flakes. It’s not unusual for us to have snow in the first half of April. The good news is that the snow doesn’t last. And that’s the way it was on Monday. After lunch the snow was gone.


The snow drops (above) are beginning to open. I’ve been watching them everyday, but it has remained cool — even for this time of year. Perhaps that’s why they’ve been slow in opening. Nevertheless, spring is winning.


I snapped this pic after 7 PM on Monday. (This time of year, it stays light here until after 8:30 PM.) The daffodils are beginning to open. They had been peeking for almost a week, but now they are opening.

Believe it Lin. Spring is really coming! You’ll probably want to have coffee with your bratwurst at the ballgame on Sunday.

When I see Reggie Girl‘s pictures from Georgia and Jackie‘s shots from Oklahoma, I can see that your growing season is well underway.

A Spring Walk

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On Saturday, we grew restless. I picked up our old (very old, low res) Kodak digital camera and started for the door. Sylvia asked, “Where are you going?” I replied, “I’m going to walk along the road to see if that log down by the low ground is still poking out of the roadway.” “Mind if I come along?” she inquired. “Get your coat, and let’s go,” was my answer.

Years ago, the county placed some 3 to 4 inch diameter logs across the road to stabilize it where it went through some low (usually wet) ground. Winter freeze had popped one of these up to where it was clearly visible in the middle of the road. Because my main camera is not functioning, I had not captured a photo.

When we got down to the road, I could see that the county road crew had recently graded the road and had put down a new layer of dirt and gravel. It proved to be just as I feared, the log was no longer visible. Sylvia said, “Let’s walk around the corner and see Meghan’s new lambs.” I was all for that as I could already picture the day when one of them would end up in our stew pot.

A few minutes later we could see the lambs and the ewes enjoying the early spring sunshine. Unfortunately, they were on the other side of the pasture lot. The old Kodak camera only has a 2 to 1 zoom ratio, and with low res I wouldn’t capture a suitable image.

Soon the pasture guard came over to check us out. The guard is taller than we are, but she lives up to her name, Grace. I took a couple of steps back as Sylvia greeted Grace.

Honduran sun gave Sylvia a good tan.


Soon our visit was over and we cut across a field to our yard and back home. It had been a very pleasant walk.

We wore our winter coats. The air was cool.

Earliest Spring

Lead-gray sky above,
Thick clouds sent from the great lake,
Earth is cold and damp.

I was late posting today. I woke up yesterday with a lot of pain in my lower back. Today, I’m feeling better.