Skyday #1

I'm going to start an occasional feature called Skyday. I've taken a shot of the sky each of the last seven days and I picked 6 of them to feature. They are arranged in chronological order from top left to bottom right, not necessarily in the most artistic positions.

This is mostly because I'm kind of fascinated by tile mosaics made up of images with similar color tones. Some don't have any relationship to each other, some do. But I thought I'd see what happened with a few of these sky mosaics. Winter in Michigan is often constantly gray... but we'll see what happens.

This is October 16-22 (seven doesn't make a balanced arrangement, and I forgot one day anyway.

Then I'll show you the entire picture for each day.

October 16- clear blue perfect October day.

October 18- partly cloudy, mostly high, thin clouds

October 19- rain all day

October 20- mostly clear with some puffy clouds on the horizon- the day Om and I went on the color tour.

October 21- quite a lot of rain, but not solid gray- the clouds were changing constantly

October 22- today. They predicted rain, but it was really only partly cloudy. I even went for a short walk.

I buckled down and spent my time quota on all the usual projects. Walked down through the cemetery and back.

Miles hiked in 2025: 402.6

See The Skies Have it

Color Tour 2025- Part 2

Here are the most stunning colors from yesterday. This was a farm on 112th Ave in Newaygo County.

Someone planted some wonderful maple trees 50-75 years ago. The house and barn were surrounded by flaming maples.

I just couldn't do an entire tour on paved roads. We took one dirt road. This is 200th Avenue in Oceana County.

I loved all the bright orange and red tones but thought we needed some yellow too. I think this was somewhere on 172nd Ave.

Of course, the big joke is that perhaps the most stunning tree we saw was on 6th Street after we got back in Scottville! The light was lower by then and that's when you can get some awesome pictures.

We got a bit of rain today, but mostly it was just gray and windy. Did all the usual projects, went to the store to look at various tools, had bell choir practice.

See Color Tour 2025- Part 2

Color Tour 2025- Part 1

Om and I did a color tour again this year, and we managed to make it happen on the one day in a string of about six when it isn't gray and rainy. I'll show you the second part tomorrow (with more actual color) because- gray and rain is expected.

I decided to follow the Newaygo County Tourist Bureau suggested color tour route. I'll give you my thoughts on that at the end. But you can find it at the link.

We did their loop clockwise, so early on we reached Hardy and Croton Dams. However, Hardy Dam is being repaved, so traffic is not being allowed on it. Huh. We pulled into the marina by the bridge to catch a couple of pictures. Nice colorful reflection.

Looking out toward the main part of the pond. Yes, the Dragon Trail goes through here (and then crosses the dam- one can hope they might be redoing the barely adequate pedestrian walkway, but probably not).

Well, I found an alternate way to get down to Croton Dam. Have to take yet another picture of the traditional view. This has been a landmark of the North Country Trail since forever. And we are standing on the trail while taking this picture.

The most colorful leaves there were... POISON IVY!

These dams are on the Muskegon River, and it was apparently a good day for fishing below the dam.

After that, the suggested route wandered a bit farther south, and then west. Tomorrow, I'll show you some of the great color we found there.

Here are my thoughts on the loop. I think this was designed for people who don't want to get out of their cars, or even to slow down very much. While only some of it was on state highways, it was all paved roads with significant traffic. It was a problem to be able to pull off and stop to take pictures.

I know they want to get people into the communities in the county, but I'd rather have a slightly shorter loop that includes a lot more dirt roads where it's not a big deal to stop and take pictures. I think they could still steer people into the towns.

If you do the entire loop, it's 92 miles, not counting miles you drove to get there. (We bailed out coming up the west side which was closer to home, so we didn't see the very top portion). This seems a bit long.

Nevertheless, it was a good suggested route. I don't know the Newaygo County back roads as well as Mason, Oceana, and Manistee, so I was happy to have someone else make choices this year.

The color at the southern end of this loop could use a few more days to develop, so if the rain doesn't ruin everything, this should still be pretty this coming weekend or so.

The drive took all of the afternoon. I managed to do a few things in the morning, but this was the big event.

See Color Tour 2024- Part 1

Bell Choir- September 2025

First performance of the season for bell choir!

This is just titled "Celebration #2." It's a rousing fanfare-type piece and we used it for the Call to Worship.



The anthem was "Shall We Gather at the River." I think the chimes parts in this one sound really nice.



The day has been a little bit of a ratrace. My alarm didn't go off, and I sure don't know how that happened because I double checked that it was set correctly before I went to sleep. I must have somehow turned it off by fumbling with the phone. So instead of having time to wake up at a speed that suits me and do my morning routine, I had to leap into the shower, collect needed items and dash for the church. Om went too since his church is still doing the "At the Movies" event.

At the Movies today was taken from The Lion King which is not one of my favorite movies. I wanted to see what lessons Pastor Jerry would draw from it. He pointed out that Simba, after he ran from Scar and the Pride, was living in a beautiful valley, and yet it was a prison of lies that was controlling him. It wasn't until he faced the truth and went home that he was able to become the king he was meant to be. (Very simplified version)

The setting for At the Movies! Free popcorn, pop, and candy. Lots of atmosphere. I took my sound-deadening earmuffs that I bought while I was working at the newspaper so that I could tolerate the volume of the live music. It worked.

And we did go to that together in the afternoon. We did a little errand on the way home from the morning service, ate, did a couple of things, and it was time to go back to the movie event. Got home from that, ate again, did a couple more things, and now the day is about over. Whew.

And of course, since I have a new computer, I had to re-purchase the movie editing software. It doesn't cost a lot, but they've changed it again. So I had to figure out how it works, etc, etc. Always something. I did not figure out how to add the title to the front in the first video, and did a poor job on the second one. I'll need to work on this!

See Bell Choir- May 2025

More Fall Finery

These pictures were all taken yesterday. Today was mostly gray and rainy although not nearly as stormy as was predicted. We only had 0.2 inch of rain. I walked around outside a bit, but not really enough to call it a hike.

At the west side of the cemetery a row of Ailanthus (Tree-of-Heaven) is growing in front of the maples. The Ailanthus is invasive and should be removed, but meanwhile it has nice color and texture contrast.

This is the line of trees on the edge of the cemetery. I've shared it a lot because it almost always looks nice in the fall. There are lots of aging sugar maples in the cemetery which usually produce good color.

Not all fall beauty has to have vibrant colors. Sometimes neutral tones are just fine. Here are faded flower heads of New England Aster with the Rabbit Tobacco in front.

I really liked the textural interest of this one! In the front is the fully mature Fall Witch Grass, with a field of asparagus gone to seed behind that.

I had brain fog this morning, but managed to reclaim most of the day. Even wrote in Vacation from DMS a little bit.

See To the Tunnel of Trees