Sunrise at Lake Michigamme!

I couldn't sleep one night, so I went out in the Great Room (which faces the lake) to sleep.

Something made me wake up really early.

I think God tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out to the lake.

Because THIS

is what I saw:

The only thing I love more than sunsets,

is

sunrises:

As the sun came up, it turned from orange to pink and purple:

And turned my yard into a frosted wonderland of pastel pinks and purples.

And the lake? It was strawberry milk:

Looking off my deck to the left, more of the lake in color:
I hope you get to see many sunrises in your life, too!

Sunrises are promises of a new beginning...

Useless Facts and Trivia: Volume 15

Oh, yes!

It's time again for the next volume of Useless Facts and Trivia, along with MY COMMENTS in bold italics.




1. Killer whales are not, technically, whales. They are orcas, a relative of the porpoise and the dolphin.

That's not the part of their name that bothers me....umm..its the KILLER part of their name. I don't care if they are KILLER teddy bears, they must have an anger management problem, right?

2. If you stroke a shark from nose to tail, it is smooth. If you stroke it the other way, it is rough, and on some species, can even give you hand lacerations.

Oh yeah. I am going to swim right out and test that little gem of a theory. Here, sharkey, sharkey. I wanna pet you from tail to nose...because if you don't eat me you will just give me hand lacerations.

Who tried that to let us know anyway? Oh, I know! The guy with that bloody stump of an arm over there.

3. Elephants are the only land mammals that can't jump.

Do we really WANT them to? The china in my cupboards would not appreciate it.

I haven't invited them over for a game of hopscotch lately, have you? And you can't buy tutus that large, anyway.

4. More about elephants: If you add up the circumference of two feet, you get exactly the elephant's height. (?!)

Again, who has the time to check out these things?

I know there are theories about a man's feet and the size of his....(oh, don't act shocked! YOU have heard this, I know!!) but I didn't know they were measuring feet of elephants to know their height. What if the baby elephant is exactly two feet tall. Would that be an oxymoron?

5. Your foot is nearly the same length as your forearm as measured from the inside of the elbow to the wrist.

Okay. Now I am SURE someone with a measuring fetish is around doing all of these weird experiments on animal and human bodies.

And I KNOW you have already gone to get a tape measure to check out if this is true...so, is it? Doesn't it look like your arm would be longer from your elbow to your wrist is longer than your foot?

Why did God do this? One day, was he just at the drawing board and in a funny mood, turned to the angels and say: "Hey, lets have a little fun. It's Friday and I am really waiting for Sunday's day of rest. Just for today, let's change the drawings and measure man's arm from his wrist to his elbow and let's make his feet exactly the same length. Then let's see how long it takes man to realize my clever design!!? Are you with me on this one?? Oh, I just crack myself up!!!"

6. In 10 minutes, a hurricane expends more energy than all of the nuclear weapons in the world combined.

Now, I don't want ANYONE out there to test this one. It is one of those claims that someone can state and no one will ever challenge them on. Let's see if I can do one....Here: if you plucked everyone's nose hairs on the face of the earth and then picked every tulip on the face of the earth, the number would match exactly. Isn't that amazing?

7. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.

I wonder if they are writing their own obituaries when they are doing this?

So BIC stands for ballpoints induce choking?

How do they know that EXACTLY 100 people do this every year? When they get to 100 people having done this, do they then decide to send out the warning to everyone else?

Last I knew, my ballpoint tasted awful in my mouth. So, who knew that people liked to ingest or inhale them? Maybe they thought the little tube of ink inside was a straw so they are sucking on it?

8. 90% of all New York cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.

No surprise there....the other 10% own 7-11 stores.

9. Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.

I am so glad I am one of them, isn't that just amazing that I got picked to do this?

Maybe the others are that old, they just don't remember how old they really are?

10. A snail can sleep for three months.

Oh, and any teenager presently living in your house, also. They forgot to mention that.

How Bazaar !!!

Michigan's deer hunting season began on Sunday, Nov. 15th.

Traditionally around here, that is like a huge holiday. The men go to hunting camp and the women hit the stores to do Christmas shopping and several bazaar's are held with crafts for sale.

I worked at one of them for one of the local boards I am on. The group is called RSVP for retired senior volunteer program. Seniors needing services can call this wonderful organization if they need a ride for a medical appointment, need chores done in their homes that they can no longer perform, etc.

Some of the wonderful volunteer ladies providing these services to seniors also do a ton of crocheting and knitting and sewing and donate all of their beautiful hard work to the organization to be sold to help sustain the program's funds.

While I worked at the RSVP booth on Saturday, I took notice of all the fun everyone was having. Friends saw friends and were hugging each other, ladies were giggling together as they shopped, like high school chums and everyone was happy.

I grabbed my camera to capture some of the fun things on sale for you to see. Enjoy!

It sure was a festival!:

I bet if I did a survey, you have one of these knitted towels hanging somewhere in your kitchen.

Am I right?:

There is a huge Finnish population that lives in the U.P.

One of the seller's speaks fluent Finnish and had Finnish music and books for sale.

The sign is "Welcome" in Finnish:

Some of the knitted goods available at our RSVP booth:

And who could resist these children's mittens made with such love for their little hands?:

Getting everyone in the mood for Christmas:

This lady had homemade canned goods for sale.

She almost sold out in two hours!!:

Some of the vendors donate their products to the homeless shelters this time of year too.

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the bazaar!!

I normally do nature photography, but today I decided it would be a good thing to show the good nature side of mankind, instead!....

The Photography Potpourri Continues....

Even though we have lost all of our colored leaves in the U.P. of Michigan, there is still beauty all around us.

Even though it snowed already, it has melted again....

So here are some woods' scenes that I have captured over the last couple of weeks for you.

A double waterfall:

This mushroom reminded me of a crocodile's snout!:

I had to crawl through a little bit of woods to get to this little hidden waterfalls.

But it was worth it:

This is the same waterfalls taken right where it spills over the edge of the rocks.

It had been raining all day, and when I got there, the sun broke out:

A cute little Purple Finch:

He decided to stop by our house for a snack:

And the Grosbeaks are coming through too.

I love the black, white and yellow of their backs:

A babbling brook on a shimmering, sunny day:






King Lake one late afternoon on a sunny day:

This spot is bone dry in the summer.

But in the spring and fall, the river flows down amongst the many rocks

on the way to Craig Lake:

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Photography Potpourri....

Today, I have another set of photographs for you that I have taken over the last month or so.

One day, when we went into the woods, it had just rained and the sun came out.

We were in a bunch of Tamarack pine trees and the branches looked alive with sparkle:

And there were droplets on the other pine tree needles:

A babbling brook in the midst of the colored leaves:

Because of a hard frost, many of the leaves had fallen off the trees while they were still green.

I saw this one on the ground, full of droplets, and I knew I had to capture it in a photo:

A little hidden waterfalls in the forest:

A splashing falls:


We hardly EVER see Cardinals here.

One day, I heard a bird calling outside of our house.

It sounded like our Blue Jays, only a little different.

I look out, and see THIS !!!:
He has been back a few times to our yard, but he has been VERY jumpy and by the time I get my camera out, he flies away.

My goal is to get him drunk or something and have my way with him.

I'll keep you posted on how that's working for me.




I found another gigantic tree mushroom and it reminded me of a plate:






This gorgeous moon was out in the middle of a sunny day.
I love day moons, don't you?:

Stay tuned, I still have some more various photos of some wood's photos.

Before I know it, we will be buried in snow again and I won't be able to tromp out in the woods as much to capture things, so I have been trying to get outside as much as possible in these last weeks of autumn to do so.

This and That from the Woods...

Today, I am publishing a mish-mosh of some photos I have taken over the last month or so, but haven't had the time to show you yet.

Enjoy!

This is a seed pod. I love them when they get all fuzzy!:

A red tree mushroom with a ton of dimension!:

A huge tree burl, along with proof of an ambitious woodpecker!:

A tower of tree mushrooms!:

An apple at sunrise!:

Eight merganser ducks, along with a beaver dam!:

A relecting pool:

A sad and lonely boat in the autumn, waiting for next spring already:

A Snow Bird. We get a ton of these here that stay all winter. But they are hard to capture on film, they are very jumpy birds that fly every few seconds!:

Looking up the ladder of tree mushrooms!:

Hope you are having a great day!