Dawn peach

Dawn peach
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Tomorrow I go camping with daughter and grandsons. So I'll be skipping a couple of days. This shows their barn in early morning light. Aurora.

Tonight on VOX, he chose Butterfly's long aria as sung by five different sopranos. It was wonderful and I stayed up to hear them all. I love VOX, the vocal music station on XM satellite radio. I read that the two satellite radio stations are six billion dollars in the red. I sure hope they don't fade away. The commercial-free listening to three different classical music stations is like a dream come true.

Bigtooth aspen and bracken fern

Bigtooth aspen and bracken
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

This is one of the natural garden vistas around the edges of the meadow here. On this overcast morning, I overexposed and then boosted the shadows of the whole photograph, This had the effect of making each leaf almost look "drawn": and of emphasizing the warm/cool differences in the greens of the two plants. There is so much to do--and so many things to try. Some handsome repetition, some surprises. This was one.
Tonight I finished the biography of Virginia Woolf. I was quite irritated when she drowned herself--though of course I already knew about that. That is one thing about biography, the surprise endings just aren't part of the experience; Not like Harry Potter's final secrets, whatever they turn out to be.

Lake Michigan

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

You can see the green algae here. I just got s book called The Rockpicker's Guide to Lake Michigan. Exactly waht you want to know and not too much else. Color photos. I bought the book because of these cobbles. I wanted to know what kind they were. It is an example of a book that perfectly suits a felt need, In library school we used to call this "the right book for the right person at the right time." Now at the big libraries, there isn't that same idea that libraians are there to help.
I found out tonight that the State of MIchigan is planning to do away with the townships. Supposedly they are inefficient. Littlefield Township, where we live when we are here, is an excellent example of responsive, inexpensive citizen government, I have been so impressed with what they are doing and how they do it. It seemed to me to be a place which is run on the founding principles of citizen involvement in local government. It seemed peculiarly American, local and excellent. But I am out of step with current bureaucratic thought. Amazing that we hadn't heard anything about this until it is almost a done deal.

From the bench on the trail

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Several years ago I took a shot from this same spot on the trail at Thorne Swift Nature Preserve near Harbor Springs, Michigan.. Now the trees frame it differently.

You cannot see the other side of Lake Michigan. Like the ocean, but not salty.

On the walk we saw a fledgling robin on a branch. It had just been raining and he seemed unsure about the whole enterprise. We looked at each other.

Morning Mist

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Mist int the meadow this morning. An oriole at the feeder; our first one!

All day I've been reading about Virginia Woolf.in Hermione Lee's excellent biography. VW was born just two years after my Grandma Susie. She lived through such immense changes, and pretty much created herself without going to school. My grandmother was one of the first graduates from the Juarez Academy, a school in the Mexican Mormon Colonies. All of her seven children went to college and I think they all graduated. I'm not sure about my Uncle Merwin, who was in World War II and fought on Okinawa.
I find when I talk to people that they don't often know much about their grandparents. I know some things and wish I knew more.

Two stones

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Thw bird walk this morning got rained out, but then it wasn't raining and we went around the trail loop at Thorne Swift Nature Preserve. Lake Michigan was utterly beautiful and the clouds were splendid. The air was balmy and moist. I was surprised at the amount of green algae in the water. Last time I was here it wasn't like that. I looked it up when I got home. Zebra mussels filter the lake water, so the sunlight can grow plant life at greater depths than it did even ten years ago. Then there is always the extra nutrient problem. The green color was interesting, but I really miss the clear lake water.

A slice of sunset

A slice of sunset
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Yesterday evening. The central slice of the photo is the most interesting. It was a gorgeous diplay and kept changing for half an hour. I think we might get so many spectacular clouds because of the nearby Pickerel Lake.

This evening's last rays of sunlight

Last rays
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

I saw this through the window; when I went out with my camera I was shocked anew at how QUIET it is here near the woods and meadows and away from town. This is easy to forget while staying in the house, because in the house you have the sump pump, the refrigerator and this and that and maybe radio or TV. I have just been looking at some photography work on Flickr and could be really discouraged about my own. But hey , , , I would need to WORK harder.
Tonight K and the grandsons came over and we ate a whole watermelon. It was pretty good, but not as sweet as the melons of my childhood.

Fragile Area: Asilomar September 2006

Fragile Area
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Crow in the center; what a composition!
Today we finally had some rain, wind, lightning and thunder. But it didn't last very long. Scott unplugged the computer. I have already lost two scanners to lightning strikes here. Best not to risk it.
Grandsons picked cherries yesterday. This seems to be the cherry center of the universe; I think the dark ones are particularly good. TJ mowed a part of the meadow that needed it. Tonight I took some pictures of the sky after the storm and should have them ready for tomorrow.
I'm finishing up a collection of Chekhov's short novels in the recent Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. A joyous reading treat!

Flag time

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Originally uploaded by jhhymas

The shapes flags assume in photographs can be very beautiful. The town of Alanson puts on a nice parade; we enjoyed it. Today has been very hot and humid, but just before we went to bed, it began to rain,

The Archos Trio

The rocket's red glare, sort of
Originally uploaded by jhhymas

Tonight to Harbor Springs to listen to a trio: violin, piano and cello. Playing Haydn, Brahms and Astor Piazzolla! This was some of the most outstanding musicianship I have ever witnessed and I have been to many concerts. These people were so FRESH, and so skilled and such fabulous communicators of the music and the emotional coloring that makes live performances so special..
Find a concert of live musicians to attend this summer! Don't limit yourself to concerts by big-name people who are visiting your locality. Look for smaller concerts, perhaps of music you haven't heard before. There REALLY is a difference from recorded music..