landscapes

Sometimes the best is in your backyard

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Now that fall is here in its most full splendor I’ve been on the roads looking for fall color.  Last week we were in Wisconsin, and this past weekend we were in western and central Minnesota.  This is a fabulous year for the colors.  The temperatures and moisture have certainly been prime for producing a grand spectrum of rich shades of red, yellow, orange, and gold.  And yet just this morning I made this image in our backyard.  There is a lovely ivy that graces the fence and trellis in our side yard.  I’ve been watching the colors progress this past week and a half.  In some areas the color is all a rich rust or maroon, and in others it’s a yellow or gold.  But as I walked along the fence this morning I spotted this area which had a delightful array of all the colors.  And in the early morning light it was positively glowing!  So I will continue to look for the colors of fall in the parks and roads of Minnesota and Wisconsin, but I will also make sure to stop and admire, appreciate, and photograph what is presented to me in my own backyard.

Chasing fall colors in Wisconsin

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We’ve just returned from a delightful weekend of fall color in northern Wisconsin.  After raining on Friday, the weather was cool and cloudy on Saturday morning and we ventured to Copper Falls State Park outside of Mellen, Wisconsin.  The colors of gold, green, red, orange, and yellow were all visible throughout the woods.  It was a treat to the eyes and to the senses, as there is most certainly a distinct smell of fall in the air also.  Later in the day the sun burned through the clouds and these same  vibrant shades of autumn were splashed against a bright and clear blue sky with warm sunshine.  Although it’s hard to think of summer as being behind us now, the beauty and brightness of fall seems to be our reward before we delve into the white of winter.

There was a programming glitch with my blog entry from last week.  Those of you who normally get an email when I’ve posted a new blog entry were left without notification.  Sorry!  You might want to go directly to my blog to read the entry from last Sunday —  it was all about a very joyous wedding celebration in our family.  Go to http://www.lindastaatsphoto.wordpress.com and scroll down to the entry dated September 26, 2010, “A wedding in the family.”  (Sorry for the mixup!).

A day at the Fair

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Yesterday it was me and 234,383 of my best friends spending a cool summer’s day at the Minnesota State Fair and setting a record for single-day attendance.   The Minnesota State Fair is the second-largest State Fair in the country.  With the fairgrounds covering 320 acres it’s imperative to allow at least one day to see your favorite things.  There’s the Mighty Midway with its games and carnival rides, the food, the Giant Slide, Machinery Hill, the food, the animals, the exhibits, the Space Tower, the Grandstand, and the food.  We refer to the Fair as the Great Minnesota Get-Together, and we celebrate with friends and food.  Anything and everything is available on a stick, from fried pickles to pronto pups.  For many the Fair is a day of grazing from one food booth to the next.  I especially enjoyed the animal barns.  The pigs that weren’t being shown in competition were sleeping lazily, the sounds of the roosters were echoing off the walls in their building, and the goats were busy nibbling on the shirts of the passers-by.  People who attend the fair are always in a good mood, as are the vendors, and the employees at the fair.  Even the woman at the information booth who helped me three different times — she too was in a good mood.  I even found two special friends from the Minnesota Twins – Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau – who “stood still” while I had my photo taken with them.  What a great ending to a fine day at the Fair!

The woods of northern Wisconsin

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We spent the past weekend in northern Wisconsin near the shores of Lake Superior.  It was a true late summer’s weekend with hot sun and blowing winds.  To get a break from the heat, we drove to the southern part of Ashland County.  Off a remote gravel road in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest is a trailhead leading along Morgan Creek to a cascading waterfall.   Here in the forest with the canopy of trees and the gurgling of the creek, we found a welcome respite from the summer’s heat.  The trees are still a glorious green, but occasionally we saw a few leaves that were starting to change in anticipation of autumn.  With this image of Morgan Creek I wanted to bring together the green of the forest, the blue reflection of the summer sky above, with a few hints of autumn color also visible in the water’s reflection.   These are the photos and memories that we will be savoring in the middle of January when our scenery has turned to white and the temperatures have plummeted into winter.

The fog comes

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Yesterday I awoke to a rare treat — a cool, foggy morning.    For me, there is a special stillness and quietness that settles over the landscape when everything is shrouded with a soft blanket of fog .  I found myself walking quietly so as not to disturb the air and the peacefulness that surrounded me.  And because it was an early Saturday morning, the usual hustle and bustle of work  routines were non-existent with few people out and about.  Since moving to Minnesota I’ve realized that fog is one of the atmospheric conditions of the Pacific Northwest that I miss.   As I was photographing this scene, I was reminded of the beginning of Carl Sandburg’s poem “Fog” where he writes “The fog comes on little cat feet.”  It moves in quietly, settles, and then travels on.   And as was the case yesterday, the sun and heat of summer eventually broke through the fog and we returned to blue sky and bright sunshine.