I’m pleased to announce that I have a collection of photographs that will be exhibited at the Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wisconsin beginning this Wednesday, August 3rd. The hospital has a wonderful healing arts program which includes over 200 works of art throughout the entire campus, including patient rooms. My images for this exhibit are titled “Close to Home.” I have been interested in the belief held by so many people that we must travel to faraway places to find the beautiful things in our world. Yet in the small area of my city lot with its small brick house and gardens is a world of great beauty and wonder, like this monarch butterfly that balanced on a purple coneflower one hot day in July. The exhibit runs from August 3rd through December 11th. There is an artist reception this Friday, August 5th from 6:00 to 8:00pm. I invite any one near the Twin Cities area to come to the reception or to stop by the Hudson Hospital to see their fine exhibit. For more information about the hospital or for directions, please go to www.hudsonhospital.org.
Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s wild lupine
We ventured north this weekend to the shores of Lake Superior. After a miserably cold and rainy week the weather cleared in perfect time for the weekend, and with little to no winds and mild temperatures it was a wonderful time to explore new areas. We wandered the highways and county roads of northern Wisconsin and even went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. After the wet and late spring we’ve had, the roadsides are now in full bloom. We were first treated to the white daisies and orange hawk weed that were abundant throughout the central part of Wisconsin. Then as we reached the south shore of Lake Superior and continued to the north in Bayfield County, the lupine were in their prime. I had seen photos of the wild lupine in the Bayfield area before, but they appeared to be in a large garden area. I was not prepared for the plethora of blooms that were gracing the sides of the highways. This photo was taken along the side of Highway 13 just north of Washburn. With their blue, purple, pink, and white spikes they were a treat to the eyes and a reminder of how much we appreciate the colors of spring that replace the white of our winter season.
Fall daybreak over the Mississippi River
Our fall colors have been changing rapidly. Knowing that they won’t be lasting much longer, I took a day off work and left the house before 6:00am. I drove southeast in the darkness and caught up with the Mississippi River. On a bluff above the river in Frontenac State Park I enjoyed the quiet and beauty of daybreak over the Mississippi. The morning was cool and coated the grasses and fall flowers with a light dew. And yet as the sun rose there was the promise of a warm Indian summer day ahead. As I focused my camera down the river to Lake Pepin I heard a rustling in the grasses to my right. Just as I glanced in that direction, a large doe leapt through the little bluestem and bounded down the hill — the only sound breaking the quiet. I spent the remainder of this warm day wandering the hillsides and bluffs on either side of the Mississippi River, in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The following days were windy and blustery, and I’m certain many of the remaining leaves found their way down to the ground. In the short span of this past week, the landscape has changed dramatically, getting closer to the inevitable first hard frost and winter.
Chasing fall colors in Wisconsin
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!).
The woods of northern Wisconsin
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.
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