Yellow Light

For a few weeks in September, maybe two, maybe three, the dry bean fields will be ripening. The bean plants begin to yellow in stages. It doesn't happen by rows, or by some sort of north-south rules. Each plant seems to know when it is time to release the chlorophyll from its leaves and begin the ripening process.

As a result, the fields turn into smooth carpets of gold yellow and viridian green. Tones of luscious color twine across the landscape.

In the evening, these marbled fields dance with golden light as the low sunlight picks up the yellow and reflects it on the wind turbines and into the clouds. For only a few weeks, and only in the early morning and late evening, the earth is lit with yellow light.

Bisected Horizon

I had finally settled into my easy chair with that holy first cup of coffee when the light in the room changed. I glanced toward the horizon where morning expanded in golden brilliance.

Grabbing a camera and fiddling with settings, I stepped outside. Two ships, barely visible, sat along the horizon. Like tiny lead figures in a diorama, highlighted by a band of rich ochre, they inched toward each other and the rising sun. I snapped photo after photo of the setting.

Sun, clouds, ships, bisected horizon. A magic morning.

Huron Lady Boat Cruise

Our family enjoyed the hour and a half long Huron Lady boat cruise out of downtown Port Huron last Saturday. We left from their dock on the mouth of the Black River, just where the Black meets the St. Clair River.

The trip took us south along the St. Clair River for several miles. We cruised into Canadian waters, turned north, and got to see some of the Canadian side of the river, including the large elevator complex, the refineries, and a commercial fishing dock.

From the Canadian side, we headed out into the rapids of the river, right under the Blue Water Bridges and slipped out into the lower part of Lake Huron. There was lots of small craft traffic and we saw a number of freighters during the trip.

The Fort Gratiot Lighthouse is stunning from the lake. With its gleaming white exterior and red roofed buildings around it, the lighthouse is quite an attraction on the U. S. shore.

We left the dock at 1 pm and returned by 2:30. The trip, one that we have talked about doing for some time, was a real treat. Adults and kids enjoyed the day on the water.

Album: June on Mackinac Island

Fog surrounds the Little Stone Church on Grand Avenue. With the surrounding waters of the Straits still so cold, fog is a common occurrence on Mackinac Island in June.

Bicycles lined up in a bike rack, an old cannon at the base of Fort Hill, and the Governor's Mansion in the distance all add up to a day on Mackinac. From bicycling, to an historic fort, to beautiful old buildings, Mackinac has lots of offer visitors.

The very late spring throughout the Great Lakes states this year means that the lilacs are still blooming on Mackinac Island. Imagine hundreds of lilacs, some shrubs and some tree sized, scattered throughout the residential areas, on the golf courses, and along the shoreline. Mackinac Island sparkles with the romance of old fashioned lilacs.

Morning Ferry

The first ferries coming into the the harbor at Mackinac Island this morning glided past Round Island Lighthouse. A sharp line of clouds to the southwest threatened the island weather for the day.

But the weather at the Straits of Mackinac is auspicious to say the least. A day that dawns foggy and cool will turn out to be sun filled with light breezes by noon. Rain in the morning often blows through the Straits as weather fronts cross the top of Lake Michigan and intersect with the width of Lake Huron's waters.

This unique Great Lakes micro climate pattern brings pollen free days to the Island and keeps the mosquitoes at bay. It is no wonder that people have been coming to Mackinac for centuries.

You can ride a bicycle around the island on M-185, a Michigan state highway that is restricted to pedestrians, horses, and bicycles only. It's an eight mile ride, fairly flat, and very doable, even if you don't ride a bike regularly.

Mackinac Island is 45.8 degrees north. In summer, the days weave a magical northern spell, especially in June and July. Right now the sun rises at 5:47 am and sets at 9:31 pm. Twilight dawn starts at 5:10 am; twilight dusk ends at 10:10 pm. You can go out to eat later in the evening and still take a downtown stroll for ice cream before it is totally dark.

For those of you regular Willow Blog readers who have never been to The Island (as we call it in Michigan), I hope that I'm giving you a few reasons to plan a trip to Michigan and experience Mackinac Island. Maybe when you come you'll be on the first ferry in the morning.

Foggy Mackinac

Ed was busy buying tickets for the ferry trip to Mackinac Island when I wandered over to the waiting area and took this photo. A line of thunderstorms, the ones that marched across the plains states and up through the midwest today, brought foggy weather to the Straits of Mackinac.

The boats and the docks across from Shepler's Ferry threw wavy patterns along the glassy waters while fog touched the image with soft light.

Foggy Mackinac. It's not the idyllic scene that scribes its way on to postcards, yet the character of the day said, "Come north. Come to Mackinac."

Mother Nature Decorates

It was a drift of red berries on woodland shrubs that caught my eye. Bright and red, those berries had a "knock your socks off" effect against the gray woods.

I made a u-turn and pulled out my camera. Got the shot framed and then I saw, in the viewfinder, the whitest birch and a little Charlie Brown type pine tree.

There it was -- the reddest red, a little green tree, and pure white. No bows. No ribbons. No baubles.

Just Mother Nature at work, decorating the woods for the holidays, on this stretch of Michigan highway.

Shoreline Triumvirate

Triumvirate is a pompous word to use for this image, but that's what comes to mind as I view this photo of the Harbor Beach lighthouse, a passing freighter and a flock of geese. Late afternoon light drew me to the shoreline where the lighthouse glowed in the slanted rays of November's waning light.

I drove to town to get some groceries and saw the freighter headed north. By the time I reached Lincoln Park and turned toward Trescott Street Pier, it was late in the day, that time that photographers call the golden hour. I pulled my Chevy Volt into a parking space near the pier where several other vehicles were parked, their drivers watching the majesty of evening light unfolding over Lake Huron and the lighthouse.

I walked along the shore to the pier, framing shots and taking them, but knowing that nothing spectacular was going onto the memory card. Then the freighter pulled close to the lighthouse just as the geese lifted in one great communal, mixed up company and flew toward the shore.

It was a triumvirate moment -- white lighthouse, strong ship gliding north, geese in a frenzy of migration -- that spells late fall in Michigan.

Forgotten Morning

Sometimes I forget just how beautiful the Lake Huron shoreline can be. Here's an image of an October morning in 2010, October 23 to be exact, that was one of those marble mornings with little wind. The horizon was an inky etching that outlined the start of the day. The sun's golden rays spilled out above the dark clouds onto the glassy surface of the water, almost as if the sun could not be contained.

The metadata on this file shows an image taken with my old Olympus. The original image size, 517 kilobytes, betrays my old photography mode of less megapixels and less intentionality. Photoshop was my new friend way back then and I definitely did not have the darkroom skills to manipulate images like I now possess.

Still, this forgotten morning shines. In Michigan we've come to call these images Pure Michigan, after the very successful Pure Michigan advertising campaign that promotes Michigan on billboards and in print and broadcast media. On Twitter they become #PureMichigan.

A marbled morning. A sunrise with a tinge of gold. I'll take that any day.

Autumn Mist on Lake Huron

On a Monday morning in early October, the warm waters of Lake Huron lifted a mist that drifted to the shore in waves of fog. This sight, on the cusp of sunrise, is another reason that living near a body of water is so invigorating.

In Michigan, we call this Pure Michigan.

Artwork: 14th Hole at Bird Creek

I had a bogey on the 14th Hole at Bird Creek yesterday. It's a par three and it took me two strokes to get on the green and two putts to finish.

The score didn't matter though. It was a perfect day for golf. Late in the afternoon, the slanted sun lit up the fairways. The apple trees looked like postcards for Pure Michigan. The entire course was like walking through a National Geographic magazine. Blue skies, golden trees, clear air.

I did a quick scribble sketch this morning, just to remind me of those few precious hours of autumn.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

August Golf at Bird Creek

A cool wind coming down off of Lake Huron brought thoughts of fall to my golf game tonight. Every once in a while I have a chance to play nine holes by myself. Tonight was one of those "walk-with-my-Bag-Boy-cart-and-think" times of playing golf.

Shafts of the setting sun lit up Bird Creek's fairways and greens with bright green bands of magical light. I scared up a doe with her twin fawns, all three of them shining rusty red in the low slanted sunbeams, out on Number Three.  A great blue heron chose to ignore me and my cellphone camera. He was too busy looking for frogs in the pond on the Number Two fairway.

I had pulled a quarter zip long sleeve pullover on over my golf shirt when I left home. Then I added another fleece. By the time I rounded the back of the course, heading into Number Five, I was ready to shed the fleece. But then the wind picked up off the lake and the night breeze got cooler.

My drives off the tee boxes were good, but I had way too many putts. Maybe I can blame a poor score on the cool weather, a strong wind, a beautiful evening, the camera in my pocket, my critter friends, and a golf course that just takes your breath away with its natural beauty on an August summer evening.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Chevy Volt Sunset

I had to make a run into the Detroit suburbs today so that meant that on the return I was driving along the Lake Huron coastline right about sunset. I pulled off at one of the M-25 roadside parks along the shore just south of Forestville, Michigan.

The clouds were billowing gray and white and silver. A rainbow danced in and out, depending on the angle of the light. Lake Huron's waters were marbled in shades of blue and gray from the cloud reflections.

In all of that fantastic light I got the thought, "Gee, the Chevy Volt hasn't been on the blog for several months. Wonder what it would look like in the sunset hour?" So, dear readers, here's the result. My over 37,000-mile-2012-Made-in-Michigan Chevy Volt, glowing in the magic hour at sunset.

Now that's Pure Michigan!

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Evening Pines

After sunset on a July evening, the evening pines are silhouetted against the blue sky. The day is closing and the pines are leaning toward one another, like a fold up book of paper cut outs with pages that rise and fall as they are turned.

Photo taken in Harbor Beach, Michigan, near North Campground, along the walking trail that leads from the Coast Guard Station to Trescott Street Pier.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Sunset Bands of Color

Sunlight glinted off the blades of wind turbines along Parisville Road in Huron County on Monday evening. The sky was painted with bands of color, like an artist had washed color into color in a celestial painting.

The particulate from wildfires out West and in Canada may have been carried into Michigan already, or the sun might have been at that "perfect" angle. Whatever the cause, the sunset on Monday night was awesome.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Arctic Look

The temperature this morning hovered around 20 degrees when I stepped outside to take this image of White Rock Shoal on Lake Huron's Michigan shore. The ice and snow extend almost to the edge of the shoal.

Canada geese, once loud and close to the lake house, squawked in the distance. A layer of fog drifted over the open water, several miles from shore. Later, toward noon, the fog came close and seemed like a storm front.

Now, in the middle of the afternoon, the fog hangs in a haze over the shoreline, masking the clear blue sky of the morning.

It is an Arctic looking day on the Lake Huron shoreline in Pure Michigan.

Copyright 2013
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Back Roads Autumn

Wetzel Road in Sanilac County, just west of Maple Grove Road

There was some concern about the trees turning color this fall. With the summer drought being so severe in part of Michigan, that talk was about how dull fall color would be.

Put all of those sights aside and go for a back roads autumn drive. Go now. The colors are incredible. The trees are biting yellow, brilliant scarlet, and rusty orange. The skies are a piercing blue; clouds, almost iridescent, even at midday.

Ruth Road wheat field in autumn

Velvet green winter wheat coats the fields. Turbines stand like marble monoliths. Soybean fields spread out in layers of soft, leathery tan.

Mother Nature is saying, "Don't stay inside. Not yet. I'm not done!"

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Evening Rainbow

Rainstorms swept the Thumb last night. Rainbows danced and arched over Lake Huron in between the squalls and downpours.

This rainbow touched White Rock Shoal with spectral magic. It was another Pure Michigan moment.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Parisville Road Nocture

The sun had set. The storm had passed. Mist was forming in the distance. The September skies danced with color. It was a perfect moment in Michigan's Thumb.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler

Thanks at Dawn

Etched by light, an early morning cloud line packs the horizon. Now a moment comes like a glimmer to the soul. It is the promise of another day, created and given.

The moment is gone. The day begins with thankfulness.

Copyright 2012
Wanda Hayes Eichler