For those of you who missed it...

Don't worry, I took some pictures for you. "Of what?" I hear you ask. Don't you worry, me and this spring robin heralded in the dawn together all the while thinking of you.

I was thinking, "Why am I freezing my tookus off while all you sleep in your cozy beds this morning?"Then I sat there in the rising sun with bird song around me while capturing this, and all thoughts about being cold kind of slipped my mind. For a few minutes anyway.



Granted, most of you that read this are 2-4 hours behind us in time, so it was anywhere between 230 and 430 in the morning and the moon be that much further east, even had you gotten up, you couldn't see it. So I guess it was worth it.

This was the third in a tetrad of luna eclipses that started in April of 2014. I saw the one in September while walking the boys one early morning in the dark. I only had my phone with me and wasn't able to get a good picture. It was the first lunar eclipse I've ever seen in person. The final one of this series is on September 28th. I don't know if it's visible form here, let me go see...

Well, if you go HERE, you can see where the lunar event will be viewable from. Us here in Michigan, if we have a clear night should get a good view with totality occurring just before 1130. Fingers crossed!

So, all of these next pictures will just be the eclipse in sequence as I took them. I kept playing with my camera settings, but alas, I'm not a professional. I'll try to learn more before the next one.

I snapped this one off zoom trying to show how close the Belt of Venus was following after the moon as sunrise was catching up to the eclipse. What's the belt of venus? Ever notice in the sky at dawn or sunset when the sun is just below the horizon, on the opposite horizon (must be clear sky's to see this so you Wyomingites will have better luck with this one) that transition from bank and purple sky's, to deep indigo? That transition line is the bet and show the shadow of earth on the surrounding atmosphere. So in this picture, up where that bird is in the frame, is where the sun's light is starting to illuminate the upper atmosphere and any high clouds or dust and making it pinkish, but the moon is still in the shadow itself.

This was as close to totality as we got here before it dipped below the horizon. As it was, you can see the sun was chasing it pretty closely by this point anyway and would have hidden the eclipse had it been any later.

Then, since I was up, and there was this beautiful dawn light, I had to keep taking photos, right?

As I was trying to get better pictures and wondering through the neighbors corn field, I noticed this group of deer and a lone crane. That's right, the birds are back in town as you could here on the first video.

This I think is the Mom and two babies that were fawns last year that we had around are place. Of the group of 8 or so deer that have been hanging around, they were the most relaxed about my presence though they didn't let me get too close. But the did stick around in the field longer than any of the others.

Like I said, cornfields. But I thought it was a neat picture.

As the sun kept creeping up, I kept hearing turkey's sobbing so I decided to see if I could find them.

So, as the Guy was out with the Boys for their morning walk, I was getting a little hike through the fields.

I didn't find the turkeys, but I think they were hiding in the woods still. Waiting for full light to come out into the fields.

But I kept walking and snapping pictures as the sun kept rising.

And look what I found!

The picture is a bit grainy because I was zoomed way up on them. They were in a shady part of the field picking at the ground and wandering around a bit.



When I saw them I stopped. They seemed aware that I was there and not to worried since I was keeping my distance, but something caught their attention on the far side of them and they decided they didn't  like it one bit. I did snap some more pictures, but they were singing and calling as they flew, and my main priority was to get that. Let's just say, there was some fast fumbling of the camera.

In the summers, that sound is often how I wake up. Love it!

I have to say, moving here to Michigan has been an educational experience when it comes to learning about the local birds and other wildlife.

There always seems to be a new critter to see, whether it's a bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian, or insect.

After I got the cranes I gave up on finding the turkeys for the day. But only for today mind you. I will find some to get pictures of.

On the way back, I just enjoyed that golden dawn light.

Even got a "Self Portrait" in. Or as close as I was going to get with my shadow.

Our own house isn't on the lake, but there is a lake that lays to the west that was between myself an the eclipse. I cropped it out of many of the pictures because in the dark, the houses for some reason looked like I was in a trailer park.

As you can see here, it isn't a trailer park, but for some reason in the dark it looked like it. Some of the homes are actually quite large and nice but the distance from them, and that cell tower that I also cropped and smudged out of the lunar shots gives it a certain look. Here to I was trying to snap a picture of some mallards that zoomed by, and caught them flying past two oncoming geese.

The geese in the sun were quite beautiful.

With the return of the birds, plants are starting to come back too. This looks a lot like lamb's ear that I'm used to seeing in Wyoming. Greening up despite the morning frosts still.

I was enjoying how the early morning light was illuminating the old corn rows here when the Guy and the boys were heading back into the drive way here. Let me be honest, I just have a thing for corn rows. Don't ask, I don't know, but I always have. I want to go to a corn maze so bad... This year, I swear. Think they have any adult only ones, or adult only times at any local mazes? Damn noisy kids.

And my ever favorite redwing blackbirds are back. As I type this out now I can hear them bedding down in the pines in the backyard. I love their odd calls and spunky demeanor. 

I just liked the colors in this shot.

Then a dove was hanging out in our from maple tree as I was coming in. To bad the camera focused on the beaches and my hands were to cold to fuss with turning it to manual focus and getting off a shot. The zoom made this picture look darker than it was too. Sun as up, and this still looks like early dawn skies.

This afternoon I snapped these shots from the garden as spring sunshine wakes it up.

Last weekend I tried to snap a shot of the fields to the north as the early morning sun illuminated the neighbors that way's barn and silos. I could only see it well fro the bathroom window though and the camera didn't want to play well with the window screen and I wasn't dressed yet to track out that way with the camera.

If you look close you can see the buds and early blooms of the maple as it primes for the season. These are one of those maples that just as it gets fully leafed out, it drops it's whirly-gig seed pods. I kind of like them though they bury dog poop and you step in it... Ahh life, it's all about the trade off's.

Speaking of, how about early morning sun bathing? These guys love it.

These are a couple of old pictures I just happened to pull off the camera while getting this morning's shots. I just like the character of them though they are not the best shots.

I also finished up this harm this last week. It's fractal spun, can you tell? What is fractal spun you non-spinners ask? See how the colors march out in each line of the bobbin on the left? Those are nice short color ways that repeat in quick bursts of colors. The one on the right has much longer color ways bleed into each other.

You make this work out like this by how you split up your pre-died fiber. Why do this? Because when you do this, it assures that your colors always pair up with each other atlas once, typically more, and have less color pooling than you would otherwise.

Well, that's about all I have for tonight, but I do have more pictures I took on our walk at the Peace Park yesterday, so you will probably see pictures again later this week for me. 

But before I go, Sullivan and Scarlet say "Happy Easter". And don't forget the Jesus Juice...