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A Long Slow Stroll into Spring

Tomorrow is May Day. And here in Minnesota it doesn’t look like any May Day I remember. We are still in A Long Slow Stroll into Spring here. Yesterday I took a walk at French Regional Park. There were lots of families enjoying the day at the park. On my walk I searched for signs of spring and though there were some greens starting to appear it was still a pretty stark landscape. Still, I found beauty in the starkness. Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

A Walk in my Neighborhood

Everywhere I look as I walk the paths of my neighborhood—seeing fiddle-head ferns, pine cones, lichens on a fallen branch—I find beauty! Join me for A Walk in my Neighborhood and see the beauty that is hiding in plain sight all along the path. What We Need Is Here Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear in the ancient faith: what we need is here. And we pray, not for a new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

Duck-y Weather

With raindrops falling yesterday and today with more rain predicted for tomorrow it has been Duck-y Weather this week. (For those who play rhyming games, you might guess another word for the weather that rhymes with duck-y.) Still I’ve been enjoying seeing different ducks on the pond behind our house and on the pond that’s just down the hill across the street from us. Yesterday I saw two ducks that I could not immediately identify swimming in the pond down the hill. After photographing them and then searching my bird books I learned that they are Blue Winged Teal. Over Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

The Call

As spring ever so slowly arrives and the temperatures warm into the 50’s most days this week I feel The Call to go outside and wander in the yard or on the park paths in my neighborhood. What in your life is calling you, When all the noise is silenced, The meetings adjourned… The lists laid aside, And the wild iris blooms by itself in the dark forest… What still pulls on your soul?​ –Rumi The first spring wildflowers are blooming. Ducks, geese, herons, and egrets are showing up in neighborhood ponds. Grass is greening. And slowly the world is Read more…

By Marilyn, ago

The Power of Practice

This morning I decided to practice photographing wood ducks in the pond with my Canon 100-400 mm lens and 1.4X extender. My first photos were awful. None of the fast moving ducks I photographed were  quite in focus. I fiddled with my lens and my camera menu selections thinking that either my lens was not focusing correctly or my settings were incorrect. Then I took more photos and still had out of focus ducks. Finally I remembered, that instead of using aperture priority—which gives priority to the depth of field I set—I needed to use shutter priority—which gives priority to Read more…

By Marilyn, ago