Chasing Sunset

 I love the play of light in this shot.  This tells me Luke is doing well at noticing light in his frame.

On our recent trip north, we made a point of being in a great spot to watch each sunset.  There are no bad spots along the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore!  

You know, there's nothing better about a vacation than deciding where to eat dinner, and then the next biggest question of the day is where to perch to watch the sunset.

Well...this is our choice spot.  It rarely disappoints!

Here I am featuring Luke's shots of this sunset that was particularly beautiful...

 Here is an excellent example of showing light and how it's playing off the beach rocks.

He did what he had to in order to get the perspective he wanted.  Young people are so good with a camera!  They will twist, contort, kneel, anything to get the shot.  

And the play of light off the shoreline, a beautiful pastel shot, and an excellent choice for the feeling the evening left us with: contentment.  

Contentment with the simple things in life.  

Indeed, sunset is one of the beautiful free gifts we receive each evening from above.  Done in colors to match the season.

Are You Ready? R & R!

For a patriotic gal who loves the country, barns and back roads, there was nothin' better for me than to go out to a beautiful orchard to see the Romney/Ryan rally!

The setting was gorgeous, the day was beautiful and the sun was shining...

They were serving roasted corn on the cob...and we were in rows and rows of apple trees to park...

I don't think the GOVERNMENT planted those apple trees!!

Tons of Great Americans showed up...

And the crowd went wild for Ryan and Romney!

Enthusiasm was HIGH!! 

I don't know who wrote this...but it's so good, I had to share.

PAUL RYAN, WHO IS HE?  
(edited to add:  I received this in email, and have, since publishing this, found the author of this piece:  it is from the author here Lost in America -- that is where the credit for this piece should go.)


Congressman Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin, is Mitt Romney's pick for the next Vice
President of The United States.

What are we to think of this selection?  He's not a graduate of Columbia
University.  He's not a graduate of Harvard.  He wasn't selected as the
President of the Harvard Law Review.  He didn't get a special free quota
scholarship ride to any prestigious university and, instead, had to work his
way through Miami University of Ohio.  The man drove the Oscar Mayer Wiener
Truck one summer and waited tables another!


One morning when Paul Ryan was sixteen years old he went in to wake his
father up and found him dead of a heart attack.  He didn't write two books
about that experience.  Instead, he assumed the role of adult at an early
age, never having the luxury to pursue youthful drug use and the art of
socialist revolution.

Instead, Paul Ryan and his mother took his grandmother, suffering from
Alzheimers, into the household and served as the primary care provider for
his grandma.  His grandma wasn't the Vice President of the Bank of Hawaii so
she could offer nothing in return, except the element of "need".


Once Paul Ryan got his BA in Economics from Miami University of Ohio he was
hired as a staff economist in Wisconsin Senator Kastin's office.  The job
must have not paid well because young Ryan moonlighted as a waiter and
fitness trainer.  No one offered him a "token honor" position at the
University of Chicago and a $200,000 dollar a year salary.

When a still young Paul Ryan returned to Wisconsin to run for Congress he
didn't demonize his opponent and dig up dirt to shovel against him.  He
waited until the standing Congressman vacated the office before seeking the
office.   In Janesville, Wisconsin they don't have a big political machine
to promote you, to criminalize your opponent; instead Paul Ryan had to go
door to door and sit at kitchen tables and listen to his future constituents.

After getting elected to Congress Paul Ryan didn't triumphantly march into
Washington, buy himself a Georgetown townhouse and proceed over to K Street
to rub elbows with lobbyists.  He bunked in his Congressional office and
used the house gym for showers and a fresh change of clothes.

Paul Ryan then married and took his bride back to Janesville.  He lives on
the same street he lived on as a kid and shares the neighborhood with eight
other members of the Ryan clan.  He hunts with the local Janesville hunt
club and attends PTA meetings and other civic functions.

For those who can't make those public functions, Paul Ryan bought an old
bread truck, converted it into a "mobile constituent office" and drives
around to meet with those who need his help and attention.

No, I don't know if we can vote for a guy like this.  He doesn't have a
regal pedigree; he's Irish!!!!  No one awarded him a Nobel Peace Prize two
months after getting elected.  No one threw flowers or got "chills down
their leg" as  he took his seat in Congress.

What is most despicable about Paul Ryan is that he has had the nerve to
write the House Budget for three years in a row.  He's is brazen and
heartless in advocating in that budget for a $5 trillion dollar reduction in
federal spending over the next ten years!  The House passed his budget three
years in a row and three years in a row the Democratically controlled Senate
has let it die in the upper house, without ever proposing a budget of their
own.   

What is wrong with this guy? 

If Congress were to cut $5 trillion dollars from the budget where would 
the President get the money to give $500 million dollars to a bankrupt Solyndra?  

Or $200 million dollars for bankrupt Energy 1?  Or $11 billion dollars to illegal aliens filing INIT,
non-resident tax returns to claim $11 billion big ones in child tax credits, even for their children living in Mexico?

I don't know.  Paul Ryan seems heartless to me.  He keeps wanting to cut
government waste, he keeps wanting to put a halt to those big GSA
conventions in Vegas and, worse, he keeps trying to make people look at that
$15.7 trillion dollar deficit!  The guy's no fun at all!

Who wants a numbers cruncher?  Who wants someone spoiling the party by
showing folks the bill?  Nothing will spoil a party quicker than sending the
host the bill before the party's over.


Party Hearty folks!  At least until November.

A team that is willing to work hard to get the job done!

Lots of paparazzi showed up...

"Let's Make America Great Again!"

--Ronald Wilson Reagan

(Go here for video of that ad.)

The crowds were large, I worked at this event on the line and scanning entry tickets from 8 a.m. until noon or so as a volunteer, then once the candidates took the stage, they shut down the entry lines and we went in to listen.  

Traffic and people POURED in from all directions to this little country orchard from 8-noon.  There were cars and people, press, emergency workers, police, news helicopters, constant movement, people in a steady stream coming from every direction.

It was very well organized and flowed well.


I was encouraged, I think the people will make sure America becomes great again.  Attitudes were positive and cheerful, hopeful and smiling, polite and considerate; in a word, KIND.  

The only grouch I met in the crowd was one very ornery man who made it clear he was there to spy on the "opposition" and he stood at the gate yelling at people.  

(I am sure he was very effective with that tactic.)

I would have to say if he were honest with himself, he had to be impressed with the nice big crowd of people he saw.  

And you know how they say that there are ZERO percent blacks that are for Romney and Ryan?  They are wrong, I saw a whole group of black conservatives proudly standing with them.

Don't believe what your pollsters tell you.  This is what you do: believe what your EYES tell you and what your EARS tell you.

This is 1980 all over again, only bigger.

This R & R on the spot reporting is ...

Brought to your courtesy your dyed in the wool-- 

gun and Bible-loving bitter-clinger friend,

At the Edge of the Water...

There is a certain way being next to the water leaves you feeling.

The repetitive motion of the water and the lullaby of the waves is hypnotizing.

It's like a welcome home...this scenery is here every single day in some form, but I am not.

I relish my chance once a summer to see it, to smell it, to hear it, to enjoy it with my senses.

If it's summer, I need to make my way to one of the Great Lakes and smell it, see it, hear it, dip my toes in, even if it is cold.

Here, the sense of how small I am is overwhelming.

It's a favorite spot, slightly lonesome, just as we like it.  We are thankful we can go.  I know you probably have a spot like that, too.

This year, for our shooting weekend, Luke had his own camera and we shared our extra lenses.  

I enjoyed watching him find the photos to take, and today I am sharing with you his photos; I have enough to last several days...

He is good, and I found he has a creative streak when he shoots.

It's always a good day when you can relax with sand between your toes and your face just a little bit pink from being in the wind all afternoon.

Let's all resolve to cherish the good things left of summer--while we can!

Shootin'!

Luke and I have been on a shootin' adventure.

We learned this trip that it just ain't good shootin' if you don't have some bad weather.


Too much sunny beautiful weather makes for boring photos.

Very boring.

We had fun anyway...

And I am learning that Luke is a much better photographer than I...

And on our last night, we found some weather to make our pictures much better and I'll be sharing those photos with you shortly, when we get back home and I have time to edit them!

Meanwhile, we are working our way home, the long way, and hopefully the scenic way.