The Consummate Amateur: Lake Louise

Showing posts with label Lake Louise. Show all posts

Lake Love

>> Saturday, September 24, 2011 – Lake Louise, Michigan

Beautiful or Repulsive?

>> Friday, September 23, 2011 – beauty, insects and bugs, Lake Louise

I have a feeling most of you would say this is repulsive. But somewhere in it, I see a bit of beauty.

Mind you, I wouldn't want to eat this pear that I found on the round at Lake Louise Saturday morning. But I did go back to get my camera to capture this image. What would compel me to do that? It has to be that there is something here that's beautiful. Or at the very least, interesting.

Here's another, albeit much bigger, bug I spied by in the dune grasses by the water. Perhaps he's more to your liking?

Insects are very interesting to me in that they can seem kind of alien and gross, but they are at the same time amazing little machines that are beautiful in their minuscule intricacy.

And, of course, we all find beauty in the shiny silken threads of an orb weaver spider's web.

Can you enjoy the beauty of God's small miracles? Or do they just plain gross you out?

Little Explorer

>> Thursday, September 22, 2011 – family, Lake Louise, Michigan

Calvin had fun exploring the shoreline of Lake Louise with his cousin Brayden.

He didn't hesitate to pick up the fish skeleton we found and a fantastic stick.

He got to go on two hayrides, one by starlight and the other during the day.

Calvin was so busy during the day, he slept hard all night.

All in all, we had a nice time outside in the chilly northern air and we look forward to next summer when we can come back to one of our very favorite places.

Fog

>> Wednesday, September 21, 2011 – Lake Louise, Michigan

Early fall mornings mean mist and fog in low-lying wet places, of which Michigan has a lot. I love early morning drives in the fall, but even better is an early morning on Lake Louise when the camp staff has brought in most of the unsightly water paraphernalia and the lake is still and empty.

September Wildflowers

>> Tuesday, September 20, 2011 – flowers, Lake Louise, Michigan, nature

While the trees are beginning to think about settling down and most wildflowers have already gone to seed, there are still some showstoppers out there, providing late-season nector for pollinating insects. Here are a few I saw at Lake Louise last weekend.

Many varieties of aster bloom in the fall.

Asters and goldenrod.

It appears that lichen (whch is what this looks like to me) has some form of bloom or way of spreading spores or something. I'll have to do a little research about this. These tiny "flowers" were only about 1 cm tall.

Cardinal flower, like the bird, is named after the robes/hats of Catholic Cardinals.

Fringed Gentian is a true biennial (lives two years, blooming and reproducing only in its second year) and it relies on a mycorrhizal relationship to survive (much like lady slippers) so it should NEVER, EVER, EVER be picked or transplanted. Please!

Close-up of goldenrod (part of the aster family) with a soldier beetle feeding on nectar.

I can't find this in my Michigan wildflower book, but this tiny flower looks a lot like larkspur (bloom and leaves) so I'm guessing it may be in that family.

Another one I can't identify. Very, very small. Maybe the size of a dime. Anyone know what it is?

What is your favorite autumn flower, wild or domestic?

How God Speaks to Me at Camp

>> Sunday, July 24, 2011 – Lake Louise, nature, photography

One of my favorite things to do at camp is take photos of the natural world. I've always felt that it's that part of camp that brings me closer to the heart of God more than anything else. I love the people and the music and the campfire and the boating, but it is the foggy morning, the cloud bank, the smell of mint crushed underfoot along the shore that helps me refocus on the One who created me. God speaks to me through the sound of a loon in the morning before the campers are out of bed and the roar of the thunderstorm at night as I rush to bring the towels and swimsuits off the line. He speaks to me through the intricacies of spiders and shells and through the crystal waters of the lake. I see Him in the night sky choked with stars and in the intensity of the midday sun. He created everything immense and everything minuscule...and me, somewhere in between.

Calvin at Camp (Beware: Requires CPF 50--That's "Cute Protection Factor")

>> Saturday, July 23, 2011 – family, Lake Louise

So I've been gone for a week at one of my favorite places on earth, Camp Lake Louise in the Boyne Falls, Michigan, area. On the way up our Grand Prix had a birthday:

Happy 200,000th mile, Lawrence!

The week was HOT and muggy and so we basically walked around with a patina of varying levels of sweat and lake water for the whole week, though the lake is the second cleanest in the state, I believe. So there's that.

I've considered how best to break my photos up into blog posts and I think it makes the most sense to let you in on things topically. So, this is my Calvin post. Here's what Calvin spent his week doing.

Catching bugs in his bug box...

Here's the inventory of what we caught: three carpenter ants, a tiny grasshopper, a toad the size of a fly (they're everywhere up there), a caterpillar which we named Ralph, and some sort of unidentified flying bug.

Hanging out on the porch...