Yesterday I posted an article on shear funnels at WaterlandLiving.com. Waterland is my “other blog.” Well, not mine really. It belongs to Dave VanderVeen, owner of Waterland Homes LLC, and it is devoted to all things Michigan.

Some of the stuff written by Dave contains just plain savvy insights on homes and real estate. But the blog as a whole is about outdoor Michigan. That’s no surprise, since Dave has followed a different path in home building and real estate, focusing on properties out in the country. Hunting cabins, lakeside homes, lodges, campgrounds…Waterland is where to go when you”re ready to trade suburbia for something closer to the land, to the fields, lakes, and woods of Michigan.

Yes, that”s a shameless plug for Waterland Homes. I get to do that kind of thing on this site. Never mind that—check out the blog. If you live in Michigan or in any of the Great Lakes states and love the outdoors, I think you”ll like what you find. The site is rich in images and packed with items of interest for nature lovers, fishermen, hunters, hikers, and backroads wanderers who love to see what”s over the hill and around the bend.

Tamarack Needles

Fridays are my day on WaterlandLiving. Six days of the week, Dave provides a more factual approach. My mission is to offer a bit of literary ambience—to take you to places you wouldn’t think to go, open your eyes to things you might pass by…to engage your senses so that you experience different aspects of the outdoors, and perhaps enjoy a chuckle or two in the process.

Riff through my Friday posts and you’re liable to come across just about anything under—or in—the Michigan sky. You’ll find articles on

* Michigan backroads

* carnivorous plants

* poison ivy and poison sumac—and what it’s like to eat them!

* railroads

* thunderstorms

* topwater fishing

* wild orchids

* hummingbirds

* sassafras tea

* what makes the leaves turn color

* hunting knives

* Hunter”s Moon and other monthly moon names

* wild cranberries

* winter photography

Hummingbird Feeder

The list goes on, and since it continues to grow, you’re apt to find just about anything in it, as long as it’s got to do with the outdoors and Michigan. So if you love the smell of white pine and woodsmoke…if the sudden thunder of grouse wings stirs something inside you…if a moontrail on the waters awakens your sense of wonder…then drop in.

Moonrise Over Gun Lake

I might add that Dave is getting set to launch a second blogsite devoted to the Lake Michigan shoreline. We’ll be exploring state parks, wineries and brewpubs, nature preserves, out-of-the-way restaurants, bed-and-breakfasts, harbor communities, and other points of interest along Michigan”s west coast. So stay tuned—I’ll let you know when the site is up and running.

Today was my second winter photo expedition, and I returned from it more impressed than ever with the stunning possibilities that reside in a snow-clad landscape. It was after 3:00 p.m. when I headed out to the Maher Audubon Sanctuary on 108th Street near the Coldwater River. The afternoon sun had that marvelous slant to it that brings out the gold in the light, and long shadows stretched through the woods and added drama to the snowscape.

Once again I’ll conserve my words and let a few images tell the story.

Frozen Swamp

Cattails

Snow Sculpture

Tree Trunk

Looks like I caught the perfect weather yesterday for my first foray into winter photography. Today the sky is a milky gray monochrome filled with a constant supply of snow, now light, now heavy, subject to the whimsies of the lake effect. But yesterday was magical, a day of contrasts–of fantastic cloudscapes, resonant, deep blue skies, dancing snowflakes, and vanilla-colored curtains of distant snow showers gleaming in the slanting sun.

I’m not going to say much more about it. Instead, I’m going to let a few pictures tell the story. These were all shot southwest of Hastings, Michigan, near the Barry State Game Area.

Cloudscape — I’m captivated by the expressiveness of the clouds. And I love how they seem to follow the contours of the treeline like a penumbra.

Linescape — Winter strips the landscape down to its fundamental geometry, to tapestries of lines and angles. I’m so pleased with how this shot turned out. Not bad for a greenhorn, I think.

Transfiguration — The stump to the right of the backlit tree makes me think of Moses before the burning bush.

Old Drive — The Barry State Game Area is punctuated with the relics of old homesteads and farms that couldn”t quite make it in the sandy soil. I’m sure a house once stood here. All that’s left is the drive leading past the trees into an empty field.

My friend Kurt Hulst brought to my attention the fact that I don’t include many photos in my blogs. This is true. Part of the reason has had to do with my learning curve as a photographer. But I fancy that I’ve improved quite a bit since I first bought my Rebel XTi in the spring; the rest of the matter is simply that I’ve limited myself regarding this blog to storm chasing and sax playing.

Now, storms come when they come, and unless global warming accelerates remarkably, I expect it’ll be a while before we see anything resembling springtime weather. As for the sax, when I”m at a club, it’s usually to play, not to photograph.

So those are my excuses. But I think maybe I need to broaden my options a bit for the sake of adding a little color to this blog. Otherwise, I face three months–four, really–with little to say, weatherwise, other than, “Dang, I wish the spring would get here.” And all that time, the winter has a beauty and interest of its own, and photo opportunities I hadn”t imagined.

Until today, that is, when I set out to photograph my first snowy landscape of the year. I drove out to some of my favorite backroads in Barry County, out near my church west of Hastings. There, in the glacial hills near the Barry State Game Area, the landscape is particularly photogenic, and I was not disappointed in what I found.

Here is one photo. There are others, but this will do for now.

Kurt, this one’s for you!