Still Rainy in Fostoria

I decided to head over to Fostoria next.  I was hoping that I would catch some trains on the Norfolk-Southern line there.  Sadly, there was a bit of a tie up or something because I didn't see any trains moving through when I got there.  I didn't stay for long though.

 As I was heading out of town, I saw this train waiting on the track waiting to go south.  I decided to stop and get pictures of it.  If you look towards the back, you can see the lights of my next subject.  I'm not sure if you can tell, but it was still raining.

 So I got a little further out of town and saw this one.  It was waiting for the next train to clear, I think. 

 The engineer decided to move the train a little closer to the road.

 Since I was confident it wasn't going anywhere, I decided to take a headshot from the road.

 A slightly off center headshot.

 I kind of like the leading lines on this shot.

As I looked at my rear window, I kind of liked the effect of the raindrops and stuff.  I just wish the train were more distinct.

Cold and Rainy in Deshler

I didn't do anything yesterday because I realized that I've spent the past month on the run and I just wanted to take a day off.  I wasn't going to let two days in a row get away from me even though the weather was kind of nasty.  So I decided to head down to Deshler first.

 It didn't take long for my first train to appear though.

 It was coming along at a pretty decent clip.

 It had a mixture of cars on it.

 I saw this one as I was approaching the town, I was hoping I didn't miss it because it would give me an opportunity to get a picture I've been waiting for.  Fortunately, there was the first train I saw going east and west.

 This is one of the pictures I've wanted ever since coming here.

 A shot of the engine.

 You can almost see the reflections in the water.

 A train heading east.

 And it's group of autocars.

 I was leaving town and I saw this train heading west.  I decided to turn around to catch it at Deshler.

 As it passes the train station.

 One more shot of this one.

 Again, I was trying to leave Deshler and I looked down the tracks and saw this one.

 It ended up turning though.

And a shot of the back engine.

the Peonies Are Back

I kept hearing that the peonies were back at the Arboretum.  This is something I've been looking forward to since the last time I saw them last year.  Despite the fact that I take many pictures of trains and ships, I do like things like flowers.  They make for a nice change from all that mechanical stuff.

 The house in front of the Arboretum.  I think this is a pretty nice looking house.

 Many of the peonies were still in bud form.  I want to say that only about 25% of the flowers have bloomed so far but those that have looked pretty nice.  I kind of like the variety of peonies they have at the Arboretum.  But I guess that comes with the territory of having one of the larger peony gardens in the country.

 Apparently there are different styles of peonies but I'm not about to attempt to name them.  I'll just go by the colors and enjoy them that way.

 I will have to say that some of them look very similar to roses.

 Others look similar to other flower types.

This one looks like it was one of the first to bloom and is about to go away now.

 This one has some flowers that are waiting to bloom.

 I tried to take pictures of them from different angles.

 Another one.

 They were having some sort of Shakespeare thing going on tonight.  This might have been a rehearsal for a play they have later in the summer.

 I don't recall seeing the yellow peonies last year but this was the only one I saw.

 Running behind the main garden is a little trail with other types of flowering plants.

 This one reminds me of a dragon.

And just an overall view of the garden.

I will have to go back sometime next week, I think more of the flowers will be in bloom.

Dame's Rocket...I Think

We have these flowers just outside my apartment.  I think I've seen them before.

 I'm pretty sure that these are dame's rocket but they are easily confused for phlox.

 If they are phlox, they are okay.  If they are the other flower, they are not okay. 

I've been seeing these flowers all over the place though.

One More Stop at the Bridge

Well actually, it was two stops since I got pictures from both sides.

 First I stopped at the Bridge View Park on the St. Ignace side.  I really like the statue of the Bridgeworker, so I decided to get a silhouette.

 Another shot of that side.

 Then I stopped at the park in Mackinaw City after enjoying some pasties.  It was starting to get dark.

 But I did manage to catch the Anglian Lady and her barge.

One more shot of the Bridge.

It was a pretty good weekend for me.  I managed to catch over 20 ships.  I found a new spot for boatwatching.  I climbed up the Point Iroquois Tower.  If I had stayed one more night, I could have caught the Blough.  I'm sorry for the whirlwind of posts but I wanted to clear the slate for peonies and whatever else I do this weekend.

Some Trillium

I kind of stumbled across these on the way back from Whitefish Point.  I had to stop since trillium is one of my favorite wildflowers.

 I'm not sure if this is the normal time for them to bloom up north but I'm not going to argue about it too much.

 I really like the look of this flower.

 Trying to get the three petals.

A shot of the stand of them.

A Brief Stop at Whitefish Point

Since it was also close, I decided to stop at Whitefish Point.

 I like the lighthouse here too because it looks different.

 Looking up at the tower.

 The water was higher than I'm used to.

 Normally, you can almost walk out to those logs.

 Another view of the tower.

And one more shot.