The Fall Foliage of Belle Isle From the Air

 As I was returning the drone from taking pictures of the Florence Spirit, I looked over the view of Belle Isle.  I notice that many of the trees had turned color.  I also liked the way the sky was reflecting some of the ponds.

So this a shot of the Aquarium, Conservatory and the Nancy Brown Peace Carillon.  I'm thinking I should have flown the drone more over the area.  Oh well, I think it is still a nice shot.

The Cherry Maple Blossoms at Work

We have some cherry maples at work and they look nice when the blossom.  They started to have some buds around Monday or Tuesday last week.  I decided to take my camera in on Friday because I figured they would be getting pretty close to blossoming.

 they were blossomed but not quite the way I wanted to get pictures.  I was hoping to get a picture of the whole tree but they were blossomed on the whole tree.

 The blossoms I did see looked pretty nice though.  I didn't see any of the slightly pink ones, I think those would have come later.

 The light was just about right for me though.

 A nice triangle pattern.

 Some of the flowers in the tree.

 Another set of blossoms.

I was hoping that I would be able to get more pictures on Monday but sadly they were gone.  So this is the only set of pictures of these I will have for the year.

Hidden Lake Gardens Holiday Lights

When I was at Hidden Lake Gardens a few weeks ago, I saw that they had a Holiday Light thing going for a couple of weeks.  I couldn't go last week but I decided to go tonight.  Basically they had a bunch of luminaries set up on the main hill in front of the vistors' center.  It was cool watching them get the luminaries ready, it was even cooler after they were all lit up.

 I had a little time before it got dark, so I wandered around the area in front of the conservatory.

 I got some pictures of the bulbs before it got too dark.

 These snowmen were pretty cool.

 Then I went inside the conservatory.  They had parts of it lit up.  I really liked this set up.

 One of the bonsai trees.  I'm not sure if they had all of them inside though.

 I'm not about to name the flowers.

 I really liked the candles around this little koi pond.

 I liked the way the had some of the trees decorated.

 I liked the little winding path through this.

 I'm not sure what the Christmas tree was.  It kind of like lichen on coral but I'm not sure.  The cart has poinsettias though.

 some lights wrapped around a birch tree.

 Kind of the view in front of the visitors' center.

 A little snowman shack.

 But the luminaries were the main attraction.  Someone put a great deal of work in these to make sure the angles were right.

 An angle.

 A candy cane.

 Depending on your angle, you got a different effect.  This was supposed to be a wreath.

 A gingerbread man.

 And now it looks more like a wreath.

Some more trees.

Return of the Cherry Maple Blossoms

I think one of the surer signs of spring for me is when I start to see the cherry maple blossoms at work.  They were starting to peek earlier in the week and so I was keeping an eye on them.  This morning I noticed that they were almost fully blossomed but I was in a little rush and couldn't take pictures at that time.

 As I was leaving work, I was in less of a rush, so I decided to grab some pictures of them.

 It seemed like there were more pinks last year but maybe that's because I was catching them a little later.

 A group of them.

 Photography is fun in threes.

 I'm not sure what kind of tree this is but I do like the little flowers.  It makes spring much nicer.

 A single one.

 A little more pink in these.

I will probably catch them again on Monday.  Maybe some of these buds will be more bloomed and maybe there will be more pink.

Winter Comes Back...With A Vengeance

So winter returned today and it was not very fun.

 Since I was at work, I decided to use some of the trees around the building.  We've got pretty nice surroundings there.

 One of the cherry maples.

 My favorite trees are the birch trees out front.

 As you can, there is quite a layer of snow around them.

 I definitely like the peeling look.

And one more.

Heading Up North

I decided to head up to the Soo over the weekend.  I was thinking that I would go there, catch a few boats and possibly make it over to Tahquamenon Falls.  I was also hoping that I would see some color but it seems like it pretty much skipped from green to barren.  We had a pretty odd fall and that contributed to it, I think.

It's funny, I think "Up North" is a Michigan phenomenon.  Many times when people go on vacation here, they state that they are heading "Up North" because that's where all the fun stuff is.  There's hiking, biking, fishing, etc.  In the winter, there's skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing and possibly hunting.  There may be other states, but it seems like many of their vacation areas are other directions from their main population centers. 

 I wasn't driving this time, so I had an opportunity to take pictures from the car.  I'm not sure what part of I-75 we were on, but there was a bit of color here.  As you can see from the sky, there was a bit of weather.

 We stopped at a rest area with a scenic overlook.  It's actually quite nice.

 And the view is pretty amazing too.  As you can see, there was a fair amount of color but there were many places where it was just bare branches.

 I kind of liked the spiral pattern here.

 The contrast of the colored leaves to the green.

 Looking down I-75 to the south.

 For some reason, this is a good interpretation of fall in Michigan.  Rain with some color.

 The sun was trying to make an appearance.  Sadly, no rainbows.

 We finally got within view of the Bridge.  I kind of wish I would have gotten other pictures from the freeway.

 A hot dog restaurant in Mackinaw City.  I liked the flag with the hot dog.  One of these days, I'll have to try this place.

This was on the way over to Wilderness State Park.  I'm not sure what it's here for, but it was kind of picturesque.