I look at this photograph and it reminds me of my sister and I when we were this age. The girls found a spider and were getting a close up look at it.

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My photograph of the geese and the swan in flight (Synchronized Flight) won first place! This is what you dream about when you are 12 years old carrying around your brand new Kodak Instamatic 100 camera. I am overwhelmed.

Thank you Mother Nature!

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I have just entered my first art show and sale. I am very exited to see a couple of my photographs displayed alongside some very talented local artists. 

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It rained off and on last night and all of this morning ahead of an approaching cold front. This is what the trailing edge of the cold front looked like around noon. The picture was taken on the south campus of MSU just south of Mt. Hope Rd.

Two months ago I started thinking about running my first half marathon. Well today was the day! Got up at 5:30 and it was raining buckets but I decided to drive the 40 minutes to Portland and take a chance that the rain would slow down. It was a good decision. I had a soggy but beautiful run on a network of bicycle / walking paths along the Grand and Looking Glass Rivers. The race started promptly at 8 AM and I was done by 10:15. I am very satisfied!

My daughter had to go into work today, her puppy is by her shoes waiting ...

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I got up early this morning so I could get in a run before the rain started. I had gone about half a mile when the eastern sky began to look as if it were on fire. So I turned around and headed home to grab the camera. This is when I noticed that there was a rainbow trying to fire up in the west and the clouds around it began to glow from the rising sun. I got home, grabbed the camera and tripod and this was my reward. Thank you mother nature!

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On the banks of the Red Cedar
There's a school that's known to all;
Its specialty is winning,
And those Spartans play good ball:
Spartan teams are never beaten'
All through the game they fight;
Fight for the only colors:
Green and White!

Go right through for MSU,
Watch the points keep growing,
Spartan teams are bound to win,
They're fighting with a vim!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
See their team is weakening,
We're going to win this game,
Fight! FIght! Rah! Team, Fight!
VIctory for MSU!
 

Year after year this Sugar Maple helps to set the MSU campus on fire. 

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I found this "painting" on a barn just north of Mason. I couldn't resist taking a photo.

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I went for a short drive to see if I could capture some fall color. Mother Nature had other plans.

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Every once in a while, early in the morning or late in the afternoon, you can see the shadow cast by contrails. I thought this one was interesting.

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It went many years, But at last came a knock
And I thought of the door With no lock to lock.

I blew out the light, I tip-toed the floor
And raised both hands In prayer to the door.

But the knock came again, My window was wide;
I climbed on the sill and descended outside.

Back over the sill I bade a 'Come in'
To whatever the knock at the door may have been.

So at a knock I emptied my cage
To hide in the world and alter with age.

Robert Frost