Skies and Views

I love retirement. I love not having to get up early, drinking my morning mocha, and having time to work on my fiber projects. I also like spending time with family. Summer is busy with a bit of travel, houseguests, and groups of people using our extended family cabin near our home.

I currently have about four different fiber projects going on simultaneously. They are all taking longer than expected due to user error, equipment problems, trying to do too many things, and most importantly, not having time due to my routine being disrupted by family reunions, being away from home, and houseguests. When our son visited with his wife, two year old, and 3 month old, there was no possibility of working on projects or blog posts. It was all hands on deck. I am not complaining, but rather explaining why I am way behind on blogging.

The blog posts about my current projects that I thought would have been published by now are not even close to being ready. I have to remind myself it is OK, there is no schedule or deadline. In the meantime I have a post that I put together years ago that I had saved for this purpose.

Someone asked me if I take for granted the beautiful views from our house. No, I do not. My mom designed this house and had it placed at an angle relative to the lot lines so it would face due west. It is up high and back from the lake, and also has views of farm fields and woods to the east. The are many large windows. I love the spot in the kitchen where you can see outside in all four directions at once.

We regularly have amazing sunsets. The afternoon sun from the west also results in having to close the blinds in the living room to avoid fading the furniture and heating up the house in the summer. Often there are interesting cloud views during the day from every direction.

One time when we had guests visiting we were watching a sunset without any clouds. The guests all exclaimed about how pretty it was, but I was thinking it was boring compared to many sunset and sky views I have seen and photographed.

I took all the following photos with my phone over several years, except for one my husband took. They are from various locations including the front and back of the house, the cabin property nearby, the lake public access, or on a walk in the neighborhood. All seasons and times of day are represented. They are not in any particular order. Enjoy.

The following Aurora Borealis photo was taken by my husband in October 2021 from our front yard. That was the first time I have seen the Northern Lights. I took photos at the same time, but this one is better. The view was very far from a normal night sky, but the camera was doing something with the colors. The photos looked more dramatic than what I actually saw with my eyes and that bugged me. The orange at the bottom of the photo is from a light in our neighbors yard down a hill from our property.