Today, I hung up my wonderful camping hammock for the first time and relaxed in my back yard. Never mind that there's still a big pile of snow under me... it was 75!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
90/365 - Hammock Season!
Today, I hung up my wonderful camping hammock for the first time and relaxed in my back yard. Never mind that there's still a big pile of snow under me... it was 75!
89/365 - Sarah at the Mill
Sarah, relaxing in the industrial ruins of the old Quincy stamp mill -- also a favorite site for graffiti "artists" and paintball players.
88/365 - Red Stone Leaf
A leaf, on cement made with local red Jacobsville Sandstone. There are also some red cement roads here (and oddly enough, green ones).
Yep, I'm catching up -- Sarah visited early this week, and I promise I took a photo each day. I just haven't posted them all yet!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
87/365 - Window
One thing I see often in the various abandoned / forgotten / decaying flickr groups, is a shot of a dusty, decaying room with light streaming in through a window.
How about Sarah looking in, instead? :)
(Taken, interestingly, at the Paavola Wetlands nature preserve, which ate up an old Finnish farm which is going quickly back to nature.)
86/365 - Pepsi
An old-fashioned Pepsi can, in its native habitat -- the middle of nowhere! (Technically, near the old Huron mine.)
Friday, March 26, 2010
85/365 - Spring Sunset
Your basic sunset, over Lake Superior, in the spring. Normally there would still be huge piles of lake-crunched ice on the shore, but our early spring has taken all of that away. Luckily, it's given me beautiful watery textures instead!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
84/365 - A light side, and a dark side...
The Quincy Mine's No. 4 boiler house, in the late afternoon light. I was up at Quincy looking for a 9-sided shape, and found this instead. However, as you can see (if you look at the right parts!), the number nine still worked its way in to the photo.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
83/365 - Octagons
Continuing with both shapes and signs -- the classic octagon: a stop sign. This one has a few special, uh, yooper features...
This one is on the road to the Superior mine, a site I have yet to actually visit. Some day soon, perhaps!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
82/365 - Septagons
Monday, March 22, 2010
81/365 - Hexagons
More shapes! Here's a hexagon, from Settlers of Catan -- one of my favorite boardgames.
As you may (or may not!), I'm something of a boardgame geek. Not Monopoly, Life, and things like that -- boardgames have come a long way! This game, Settlers of Catan, is often credited for helping to popularize the modern boardgame. It's an example of a "eurogame" (as in, from Europe), one which tends to be based on strategy, indirect competition (usually for limited resources), and aimed at adults as opposed to children.
Settlers is fairly simple. Each game, you place a variety of hexagons (some shown here) into a grid, and place certain numbers on them. The hexagons represent resources, which you can use to build and expand your empire. The numbers represent die rolls -- you can only earn resources when the die rolls your numbers! The other pieces are settlements and roads, which you build to gain points (and to access new resources).
If you're interested in more, check out the Settlers link above. It goes to a description of Settlers on an excellent site called BoardGameGeek, which is something of a boardgaming Mecca. Enjoy!
Sunday, March 21, 2010
80/365 - Hydrant
Back to my shapes series. Today: a pentagon, apparently the standard shape for the valve access on fire hydrants.
79/365 - Ten Foot Falls
We take a break from shapes to bring you: A rainbow over Ten Foot Falls, a lovely rapid-like waterfall along the Eagle River. It only flows this well in the spring (and sometimes, it's even bigger!) -- the rest of the year, this is a quiet little waterfall.
Friday, March 19, 2010
78/365 - Squares
Less texture -- more squares!
(Taken outside of Joey's Seafood, Houghton, Michigan. As I was taking this, an older fellow came out and asked if I was taking this photo because I was a University of Michigan fan!)
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
76/365 - Barrels
Here's three barrels full of texture for you to enjoy!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
75/365 - 18-178
Numbers, numbers, everywhere! Here's another number: this is a detail of an Ensign 100, a Jeep-like car actually designed by the Copper Range company for use underground. It was modestly successful, and was purchased by a number of other mines in the area. This particular example is rusting -- where else -- outside the Quincy Mine!
Monday, March 15, 2010
74/365 - Spring Stream
We've had a crazy winter -- I mean spring -- so far. Normally mid March is the time for a few more blizzards before the melt really begins in April. Instead, it was 60 and sunny today. The melt has truly begun! This is a seasonal stream at the nearby ski trails -- with a waterfall just down the road.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
73/365 - Blue and Yellow
Blue and yellow, hanging on a wire... what are these lovely blocks of color?
Saturday, March 13, 2010
72/365 - Snow Plow
My friend Rob, looking up at the gigantic Russel Snow Plow parked on an abandoned section of rail in Calumet. This snow plow is unpowered -- it would have been pushed by an engine down the tracks (at a very fast speed) to clear off the snow. It's really an impressive sight up close!
Friday, March 12, 2010
71/365 - Covered Road
Covered Road is a very aptly named road -- in the summer, only a tiny sliver of sky shows through. Once part of a railway leading to nearby mills, this road is now almost spooky in the spring melt, as the trees arch overhead.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
70/365 - Smelter in the Fog
The Quincy Smelter once smelted copper from the nearby Quincy Mine. Now it sits abandoned, slowly being stabilized and (possibly) being developed as an attraction and business space. Foreground: the nearly melted Portage canal. Background: Mont Ripley, a university-owned ski hill.
Starry Engine
This is one of my favorite places: the Quincy Mine. Behind the old Hoist Building (where you can tour the world's largest steam hoist), two of the old Quincy & Torch Lake railroad's steam engines still sit, well restored and tended. This is one of them, staying still while stars wheeling overhead.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
69/365 - Rainy Lines
Lines on the road, in an unseasonable rainstorm.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
68/365 - Overlook
Red Seats at McLain park, overlooking a melting Lake Superior.
Monday, March 8, 2010
67/365 - Half
The next number in my numerical series -- one half. One half of what, you ask? That's for me to know, and you to guess!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
66/365 - Z is for Zero
Z is for Zero -- the end of my alphabet series, and the start of a new number series! I'm not going to do a number every day -- just as often as I find an interesting number to photograph.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
65/365 - Y is for... something missing!
Y is for... gallery? Not exactly. Maybe it's for Galler! On Sunday morning, the lovely Sarah and I went wandering around downtown Madison. She happened to see this excellent sign for my "Y" photo.
Friday, March 5, 2010
64/365 - X is for Xing
X is for a Railroad Xing -- which I always mentally pronounce "ZING!" This one is near Mass City, Michigan -- on an apparently unused rail line, which nonetheless is still marked.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
63/365 - W is for Winter
W is for Winter -- which is wonderful, white, and blue as well.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
62/365 - V is for Vision
V is for Vision -- something I wish I had a bit more of! These are my glasses, resting on a paper which I've been reading. Yes, it was a bit tricky to take this photo -- I had to try a few times to get even the autofocus to work right!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
61/365 - U is for University
U is for Michigan Technological University, where I work and play. Click the photo to see it on flickr, where I added a number of notes to the photo -- by mousing over it, you should be able to see a number of notes about campus landmarks!
Monday, March 1, 2010
Folded Leaf
I thought that it might be time for another lonely leaf -- this one covered with a dusting of snow, and looking a bit modest.
I found this leaf hiding in the ruins of the old North American mine's boiler house -- a 150 year old mine which never ever slightly made it. I find that somewhat appropriate!
60/365 - T is for Tea
T is for Tea, which I enjoy every morning. Here's my trusty tea infuser, taking a well-deserved nap in the afternoon sun.
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