An Album of Unlikely Beauty

I was sifting through my pictures yesterday, looking for specific photos for a project (always a daunting task, since I’m terrible at making folders and keeping track of the thousands of pics I keep online), when I realized how, in many of them, I found beauty in the most unlikely places.

These, for instance, are pictures of our old dock wheel and footing, taken one miserable, icy morning.  It may have been the only bright moment that day, when I saw these from our window and bundled up, slipping and sliding to capture these icicles.

An icy chandelier 

A spider web, nearly invisible any other time, suddenly becomes lace when a soft snow falls.

Charlotte’s lacy web

All of the pictures here were taken in Michigan’s upper peninsula except this one. This is a fountain across the street from our winter digs near Myrtle Beach. It was taken last year in early January, and it duplicated again this January.  So much for Southern comfort!

Ice fountain near Myrtle Beach

 

This is the spiral staircase at Pt. Iroquois Lighthouse, west of Brimley, Michigan.  The peeling paint makes it eerie and mysterious and, I think, beautiful.  I reversed and darkened the second one, making it even more eerie.

Spiral staircase, Pt. Iroquois Lighthouse

Haunted staircase, Pt. Iroquois Lighthouse

Way up in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula the old Cliff Mine Cemetery is nearly hidden, but near enough to US 41 to hear the sounds of cars going by.  A narrow foot path leading down into the trees is the only evidence that something might be there. The path leads through a large patch of myrtle to a few remaining headstones, untouched for over a century.

Path through Myrtle at Cliff Cemetery

Iron grave marker at Cliff Cemetery

Celtic grave marker at Cliff Cemetery

There are only a few sandy places along our stony shore. Most of it looks like this. But I love to see how readily nature adapts to its surroundings. Nothing stops those little seeds from popping up, even among the rocks.

Where there’s a will there’s a way

I found this beautiful fungus bouquet along one of the island’s hiking trails. I was using my kindergarten Android phone camera at the time so the quality isn’t  good, but I  still  love that I found it.

There’s a fungus among us and it’s lovely!

 

There were a pair of these moths on the mossy boulder behind our house several years ago, and I’ve never seen anything  like them again.  They’re a kind of sphinx moth, I think, with ludicrously fat bodies, but this one posed beautifully.

Sphinx Moth

One Fall day a few years ago Ed and I took a photo op trip around Chippewa County looking for old barns and remnants of old homesteads.  This one has since fallen down, sadly.

Seen better days in Chippewa County

But this old homestead is still standing. For well over a century it’s endured Northern Michigan winters. It’s far tougher than I am.

Old farm house, Chippewa County

The old farmhouse pump. A remnant, like a sculpture, of times past.

Look around,  look around and see what you can see. Sometimes it’s right under our noses! Enjoy.  I’ll do this again some time.