Friday, July 17, 2009

Evening and Morning

Lake Manitou, 10:00 PM in the evening

God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Genesis 1:5


The Jewish day begins at sunset, or somewhere between sunset and the appearance of the first three stars. Depending on your proximity to the earth's poles, this would create quite a variance in the beginning of each new day throughout the year. Manitoulin Island is about a five or six hour drive north of our home as the crow flies and the days were notably longer with twilight lasting to just past 10:00 PM.

Evening Moon Rise

We experienced a lot of rain, but the evenings were often calm and beautiful with lovely sunsets and great light for taking pictures. Early morning tended to be calm and sunny too before the rain clouds moved in. The birds would start singing a little past 4:00 AM which is enjoyable or annoying, depending on your body clock. Night time was little more than 6 hours long.

Mother Common Merganser taking her young
to the shallows to feed in the early morning

Evening and morning are my favourite times of day. My family used to leave for road trips in the predawn hours and I liked the empty roads and the emerging light of the new day. I have always wanted to travel to the far north in the summer where the sun never sets. But then, I may never go to bed and sleep is a good thing. These near north days were about perfect and I will remember them during the long nights of winter.

Male Yellow Warbler greeting the day with song


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21 comments:

  1. "God saw that the light was good,..." Beautiful!

    We're on vacation at the Oregon coast, 10 hours north of home, and I also notice the later twilight hours here; love it.

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  2. I can tell that this vacation fed your soul.

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  3. Where better to recharge, eh?

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  4. That first one is a knockout, those colours just glorious.

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  5. Always great photos and notes here, but that one of the moonrise is unforgettable! What a wonderful capture!

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  6. Hi Ruth....for a brief moment I was there....so beautiful....and calming.
    Twilight is quite moving....I find it is thinking time for me

    Lovely photographs.....

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  7. These are fantastic!

    It's so hard to choose a favorite, but I would have to say the bird is spectacular.

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  8. When I lived in the Northwest I loved how it stayed light until 10p during the summer. Here, dark by 9p now. The mama merganzer is so devoted carrying her little ones. Great captures. I'm glad you're a morning person so I can see the light thru your eyes. I'm best a day person.

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  9. Such calming and beautiful photographs. Just lovely.

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  10. Beautiful caprtures each one! I can't pick a favorite..all great! The first really grabbed my attention!

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  11. Beautiful pictures, all of them.
    LOVELY! :)

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  12. Gorgeous shots,with the first one being my very favorite.Love the colors.
    Blessings,Ruth

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  13. Lovely lovely pictures...I could stare at them for hours. I think that this has been a pretty good summer. The lower temps certainly have provided beautiful landscape. It doesn't have that "burned" look.
    Looks like your vacation has done wonders for you. My vacation is over too and it's back to the daily routine of work.

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  14. Ruth,

    Absolutely gorgeous photos. I would love sitting out in the evening until 10pm. I really have to visit Manitoulin. I can imagine the solitude and peacefulness of the place.

    Enjoy your weekend, my friend.
    Blessings,
    Mary

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  15. Beautiful pics. Looks like you had a good vacation. I also like early morning, watching the sun rise on a new day.

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  16. I've often thought living in the far north in the summer, with so much daylight, would be fun - but I'm sure I'd exhaust myself trying to use the daylight.
    Winters with little or no sunlight would be no fun at all, though.

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  17. I noticed most of my sun pictures are sunrise, not sunset... guess that tells you, i'm a morning person! Lovely images, beautiful words...

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  18. Awesome shots! The merganser photo is amazing!

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  19. What a poster sky!!! Beautiful! Talk about an individual sky canvas "only for you"!

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  20. Pretty collection of photos for sky watch friday, your nature studies are beautiful.

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  21. Beautiful! Great Vacation! I am having fun catching up with your blog..

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