Let us begin with a visual goodbye. Goodbye to the cold and pain of winter and early spring.

Ice, snow, and a hole. Every season has a photographic side to it, and a story to tell. If memory serves, and sometimes it does but other times it does not, this was near the shore of a small lake.

While the sunrise colors in the image below denote warmth, the thin ice and the silhouetted iceberg on Lake Michigan say winter. Yes Lake Michigan is big enough and wild enough to have icebergs.

With spring comes birds that we only see for a few months a year. That is the case with the Indigo Bunting. Below we have the male of the species rummaging through the branches of a coniferous tree. I imagine he is hoping for an insect, but he settled for seeds at a nearby bird feeder.

Migration also includes swallows such as the Barn Swallows you see below. These guys are in their late spring and then summer plumages respectfully. 

Local birds such as the gull you see below and the non-migratory Canada Geese after that, keep bird photographers in business so to speak, all year. Note the fish that this young gull is proudly carrying.

Just look at the tightness of the formation with these Canada’s. It seems impossible. I am all the richer for the fact that these “common” geese are around 365 days per year where I live.

Of course, flowers begin in spring, but for some, they prefer summer. Flowers need not always be front lit.

Bleeding Heart

Coming soon to a location near you.
Flower and caterpillar.

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I tried something different this past weekend, which I thought you all may (or probably not)  find interesting. I decided to fast for an admittedly short period of time. No solid food of any sort. I do not know for sure what caused this epiphany against ingesting (and digesting) food for slightly less than two days. I was feeling just fine.

I put a high priority on eating but I am somewhat average I would think in how much, and how often I eat.  I am sure you will find my diet interesting (that’s a joke) so therefore I will give a brief review of such. I eat three times a day. For most of my life I ate twice a day. I eat a bowl of cereal with some juice for breakfast, a banana, occasionally with a small peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and fairly hefty supper with all the major food groups, There is always some form of meat or poultry, grains, veggies and fruit. Of course, I finish with the most important part of any meal, desert. With an ample supply of sugar I am sure, but I never check to see how much. I drink only water with my main meals and only fruit juice otherwise.

Eating at pretty much identical times each day, means I do not snack at all. In other words, I am regimented in my eating habits.

This past weekend, from 3pm Friday afternoon, until 8 am Sunday morning, I took no food. I did drink some water and some apple juice. I know that’s not exactly a serious fast, but I wanted to do it so I did.

Like probably all of you, I have been sick with the flu in my life and due to that I have gone up to three days without eating, but normally I consume food on a schedule, and with no exceptions. Once several years ago, I went five days without eating because I ran out of something they call money, and it was horrible, but I recovered nicely from that with some food.

There are many reasons people fast. Often much, much longer than the 40 hours or so that I did. Some health nuts (I am not one) and some religions, including Christianity, preach the value of the food fast. While I am not very knowledgeable  about the Christian fast, it was most definitely one part of why I did it. The other was, I wanted to see if I could. I put a major priority on eating, so that means it would take some gumption to stop eating even for the amount of time that I chose.

From early Friday afternoon, until 8 am Sunday, I never once truly yearned for food.  Juice and water helped I am sure, but for some unknown  reason, the fast seemed important so I did it, and it was actually easy. Even when I ate my cereal Sunday morning it seemed like any other Sunday to me.

I would never suggest anyone do this, and if one did it for a longer period of time than me, a doctor’s opinion should be sought. 

I use basic (not  down to the minute by any means) time schedules to keep me on track in life. I tossed it aside for only a day or so to see if I could indeed function without it (but with prayer). I once again found out that most of the little things in life that we use in order to carry on, while valuable, are nothing when we compare them to God.

As someone who has led a life with a fair amount of action, but leads one with very little now, I guess a deviation from my diet, has become exciting enough to me, as to write about in a public forum.  Since I began the up and down journey of this blog, my intent was to write about photography, but also about whatever creeps into my fertile mind. Today it was about my brief but sincere food fast (not fast food).

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Below you will find a few blasts from the past on the Earth Images blog.

The Edge of The Canyon
https://nelsonearthimages.com/2015/03/28/the-edge-of-the-canyon/

Themes
https://nelsonearthimages.com/2015/04/28/themes/

God Bless,
Wayne