This week is my writing retreat at Minnedosa. I’ve set myself a goal of 2,500 words a day, split between a morning and an evening writing sprint. I’m also taking advantage of the clear(ish) skies to do some astrophotography.
On Sunday, I arrived in the early afternoon. I went for a visit with my landlords (whose cabin I’m borrowing for the week), then settled in at the cabin. In the evening I did my 1,250 words, then hit the road. There’s an old, abandoned house that I got a geotagged photo of last year, and I wanted to see if I could find it. I thought it’d be a great location for some night photos: the Milky Way, perhaps, or some star trails.
(The moon is closing in on full right now, and it tends to wash out the fainter stars, so if I want Milky Way, I have to wait till after moonset. That’s… difficult, since it sets somewhere around 3 or 4 AM these days. (More on that in Monday’s post.))
I wanted to find the old house while it was still light, so I left the cabin around 9 PM and drove the half-hour north, up a highway that went from pavement to gravel about ⅓ of my way to my destination. (There was another route, possibly a little longer, but I knew it’d be paved the whole way. I decided I’d take it when I returned, after dark.)
I found the house, and then, since the sun was just barely setting, went for a tour. I drove down to Neepawa, stopping at the side of the road when I saw a particularly spectacular cloud lit by the sunset (above). From there I drove back to the cabin, where I watched a couple episodes of Carnivàle, waiting for full dark.
Just around midnight I set out again. I found the house in the dark, and snapped a few photos. I’m planning to head back for more another night.
And then I went back to my home for the week, and crawled into bed around 2 AM.
