Yesterday I published (various places) a collage of similar photos…but they were taken just before the sun broke through and really lit the leaves. I did some color balance adjustment to warm the individual segments of the collage and the collage as a whole, but there is no substitute for direct sun when you are after color.

The image was taken from the 7th floor of the Marriott Long Island Convention Center, where they put me while I worked the New York State Ornithological Society Annual Meeting (for ZEISS). Right across the road from the Marriott is a Nassau County Nature Preserve, the last remnants of Hampstead Heath, and my window looked right down on it. It provided a uniquely colorful view in October, and a unexpected bonus for the trip. And, to frost the cake, the Marriott is one of the few hotels I have ever stayed in where you can actually open the thermopane windows, if only a crack. It was enough to get just the lens of the camera out far enough so I did not have dirty hotel glass between me and the scene. Bonus x2.

Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in Rich Tone mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

And for the Sunday thought. I never cease to be amazed at the subtle ways God has of blessing me…reminding me of the Creator’s essential good will for me, for all of us, and, I have to think, exercising some humor. I did not have high hopes for this trip. Ornithological meetings, in my experience, are not fertile ground for ZEISS, and who in their right mind would choose to spend an Autumn weekend on Long Island, 40 minutes out of the City? A much busier day than expected at the ZEISS booth on Friday, and then the sunset view out my hotel window, as enough to remind me that God is God, and God is good. Always. And then to look out before breakfast to the Tapestry across the street…to come back from breakfast and find the Tapestry sunlit…well, like I say, frosting on the cake. And me, being me, thinks “yeah, okay God, you got my back…even here on Long Island you put me good places.” I even grudge a thanks.

Well this is me, this Sunday morning, more than grudging! Thank you God.

Now you might be wondering, as I sometimes do, if is really that God puts me in good places, or if I have just developed the ability to see what I identify as  God’s good in the the places I am? And to that I say “what does it matter?” I am convinced it does not at all. Either way, I see God’s action on my behalf at work…demonstrating undeserved love. And either way the evidence of God’s blessing continues to build in my life.

And while I am at it, here’s a thanks for what I take to be God’s will at work in those who preserved the little patch of Hampstead Heath across from the Marriott on Long Island. I certainly enjoy and appreciate it. God is God. God is good.

Even, apparently, on Long Island. 🙂