October turned out to be a month filled with photography, music, and family. Previously, I presented you with some of my first attempts at taking a star trail photo at Kinstone. Since then I went out a second time to try again, and I have to say I was very pleased with the outcome.

Musically, it was a wonderfully diverse month. Early in October, my musical buddy Fred Keller stopped through Rochester and performed a house concert. If you’ve never attended or hosted a house concert, look into it. It’s a much different experience than a typical live performance at a concert hall, auditorium, or even a club. Fred was even nice enough to let me knock out a song or two with him.

Later, Janet and I heard an old college mate of mine, Dan Chouinard, performed Gershwin, Ellington, and Bernstein with the Rochester Symphony. We’ll be sure to attend more Rochester Symphony concerts this season. And at the end of the month, we saw my bluegrass hero and fiddler extraordinaire, Laurie Lewis. I’ve enjoyed Laurie’s music since the early 1980s, and had the chance to spend a few days on the Tuolomne River on a rafting trip in 2004. She and her band, the Right Hands, played a gig in Minneapolis. It was great to see her again. Listening, I was struck by a flood of memories of all the times I’ve heard Laurie perform, and by the awareness of how much her music means to me.

Finally, we had some nice family time in October. We spent part of a weekend in Brainerd visiting Janet’s family, and I managed to get some nice fall color shots along the Mississippi River. On another weekend, my parents came down to Rochester, and we took a trip to La Crosse to visit my son. On the way, we made another stop to Kinstone, my parents’ first visit there.

On the same day we saw Laurie Lewis, Janet and I visited my sister to present her with a quilt block Janet sewed, and to help make my nephew’s Halloween costume. Janet wins the sewing prize for October! :0)

We’ve been blessed with a mild October. We’ll see what November has in store!