It's been a busy week since I've been home, with doc appointments almost every day. And the rest of the time? Bringing my house up to "code" -- it's amazing how many spiders start webbing when you aren't there for a huge chunk of time! And, a groundhog has dug two holes under the house. Now looking for a compassionate way to get him to leave!
Sigh. We wrapped up art camp last weekend, after 18 days of friendship and creativity. And a good 18 days it was, filled with lots of painting, walks, good summer food and some good nature sightings. And, I might add, some pretty nippy weather. Even Lizzie hunkered down by the heater!
Our weather turned cool (no, cold!) and we found painting on the porch was no longer a possibility -- well, at least till the last day or two. It didn't stop us but it's not nearly so much fun! Here's some of the stuff I did. These are some cards.
Given that it's summer, I probably should have gone through more than six books -- but I was doing a lot of painting! Still, the ones I read were very enjoyable. Again, mostly mysteries, but two good novels were part of the mix, too.
Art camp usually brings warm sunny days and it certainly started out that way. Painting on the porch was a joy -- the sounds of the lake punctuating our foray into color, pattern and image.
More than once we've seen Harry North, our resident heron, stalk the beach for his early morning or twilight meals. And, we had another sighting of Eddie the Eagle, perched high in one of our pines.
I'm enjoying my blog break at art camp and am popping in with a bit of a post to update you on things, before I disappear again. And I also have an update on Rick's bike ride. Being north, with very little media/computer involvement has been a very good thing for me. I've missed visiting (though on occasion I've lurked a bit in the morning before we get going!)
The morning after my ear procedure (thanks for the good wishes, too!), Rick and I headed to the lake to await the arrival of our guests later in the day. And arrive they did, with ten times the energy I had! One seven year old, one eight year old, and their lovely mom!
It was a steamy hot weekend and that meant plenty of time for beach play! The lake water was warm and I enjoyed swimming with the boys (though, keeping my head out of the water, I was actually on my floatie!) Then there was a lot of construction going on!
It has been quite a week! The day after Rick's baseball birthday gig, I took off for the lake solo, to spend a few days in the north before my ear procedure. It is, as always, lovely -- but also very smoky and hazy from the Canadian wildfires. It was a little hard on the eyes, the sinuses and the lungs with air quality falling well into the high yellow and sometimes red zone. We had our share of foggy mornings, too.
So, there were times I was inside when I would have preferred to be out! I suspect many are feeling this here in the US. But certainly our Canadian friends and neighbors are having it much worse -- the smoke, the haze and the damage.
Gee, I love a good summer for catching up on reading! At the lake there are fewer distractions and for whatever reason, I don't feel overly guilty if I read during the day! Not surprisingly, mysteries make for good lake-reading fare but I also enjoyed a couple of memoirs and revisited a childhood favorite.
This is a long one (ten books), but if you enjoy reading, onward!
I can't say coming home for a few days was great -- it was beastly hot for much of the time (like so many other spots here in the US) and without air, I relied on fans in the evening, the car for quick air-con cool downs and ice beanbags to take to bed. Fortunately, a rain came through with a bit of a cool down -- relief at last! Rick stayed at the lake, cycling home just in time for some fun. But a broken bike had me on stand-by for a pick-up, just in case the repair made didn't hold.
Our days have been relatively temperate this summer. Sunny, warm (on occasion stifling hot after a few dances with the heat dome sweeping the country) and for the most part, lovely. We've seen a lot of haze from the Canadian wildfires so the sky hasn't been terribly blue and we've had a couple of rain storms but overall, a good time to be north.
I have two or three walking loops, basically around the same area. There is a basic one-mile circle, another that is 1.8 miles (round trip), and another that is 2 miles even. (Back and forth to the cousin cottage is about a half mile each direction.) Every year I pay attention to the roadside blooms.
Rick has not been looking forward to turning 70. I can relate -- I remember feeling somewhat the same. What is it about those zero (and to a lesser degree, the "five") year birthdays that can get us in a funk? At any rate, I was determined it would be a good time.
That said, how do you have a good time at the lake when all your friends and most of your family is elsewhere at the moment? Well, you extend the merriment!
Every day in summer is a gift -- at least, it is for me. It's my favorite season -- or rather, it is when I'm at the lake. Apart from a couple of rainy days, the weather has been lovely. Warm, but for the most part, not too hot. Sunny, but even the cloudy days are comfortable.
We've had a couple of major temperature drops, which was actually refreshing. And it gave us the opportunity to have a fire in the fireplace. First of the season.
Our road trip continued as we left Strings by Mail and headed to the Leelanau peninsula, which juts out from Traverse City and is bordered on the west by Lake Michigan. We were off to have an afternoon with our friends Mark and Jan, who have returned for several years to a resort called Jolli Lodge. It was a beautiful spot and I could instantly see why they returned.
What looked to be a rainy day at the lake turned out to be a beautiful one when we did a road trip to Traverse City and later to the Leelanau peninsula. This post is about our first stop to Strings by Mail, an international mail order business in Traverse City for what has to be the largest collection of strings for all kinds of instruments including (not surprisingly) the classical guitar! Naturally, Rick had to stop!
If all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, does mostly play and not much work make Jack (or Jeanie) more interesting? Or just mellow? Or just plain happy?
Yes, there has been some work -- the earlier mentioned beach is a project! But here's how it's looking so far.
Truth of the matter is, life at the lake isn't particularly exciting. There are rarely dramatic moments, major crises. It's just good. And very much the same as it has been in years past. Quiet. Unscheduled. Productive. Lazy. Relaxing. Fun. And sorely needed.
When we were kids spending our summers at the lake, every day was full of fun and full of play. We'd be up and out of the house -- maybe enjoying the beach and most likely enjoying the water. We were back and forth between my house and my cousins, a half mile away, singing show tunes at the top of our lungs as we walked the same stretch of roads I walk now. Whenever the sun was out and the water reasonably calm, we were in the boat and on water skis.
We have settled into the lake and kicked off the summer with house guests and a "grand" birthday celebration -- not to mention the July 4 holiday.
We've finally arrived at the lake to stay for a bit (end of July; then I'll be back while Rick does a bike hike to Canada, down to New England).
We took off on the same day -- I was about 20 minutes behind Rick and it was a good thing I was! He called me from a road on my route and said he'd had a flat. He does carry a small pump but I had the big one and using that would be faster. So, I stopped for a quick rescue! All was well.
Those last days before heading north for the summer are always busy ones. This year, they were also the hottest days of the year and it sure wasn't fun doing much but reading and essentials! My life included doc appointments, lots of reading, catching up on blogs, seeing a friend's play, popping corks with Cork Poppers and time with other friends, too. In the morning I would water plants and pull some weeds, bemoaning my strawberry crop.
That was it. (Well, there were about four more that birds and a squirrel got to -- I saw him, sitting out there, a little red berry in his paws and munching away as happily as could be!
It was the hottest day of the year (to date!) -- and a perfect time for Cork Poppers to check out some wines to enjoy in the summer!
We gathered at Barb and Mike's house to celebrate the Summer Solstice and sample a variety of mostly whites.
Well, I finally made it to the cottage. As you may remember, Rick came up in May and oversaw work on the ice storm damage and installation of a more reliable electrical system. He was without power and water for about six days! But now we have it and I am back.
That first visit always comes with ups and downs. Rick did a lot of the heavy lifting on the house but I needed to do a lot of the heavy lifting IN the house. That includes setting up the porch (which sounds like no big deal) but it takes a surprisingly long time to clean it up, work around the furniture, replace the heavy rug solo and get all the furniture back into place.
For the past few years, I've taken part in an online series of art workshops called Sketchbook Revival. A variety of artists covering watercolor, mixed media, drawing, journaling and more do free online workshops. The event ran over two weeks in June. (This post is heavy on the art, so be prepared!)
This year instead of having all new workshops, coordinator Karen Abend pulled together the vault of five different years and participants could do any of those sessions. Some I'd never seen, some I'd never done before and some I wanted to do again!
There were always five or six of us in the car as we drove through Michigan's frigid upper peninsula in the depths of winter, astounded by the banks of snow piled high on the side of the road, far taller than our car. We were crammed onto the bench seats of the vehicle, often singing, always laughing, as we passed through tiny villages en route to public schools in towns only slightly larger than the ones we had passed through. (For the younger readers of this blog, there was a time not all that long ago when three adults fit comfortably in the front seat!)
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| Patty, Andy and Jerry loading the cars on our theatre tour. |
We were one car in a group of several, a band of happy actors studying theatre at Michigan State, and on the road, taking two shows to towns in the north starved for live theatre. One was a musical, "Carnival," the other, "The Pied Piper," a delightful musical for children.
On June 14, between millions of people across the United States participated in what was called the "No Kings" rallies, expressing their displeasure in how the government, specifically by President Trump and his cronies in the cabinet and Congress, was being run. Sources vary between five and twelve million with "over five million US" being the most reported, but there were international demonstrations in 20 countries as well. (Personally, I think the event was badly named. Kings aren't necessarily bad but dictators are.) You can pretty much get the idea of what was happening here by the creative signs many displayed! Most rallies were peaceful, but some in larger cities had some elements of violence.
With trees that had fallen during the tornado finally removed, I was able to walk around the ditch, eager to check out the storm damage. It really took quite a hit, being the most westerly part of our neighborhood and the first to bear the brunt of the winds. I was pleased to see a good deal of progress had been made. Many of the fence slats (some already weather-worn) had fallen apart. They've repaired most of them. It will take some time for them to achieve the weathered patina of their still-standing mates, but they are strong.
There were many trees down and their removal, along with much of the other debris that went with them, has changed the landscape. This area once was thick with trees and small-branch foliage. You could never see through the the park bench. Now you can.
Many of you know that it is no secret that irises are one of my favorite spring flowers (and I have many favorites!). They are showy, lovely, colorful.
And most of all, as some of you also know, they remind me of my Aunt Iris.
Our spring has been so erratic -- sometimes very cold, occasionally warm. And now things are blooming big-time and it's looking lovely!
It wasn't so lovely at the cemetery when we went to plant geraniums for Memorial Day at my family's gravesite. As we rounded the corner to park in front of the site, we were confronted by a tree blocking the road and yellow tape. We parked nearby and walked over to the site -- or what you could see of it.
After a wimpy April for reading, May proved more productive and more diverse. This month we have a two memoirs, a fantasy, a novel set in the late 1800s, two British mysteries and a collection of essays.
A couple of years ago, Rick decided he would like to host a house concert, featuring a classical guitarist friend. He put out an alert on Facebook and emailed some others. About 30 people came and a tradition was born! Last month he hosted his fourth house concert and again, it was great success.
This time, the "act" was the Grand Rapids Guitar Duo, who performed mostly classical guitar selections along with a jazz arrangement and some original pieces. The members were Brian Morris and Jonathan Marshall.
After a bit of catch-up of at home activities, I thought it was FINALLY time to share the April book list. April was a tough month for me and when it's tough I go for comfort food. In this case, as you might expect, my reading was heavy (again) on the mysteries! I surrounded myself with some of my favorite characters by some of my favorite authors -- along with introduction to a new one.
I confess, I was about four pages out of a fourth book -- one of what I call my "Bathroom and Waiting Room" books. (These are books with short bits that you can read, put down, and return to whenever you choose!) I guess it's only fair to put that on in the May books! Onward!
I'm having a hard time getting my brain around the season. It's almost June and summer will be here before we know it and yet spring seems oddly erratic -- cold or rainy one day (or two or three), then a short burst of warm, and back to cold. Stormier than usual. The sun was out today and we tried to plant flowers at the cemetery but so many trees were down, we couldn't get to the grave. That's a story for another day. On a cheerier note, things have greened-up a lot! I'm sure you all delight when you have the chance after winter to see what is my favorite color combo come to life -- chartreuse against a blue sky! And now, there is more green!
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Still catching up on pre-storm activities and there were some good times. One such day was celebrating friend Kate's birthday with a road trip to IKEA and a stop at my favorite Italian grocery in Livonia/Northville for lunch.
The trees are past their peak, and by the as I post this, storm damage is being cleaned up and our world is covered in beautiful, deep green foliage. I've already seen new goose families. But I'm taking a look back as I catch up on "real life."
A couple weeks before the storm, Rick and his buddy Nino took off for a tandem bike hike into Ohio -- about 350 miles of riding on (mostly) lovely (albeit windy) spring days.
It has been quite a ride these past couple of months. The classic song "Stormy Weather" could be our theme song for spring in Michigan. Sunny days are the exception, rather than the rule and while it's not raining daily, the sky hasn't been all that blue. With storms comes clean-up. And that is never fun.
I mentioned the first storm back about a month ago. It was at the lake in early April. Our ice storm made national headlines. The cottage got hit pretty hard (though it could have been harder -- no structural damage, apart from a couple of broken windows in the garage; some neighbors had it worse). Rick finally got up to see what it looked like.
First, I want to thank everyone who has hung in here with my many posts on our England trip. I've loved your comments and hope I have answered some of your questions. This post might answer a few more. I wanted to wrap up with a few thoughts about travel in general (and maybe England in particular.)
All good things come to an end. We boarded our plane home from England, tired and happy -- ready to get back to Lizzie and not ready to leave!
Our last day in London! And there were places to go, people to see, things to do! On the "things to do" list was one last concert, this at the historic St. Olave's Church. It was one of the few medieval City churches that survived the Great Fire of London, thanks in large part to Sir William Penn who ordered his men from the naval yards to blow up the houses surrounding the church. This created a fire break. That, and a shift of wind, kept the church intact.
Rick, Jenny, T and I took off on the tube and took a short walk to Hart street. We had plenty of time before the concert to explore this small church with its lovely churchyard. Diarist Samuel Pepys called it "Our Own Church," and supported it both financially and artistically, creating a memorial bust of his wife in the church after her death so he could "see" her on Sundays. In "The Uncommercial Traveler," Charles Dickens described it as "one of my best beloved churchyards."
It's lovely to start out the morning with good friends and that's exactly what Rick and I did after moving over to spend the last few days of our London visit with blogger Jenny and her her husband T. After kicking off the morning, we decided to split ways again. Rick and T would go for a bike ride. Jenny and I would take a long walk through Hampstead.
Hampstead is a beautiful area/neighborhood about fifteen minutes north of the center of London on the tube. We took off to see old houses and landmarks, passing by, among others, that of Sigmund Freud, continuing through narrow streets.
After our visit to the College of Arms and Gordon's wine bar, we had a bit of time before checking out of our hotel and moving over to Jenny and T's for a couple of days. Rick wanted to return to the guitar store so we split up. As I was walking down Charing Cross I noticed the National Portrait Gallery, which I had been interested in visiting. It seemed like a good time to do it, or at least do what I could.
The National Portrait Gallery is just one of many fine art museums in London. This one has the specific focus of portraiture in a variety of media, though most is photography or painting/visual art.
In an earlier post I mentioned that one thing Rick really wanted to do while in England was explore a bit more of his family history. That included investigating a family tree pedigree dating his ancestry back to King Edward I of England.
About five or six generations back, a man named Melville M. Bigelow, who is related to Rick on his dad's side, had his pedigree officially validated by the College of Arms in London. The info Rick had also included written-in lists by someone in Rick's family, continuing the line through his grandparents' generation. We had an appointment at the College of Arms to meet with one of their heralds to see what was involved in getting the pedigree updated to include those "written in" generations and those that followed, including Rick's dad, brothers, and their offspring.
We are back to the last bunch of posts from England! If you were to ask me "what is the one museum I should visit during my very short time in London," I would probably say (unless you were into a specific topic, like "I only want to see art"), don't miss "The Victoria and Albert" (aka the V&A).
Why? Because it has it all. Decorative Arts. Painting. Photography. Sculpture. History. Jewelry. Glass. Architecture. Media and Performing Arts. And probably more than a few things I've forgotten.
Just a few good things before I return to the last of England posts.
Blogger Lisa was coming to Detroit for a business trip and she took the afternoon to drive up to East Lansing where I was lucky to meet TWO bloggers for the first time -- Lisa and blogger Maya (who lives here!)
It finally feels as though spring has arrived here in Michigan. That doesn't mean it won't be cold, but not as cold or gloomy as it has been. Always a plus! I think celebrating a late Easter adds to the spring feeling. More sunshine. More flowers. More merriment.
Definitely more merriment.
It's been a bit since I've taken you to the Ditch. For that matter, it's been a bit since I've taken myself there. Cold, gray, gloomy weather doesn't make for a fun walk. But when the sun comes out, even if it's cold, it's time to venture forth!
Alas, I've not seen Harry the Heron yet, though I've heard he is back. But there are plenty of Canada geese!
I always love it when I'm reading blogs and someone says they have been watching a show on PBS that I have been enjoying too. I even get a kick out of it when someone speaks of something on the network that might not be my favorite but that matters to them. Now is the time you might want to share that same thought with your US Representatives and Senators.
You may have seen the article in the April 14 New York Times headed "White House Asks Congress to Claw Back Funding from NPR and PBS." Longtime Gypsy readers know that for 32 years I worked for our local public broadcasting stations, first for television only, then also TV and radio. It was truly a privilege to go to work each day for an organization that I was happy to support, whose services I personally used and valued. I am still a PBS/NPR supporter, viewer and listener.
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| The early days of my public broadcasting life! Pledge breaks. |
It's hard to believe that Easter is about a week away -- and it's as late as it can be this year, so we are well into official spring. Not that you would know it by the weather! But the mini-daffs, the first to pop each year, are looking perky outside and buds on the later spring bulbs. For the bigger ones? It's Trader Joe's! You go with what you can, right?
The house is looking a bit more springy. The spring/Easter decorations have been up for a bit, but I keep adding to them, moving them around!
Though the numbers vary in different reports from 7,000 to 10,000, the headline about the "Hands Off!" rally this past week was spot on: "Thousands protest Trump's policies at Michigan State Capitol on Saturday" is an accurate one.
Rick and I were among the crowd and it was an energizing, motivating, peaceful event.
