Postcards From the Lake: So, It Got Cold. And Wet.

Given my options (and no one has) I'd rather it be rainy in the summer, when at least it is warm and not 40 degrees. Especially with day-after-day of rain and cold. The weather gods didn't ask me. They should have. It's not the greatest time to be outside, though we've tried. But it was definitely not the day for a walk like this one.

Postcards From the Lake: Elking

Every summer when I was a kid, on a lovely evening, my mom and dad, her two sisters and their husbands, and my three cousins would pile into the old station wagon and go "elking" in Michigan's north. This activity found the six adults on the bench seats in the front and back and the four of us kids in the rear end of the car. It was close.

Postcards from the Lake: Another Visitor!

It has been a month of house guests and the most recent has been Rick's mom, Kitty, who is visiting from Texas. She picked a good time to leave that hot state in the south for our much cooler Michigan summer.

Revisiting Old Photos....The Nature Collection

One of my fussy projects this winter has been to go through old albums and digitally save the photos I want and send the originals to those in them. In the course of filing the scans, I revisited my digital photo files and have been dumping a lot of those as well. I also rediscovered many from past years that, if they were ever shared here at all, were shared long ago. (Photo purging is a great thing to do on a frigid day!)

Postcards from the Lake: A Wet, Lonely Week

When watching the yahoos hired to take my neighbor's dock and boat ramp work away is the highlight of one's week, you know it has been an odd and unexpected week!

When I came north about a week ago, it was with the idea that Rick would join me as soon as he could. I was thinking within a few days and so was he. But he's been up to his eyeballs with painting the duplex, doing repairs and loads of stuff outside -- not to mention (hopefully) getting a new tenant booked and ready to move in. I realize I really miss the guy! But one does what one must, like adding a lantern to the mantel!

Postcards from the Lake -- A Little Bit of Nature

One can't argue with up-north Michigan for a look at some nature, especially when you are right on the lake. I was so delighted when a hummingbird decided my hanging petunias were it's cuppa tea!

I'm not very good getting birds in flight -- and hummingbirds are always in flight, so these pleased me. Maybe someday a camera fast enough to "freeze" the wings!

I get a big kick out of watching our ducks. There is a delightful family that comes by regularly, swimming together and then stopping on the beach to forage whatever it is they look for there!

But sometimes just the mama ducks hang out.

I love it when they do their synchronized swimming moves!

Duckrobatics! A perfect 10!

These guys count as nature and sometimes as pests! As long as they hang on the neighbor's beach or the middle of the lake, I can admire their majesty. Come too close and we have words!

Sometimes we go to the Elk Park and check out the action. There wasn't much the night we were there. These were all taken with the zoom and the elk was about two or three blocks away.

Still, he's quite remarkable, with his fuzzy antlers.

I'll have to go back when he's closer to the fence.

We also saw some of the white deer but they move pretty fast!

Nature is more than a bit domesticated here, but no one will deny that the little nipper Lizzie can't be a wild woman now and then!

I leave you with one of up north's nature spectaculars.

A perfect sunset.

Sharing today with:   Saturday's Critters     /     Pink Saturday    

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp 2015

Every summer my friend Kate and I venture north to the cottage and engage in what we call "Art Camp." This year was no exception -- and a remarkable time it was, filled with friendship, fun, good food, road trips, a power failure and yes, a little bit of art!

We were looking forward to fun in the sun. But our first day was spent in the dark -- or at the Gaylord McDonald's, which was one of the few places in town that didn't lose power during a storm that came so quickly across the lake and at such force that we were close to soaked in the 30 seconds it took us to get up from our seats and run inside!

Our screens held -- but the big tree down at Oak Grove didn't. Sad to see this 50-plus year tree on its side -- and grateful it hit none of the cars parked in its possible path!

 

Of course, the first couple of days were too cold and gloomy to work outside. But not too cold and gloomy to visit the elk farm!

 

It was quite the peaceable kingdom with everyone just laying about or hanging about being cute.

 

Yes, we hit them at feeding time and it was clear that most had far more interest in the hay mound than they did us!

 

Although, there were other dining sources. Some sweet kids offered us peanuts to feed a few who ventured close to the fence, while a sweet baby and friends found mom a handy source of nutrition!

 

We enjoyed some good dining, too -- both out (an early birthday celebration for me!) and when the sun came out, on the beach and the porch!

 

We also took a day to visit with our friend Maura who had moved north.

 

Our day involved a little bit of eating, a little shopping a little bit of play and a lot of fun! We suppose that had Kate bought this, she might be officially accepted into the order of the Gaylord Elk -- or else started a bit of a fight with one of those big fellows!

But yes, there was art accomplished. Not so much as either of us wished but enough to make the term "art camp" somewhat legitimate. Kate was working on her 2016 bird calendar...

...and on linocut printing. She taught me how to carve and we'll print my cat below sometime soon!

 
I taught her about plastering boxes, continued a few works in progress and got some tags started!

               

And I was rather happy with this very simple plastered piece. It's about 5x7 and just reminds me of the north and/or the sea.

So, it was indeed an art weekend, though possibly somewhat appropriate that -- as in many other art camp experiences -- we had so-so weather and other delightful activities slowed the artmaking. But then...

What occasion doesn't benefit from a little irony?

(For those of you following Rick, he's having a hard time posting on the bike blog and will probably catch up to that later. Check the right side of the page here for the most recent update!)