Sleeping Bear Dunes - a winter visit

We took a quick overnight trip up to Sleeping Bear Dunes this weekend. It was quite chilly and we had the dune trail to ourselves Monday morning.We also walked on the beach. P REALLY wanted to find a Petosky stone but was not successful in that venture. We did see lots of ice.

Fabulous Fall

We have had some wonderfully warm and sunny  fall days the last couple of weeks and have been doing our best to get out and enjoy the sunshine while it lasts.I have plans to take some hand stitching out to the back porch this afternoon.

Peony Time!

We are thrilled that school is out for the summer. Miss P kicked of her summer vacation with a Girl Scout end of the year camp out last night! We had pouring rain in the wee hours of the morning but luckily the torrential downpour was north of town and missed the campers.After picking up Miss P, we journeyed on to Ann Arbor to enjoy the Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum while the Peonies are still blooming. The Nichols Arboretum Peony Garden is the largest public collection of historic (pre-1950) herbaceous peony cultivars in North America.The flowers did not disappoint.You can see photos from last year's visit here.

Soaking it Up

We're trying to soak up all of the warmth and sunshine that we can this weekend.The last of the flowers are fading fast and the trees are getting bare.Winter will be here soon.I hope you are also enjoying a beautiful weekend.

Winter Wonderland

To celebrate the start of winter today we went out to enjoy our freshly fallen snow.We live on a glacial moraine that is filled with interesting geological features. Today we walked up a kame in the state recreation area. You can see the cone shaped hill there in the right side of the photo below.Michigan is really a pretty interesting place to live. You may remember when I wrote about the kettle hole in our yard."The hill in front of you, known as a kame, was formed thousands of years ago when water from melting glacial ice flowed through a large crack in the ice. Glacial melt water carried sand, gravel, and rocks, depositing them at the base of the crack to form the kame.  To help picture this, imagine how sand flows through and hourglass and creates a rounded pile of sand in the bottom of the hourglass."I'm thrilled to have everyone home for a few days. Let the festivities begin!Happy Solstice. 

Sandhill Cranes

This week we went to the bird sanctuary near us and watched the Sandhill Cranes come in for the night. They spend the night in that wetland area you see in the first photo.At first we saw a few small groups of cranes flying in. Then more and more larger groups and many groups at once. It was fun to hear them calling as they flew. The ones already on the ground in the wetland area would answer back.I'm posting these pictures at a larger size so that you can click on them and see some of the groups of cranes in the distance.(in the photos above and below you can see about 6 groups of cranes in the distance, surrounding the sun below the cloud)Note the groups in the distance below just over the trees.So. many. cranes.This sanctuary is one of a few places where the Sandhill Cranes congregate before heading south together in mid November. We feel lucky to have seen so many on one visit. There were thousands coming in while we were there. Certainly, it the most we have seen in one night. It was a beautiful evening for bird watching.

Catching Butterflies

It was a beautiful day for trying out the butterfly nets at home.

Butterfly Walk

It was a beautiful day yesterday and we went for a butterfly walk with some people who really know their butterflies.We saw about 15 different species of butterflies,and also found a few praying mantis.I'm glad that the super heat of summer has broken enough for us to turn off our air conditioner units - at least for a few days. We are enjoying a lovely breeze through open windows today.Now, if we could just get some rain...

Azaleas

My mother-in-law's yard is abloom with azaleas.I also just realized that I didn't get any pictures of the deep coral red ones or the cream colored ones. I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow! 

Happy Spring!

 

SNOW!

We have snow! I was secretly hoping for a snow day.Instead, our power went out. When we got up at 6:50 this morning it was really 8:10.Needless to say, P was late to school.B took her to school and I took a little walk around the barns. What a great way to start the day.I love when the sun comes out after a snowy night.

American Chestnut

My plan was to post this picture today with a quote. I thought surely Laura Ingalls Wilder had written something about roasting chestnuts in her books but she did not.So, instead I'll tell you a little about our American Chestnut trees.The American Chestnut used to be a prominent tree in the eastern United States. They were all but eliminated by the chestnut blight in the early 1900s.  Typically new trees don't live long enough to flower and fruit. Several organizations have been trying to reintroduce blight resistant trees to the original growing range.When we first bought our property more than twenty years ago we started planting trees from the soil conservation service. One year they offered American Chestnut seedlings. We bought a small bundle of those and two of them have grown to adulthood. For several years we have seen flowers and one had the prickly fruits grow on the trees. Previous years we have found lots of flat nuts. They were not fertilized and did not grow into plump fruit.Our two trees are not very close to each other so this spring when we noticed that the trees were flowering we clipped a flowering branch from one tree and tossed it into the tree that has had the prickly burs on it in the past.Our experiment worked!This year we have plump chestnuts!Now we need to decide if we will roast them or plant them.

Wordless Wednesday

Milkweed

It's that time of year again. 

August in Bloom

I thought I'd share a bit of what's blooming in the yard as we move into August.Butterfly bushballoon flowerzinniaslily (in the white garden)hibiscusmystery tall yellow-orange flowersI hope you have a bit of color in your August.

A Snail's Pace

I have been enjoying summer vacation this week. The alarm clock has officially been turned off for the summer!The mosquitoes aren't quite as bad this week either. For some reason I get SWARMED with mosquitoes when others are not bothered. I feel like Pigpen in a cloud of mosquitoes while others are playing normally. Sigh. M noticed the phenomenon while we were in the garden today. He was picking peas with no mind to the mosquitoes and then looked over at me swatting them all over myself. He calmly said, "Mom, there is a CLOUD of mosquitoes around you." Yeah, I had noticed that.I have been walking on the road a couple of times this week and found that if I walk in the MIDDLE of the road that the mosquitoes are not too bad. I do, however, get swarmed when I go to the side of the road to take pictures.P and I went to the registration for the summer reading program at the library. That is always a fun event with lots of activities, games, and snacks.I have been slowly progressing on some sewing and knitting projects in the evenings but have nothing really exciting to show you.  These roadside photos will have to do.M has been busy though, he made this cool robot magnet for his middle school art teacher who wrote a poem for him for graduation. He thought a simple thank you note would not suffice.I hope that my snail's pace on crafting projects will soon yield something that I can share. 

May Merriment

There is always a flurry of activity in May. There is much to do outside in the yard and gardens, in addition to end of school activities. This year we also have a lot of graduation related events.This weekend P and I worked a bit in her fairy garden. The plants from last year all look happy there. We put in a few new plants but still have quite a few seeds to get in the ground.We put in fence for the peas and weeded the vegetable garden. B did a bit of mowing and working on the house. D installed the toilet in our new bathroom upstairs! M wrote a term paper and had a couple of music gigs. P had her spring recital with others in the studio. I also made 20 books covers from these papers for the art club students.  We have all done a bit of spring cleaning.When it gets crazy busy like this I do try to make time to walk the yard and see what's in bloom.I don't want to miss any of that!Since on the go knitting seems to be all I can fit in for now, I have also been progressing on a few portable projects like new socks for B.That yarn in the background is making its way to the top of the knit pile too! I need to decide what to make with it.I'm currently working on socks for myself using the same rib pattern as these mitts.Today I hope to make M's graduation and recital invitations. He has a much bigger list of people to invite than his brother had two years ago.  

Foraged Food

We had a cool rainy weekend which, I understand, is great morel weather.We made quite a haul today.And they were not tiny either.We'll be having some mushrooms in our dinner tonight. 

Smell the Flowers

I hope you are taking some time to smell the flowers.I am sure it would be even more fun if you wore a cute vintage dress while enjoying the flowers.Have a great weekend and try not to be bothered by the bees.Our redbud was buzzing with bees yesterday - big bees and little bees. It was really quite loud.

Pretty in Pink

I think it has finally arrived. The reward for the dull dreary winter months is finally here! Everything is bright with color. The grass is very green and growing. The early flowers are up and blooming. Our daffodils are fading but there are now bright tulip colors all around. Trees are bursting with flowers and leaves. This week is PINK.Our apricots,redbuds,and the very photogenic crab apple are all in full bloom.Oh, I do love spring.