Trees

Trails

My Mom and Dad's land is on the Chippewa River, out in the country. My 3 sisters, and their respective family members & pets, all live on property adjoining Mom & Dad's (which used to belong to our folks). There are lots and lots of trails that go all over the combined family property parcels, which is a little over 80 acres. Our family rides 4-wheelers all over, and also my Mom & Dad's golf cart. I love the golf cart. I like to take a ride in the afternoon & take my camera with me. I love riding down by the river on the West 20, especially this time of year, when it's lovely and cool out... and when I get near the river, I can smell it before I can see it. The trails go through woods, lush and green and full of all different kinds of ferns, through fields, near cattail swamps and all over. This past week, I took some photos of the trails...

Click on the small photo to view a larger version.

I'm asking you, the Internets...

A friend of mine told me via e-mail today that he and his daughter are going to visit Boston to look at universities there. During my e-mail back to him, I recalled a visit to Boston... Back in about 1998, give or take, Kev, Joycie & I were in Boston, and we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. One of my favorite museum visits ever.

While there, we stood in a long line to go through a room and view this special display. It doesn't appear on the MFA's web site listing of past exhibitions, so maybe it wasn't classified as an "exhibit" but... there was definitely a line.

The pieces were paintings on sheets of glass, and the glass was set with the edges facing outward, all in a row. Think dominoes. On one of the pieces of this artwork, when you looked at it one way, it was a scene of a school of fish, and if you looked at it from a different angle, it appeared as a reclining woman.

At least that is the best of my recollection. I would have liked to take a photo of it, but no photos were allowed back then... that was before the days of digital photography.

I remember clearly, though, how beautiful it was. I think there was more than one piece, but I remember the fish/woman. I wanted to look longer at it, but the line had to keep moving. Then I wanted to get back in line, but Kev and Joycie were not so inclined.

Off and on through the years, I've tried to search for it on the Internet, but no success.

Does anyone out there know what artwork &/or artist I've described? If you do, please comment.

It may have been 1997 or 1999, or heck, 1996 or 2000... I truly can't remember. I could try to find our photos from the trip, but I'm not sure what box to start looking in... ugh. So I called Joycie just now, and I asked her if she remembered what grade she was in when we visited Boston. She couldn't remember, and I don't think she remembers much about the MFA, either. I told my friend today that Joycie's favorite thing in Boston was the Finagle a Bagel just down the street from our hotel. She loved that place. She wants one here in Michigan. On the phone just now, when she told me she had no idea what grade she was in then, she said, "all I remember about Boston was the Finagle a Bagel." I knew that.

Why I want 'em

I want to plant some sassafras trees along the west side of the pond, on the edge of the woods. Here's why...

One of my favorite places to be

Kev borrowed the folks' power washer, and he cleaned off the porch and the deck, and also the porch swing and our 2 Adirondack chairs. Then he stained all of them... and it looks so nice! He wanted to get all that done before Joycie's graduation open house this past June, but I wouldn't let him because I didn't want the place smelling like fresh stain. And also, it's such a lot of work, and we were serving the food on the porch... and we did have some spills, so it was better to do it after the party.

Kev's hard work sure pays off. Isn't it beautiful? Well, if I had a before photo, y'all would be ohing and ahing, trust me.





I love laying on that hammock with a cool breeze, feels so good. Finally today the weather isn't so hot and humid, so you can enjoy laying out there. It's starting to smell like fall a bit, and the leaves are falling and the ferns are brown. We won't get much of a color show from our trees because of how very dry our summer was this year... lots of leaves are going from green on the tree directly to brown on the ground. Poor trees, no big fancy ball for them this year, they'll have to wait until next year to put on their fancy finery. *sniff*

It's just my opinion, but...

Last Saturday, Joycie and I drove Sammy over to the town where his football game was being held. Kev stayed home trying to get as much sleep as he could, since he was working midnight-12's. We had to get Sammy to the field an hour before game time, so that left Joycie and I with not much to do... except go hit the garage sales. We saw one on our way to the field, so we backtracked, and I got this really great woven straw sun hat for fifty cents. Joycie thought I was nuts, but it makes a great hat for a scarecrow. We hit another sale, and Joycie and I found this old coloring book. At least that's what it's called, "Kim's Storybook Friends Coloring Book" by Red Farm Studio. It is six large heavy pieces of paper with storybook character scenes printed on them, and you're supposed to color them. The sheets are 12 x 18 inches, and there is Heidi, Alice in Wonderland, Snow White & the 7 dwarfs, Hansel & Gretel, Cinderella and Rumplestiltskin. The drawings are beautiful, and they're very detailed. It is in the original box, though that's damaged. The whole thing is not in perfect condition, and it smells old. Because it is old! For $3, it became ours. Included is a small note that reads, "Kim Says -- Color or paint these lovely scenes Then frame and hang upon your wall." Joycie and I were thinking Kim had some good idea going, and we want to use watercolor pencils on the drawings, and save them for hanging in a nursery. Joycie told her dad not to worry. We have years to get those done. Years.

So anyway, we're driving back from that sale, and we drive past this place that just struck me as so odd. First of all, this...



A fancy brick entrance... where's there is no entrance, no drive. Ummm... ok. Guess these guys don't have much to guard.



Weird, huh. Makes no sense. Neither did the stop sign at the end of the driveway of the house right next to the go-nowhere-entrance... notice that the stop sign is at the end of the driveway at the house, not the end at the road. Stop or you'll hit my house...



Again, makes no sense. But the lovely cross in shingles is a very nice touch. The house looked deserted, though. Stop and go to heaven here... ?

Then yesterday evening, while returning from Alma, about an hour's drive away from home, where my sister, Kathy, and I had gone to see Michael not play a tennis match... (it was thunder-and-lightning'ed out), we saw this truck hauling a trailer with a 4-wheeler ATV on it...



What kind of person driving a pickup truck needs 7, count 'em, seven, antennas? For what could they possibly all be needed? Makes no sense to me.

But finally, while snooping in Kathy's glovebox of her car, something did make sense...



And this makes sense, too, coz no cassette tape collection is complete without Neil...

Big No. 45

Sammy is on the 7th grade football team, and they play on Saturdays. The team won their first 2 games, but they lost yesterday. I think the team they played against had some pretty big boys on it and they're a good passing team, but I was still surprised at the loss. But... ya can't win 'em all.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day for a football game, sunny, warm and breezy. Our Sammy played a good game. He's one tough boy...





Joycie came home yesterday, went to Sammy's game with us and stayed over night. She wore his jersey at the game...





Kev took Sammy out hunting yesterday evening for the youth hunt weekend...



They saw a couple of doe, but no fresh venison. Kev had to go into work last night, as he's on midnights now. Joycie and I watched a couple of movies together, while Sammy was on the computer. It was real nice to have Joycie home for the evening.

So now it's already well past noon on Sunday. Both Joycie and Sammy slept in late... Joycie got up shortly after noon, and then she left right away because she has a bunch of homework yet to do. Sammy just came in from spending a lot of time out on the trampoline, and Kev is sleeping. I've already done a bunch of laundry, with a bunch more to do. Plus a bunch of paperwork today - both personal and work-related. It's nice to have the windows open and the fresh air pouring through the house.

I love weekends. (I'd love 'em more if Kev didn't have to work some of them.)

Our sad, forlorn garden

When we planted our garden this year, we had high hopes and only semi-ambitious plans.



We didn't really count on my neck problems or Kevin's too-abundant overtime, nor think of the affect of Joycie's daily absence... But everything grew pretty well, considering the lack of frequent watering and nearly no rain all summer. And the lack of attention...



We were looking forward to some corn-on-the-cob...



Which Joycie and I, and Reilly, briefly checked on the other day...



But when Joycie and I went to pick some yesterday, it was far too gone... too ripe and the ears are all stunted from no rain/water. Darn. The carrots are also stunted. Most of the tomatoes have gone to waste. We still have potatoes, though... And the sunflowers are gorgeous.





Kevin thinks we're not going to plant a garden next year, mostly because of his disgust in our lack of attention to it this year. But I want to try again... hopefully with a fixed neck by that time, and more help from Sammy! And also a better watering system... And... well, you get the drift...